IRIN Webspecial: A Decent Burial

Interview: Abdirahman Awale and Muhammad Hashi of the SNM

Unilateral independence in Somaliland, northwestern Somalia, was declared by the victorious Somali National Movement (SNM) on 18 May 1991. Hundreds of thousands of Somalilanders had been displaced across the borders at the height of the 1988-1991 civil war [see Somalia: A government at war against its own people, Human Rights Watch 1991]. Abdirahman Awale and Muhammad Hashi of the SNM leadership told IRIN in an interview that atrocities committed under the former regime were a primary reason for secession. They rejected the recently-established Transitional National Government in Mogadishu, elected in 2000 in Djibouti-hosted peace talks, because it includes "known war criminals." Now functioning as an opposition group in Somaliland, the SNM members criticised both the international community and Somaliland President Muhammad Ibrahim Egal for failing to investigate alleged war crimes and mass graves.

QUESTION: What, to you, is the significance of the new authority in Mogadishu?

ANSWER: [Hashi] ... The Djibouti [hosted peace] conference didn't give due respect to the existing administrations - to either the Somaliland government or to Puntland. Somalilanders feel the Arta conference is another way of inviting the Siyad Barre regime [back]... It's the Siyad Barre regime without Siyad Barre, as far as we are concerned. They are the perpetrators of the genocide that has taken place. ?We have more than 100 mass graves in Hargeysa, Zeila, Gebile, Berbera, Hadwein, Burao, Kalcher, Erigavo, and Siyad Barre's group was responsible. And [Prime Minister] Ali Khalif announced his government on 21 October, which commemorates the revolution of Siyad Barre [of 21 October 1969]! That is no coincidence. It is a way of telling us: We are here again.

Q: You say the mass graves are very important, yet there is a real slowness in Somaliland to investigate properly. Why?

A: [Hashi] The [Somaliland] government is dragging its feet about bringing up those issues which caused the seccession, and also the United Nations... The international community has formed war tribunals for cases in Rwanda, Burundi, Kosovo, and investigations have been conducted. Why is it different in Somaliland? Why is it being neglected? Why is the international community closing its eyes to what happened here? To reconcile the Somali differences - Kofi Annan drags his feet, the OAU is silent, the Arab League is ignoring it. Even when the genocide was taking place, the international community was silent, the UN was silent.... But we really don't care. We are in our land and we will never, never be back to that unity.

Q: But surely one of the reasons you would want the mass graves investigated is to get justice in order for people to be reconciled with the past?

A: [Awale] To be reconciled with the past, and at the same time convince the international community that our secession is based on atrocities that took place. They have to consider that. We united with [southern Somalia] not through compulsion, but of our own accord. For 30 years we suffered such atrocities, so we established our state again - Somaliland. So we are showing the international community the reason why we chose secession. We want to convince them.

Q: Is there also reluctance over investigating these mass graves because there are some people Somaliland also responsible?

A: [Hashi] It could be said so, yes, because there are some elements of the Siyad Barre regime in the government who should not have been, really.

[Awale] ... That point is valid, but I don't think it is the reason. Some were either ministers or civil servants in Siyad Barre's government, but they were not effective. That is not the point as to why the [Somaliland] government is slow to deal with these mass graves. The main reason is that Egal is concerned with not telling the international community the truth of what has happened here.

Q: How will you deal with Somalilanders who are known to be part of that former system, or responsible for mass killings?

A: [Awale] It's quite clear; just investigations, not revenge, should be followed up. They will be taken to court. Not necessarily Siyad Barre's colleagues only [but] anyone who has taken part. They will be taken to court, and there should be justice.

[Hashi] Whether he is a Somalilander himself or whether he is somebody else.

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