By Paula Day

They are beautiful, gentle people who speak softly and move quietly. They seem as fragile as the scarves their women wear.

Fleeing from their homeland of Somalia, a civil war-torn African nation, they have come to Atlanta where their stories of torture, imprisonment and fear are heard by Susan Colussy, a lawyer who works for Catholic Social Services.

The 44-year-old attorney can be a barometer showing the most recent place of intense suffering, war and sorrow around the world because she handles political asylum cases. Right now, she is busiest with the men and women from Somalia; she has 66 cases currently and has obtained political asylum for 19 people.

They are fleeing the government of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre who came to power in 1969, but whose repression has brought Somalia to intensified civil war in the last three years.

A June 1988 report by Human rights Watch, a worldwide coalition of lawyers concerned with human rights violations, said Barre “rules by force and for 18 years has relied on the policy of calculated brutality, pragmatic ruthlessness, killing and detaining, or buying out potential rivals… Barre is a shrewd and corrupt dictator whose divisive tactics have exacerbated clan differences and regional rivalry.”

A thinly populated, mostly desert country on the eastern wing of the horn of Africa, Somalia juts out into the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. The opposition Somali National Movement dominates the north where the majority Issak clan live. This area has been the scene of the most intense clashes between the government and the opposition, according to the British periodical “Africa Confidential.”

In Mogadishu, the capital city, Catholic Bishop Salvatore Colombo, an Italian citizen, was murdered July 9, 1989. “News From Africa Watch” a human rights publication, says Bishop Colombo was assassinated by “forces within the government who suspected the bishop of passing information about human rights abuses to foreign embassies and governments.”

“A main problem is Siad Barre’s government does not allow members of the international media into Somalia to cover events there and we have a difficult time getting accurate news,” said Ali Hassan Nur, a Somali who came to Atlanta with his wife in 1986. “Our best sources are the firsthand accounts from travelers from Somalia, either Somalis or Americans who have witnessed the situation.”

Nur’s wife, Deman Rageh, is the daughter of Somalia’s first United Nations ambassador, who was part of the previous administration. She is now the heart of a Somalian refugee community in Atlanta, made up of others who have fled. Her husband operated an English-language video business, which attracted foreigners and the suspicions of the Somali government. They were assisted by Catholic Social Services to obtain political asylum status, as was Nur’s brother, a Somali embassy official in Nigeria, who had helped Somalis regardless of their tribe or political affiliation. The brothers now hope to form a group to bring the plight of their country to the American public’s attention.

People assisted by Mrs. Colussy in more recent months have told harrowing stories of torture.

A new client, 22-year-old Yassien Mohamed Issa, had his story told in September by the Somali who is bilingual, Ahmed Mohammed. The son of an opposition leader, Yassien joined a student group and took part in demonstrations, his friend said. Arrested and imprisoned for five months, he was tortured with electrical shocks, had his arm broken, was stabbed in the chest, beaten with metal rods and immersed in cold water. He shared a four-by-eight-foot cell with three other prisoners.

Opposition forces broke into the jail and freed everybody he said. He escaped to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. A relative obtained travel papers to the U.S. through bribes. His parents “are alive today, but tomorrow, who knows?” his friend said. “At least 43 of his family aunts and uncles have been killed.”

A 25-year-old woman who arrived recently and is staying with relatives in Decatur did not want her name used because her mother and younger siblings are still in Somalia. Through a family member, Amina Mohamoud, she said that her father was imprisoned and tortured because he had information about the opposition Somali National Movement’s financial resources. After his death in prison, when she was 21, she was arrested because officials “thought she could be helpful,” according to Mrs. Mohamoud.

With her relative present, Mrs. Mohamoud spoke of the young woman’s five months in prison which included torture by burns, deprivation of food and water and being tied in a sack and submerged in sea water until near drowning. During a hospital stay, a nurse exchanged uniforms with her and was able to escape, with the help of relatives, to Kenya and then Abu Dhabi. She also used bribes to get necessary documents to travel to the U.S.

Another member of the Decatur household arrived in September, after fleeing her home in the northern town of Borraan, which was bombed for four days. The people fled into the bush, her son, Admed Hussein said, and with the help of nomads subsisted for seven months in the open country. Many women and children contracted malaria. The 50-year-old woman, who looks much older, lost part of her hearing during the ordeal.

The group arrived in Mogadishu in February 1989. July 14, she witnessed an alleged massacre of civilians in the capital, as military men surrounded mosques on Friday, a day of prayer, and fired on civilians as they emerged. She told of a student reported to have lived to describe an execution in which 48 students were taken from their homes and killed. The event of July 14 are substantiated by “News From Africa Watch.”

As more people flee Somalia, it will become more difficult for them to win political asylum which states that they would be in danger if sent home, Mrs. Colussy said. “As conditions become generally worse, chances to make one’s case are less because the standards for asylum are that you show you are unique and you are in greater danger than anyone else.”

Atlanta has drawn Somalis because some were here on student visas when the situation worsened. Others had relatives and friends here and others were referred from cities in the U.S. because of Mrs. Colussy’s successful work in the field of asylum cases.

She foresees the need to provide counseling for the Somalis, but is not sure they will easily accept it. “Many were tortured,” she pointed out, “and once they are safe they will have to confront what happened to them.”

Her work with people fleeing violence and seeking asylum is inspiring, but never-ending. She suspects the next surge will be from Colombia, South America as people flee the drug lords’ war on the country.

“We’ve certainly seen a variety of people, different colors from many countries,” she said. “What they all have in common is an internal strength of spirit that is incredible. If they manage to get here and apply, we really hope they are granted asylum because of all they’ve been through.”