The chairman of the War Crimes Investigation Commission (WCIC) of the Republic of Somaliland, responsible for the documentation of crimes against humanity committed against civilians in the then northern regions of Somalia during the 80s by the marauding forces of the military regime of Somalia, stated, Monday, that one of the most heinous crimes discovered during their tenure was a grave hosting the bodies of 10 secondary school students drained dry of blood and unceremoniously buried in a shallow grave by a caterpillar.
Mr. Khadar Ahmed Likkeh said the uniformed students were abducted from Farah Oomaar Secondary school, Hargeisa, during the late 80s, taken to the 26th Division HQ and drained of blood until they died. He said the bodies were then taken to Malko Durduro – a site that is dotted with many more mass graves – and buried.
“The man who was ordered to shovel sand over their bodies was shocked to see 10 uniformed, dead students that showed no signs of injuries or wounds anywhere in their bodies. When he asked what happened to the boys, he was told that they were drained out of blood,” he said.
Chairman Likkeh revealed that the mass graves his commission has identified to date contain anywhere between 50 000 to 60 000 bodies civilians summarily rounded up and executed for their ethnic origins.
“The regime armed civilians and refugees against other civilians. It rounded up men and women and killed them en masse. It strafed civilians from the air. Thousands died as a result of the hail of bullets and many of the infirm and elderly lost their lives trying to run away from the inescapable. But one cannot live with is the image of schoolboys so cruelly and so gleefully butchered for their life juices,” he said.
The Chairman expressed his shock that President Farmajo of Mogadishu and his government were now so playfully talking of a reunion with Somaliland ignoring the painful passage of events planned and executed from Mogadishu from as early as 1982 to 1990.
President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo, his Prime Minister and the House Speaker of Somalia’s Upper House had all made statements that raised hackles among Somalilanders which purported that only a few Somalilanders opposed to a reunion between Somalia and Somaliland.
The Republic of Somaliland gained independence before Somalia did in 1960 but rushed to an undocumented, hasty reunion with Somalia. All top posts went to Somalia unnegotiated and to the dismay of the highly patriotic Somalilanders who were led to believe that Djibouti, Haud & Reserve Area, Ogadenia (Ethiopia) and NFD of Kenya were going to join them as soon as they gained independence to form a ‘Greater Somalia’ state as depicted by the five-pronged, white star on the blue flag.
It took Somaliland a little over 30 years to restore its lost independence. On May 18, 1991, it declared its re-independence and started building a modern, ultra-democratic functional state in contrast to Somalia’s never-ending turmoil and mayhem despite a massive effort by the international community to help Mogadishu form a semblance of control over its regions.
Somaliland is now convinced that Mogadishu has no plans to confine itself to its affairs but has, instead, become more active in destabilization efforts targeting stable Somaliland.
It remains to be seen whether the world would remain a passive onlooker once more until things get out of hand again in civil and military strife between Somaliland and Somalia.
