During the period of unrest in the north of the country, the government started arresting civilian Isaaq residents of the capital, Mogadishu. Due to these ties, the Ogaden refugees enjoyed preferential access to "social services, business licenses and even government posts. He continued: "Today, we possess the right remedy for the virus in the [body of the] Somali State." It showed a woman in a white skirt and red cardigan hanging from a tree in a wood outside Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia. [97] The SNM felt the pressure to cease their activities on the Ethiopia-Somalia border, and decided to attack the northern territories of Somalia to take control of the major cities in the north. Siad Barre's forces deliberately mined wells and grazing lands in an effort to kill and terrorize nomadic herders whom the army viewed as protectors of the SNM. In the countryside, the persecution of Isaaq included the creation of a mechanised section of the Somali Armed Forces dubbed as Dabar Goynta Isaaqa (The Isaaq Exterminators) consisting entirely of non-Isaaqs (mainly Ogaden);[31][32] this unit conducted a "systematic pattern of attacks against unarmed, civilian villages, watering points and grazing areas of northern Somalia [Somaliland], killing many of their residents and forcing survivors to flee for safety to remote areas". In many cases, the Isaaq victims were left unburied "to be eaten by wild beasts". Killing, rape and looting became common."[62]. Extensive boobytrap activity has also been reported from Hargeysa."[176]. 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. 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. [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. Emina erimovi. The regime's use of armed refugees against local Isaaq populations in the north is also referenced in an Africa Watch report: "[M]any Ogadeni refugees were recruited into the WSLF. [84] Morgan writes that the Isaaq people must be "subjected to a campaign of obliteration" in order to prevent the Isaaq from "rais[ing] their heads again". [43], The northern dissatisfaction with the constitution and terms of unification was a subject that the successive civilian governments continued to ignore. Barre ignored Isaaq complaints throughout the 1980s,[60] this along with Barre's repression of criticism or discussions of the widespread atrocities in the north[61] had the effect of turning the long-standing Isaaq disaffection into open opposition. [181] Similarly "all water sources in Dalqableh were mined, as was the main watering point for nomads between Qorilugud and Qabri Huluul. [95], In 1987, Siad Barre, the president of Somalia, frustrated by lack of success of the army against insurgents from the Somali National Movement in the north of country, offered the Ethiopian government a deal in which they stop sheltering and giving support to the SNM in return for Somalia giving up its territorial claim over Ethiopia's Somali Region. An estimated 350,000 Somalis died from war, disease and starvation that year. "[87][self-published source]. The fate of those who can no longer be traced remains largely unknown. Srebrenica massacre: UN court rejects Mladic genocide appeal [123], As news of the SNM advance on Burao reached government officials in Hargeisa, all banks were ordered to close, and army units surrounded the banks to prevent people from approaching. Following the SNM attacks on the major towns of Hargeisa and Burao, government forces bombed the towns causing over 400,000 people to flee the atrocities across the border into Ethiopia, where they are now located in refugee camps, living in appalling conditions, with inadequate water, food, shelter and medical facilities. [141], Immediately after the SNM attack on Burao, the government started a campaign of mass arrests in Berbera. Many Isaaq businessmen and elders were arrested as the government suspected they would support an SNM attack on Berbera.[141]. The investigation was commissioned jointly by the United Nations Coordination Unit (UNCU) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Srebrenica massacre, slaying of more than 7,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) boys and men, perpetrated by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica, a town in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, in July 1995. 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". The Human Rights Watch report includes testimony by foreign relief workers evacuated to Nairobi by the United Nations. [144], Like Berbera, Erigavo was an Isaaq inhabited city that the SNM did not attack, it has experienced no armed conflict between the SNM and the Somali army for at least several months, yet civilian Isaaqs have suffered both killings and arrests there at the hands of the army and other government forces. 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. Soldiers raided mosques and looted its carpets and loudspeakers. Despite the government's continued refusal to grant international human rights organisations and foreign journalists access to the north to report on the situation,[166] The New York Times reported the strafing of Isaaq refugees as part of its coverage of the conflict: Western diplomats here said they believed that the fighting in Somalia, which has gone largely unreported in the West, was continuing unabated. machine gunning from aircraft) of fleeing refugees until they reached safety at the Ethiopian borders.[163]. This resulted in entire villages being depopulated and towns getting plundered. Srebrenica Massacre By the summer of 1995, three towns in eastern BosniaSrebrenica, Zepa and Gorazderemained under control of the Bosnian government. [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]. In discussing the unusually frank tone of the report, Hassan Abdi Madar states: "The report is addressed to the President of the SDR, the Minister of Defence, and Minister of Interior. "[145], Human Rights Watch's Africa Watch also reported the case of 11 Isaaq men, some of whom were nomads, being arrested by the government on the outskirts of Berbera. According to Human Rights Watch's Africa Watch, some 700 Isaaqs from the armed forces were brought to one prison, this particular prison was already overcrowded, an additional 70 military personnel were then also brought for detention (40 from Gabiley and 30 from Hargeisa). Oxfam Australia (formerly known as Community Aid Abroad) described the situation in El Afweyn as follows: It is known that many people have fled from the town of Elafweyn following bombing attacks by the government forces. [41][pageneeded] One example is cited by Hassan Megag Samater, the former director in charge of the Ministry of Education in Somaliland, he states that he had handed his post in 1966 with the northern region having "several hundred schools at all levels, from elementary schools to college. [154] There were also widespread arrests of Isaaq men in the area, they were usually detained at a nearby military compound. [143] The killings took place near the airport at a site about 10 kilometers from Berbera, and were conducted at night. 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. 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. [185] The shelling, aerial bombing and associated mass deaths in many communities particularly targeted the members of the Isaaq clan, states Richards, and this systematic state violence was linked to the belief that these groups were obtaining assistance from the Ethiopian government. They will only be released from detention centers, even after being raped, if the family pays a ransom. Hargeisa, Somalia's second city and the former capital of British Somaliland was bombed, strafed and rocketed. [146], The army started its campaign in Erigavo soon after the outbreak of fighting in Burao and Hargeisa. Much of Hargeisa appears to be a "ghost town," and many homes and building are virtually empty. A majority of the refugees we interviewed stated that their homes were destroyed by shelling despite the absence of SNM combatants from their neighbourhoods.The refugees told similar stories of bombings, strafings, and artillery shelling in both cities and, in Burao, the use of armored tanks. In describing the Somali government policies in the region, Peter Kieseker, a spokesman for the CAA commented: "Genocide is the only word for it. More than 10,000 people were killed in the first month after the conflict began in late May, according to reports reaching diplomats here. [180] At Tur Debe, government forces destroyed wells by using mines as demolition explosives. [142] Eight of the passengers detained were killed, the remaining 21 were imprisoned in Berbera and later released. A group of Hargeisa elders were also seized to witness the 'proceedings' of the court, so they would 'talk sense' to the residents of Hargeisa. 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". In the Valley of Death: Somaliland's Forgotten Genocide In 1988, government forces shelled and bombed the capital of Hargeisa. 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". 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 [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. As expressed animosity and discontent in the north grew, Barre armed the Ogaden refugees, and in doing so created an irregular army operating inside Isaaq territories. [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. [105] Civilian Isaaqs were "killed, imprisoned under severe conditions, forced to flee across the border, or became displaced in the far-off countryside". Las Anod? Even during their long and harrowing exodus on foot, without water or food, carrying the young and weak, giving birth on the way across the border to Ethiopia, planes strafed them from the air.[164]. Instead refugees, registered with UNHCR were given jobs in the offices dealing with refugee matters."[59]. This would explain its extreme frankness in specifying certain clans as targets for implemented and recommended punitive action. war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide) had been perpetrated during the country's civil war". [142] Some were severely tortured and had become permanently paralyzed as a result of the torture. Many of the 43 victims had been detained in the city's central prison for some time on different charges. As many as fifty thousand Somalis died and the city of Hargeisa was virtually levelled in what outside analysts depicted as a genocidal campaign by the Barre regime against the Isaaq.[103]. The water well at Selel-Derajog was "destroyed and cemented over by government forces". [67] He also ordered the transfer of Afraad away from the border region, giving the WSLF complete control of the border region, thus leaving Isaaq nomads in the area without any protection against WSLF violence. [123], Anticipating fighting to start, people stock-piled food, coal and other essential supplies. 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. By the last year of the Barre regime, there was not a single school functioning at full strength. Between 1987 and 1989, the regime of Somali dictator Siad Barre massacred an estimated 200,000 members of the Isaaq tribe, the largest clan group in the northwest part of Somalia. The situation was further exacerbated by the appointment of Mohamed Hashi Gani, a cousin of President Siad Barre and fellow Marehan Darod, as the military commander of the northern regions with headquarters in Hargeisa in 1980. Amnesty International confirmed the large-scale targeting and killing of civilian population by Somali government troops. Killings in Hargeisa started on 31 May. Many of the houses are boarded up because of the small anti-personnel mines scattered by Gen Siad Barre's forces when tens of thousands of Hargeisa residents fled. 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. [53] The SNM continued this pattern of attacks from 1982 and throughout the 1980s, at a time the Ogaden Somalis (some of whom were recruited refugees) made up the bulk of Barre's armed forces accused of committing acts of genocide against the Isaaq people of the north. "[41][pageneeded], In October 1969 the military seized power in a coup following the assassination of President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke and the ensuing political parliamentary debate on succession which ended in a deadlock. Bosnia's Srebrenica massacre 25 years on - in pictures - BBC News [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. 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". The Governor of Hargeisa estimates the present population to be around 70,000, down from a pre-conflict population figure of 370,000. They appealed to the non-Isaaks to leave so they could burn the town and all those who remained behind. [188], According to Mohamed Haji Ingiriis, the vicious atrocities during the reign of Barre were not an isolated event nor unusual in Somalia's history. The cash-strapped government spends $50,000 on the war crimes commission each year, and is building a $300,000 museum to showcase. [50] The Soviet Union, which at the time was allied to both Somalia and Ethiopia turned against Barre,[51] and (with their allies) provided enough support to the Ethiopian army to defeat the Somali forces and force a withdrawal from the Somali region of Ethiopia. [62] The Somali Army managed the training of both groups, and costs incurred including any expenditure for their arms and equipment, radio communications and fuel came from the army's budget. Our rough visual inspection confirms this estimate. Mogadishu? Dry-season grazing land and areas close to permanent water sources at higher elevation were particularly hard hit. 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". "[48] The new regime became a client state of the Soviet Union and on the first anniversary of the coup officially adopted scientific socialism as its core ideology.