IRIN Webspecial: A Decent Burial

Personal Account: Amina Isma'il Ade, Burao

"My husband, Yasin Ahmad Bisat, was a driver, and we had a vehicle he used to rent out. He was taken one evening in 1984. Soldiers were sent to the house, but he had actually already been picked up on the street... some boys came to me and told me he had been taken.

"The next morning I went to the NSS [National Security Service] and asked some soldiers there if he had been arrested, and they told me, yes. They didn't tell me why. Later that morning, they transferred him to the main prison, which is when I was informed that he had been arrested - but not what for. I went home, I brought him some food, and I managed to get inside the prison. At the prison, I gathered that he had been accused of giving one of his vehicles to the SNM [Somali National Movement] 'bush people'. He was kept in the main prison for two days, then taken to a military security prison. I managed to speak to him, but he didn't seem to know what was happening, other than that he was being held with about 30 other people.

"I also managed to see him at the military prison, where he was held for more than 20 days. At that time, there was no court in Burao. Every day he was taken to a government guesthouse, where lawyers went to discuss the cases. There were two government-appointed lawyers, and one for all the prisoners, and a number of prosecutors. The only trouble was, my husband wasn't allowed to speak or defend himself. He was charged with providing his vehicle to the SNM; others were charged with giving them camels, or money, or information.

"All the prisoners were told that their wealth, their property, would be confiscated. One day, while I was at the prison, soldiers went to my home and searched it from top to bottom. They took all the equipment I had, all the money I had, they slashed the mattresses and ruined property. Even the homes we had rented out to other people were searched. They also took everything you had in any bank account, any cars, vehicles or valuables associated with you that they could get hold of. At the time, I had 13 children, with the eldest at 17, and I was pregnant. I was also looking after my elderly grandmother.

"Then, the next thing they did was ... collect boys and men from the villages and mountains. The youngest was six, the eldest about 50 years. They were tied together. They brought them all to the guesthouse. Their families all came to the guesthouse to see them, but they were told that time to stand back. I remember my husband had his religious beads on his head and was waving, saying, "goodbye Burao."

"A trailer truck was brought, and they were all loaded onto it. They were unable to say anything. The truck drove away. People tried to follow, some on foot, some in cars. I was in a car and one of the first to arrive. They had been taken to a place near the airport. The men were tied in pairs, and I saw them herded down from the truck. I saw about 50 men with guns coming from the nearby military camp, and I also saw a vehicle mounted with a machine gun. Then the soldiers saw us.? There were only a few of us who had managed to get there.? They told us we were too close. They said: Reverse and leave. Then I heard shots, but I didn't see the shooting. Then I heard a machine gun. I heard a few rounds, then I heard single shots.? I think they were for the people they had missed or wounded.

"I have never tried to reclaim or rebury the body of my husband. I think all those bodies should be buried properly, but there is nothing left as far as I am concerned. Of course I would like to see the people responsible brought to justice. I want to see them in court. I want them to feel what we felt."

Amina fled to neighbouring Ethiopia in 1988 when the government bombed Hargeysa and Burao. She returned with her family in 1991.

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? 2001, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. All rights reserved.