Here's a little something for the sadists...

[Peikko 1,575]

Perhaps this is the kind of punishment we should be using in the USA? None of this fannying about with expensive goal time...

Islamist militiamen have chopped off the right hand and left foot of four teenagers accused of robbery in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.The "cross-amputation" was ordered by a court set up by the radical al-Shabaab group, which is accused of links to al-Qaida and is trying to overthrow Somalia's weak transitional government.

"We have carried out this sentence under the Islamic religion and we will punish like this everyone who carries out these acts," said Sheikh Ali Mohamud Fidow, an al-Shabaab official. The extreme punishment will be viewed with alarm and disgust by most people in Somalia – a traditionally moderate Muslim country where many men chew the narcotic leaf qat and women usually cover their heads but not their faces.

Lacking clear political goals, the insurgents are trying to forcibly install stricter Wahhabi Islam, which has roots in Saudi Arabia. Al-Shabaab courts have previously ordered single-limb amputations and executions in the southern city of Kismayo, but today's punishment in Mogadishu highlights the group's recent territorial gains.

The four male victims were found guilty of stealing mobile phones and other goods earlier this week. Several hundred people in the capital's Sukahola neighbourhood, which is controlled by the militia group, gathered to watch the amputations.

Witnesses reported that two hooded men applied tourniquets to the accused teenagers' arms and legs before using curved-blade knives to sever their hands and feet. The screaming victims were then taken away by ambulance.

Al-Shabaab and other hardline Islamist groups have stepped up their attacks against the government in Mogadishu in recent weeks, causing at least 159,000 people to flee since 7 May, according to the UN. Hundreds of people have been killed.

Last week the insurgents assassinated the city's police chief, while an al-Shabaab suicide bomber killed the Somali security minister and at least 20 other people in the town of Beledweyne, north of the capital.

The government headed by Sheikh Sharif Ahmed controls only part of Mogadishu, with the help of a 4,300-strong African Union peacekeeping mission, and a small area outside the capital. Ahmed, an Islamist himself, has appealed for urgent international assistance in combating the insurgents, whose ranks have been swelled by a few hundred foreign jihadists and the Somali diaspora, analysts say.

While there have been few overt signs of help, the Washington Post today reported that the US had sent a consignment of weapons and ammunition to the Somali government earlier this month.

Link

I bet these teens will not be stealing any more phones! (They will not be able to work, care for themselves or do anything other than beg off others either for that matter, but who cares, right?)

[Chica Yeyé 41]

oh man, that is fvcked up

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

That it is.

[Peikko 1,575]

It is. The fact is that these populations haven't got enough resources to sustain themselves. It's like looking into our own GW future - if anyone cares to be totally honest.

[almaty 19]

terrible and just wrong

[Niels Bohr 72]

This type of punishment leaves no rooms for the innocent. If the innocent is wrongly accused, there's no turning back. Therefore, this type of system is bound to corruption. Someone who hates you and are jealous of you, they will scheme to have your limbs removed by the justice system.

There are a great many of Adults who still think like a 14 year old.

[Peikko 1,575]

This type of punishment leaves no rooms for the innocent. If the innocent is wrongly accused, there's no turning back. Therefore, this type of system is bound to corruption. Someone who hates you and are jealous of you, they will scheme to have your limbs removed by the justice system.

There are a great many of Adults who still think like a 14 year old.

Consolemaster is master of the succinct phrase

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I think what's called for here is for Joe Schembrie to write an article about how good the Somalis have it, compared to us in our benighted hell of a country.

Edited June 25, 2009 by Private Pike

[Peikko 1,575]

Ah, Joe the hack

Or is that being unfair on hacks?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I'm sure he's got a perspective. After all - aren't they living the Libertarian Dream in Somalia?

[Nagishkaw 510]

Barbaric and macabre.