Who Assassinated The Somali President In October 1969?

Notes

1. “President Shermarke Assassinated—Murderer in Custody—A 5-Day National Mourning,” Somali News, October 16, 1969, A1. Also “President of Somalia Slain; Gunman Held,” Observer-Reporter, October 16, 1969; “Somalia’s President Assassinated by Gunman Wearing Police Uniform,” Herald-Journal, October 16, 1969; “Somalia Prepares for New President,” The Associated Press, October 20, 1969; “Government of Somalia Overthrown,” The Blade, October 21, 1969.
2. Born in 1919 in Harardheere, a Hawiye territory in central Somalia, into the son of a Daarood/Majeerteen/Osman Mohamoud/Bah Ya’kuub father called Ali Sharmarke Yusuf and a Hawiye/Habar Gidir/Sa’ad/Reer Hilowle/Reer Dhegood mother called Faduma Elmi Aalim, Abdirashid was a proper reflection of what in Rwanda is known as “Batutsi,” which is to say the offspring of mixed marriages between the Tutsi and the Hutu. It was not uncommon for the Somalia Italiana he was born into to witness mixed marriages between the Hawiye and the Daarood clan-groups. In the early 1940s, Abdirashid worked as a clerk for the British Military Administration (BMA). In 1944, he joined the Somali Youth Club (SYC), a nationalist youth movement, which reformed in 1947 as the Somali Youth League (SYL). A photo taken in 1954 shows Abdirashid sitting with other contemporary prominent SYL members (see Kasmo, “Sawir xusuus Leh iyo Sannadkii 1953,” 3). From 1954–1958 he attended Università degli Studi di Roma, graduating with an undergraduate degree in political science, at a time any Somali who could go to Italian universities and return with such a degree was to demand to be called a “doctor” as if he had obtained a doctorate. It is because of this reason that I. M. Lewis erroneously wrote that Abdirashid held a doctorate from an Italian university. See I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali: Nation and State in the Horn of Africa, 4th ed. (Athens, Ohio: University Press, 2002), 161– For the SYL, see Cedric Barnes, “The Somali Youth League, Ethiopian Somalis and the Greater Somalia Idea, c. 1946–48,” Journal of Eastern African Studies 1, no. 2 (2007): 277–291; and Ghazi Abuhakema and Tim Carmichael, “The Somali Youth League Constitution: A handwritten Arabic copy (c. 1947?) from the Ethiopian Security forces archives in Harar,” Journal of Eastern African Studies 4, no. 3 (2010): 450–466. For a seminal study, see Saadia Touval, Somali Nationalism: International Politics and Drive for Unity in the Horn of Africa (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963).
3. John Drysdale, The Stoics without Pillows: A Way Forward for the Somalilands (London, UK: Haan Associates, 2002), 83; Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi, Culture and Customs of Somalia (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001), 29; Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali, 206. It appears exception to the rule that Lewis, who was often blamed for clanizing things Somali, had skipped over the role of clan in the assassination. I. M. Lewis, “The Politics of the 1969 Somali Coup,” The Journal of Modern African Studies 10, no. 3 (1972): 383–408.

4. General Aideed was about to play a prominent role in Somalia during the early 1990s. For his reflections on the assassination and other incidents, see Satya Pal Ruhela, ed., Mohammed Farah Aidid and His Vision of Somalia (New Delhi, India: Vikas Publishing, 1994).
5. See, for example, Abdirahman Abdullahi Baadiyow, “Women, Islamists and the Military Regime in Somalia: The New Family Law and Its Implications,” in Milk and Peace, Drought and War: Somali Culture, Society, and Politics: Essays in Honour of I. M. Lewis, eds. Markus V. Hoehne and Virginia Luling (London, UK: C. Hurst, 2010), 137– 159
6. David D. Laitin and Said S. Samatar, Somalia: Nation in Search of a State (London, UK: Gower, 1987), 78. In her otherwise excellent analysis on the clan politics in postcolonial Somalia as well as the politics of the military coup d’état, political scientist Alice Bettis Hashim completely omits to note this assassination. See Alice Bettis Hashim, The Fallen State: Dissonance, Dictatorship and Death in Somalia (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1997).
7. Anna Simons, Networks of Dissolution: Somalia Undone (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995), 46–47
8. Amina H. Adan, “Somalia: An Illusory Political Nation-State,” South Asia Bulletin 14, no. 1 (1994): 99–109 at 102.
9. “Abdi Rashid Shermarke: President of Somalia since 1967” (obituary), The Times (London), October 16, 1969, 14; “Somalia Buries President Shermarke,” Somali News, Wednesday, October 22, 1969, A1; “Condolences from Sheikh Mukhtar and Yassin,” Somali News, Wednesday, October 22, 1969, A1. Sheikh Mukhtar Mohamed Hussein was then president of the National Assembly, who assumed briefly the post of the assassinated president. “Wargeyska Kasmo oo Wareysi dheer la yeeshay Sheekh Mukhtaar Maxamed Xuseen,” Kasmo, June 2000, http://kasmonewspaper.com/Warar/ html, accessed May 31, 2014.
10. Gary D. Payton, “The Somali Coup of 1969: The Case for Soviet Complicity,” The Journal of Modern African Studies 18, no. 3 (1980): 493–508 at 502.
11. Susan Williams argued that “it is most unlikely that the Albertina [the aircraft] crashed as a result of pilot error, as claimed by the Rhodesian public inquiry of 1961–62 and by a private inquiry for the Swedish government in 1993.” Susan Williams, Who Killed Hammarskjöld? The UN, the Cold War, and White Supremacy in Africa (London, UK: Hurst, 2011), 232. For other scholarly investigations on other assassinations, see Gerar Emmanuel and Bruce Kuklick, Death in the Congo: Murdering Patrice Lumumba (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015); Luise White, The Assassination of Herbert Chitepo: Texts and Politics in Zimbabwe (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2003); Ludo de Witte, The Assassination of Lumumba, trans. Ann Wright and Renée Fenby (London, UK: Verso, 2001).

12. Quoted in Ali A. Mazrui, “Thoughts on Assassination in Africa,” Political Science Quarterly 83, no. 1 (1968): 40–58 at 44.
13. Ibid, 42.
14. Williams, Who Killed Hammarskjöld?
15. “Somalia: Death of a President,” Time, October 24, 1969.
16. Memorandum from Secretary of State Rogers to President Nixon, Washington, DC, October 15, 1969. National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 12, President’s Daily Briefs, unclassified, http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/ frus1969-76ve05p1/d277, accessed May 1, 2014.
17. Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, Washington, DC, October 20, 1969. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Kissinger Papers, Box TS 64, Memoranda to the President, October 1969, Top Secret, Sensitive, sent for information, http://history.state.gov/his toricaldocuments/frus1969-76ve05p1/d278, accessed May 1, 2014.
18. Einar Braathen, Morten Bøås, Gjermund Saether, eds., Ethnicity Kills? The Politics of War, Peace and Ethnicity in Sub-Saharan Africa (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000).
19. Steve Fenton, Ethnicity, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2010), 154.
20. The fraud level during the election increased Abdirashid’s unpopularity such that the secondary school students in Mogadishu showed their back to the president in the summer of that year during the day of the independence celebrations. Telephone interview with Mohamed Ali Kamoole, January 18, 2015.
21. Interview with Professor Omar Mohamed Addow, telephone, July 9, 2014; interview with General Elmi Sahal Ali, telephone, June 23, 2014; interview with General Osman Haji Omar “Falco,” telephone, June 19, 2014; interview with General Mohamed Nuur Galaal, telephone, April 20, 014, 18 June 2014; interview with Colonel Abdi Hussein Faahiye “Hoogsade,” telephone, July 31, 2014; interview with Mohamed Ali Kamoole, telephone, April 5, 2014; interview with Ahmed Salaad Kulmiye, telephone, June 2, 2014; interview with Mohamed Ali Nuur, telephone, June 15, 2014; interview with Mohamed Isse Trunji, telephone, February 9, 2014. See also “Somalia: Of Barre’s Making,” Africa Confidential 23, no. 18 (September 1982): 1– 4
22. Jean-François Bayart, The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2013), 150.
23. Drysdale, Stoics without Pillows, 79; Jama Mohamed Ghalib, The Cost of Dictatorship: The Somali Experience (New York: Lillian Barber Press, 1995), 65.
24. Joe Darwin Palmer, “Sheikh Ali Hussein,” Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies 10 (2010): 178.
25. Cabdulqaadir Aroma, Sababihii Burburka Soomaaliya: Yaa Iska Leh Eedda Qaranjabka?, 2nd ed. (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Percetakan Zafar, 2005); Axmed Jilao Caddow, Somalia: Gelbiskii Geerida (n.p., 2001); Aw Jaamac Cumar Ciise, Qaranjabkii Soomaaliya (Mombasa, Kenya: n.p., 1995); Ghalib, The Cost of Dictatorship; Mohamed Osman Omar, The Road to Zero: Somalia’s Self-Destruction (London: Haan Associates, 1992). In April 2012, a group of Somali Diaspora debating over the case in an online chat room provided by a Somali website unanimously concurred that the murder was motivated by “clan feud,” http://www.topix.com/ forum/world/somalia/TTF5V6678KK0U9TUK, accessed December 13, 2014.
26. As General Ahmed Jili’ow Addow, one of the most senior Somali intelligence officers, implied in his memoir that the assassination was a cover-up for the coup. However, Addow asserted that the coup was not preorganized. Caddow, Somalia, 18– By contrast, one of the founders of the military regime revealed that the preparation for the coup was ongoing well before October 1969. Interview with Abdi Warsame Isaaq, http://www.voanews.com/MediaAssets2/somali/2009_10/40th-ANNIVERSARY-PART -1-18OCT09.mp3, accessed September 5, 2014.
27. Personal communication with Mohamed Siad Togane. In the 1800s, the Ali Saleebaan subclan had murdered nearly four clan Sultans of the Osman Mohamoud/Bah-Dir subsubclan. For details, see Giulio Baldacci, “The Promontory of Cape Guardafui,” Journal of the Royal African Society 9, no. 33 (1909): 59–72; Lieutenant C. J. Cruttenden, “Report on the Mijjertheyn Tribe of Somallies, Inhabiting the District Forming the North-East point of Africa,” Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society 7 (1844–46): 111–126; Wayne K. Durrill, “Atrocious Misery: The African Origins of Famine in Northern Somalia, 1839–1884,” The American Historical Review 91, no. 2 (1986): 287–306.

28. Telephone interview with General Elmi Sahal Ali, June 23, 2014.
29. For Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf’s inquiry, see Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Halgan iyo Hagardaamo: Taariikh Nololeed (Struggle and Conspiracy: A Memoir) (Stockholm, Sweden: Scansom, 2012), 83– For an interview with Dubbad, see http://www.radio hormuud.dk/news.php?id=6363, accessed December 13, 2014.
30. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-d2Nh50iJY (min. 09:01–09:29, accessed April 20, 2014.<AQ>Please include video’s author and title.<AQ>

31. Ahmed, Halgan iyo Hagardaamo, 85.
32. Hussein A. Bulhan, Politics of Cain: One Hundred Years of Crises in Somali Politics and Society (Bethesda, MD: Tayosan International, 2008), 160.
33. Repubblica Democratic Somala, Corte di Socurezza Nazionale, Sentenza, No. 37/70 Reg/ Sent., 8 Ottobre, 1970. Copy on file with the author. Also https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=WfUvc4Ln3nQ (part I), accessed December 21, 2014; https://www.you com/watch?v=q_oUnR5oV8E (part II), accessed December 21, 2014.<AQ>Please include videos’ authors and titles.<AQ>
34. “Decreto del Presidente del Consiglio Rivoluzionario Supremo, 26 Aprile 1971, no. 121, Promozione Ufficiali della Polizia,” Bollettino Ufficiale della Repubblica Democratica Somala, Anno II., Mogadiscio, 11 Maggio 1971, Suppl. no. 2 al. n. 5: 492.
35. According to the court documents, Said Yusuf Ismail was a 22-year-old, Mohamoud Yusuf Ismail a 42-year-old, Sheikh Nur Ali Olow a 42-year-old, Aynab Farah Miraf a 50-year-old, Beddel Hersi Farah a 40-year-old, and Abdi Raabi Raage a 49-year-old. See Repubblica Democratic Somala, Corte di Socurezza Nazionale, Sentenza, No. 37/70 Reg/ Sent., 8 Ottobre, 1970, 1.
36. “Wasaaradda Howlaha Guud, 16,3,80, Naado Dhul Jaalle Beddel Xersi Faarax L. 618,” Faafinta Rasmi Ah, Sannadka 8aad, Muqdisho, 1da Okt. 1980, L. 10, 1067; “Dawladda H. Ee Muqdisho 29.7.84, Naado Dhul J. Bedel Xirsi Faarax, L. 309,” Faafinta Rasmi Ah, Sannadka 12aad, Muqdisho, 30 Sebt. 1984, L. 2 r 9, 704; “Dawladda Hoose Muq. 19.1.85, Naado Dhul Jaalle Bedel Xirsi Faarax, L. 579,” Faafinta Rasmi Ah, Sannadka 14aad, Muqdisho, 1da September 1986, L. 9, 649. See also “Xeer Madaxweynaha JDS L. 35 ee 23 Abriile 1981—Xeeri Tix Xog/A/5/128—Dallacaad Sarkaalnimo,” Faafinta Rasmi Ah, Sannadka 9aad, Muqdisho, 2 Luulyo 1981, L. 3 R. 5, 1005–1007
37. Repubblica Democratic Somala, Corte di Socurezza Nazionale, Sentenza, No. 37/70 Reg/ Sent., 8 Ottobre, 1970, 6–8
38. Personal communication with Mohamed Siad Togane.
39. Repubblica Democratic Somala, Corte di Socurezza Nazionale, Sentenza, No. 37/70 Reg/ Sent., 8 Ottobre, 1970, 6.
40. Ibid, 10.
41. Oral information from M. C. H, December 21, 2014. General Ahmed Mohamoud Adde “Qoorweyne” was first included in the court proceedings and then relieved from his position.
42. Repubblica Democratic Somala, Corte di Socurezza Nazionale, Sentenza, No. 37/70 Reg/ Sent., 8 Ottobre, 1970, 6.
43. “Decreto del Presidente del Consiglio Rivoluzionario Supremo, 23 Gennaio 1971, n. 36, Sospensione cautelare dal servizio del Magistrato Abdi Farah Basciane,” Bollettino Ufficiale della Repubblica Democratica Somala, Anno II., Mogadiscio, 9 Febbraio 1971, Suppl. n. 1 al. no. 1: 174–175
44. Author’s notes from Somali STN TV interview (Somali) with Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud “Siilaanyo,” November 2004. It seems that Abdirizak thought that he would return to power when Abdirashid and his associates were violently removed from power.
45. Abdirizak Haji Hussein, “Letter of Resignation to President Barre,” Horn of Africa 9, no. 2 (1981): 52– For brief biography of Abdirizak, see Mohamed Haji Mukhtar, Historical Dictionary of Somalia (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003), 18–19.
46. Interview with Abdirizak Haji Hussein, October 2002. In contrast to Abdirizak, Aden Adde was reported to have shown distaste to the coming of the coup d’état. Oral information from A. A., December 14, 2014.
47. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-d2Nh50iJY (min. 00:50–21:20), accessed April 20, 2014.
48. Ibid (min. 08:20–08:50).
49. “President’s Assassin Tried,” The Anglo-Somali Society Newsletter 67 (September/ October 1970): 1.
50. “Decreto del Presidente del Consiglio Rivoluzionario Supremo, 14 Giugno 1970, n. 162, Reconoscimento della morte del Capitano Sadik Mohamed Farah,” Bollettino Ufficiale della Repubblica Democratica Somala, Anno I., Mogadiscio, 19 Luglio 1970, Suppl. n. 6 al. n. 7, 658. In a recent speech given in London and recorded on a visual tape, Abdulkadir Haji Masalle, a close clan confidante to Siad Barre throughout his regime, made mention that during his tenure as the army commandant, Siad Barre had a special relationship with Captain Saadaq. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= 1cWCZssPFqk (between min. 36:21–37:39), accessed August 4, 2014.
51. Telephone interview with Ishaaq Nuur Hassan, July 13, 2014.
52. Telephone interview with Ambassador Mohamed Ahmed Aalim, May 23, 2014. Ambassador Aalim, a career army colonel before being transferred to the Foreign Ministry, was among the same army company enlisted in April 1960 with Captain Saadaq.

53. Oral information from Colonel Mohamed Ismail Ibrahim “Sero Sero Sete,” June 28, 2014. Colonel Sero Sero Sete was also with the same army company as Ambassador Aalim and Captain Saadaq.
54. Shukri Aaden Shire, Xabaddii Dunida Gilgishey: Aaden-Low & Dhacdadii Walwaal (London, UK: Kasmo, 2013), 124– Also interview with A. O. J., telephone, December 15, 2015.
55. Personal communication with former army officers.
56. “Decree of the Revolutionary Council, No. 10 of 28 October 1969, Transfer of Judicial Case from Borao [sic] Regional Court to Benadir Mogadiscio,” Official Bulletin of the Somali Democratic Republic, Year I, Mogadishu, October 29, 1969, Suppl. No. 2 10 No. 1, 29–30; “Decreto del Consiglio Rivoluzionario Supremo, 10 Gennaio, 1970, n. 9, Transferimento procedimento penale concernente assassinio Dr. Abdirashid Ali Scermarche ex Presidente della Repubblica dalla competenza della giurisdizione ordinaria alla competenza della Corte della Sicurezza Nazionale,” Bollettino Ufficiale della Repubblica Democratica Somala, Anno I., Mogadiscio, 12 Gennaio, 1970, Suppl. n. 2 al. n 1, 36. For how the subsequent military junta quickened the trial of the assassin, see “President’s Assassin Tried,” 1.
57. Ahmed, Halgan iyo Hagardaamo, 85. My translation. With brief popularity after the takeover, Siyad Barre leaped from autocrat to tyrant. For a general overview with regard to African authoritarian military regimes, see Robert H. Jackson and Carl G. Rosberg, Personal Rule in Black Africa: Prince, Autocrat, Prophet, Tyrant (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1982).
58. “Somalia: How Much Soviet Influence,” Africa Confidential 14, no. 14, (6 July 1973): 1–3; “President’s Assassination Followed by Coup,” Africa Research Bulletin 6, no. 10 (November 1969): 1548–1551, 1549– For the political and cultural implications of the Cold War in the 1980s and 1990s Somalia, see Catherine Besteman, “The Cold War and Chaos in Somalia,” in The State, Identity and Violence: Political Disintegration in the Post–Cold War, ed. Ferguson, R. Brian (London, UK: Routledge, 2003), 285–299. For the security issues of the postcolonial Somali State in Somalia, see Maria H. Brons, Society, Security, Sovereignty and the State: Somalia, From Statelessness to Statelessness? (Utrecht, the Netherlands: International Books, 2001), 158.
59. Both Cabdulqaadir Aroma and Aw Jaamac Cumar Ciise used a same poem by a poet close to Abdirashid in which he had predicted after postelection period that the president would be killed. Aroma, Sababihii Burburka Soomaaliya 204; and Ciise, Qaranjabkii Soomaaliya, 126.
60. Drysdale, Stoics without Pillows, 19, 79; Ghalib, The Cost of Dictatorship, 65–69.
61. Faduma Ahmed Alim, Saa Waxay Tiri: Maansadii iyo Waayihii Xaawa Jibriil (Toronto: Jumblies Press, 2008), 94. Nur Ali Qabobe, who worked for the Siad Barre regime as an economist, also noted how Abdirashid and Egaal’s administration was “humiliated” by their own clan constituencies by holding demonstrations in favour of “the nocturnal military takeover.” Nur Ali Qabobe, Somalia: From Nation-State to Tribal Mutiny (New Delhi, India: Pharos Media, 2002), 88. Indeed, many Somalis expected those who were in this administration to be treated as “” Bulhan, Politics of Cain, 169.
62. Ali Jimale Ahmed, Daybreak is Near: Literature, Clans, and the Nation-State in Somalia (Lawrenceville, N.J.: The Red Sea Press, 1996), 101.
63. The Murusade dominate the Western periphery of the capital. However, they maintained to have taken this stance in retaliation to a previous decision by the president’s clansmen who had earlier objected a deceased policeman from them to be buried in their hometown of Qardho. For more details, see Mohamed Haji Ingiriis, “Somalia: From Finest to Failed State” (part ii), Africa Review (September 22, 2010).
64. Ahmed, Daybreak is Near, 17. As shown by the official documents of the decolonization administration, Muuse Boqor was a salaried clan elder during the British Military Administration in Somalia (1941–1950) and in the early years of the UN trusteeship administration in Somalia. “Governo della Somalia—Decreto N. 105,” Bollettino Ufficiale Dell’Amministrazione Fiduciaria Italiana della Somalia (Pubblicazione Mensile), Anno I, Supplemento n. 1, al n. 8, Mogadiscio, 1950, 30.
65. “Decreto del Ministro dei Lavori Pubblici, 3 Ottobre 1966, n. 15. Concessione di area di terreno demaniale a favoure del Sig. Hagi Mussa Bogor,” Bollettino Ufficiale della Repubblica Somala, Anno VI, Mogadiscio, 1 Febbraio 1967, N. 2, 21; “Decreto del Ministro dei Lavore Pubblici, 5 Novembre 1966, 1967, n. 240—Concessione di area di terreno demaniele a favour del Sig. On. Hagi Mussa Bogor,” Bollettino Ufficiale della Repubblica Somala, Anno VIII, Mogadiscio 25 Dicembre 1967, Suppl. n. 5 al n. 12, 11.
66. Interview with Omar Salaad Elmi, London, June 13, 2014.
67. “Wargeyska Kasmo oo Wareysi dheer la yeeshay Sheekh Mukhtaar Maxamed Xuseen,” Kasmo, June 2000. http://kasmonewspaper.com/Warar/1451.html, accessed May 31, 2014.
68. Laitin and Samatar, Somalia: Nation in Search of a State, 78. Though no one could confirm, psychiatrist Bulhan wrote that Muuse Boqor was mentally unfit for the post, for he was suffering from a “mental disorder.” Bulhan, Politics of Cain, 70.
69. Telephone interview with Ishaaq Nuur Hassan, July 13, 2014.
70. “Somalia: After the Coup,” Africa Confidential, no. 21 (October 24, 1969): 78.
71. Mabel Berezin, “Emotions and Political Identity: Mobilizing Affection for the Polity,” in Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements, eds. Jeff Goodwin, James M. Jasper, and Francesca Polletta (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2001), 83–98 at 87.
72. Even those who tended to disagree with him on things political appear to be in line with Siad Barre on this accusation on Egal. See Ahmed, Halgan iyo Hagardaamo, 59, 66, and 73. However, a close reading of the memorandum of understanding between Somalia and Kenya indicates the contrary to such assumptions. Egal was instrumental in easing the stalemate between previous Somali authorities and the neighboring countries, especially Kenya. For Egaal’s political initiatives, see I. M. Lewis, “Somalia Stops the Wars,” Venture 20, no. 2 (February 1968): 14–17.
73. Ghalib, The Cost of Dictatorship, 67.
74. Ibid, 68. Yasin was also part of the political players and clan elders who convinced Egaal not to send away Siad Barre. Daniel Compagnon, “Ressources Politiques, Régulation Autoritaire et Domination Personnelle en Somalie: Le Régime Siyyad Barre (1969–1991)” (unpublished PhD dissertation, Université Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, 1995), Vol. I, 187. See also Ingiriis, “Somalia: From Finest to Failed State.”
75. Telephone interview with Isaaq Nuur Hassan, July 13, 2014.
76. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqzo1Bz_47E (between min. 8:20 and 9:07), accessed March 9, 2014. My translation.
77. Cable from U.S. Embassy in Mogadishu, “Leader of Somali Democratic Movement Explains Himself,” http://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/90MOGADISHU10384_a. html, accessed May 9, 2014.
78. Compagnon, Ressources Politiques, Régulation Autoritaire, Vol. 1, 181– Also interview with General Mohamed Nuur Galaal, telephone, June 18, 2014; interview with General Osman Haji Omar “Falco,” telephone, June 19, 2014. Also see Cabdulqaadir Aroma, Tiirka Colaadda: Maxay ka Curteen Colaadaha Sokeeye? 2nd ed. (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Percetakan Zafar, 2005), 72–73; Cabdulqaadir Shire Faarax, Xeebtii Geerida (Nairobi, Kenya: Snnipet View, 1990), 78; Ghalib, The Cost of Dictatorship, 65. Using confidential and oral sources, Cabdulqaadir Aroma also recorded that the first Minister of Justice under Siad Barre’s regime stated that the file detailing the assassination of Kamaaludiin Saalah, the Egyptian Envoy killed in 1957 in Mogadishu, was also taken from his office to Siad Barre. Note that Siad Barre was accused during the court proceedings of complicity over the murder. Aroma, Tiirka Colaadda, 73. Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf claimed that he was assigned for the investigation of Saalah’s assassination, and his conclusion report was hidden by Siad Barre. For his reflections, see Ahmed, Halgan Iyo Hagardaamo.
79. “Wargeyska Kasmo oo Wareysi dheer la yeeshay Sheekh Mukhtaar Maxamed Xuseen.”
80. For an earlier Soviet meddling and maneuvers, see “Somali-USSR,” Africa Research Bulletin 6, no. 12 (15 January 1970): 1621– Yusuf Azhari, Abdirashid’s son-in-law reported to have visited Siad Barre in exile in Lagos<AQ>Change correct?<AQ> after having been removed from power. According to Azhari, Siad Barre began to sob when he saw him and asked him for his forgiveness. Azhari failed to press on what this “forgiveness” was all about as it can be related it to Abdirashid’s assassination. “Wareysi Yusuf Azhari,” Himilo, March 2000.
81. Rudolph Rummel, Death by Government (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1994). For specific Somali case, see also Africa Watch, Somalia: A Government at War with Its Own People: Testimonies about the Killings and the Conflict in the North (London, UK: Africa Watch Committee, 1990).
82. Alicia C. Decker, In Idi Amin’s Shadow: Women, Gender, and Militarism in Uganda (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2014), 37.
83. Richard Hill, Jonathan Temin, and Lisa Pacholek, “Building Security Where There Is No Security,” Journal of Peacebuilding and Development 3, no. 2 (2007): 38–52
84. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE-RyPC7tQw (between min. 04:23 and 04:33), accessed December 16, 2014. My translation.