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Berbera (SL Times): A number of former civil servants under the regime of Siyad Barre have come forward to describe how their lives were saved from execution during the 1988/1989 genocide at Berbera by no other person than Dahir Rayale Kahin, the head of the Berbera National Security Service Bureau at the time. Speaking at a press conference held last Thursday in Berbera, Yusuf Aqil Yare, ex-Berbera coordinator for Ministry of Public Works, Mohamed Yusuf ex-Berbera coordinator for the Ministry of Transport, Ahmed Mohamed Farah, ex-businessman, and Mohamed Abdillahi, a private citizen, have all stated that they were released from detention at the ex-Hangash (military intelligence unit with extra-legal powers) office at Berbera after an intervention on their behalf by Dahir Rayale Kahin, currently president of Somaliland. They also said that they were convinced that Dahir Rayale has saved the lives of many other detainees. Following the mid-1988 SNM attacks against Hargeisa and Buroa, the military government of former dictator Siyad Barre responded by committing acts of ethnic cleansing against the Isaak civilian population in the then northern Somalia (present Somaliland). As atrocities got underway, Mr. Rayale served as the Berbera boss of the NSS. Reports accusing the President of complicity in the acts of genocide, which took place at Berbera, have recently surfaced in the Somaliland Media. However a number of citizens who used to work for government departments in Berbera during the genocide, have refuted these accusations. Yusuf Aqil Yare recalled, "I was among the many people who were rounded up after being accused of having links with the SNM, but since Dahir Rayale was opposed to the killings, the detainees were taken straight away to the Hangash." Mr. Aqil Yare said he was among a group that was released by Dahir Rayale after spending 27 days in prison. He added that they also secured, through Dahir Rayale, the release of 45 men arrested at western Berbera. "Dahir took these men to Ina Dheg Carwo Hotel and arranged to smuggle them back to their nomadic settlements without the knowledge of the government," Aqil Yare said. Mohamed Yusuf, a former employee of the Transport Ministry under Barre’s regime has also recalled how he was arrested and then saved. "I was taken from my office to Hangash by armed men led by a notorious fellow by the name of Ali Buulo. Rayale and I happened to be neighbors and he arranged my release together with the Galihle sons, Ali Agaweyne and others." Recounting what he saw at the Hangash premises, Mohamed Yusuf said, "The former ministry of Agriculture compound was turned into a concentration camp. There were many acquaintees among the people I met there and never saw quite a number of them ever again." Mr. Mohamed Yusuf said when the atrocities began, people were being taken only to Hangash. "By then both the NSS and the police ceased to function." Mohamed Yusuf added it was unfair to associate Mr. Rayale with the atrocities. "I owe my life to God and to Rayale," he concluded. Moreover, some of Berbera's elders, such as Sigal Galaydh and Hassan Arab have also declared that Mr. Rayale had nothing to do with the killings that occurred in Berbera in 1988/1989. |
| Ex-Political Prisoners Say Rayale Saved Their Lives |