Rishmawi, submitted on accordance with the Commission on Human Rights resolution 1998/59, at paragraph 85. 4. US Department of State 1999 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in Somalia, p.10. 5. The State party refers to the US Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights Practices from 1999 which states that "boys as young as 14 or 15 years of age have participated in militia attacks, and many youths are members of the marauding gangs known as "morian" or "parasites or maggots". 6. In Elmi v Australia, it was found that "those factions exercise certain prerogatives that are comparable to those normally exercised by legitimate governments. Accordingly, the members of those factions can fall, for the purposes of the application of the Convention, within the phrase "officials or other persons acting in an official capacity" contained in article 1". 7. Comment on Somalia's quasi-governmental institutions by the Somali Researcher, Dr Martin Hill, of the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London. 8. A Report of the Assessment Mission to Mogadishu, Hiran, Bay, Middle Shabelle and Lower Shabelle Regions from February 23rd to March 4th, 1991 to the Inter-NGO Committee for Somalia (UK and Kenya). This report states that "there are an estimated 3,500 people on the police force at the moment" and that "police were visible mainly at the airport, and sometimes on the street". The report also says that there was a significant problem of looting, killing and assaults. 9. The State party refers the Committee to its decision in X, Y, Z v. Sweden, Case No. 61/1996, adopted on 6 May 1998, in which it stated that "past torture is one of the elements to be taken into account by the Committee when examining a claim concerning article 3 of the Convention, but the aim of the Committee's examination of the case is to find whether the petitioners would risk being subjected to torture now, it returned. 10. According to the State party, when questioned about the Barre regime the President stated the following " I was a member of Siad Barre's government. Let me state there are, right now in Somalia, there are three generations. The first generation of independence ..[t]he second generation is my generation, and practically everyone of my generation had a role in twenty years of government. That was not Siad's government, it was the nation's government. Siad was the president, the man who was leading Somalia for 20 years. Everyone who was in Somalia for 20 Years. Everyone who was in Somalia – intellectual or otherwise – served in one or other capacity in that administration. Not necessarily as a minister, but in any capacity."