Yet another ‘mass grave’ was stumbled upon in Hargeisa, the capital city of the Republic of Somaliland, on Saturday.
This time round, the grave containing the remains of 7 to 10 adults, was unearthed after construction workers started to excavate a foundation for a house they were working on.
With the bones lumped together in a shallow grave were recognizable pieces of apparel that, at first, pointed to another massacre in the hands of the military regime that perpetrated a great number of atrocities, including mass genocides, against unarmed civilians in populated cities such as Hargeisa.
At the scene of the discovery, Chief Hassan Ibrahim Hussein, echoing the palpable agitation of a crowd of people gathered around the grave, recalled painful memories indelibly marked in people’s minds by the wanton persecution and systematic cleansing of a regime that boded no restraint against opposition.
“This grave must tell the world once more that the people of Somaliland has a painful past that they wish to forgive and forget in the restoration of their sovereignty,” he said.
Chief Hassan said this latest discovery and those that preceded it must be heeded by the international community as an unmistakable message that cannot accommodate yet another gamble with Somalia.
“Civilians were massacred, towns razed to the ground… that experience only strengthens our resolve to restore our independence more,” he said.
The Chief’s words referred to months on end that a dictator’s armed forces were not only rounding up people, shooting them dead in droves, unceremoniously dumping them in mass graves but, also, the sorties of MiG-17, MiG-19 and other fighter planes shelling fleeing civilians from above hunting for anybody that moved on the ground in daytime. Mercenary pilots from South Africa, aided by souther-Somalian pilots flew the planes raining killer salvos and bombs on the very towns they were taking off from, landing and replenishing arsenal and fuel such as
Mercenary pilots from South Africa, aided by souther-Somalian pilots flew the planes raining killer salvos and bombs on the very towns they were taking off from, landing and replenishing arsenal and fuel such as Hargeisa.
Reaching the scene, the War Crimes Investigation Commission, declared it not noncombatants’ grave.”These people are clearly members of the SNM combatants fighting against the military regime,” Khadar Ahmed Likke, the WCIC Chairman stated, ruling out that the remains were of unarmed civilians.
