somali child massacre bosnian

Extensive boobytrap activity has also been reported from Hargeysa."[176]. [52], All of Somalia felt the impact of the Ogaden War defeat, however the northern region (where Isaaqs live) experienced the majority of the physical and human destruction due to its geographical proximity to the fighting. This was especially harsh due to region's semi-arid climate and frequent water shortages. [77], In January 1986, Barre's son-in-law and viceroy in the north General Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan, who was Barre's bodyguard before he married his daughter[78] reportedly told Isaaq nomads at a waterhole "if you Isaaqs resist, we will destroy your towns, and you will inherit only ashes". Their huts were burned and their animals killed. [96] Ethiopia was in agreement and a deal was signed on 3 April 1988 that included a clause confirming agreement not to assist rebel organisations based in each other's territories. "[117] There was also widespread looting by the soldiers, and some people were reportedly killed as a result. [49], Successive Somali governments had continually supported the cause of Somali irredentism and the concept of 'Greater Somalia', a powerful sentiment many Somalis carried, as a core goal of the state. Some 50,000 people are believed to have lost their lives there as a result of summary executions, aerial bombardments and ground attacks. Summary executions of Hargeisa Isaaqs happened at Badhka, close to a hill in the outskirts of the city, where 25 soldiers shot blindfolded victims whose hands and feet were tied. [106], The Siad Barre government adopted a policy that "any able-bodied Isaaq who could help the SNM had to be killed. Other aims of the policy included arming other clans in the region[88] and encouraging them to fight the dominant Isaaq: "Since it has become evident that the Isaaq were, by act and intent, with the SNM; and since we could not see them giving up the line they have pursued so deceptively for some time; and in order to forestall them; we arranged for the other inhabitants of the North continuous meetings and a mobilization campaign designed to rouse them to action and to raise their level of awareness. The Isaaqs entrepreneurial disposition was also a factor of the large-scale looting, which the Ogadenis saw as 'undeserved': In northern Somalia, the Isaaq clans confronted a massive influx of Ogadeni refugees from eastern Ethiopia whom Siyad encouraged to loot property, attack people, and destabilize cities. [158][159] These men included professionals, businessmen, and teachers. In describing the government's response to the SNM offensive, the report observed: The government response to the attack has been particularly brutal and without regard to civilian casualties in fact there is ample evidence that civilian casualties have been deliberately inflicted so as to destroy the support base of the SNM, which is composed mainly of people from the Isaaq tribe. Among the victims were many students. Social, political and economic marginalisation, Displacement of Isaaq and arming of refugees, Aerial bombardment and destruction of Burao, Aerial bombardment and destruction of Hargeisa, Arrests and killings of Isaaq passengers on the ship "Emviyara", Attacks on Isaaq nomads by Ogadeni refugees in the countryside, Use of mercenaries by the Somali government, Nafziger (2002), War Hunger and Displacement, p.191, Oxford University Press, Geldenhuys (2009), Contested States in World Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, Strategic Survey, 19891990 (1990), p.87, International Institute for Strategic Studies, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, "Somali torture victim will face his abuser after 31 years in US court", "Conflict in Somalia: Drivers and Dynamics", "The Heritage of War and State Collapse in Somalia and Somaliland: Local-Level Effects, External Interventions and Reconstruction". Rape, of young and older women, is routine. Physicians for Human Rights describe one tactic employed by Barre's troops used in their campaign against the Isaaq people of the north: One of the cruelest and clearly unlawful tactics used by Siad Barre's troops was the deliberate mining of civilian homes. [68] These reports state that canisters of the nerve gases Soman and Sarin were unloaded from a Libyan Airlines civilian flight to Mogadishu on 7 October. The sixth man was charged with being a member of the SNM and accompanying the SNM fighter who escaped. [126], Artillery shelling of Hargeisa started on the third day of the fighting[128] and was accompanied by large-scale aerial bombing of the city carried out by aircraft of the Somali Air Force. If they attack their tasks energetically, their unity will also undoubtedly humble those who arrogantly maintain that they own the North when the reality is otherwise."[89]. somali child massacre bosnian. The Somali National Movement attacked and captured the city of Burao (then the third largest city in the country) on Friday 27 May. ""[127] The attacks on civilians were the result of the military's realisation the local Isaaq population of Hargeisa welcomed the SNM attack. [141] Atrocities committed in Berbera by the government against Isaaq civilians were especially brutal, Human Rights Watch reported that Berbera had suffered "some of the worst abuses of the war"[141] even though the SNM had never launched an attack on Berbera like they did on Burao and Hargeisa. All vehicles (including taxis) were confiscated to control the movement of civilian population, this also ensured sufficient transport was available for the use of military and government officials. TOO BAD I NE OF THOSE HAHA. It was seen, probably rightly, as an attack on the whole Isaaq people[104], Within the first three months of the conflict, Isaaqs fled their cities on such a large scale that cities of the north became devoid of their population. By 1979, official figures reported 1.3million refugees in Somalia, more than half of them were settled in Isaaq lands in the north. Why does Andrew Tate look like the fucking red orb from . The exact number of land-mines is unknown but estimated to be between one and two million, most of them planted in what was then known as northern Somalia. machine gunning from aircraft) of fleeing refugees until they reached safety at the Ethiopian borders.[163]. The WSLF was ostensibly being trained to fight Ethiopia to regain the Ogaden [Western Somalia], but, in fact, terrorized the Isaak [Isaaq] civilian population living in the border region, which came to fear them more than the Ethiopian army. Jun 29, 2022. article 45 tfeu restrictions . Although few journalists have been authorised to visit the area, tens of thousands of people are understood to have died during a series of bombing raids on the towns last August conducted mainly by mercenaries recruited in Zimbabwe. According to Human Rights Watch's Africa Watch, hundreds of Isaaqs have been executed and subjected to other reprisals on the basis of such suspicions. There is no doubt that the unity of these people will restore the balance of the scales which are now tipped in favour of the Isaaq. "[87][self-published source]. [172], The anti-personnel mines were used to target Isaaq civilians returning to cities and towns as they were planted in "streets, houses and livestock thoroughfares to kill, maim and deter return". One of them was Jean Metenier, a French hospital technician in Hargeisa, who told reporters upon arrival at Nairobi airport that "at least two dozen people were executed by firing squad against the wall of his house and the corpses subsequently dumped on the streets to serve "as an example. The group was split into 9 civilians and 17 SNM fighters, and many of the victims were nomads. The scale of destruction was unprecedented, up to 90 percent of the city (then the second largest city in Somalia) was destroyed,[132][133][134] (United States embassy estimated 70 percent of the city was damaged or destroyed). somali child massacre bosnian. The small hotels of Mogadishu were searched by the government at night and their guests were sorted into Isaaqs and non-Isaaqs; the Isaaqs would then be subsequently detained. [142] Eight of the passengers detained were killed, the remaining 21 were imprisoned in Berbera and later released. There were many others, but they claimed to be from other clans. In January 1989, Oxfam Australia (at the time known as Community Aid Abroad), an aid agency which was based in Erigavo and ran a primary healthcare program for the Sanaag region, withdrew its program after operating for eight years in Somalia. [43], The northern dissatisfaction with the constitution and terms of unification was a subject that the successive civilian governments continued to ignore. The period between 2731 May was marked by much looting by government forces as well as mass arrests. The U.N. had declared these enclaves. Shortly after Somaliland gained independence, it was to form a hasty union with its southern neighbour to create the Somali Republic. A United Nations inspection team that visited the area in 1988 reported that the Ethiopian refugees (Ogaden) were carrying weapons supplied by the Somali Army. [169][170], In addition to the "systematic destruction of Isaaq dwellings, settlements and water points", bombing raids were conducted on major cities in the northwest regions inhabited mainly by Isaaq on orders of President Barre.[99]. This resulted in entire villages being depopulated and towns getting plundered. As soon as news of the SNM's attack on Burao reached government authorities in Berbera, the city was completely blocked and hundreds of people were arrested. The Congressional General Accounting Office team noted the extent to which residential districts were especially targeted by the army: Hargeisa, the second largest city in Somalia, has suffered extensive damage from artillery and aerial shelling. "[143] Methods of killing included the slitting of throats, getting strangled by wires, the cutting of the back of the neck, and getting severely disabled by beating with clubs before getting shot. The UN team reported that, with the Somali Army's encouragement, the Ogadeni refugees carried out extensive looting in several northern towns. Top government officials evacuated their families to the capital Mogadishu. African historian Lidwien Kapteijns describes the ordeal of Isaaqs refugees fleeing their homes as follows: Throughout this period, the whole civilian population appears to have become a target, in their homes and anywhere they sought refuge. A report by Africa Watch stated that the policy was "the outcome of a specific conception of how the war against the insurgents should be fought," with the logic being to "punish civilians for their presumed support for the SNM attacks and to discourage them from further assistance". Berbera, a city on the Red Sea coast, at the time the principal port of Somalia after Mogadishu, was also targeted by government troops. The rest of what came to be known as Somali Republic was under Italian rule under the title Trust Territory of Somaliland (also known as Somalia Italiana). The report noted that the agency's staff have reported "many violations of human rights for which they believe the Somali Government must take the main responsibility". According to a foreign aid-agency official who was in the north after the fighting broke out: the Siyad Barre government was so eager to arm the Ogaden refugees that it enlisted workers of the civilian National Refugee Commission which administers the Ogaden refugee camps to help distribute weapons 'Now all the camps are heavily armed' an experienced western aid official said. [162], Atrocities committed by the Barre's forces against Isaaqs included the strafing (i.e. We were told that long lines of trucks heavily laden with Hargeisa goods could be seen leaving the city, heading south towards Mogadishu after the heavy fighting had stopped. Water reservoirs at War Ibraan and Beli Iidlay were mined. Bosnian genocide (1995) Massacres of Hutus (1996-1997) Effacer le tableau (2002-2003) Darfur genocide (2003-) Yazidi genocide (2014-2017) Uyghur genocide (2014-) Rohingya genocide (2016-) Related topics Raphael Lemkin Anti-communist mass killings Indonesia 1965-66 Atrocities in the Congo Free State Compulsory sterilization Democide Ethnic cleansing [69] This was a major cause of the eventual fall of the Barre regime in 1991. The campaign had completely destroyed Hargeisa, causing its population of 500,000 to flee across the border and the city was "reduced to a ghost town with 14,000 buildings destroyed and a further 12,000 heavily damaged". Barre along with the Supreme Revolutionary Council, to entrench their rule and in an attempt to regain the Somali Region of Ethiopia, launched a war against Ethiopia in 1977, this war was referred to in Somalia as 'The War for Western Somalia'. The report also stated that the city was without electricity or a functioning water system, and that the Somali government was "actively soliciting multilateral and bilateral donors for reconstruction assistance"[140] of cities primarily destroyed by the government's own forces. An estimated 350,000 Somalis died from war, disease and starvation that year. [57] The Barre regime exploited the presence of such a large number of refugees as means of seeking foreign aid,[58] as well as a vehicle to displacing those deemed hostile to the state, notably the Isaaqs, Human Rights Watch noted that: "Northerners [Isaaqs] were dismissed from and not allowed to work in government offices dealing with refugee affairs, so that they would not discover the truth about the government's policies. Kingofjojoland Answer: The United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) recorded a total of 1,154 civilian casualties by mid-November. Soldiers raided mosques and looted its carpets and loudspeakers. [44] The political marginalisation that majority of northerners felt was further exacerbated by economic deprivation, the north received just under 7 percent of nationally disbursed development assistance by the late 1970s,[45] as more than 95% of all development projects and scholarships were distributed in the south. [36] Dabar Goynta Isaaqa would later turn into a system of governance where local officials would put the most hard-line policies into effect against the local Isaaq population. Somaliland parents tell their children stories about the cruelties. The brutal response of the Siad Barre government did not stop there, in discussing the systematic way in which the government targeted Isaaq people with aim to inflict as much loss in property and life, Waldron and Hasci published the following account: General Mohammed Said 'Morgan', one of Siad Barre's sons-in-law, [was given] the opportunity to put into operation further elements of a pacification plan he had drawn up earlier. [183] The US State Department denied the account, but NBC stood by its story when questioned by a Congressional office. Civilians living in Buroa and Hargeisa have frequently been forbidden to hold funerals for relatives shot dead by the military and curfew patrols until they have paid a ransom. They were shot as a reprisal when a major military offensive against the SNM in the vicinity failed; some of the victims were very old men. [99] The Siad Barre regime targeted civilian members of the Isaaq group specifically,[100] especially in the cities of Hargeisa and Burco and to that end employed the use of indiscriminate artillery shelling and aerial bombardment against civilian populations belonging to the Isaaq clan.[101][102]. Detainees were taken to a number of locations including Birjeeh (a former military headquarters of the 26th Sector of the Somali Armed Forces), Malka-Durduro (a military compound), the Central Prison of Hargeisa, the headquarters of NSS (National Security Service), the headquarters of the Military Police as well as other secret detention centres. [SOM2850]", "Over 300,000 Somalis, Fleeing Civil War, Cross into Ethiopia", "UNPO: Somaliland: Large-scale Exhumations Started", "Refworld | Somalia: 1) Detailed map of Somalia and map showing Somalia in the African continent; 2) Information regarding reprisals against Isaaq clan members throughout Somalia, particularly Mogadishu, and against Somali National Movement (SNM) members; 3) Information on the government's attack on Hargeisa in May 1988 and an SNM assault on Mohammed Siyaad Barre Prison in July 1988", "Aid agency alleged torture by U.S.-backed military", "Somaliland: Time for African Union Leadership", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Isaaq_genocide&oldid=1149330585. war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide) had been perpetrated during the country's civil war". A scorched earth policy that involved the burning of farms, the killing of livestock, the destruction of water-storage tanks and the deliberate poisoning of wells, has been pursued actively by the military. They were deported due to accusations by Saudi authorities of irregularities in their residence documents. Genocide scholar Adam Jones also discusses this particular aspect of the Siad Barre's campaign against the Isaaq: In two months, from May to July 1988, between 50,000 and 100,000 people were massacred by the regime's forces. "SOMALIA FIGHTS CHARGES OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES", "BBC NEWS | Africa | Analysis: Somalia's powerbrokers", "Morgan's Death Letter-The Final Solution to Somalia's Isaq Problem", "How Mass Atrocities End: An Evidence-Based Counter-Narrative", "Is the conflict against the SNM in northern Somalia condemned by the international community? The latter, Major-General Ahmed Suleiman Abdalla is also a son-in-law of the President, and Third Deputy Prime Minister. They were taken out of their homes in Mogadishu in the middle of the night of 19 July 1989. Many thousands of others are being systematically denied food because Somali forces are deliberately holding up essential supplies. The majority saw their houses either damaged or destroyed by the shelling. [117] The military used "heavy artillery and tanks, causing severe damage, both to civilians and to property. However, when its goal is to exterminate and expel large numbers of people based on their group identity alone, it becomes clan cleansing. They were accused of helping the SNM. Modes of transport belonging to Isaaq civilians were confiscated by force, only military transport was allowed in the city. "[85] In addition, he called for "the reconstruction of the Local Council [in Isaaq settlements] in such a way as to balance its present membership which is exclusively from a particular people [the Isaaq]; as well as the dilution of the school population with an infusion of [Ogaden] children from the Refugee Camps in the vicinity of Hargeisa". NBC News reported a story on 12 January 1989 that the Reagan Administration "had information eight months earlier that Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi gave Somalia chemical weapons". The fate of those who can no longer be traced remains largely unknown. These included long-range artillery guns that were placed on the hilltops near the Hargeisa Zoo, artillery guns were also placed on the hilltops behind the Badhka (an open ground used for public executions by the government). "[53] In 2001, the United Nations commissioned an investigation on past human rights violations in Somalia,[18] specifically to find out if "crimes of international jurisdiction (i.e. The view from the air is of a town without roofs. [142] The passengers were Somalis deported from Saudi Arabia after being imprisoned there before the war broke out. The use of land-mines by government forces against civilians was especially damaging in this particular region due to majority of Isaaqs (and other northern Somalis) being pastoral nomads, reliant on the grazing of sheep, goats, and camels. Now that the civil war has ended, the victims of mines have been principally civilians, many of whom are women and children.[174]. [179] The deep water wells at Sab'ad refugee camp was also surrounded by a minefield. A Mobile Military Court sentenced 25 Isaaq men to death; they were executed the same day. The scale and character of the collective clan-based violence committed against Isaaq civilians who, although they were not the only civilians brutalized by the government, were especially targeted suggest that this dimension of state-violence in the Northwest [Isaaq territory] indeed amounts to clan cleansing. The people now living in the three towns are believed to be totally non-Issaqi or military personnel who have been deputed to guard what has been retaken from the SNM. [76] This was especially harsh as food aid accounted for nearly half of all food consumption in Somalia in the 1980s. [68], The Isaaq clan was not the only target of violence. Henceforth British Somaliland was referred to as the northern (or north western) region of the Somali Republic, whilst the former Italian colonial state was referred to as the south. The union of the two states proved problematic early on when in a referendum held on 20 June 1961 to approve the provisional constitution that would govern the two ex-colonial territories was rejected by half of the population in the State of Somaliland (the north-west of nascent Somali Republic), the major cities of the former British protectorate voted against the ratification of the constitution Hargeisa (72%), Berbera (69%), Lasanod (67), Burao (65), (Erigavo (69%), Borama (87%), all returned negative votes. [142], Atrocities committed by government forces in Berbera are especially notable because no fighting between government forces and SNM had taken place there,[143] and as such the government had no pretext to commit atrocities against Isaaq civilians in Berbera (and other Isaaq settlements not attacked by SNM). Some of those released to make room for Isaaq detainees were given arms and made guards over Isaaq detainees whilst others joined the military. This particularly had strong support from the Isaaq clan who notably sent many volunteers, especially in 1976 as they joined WSLF guerrilla insurgencies and sent many volunteers a year before the war took place. In spite of promises made to the Isaaq elders the violence against civilians and nomads by WSLF continued. What was not destroyed was looted.[137]. BRUCE OR D MAKE IT EMIT WAVES OF AWEEK. [64], As the WSLF, supported by the Barre regime, continued to attack and commit atrocities against the Isaaq, a delegation was sent to meet President Barre in 1979 to request making a stop to WSLF abuses. Most of the people from these towns left; the government provided them with transportation.[119]. [123], A curfew was imposed on 27 May starting at 6:00 p.m, the army began systematic house-to-house searches, looking for SNM fighters. The report noted one case where a 13-year-old girl from Erigavo was raped by six government soldiers, it also stated that "looting, raping and bashing are commonplace. Let's go get some grub at the Fashion mall food court, you look like you could use it." heard a weird sound. The existence of the SNM has provided a pretext for President Barre and his military deputies in the north to wage a war against peaceful citizens and to enable them to consolidate their control of the country by terrorizing anyone who is suspected of not being wholeheartedly pro-government. As for the looting, the Ogaden refugees from Ethiopia ransacked homes that were vacated by Isaaq civilians out of clan hatred. [98], Barre's response to the SNM attacks was of unparalleled brutality, with explicit aims of handling the "Isaaq problem", he ordered "the shelling and aerial bombardment of the major cities in the northwest and the systematic destruction of Isaaq dwellings, settlements and water points". One incident following a brief capture of the town in 1989 saw 60 Isaaq elders, who could not escape the city due to the difficult mountainous terrain, get taken out of their homes by government forces and were "shot by a firing squad against a wall of the public relations office". Even before the beginning of the War in Somalia (2006-2009) there were significant assertions and accusations of the use of disinformation and propaganda tactics, classed as forms of information warfare, by various parties to shape the causes and course of the conflict. The majority were due to Al-Shabab targeted and . This was the military's attempt at "punishing the civilians for their SNM sympathies" as well as an attempt to "destroy the SNM by denying them a civilian base of support". [142] Those confirmed to be Isaaq were taken to the Hangash compound where their belongings and money were confiscated. [142] Most of them were men of fighting age that "the army feared would join the SNM,"[141] a few women were also among the victims. [155] Similar to the case in Berbera, Erigavo, Sheikh and other towns in the north, there was no SNM activity in Mogadishu, moreover, Mogadishu was geographically removed from the situation in the north of the country due to its position in the southern regions, nevertheless the Somali government committed to its policy of persecution of Isaaq civilians in Mogadishu. [53] Furthermore, Barre heavily favoured the Ogaden refugees, who belonged to the same clan (Darod) as him. [144] The attacks included the burning of villages, the killing of villagers, raping of women, confiscation of livestock and the arrest and detention of elders in Berbera. The countryside was an area of operations for the government-armed Ethiopian (Ogadeni) refugees. [149] Despite an agreement between Somalian authorities and Isaaq elders that the Somalian military would not engage in reprisals against the civilian population, the Somalian army reportedly bombarded the town and then went in, killing an estimated 500 remaining members of the Isaaq clan. Between June and the end of September, government forces as well as armed Ethiopian (Ogadeni) refugees continued to raid the immediate vicinity of Berbera as well as the villages between Berbera and Hargeisa. In February 1992, Physicians for Human Rights sent a medical team to the region to examine the scale of the problem of land-mines left over from the 19881991 conflict, they have described the situation as follows: They [mines] are most prevalent in the countryside surrounding two of Somaliland's principal cities, Hargeisa and Burao, and in the pastoral and agricultural lands west of Burao. Killings in Hargeisa started on 31 May. The United Nations Development Programme stated that "the 21-year regime of Siyad Barre had one of the worst human rights records in Africa. Hargeisa, Somalia's second city and the former capital of British Somaliland was bombed, strafed and rocketed. Two weeks later, on 25 January The Washington Post reported that the government of Gen. Mohammed Siad Barre "is stockpiling chemical weapons in warehouses near its capital, Mogadishu". [41][pageneeded] The northerners, especially the majority Isaaq,and Harti believed that the unified state would be divided federally (north and south) and that they would receive a fair share of representation post unification. [90] The military was operating under the assumption that if the SNM was active in a particular area, local residents must be supporters of the rebels. The Governor of Hargeisa estimates the present population to be around 70,000, down from a pre-conflict population figure of 370,000. The Isaaq genocide (Somali: Xasuuqii beesha Isaaq, Arabic: ),[15][16] or Hargeisa holocaust,[17] was the systematic, state-sponsored genocide of Isaaq civilians between 1987 and 1989 by the Somali Democratic Republic, under the dictatorship of Siad Barre, during the Somaliland War of Independence. The massacre, which was the worst episode of mass murder within Europe since . The caption read: "The Hanging Woman". A report published by Mines Advisory Group noted, "At Ina Guha, 42 out of 62 small water reservoirs were mined and unusable". "[152] In a separate case, a man leaving Erigavo with money and food was "robbed, beaten and shot by the military". Human Rights Watch reports that "out of about 400 passengers, 29 men identified themselves as Isaaks. [185], Taisier M. Ali states that Barre assuaged the Majerteen, and targeted other groups like the Hawiye. "they just bombed and bombed and bombed," an [aid] agency man, recently returned from Somalia said. Homes are devoid of doors, window frames, appliances, clothes, and furniture. Arrests were done at such scale that, to make room for the Isaaqs detainees, all non-Isaaqs were released, including those sentenced to death or life imprisonment for murder and drug-related offences. [75] In order to weaken support for the SNM within the Isaaqs, the government enacted a policy of systematic use of large-scale violence against the local Isaaq population. [Non-Isaaq territory]. Aid officials said that up to 800,000 people almost all of them Issaq nomads have been displaced as a result of the civil war. Las Anod? [62] Their new movement, supported and financed by Isaaqs,[62] was named Afraad (the fourth unit) and became operational in 1979. We were told that private property was taken from homes by the military in Hargeisa. [51] This has caused great deal of burden on both the local Isaaqs and state apparatus, especially coming off a costly war with Ethiopia, Somali studies scholar I. M. Lewis noted that "the stark fact remained that the economy of the country simply did not possess the resources to absorb so many uprooted people."[55]. [72] The testimony of Aryeh Neier (co-founder of HRW) explains the context in which the SNM was formed: Since 1981, with the formation of the SNM, northern Somalia has seen the worst atrocities. Emina erimovi. Project staff were frequently harassed by the military even when attending medical emergencies and on one occasion shots were fired. Human Rights Watch reported that the refugees often "rampaged through villages and nomadic encampments near their numerous camps and claimed the lives of thousands of others, mostly nomads". [154] There were also widespread arrests of Isaaq men in the area, they were usually detained at a nearby military compound.

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