Human Rights Watch: All Parties Guilty in Somalia

Human Rights Watch has said all sides in Somalia''s conflict are guilty of serious violations of international law. The campaign group says civilians are bearing the brunt not just of a famine but also a failure by any side to protect them. It says Islamist group al-Shabab is guilty of unrelenting brutality, while government troops carry out arbitrary arrests and detentions. HRW also criticises the West for not exerting pressure to stop the abuses. A spokesman for the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) denied the accusations, and said the body was committed to human rights. The HRW report, You Don''t Know Who to Blame, says all sides in the conflict should end abuses against civilians and ensure Somalis have access to aid. Somalia has been without an effective government for 20 years - much of southern and central Somalia is controlled by al-Shabab, which has links to al-Qaeda and has imposed strict Sharia law.