Methodology

The findings of this report are based primarily on two two-week research missions to Somaliland in July 2008 and February/March 2009. Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 70 people including Somaliland government officials, civil society activists, academics, lawyers, international aid officials, and victims of human rights abuse. The bulk of this research was carried out in the capital, Hargeisa, and supplemented by several days of research in Burco and a visit to Mandhera prison outside of Hargeisa. Human Rights Watch also consulted with Somaliland experts inside and outside of Somaliland, including interviews in Nairobi and Washington, DC.

To avoid any possibility of reprisal or at the request of individual interviewees including some government officials, the names of some interviewees have been withheld. In a few cases we also omitted the dates and locations of interviews where these details would have made the identities of interviewees easy to discern.

Somaliland’s government was extremely accommodating during the course of this research. Human Rights Watch had broad access to government officials for interviews, was permitted to review the archive of Hargeisa Regional Security Committee decisions at the Central Police Station in Hargeisa, and was permitted to visit Mandhera prison and to interview prisoners there without the presence of prison officials.