| Expose mass graves in Somaliland |
By JOHN KAMAU Those who have read Keith Richburg's Out of America must have come across the accusation that Africans don't count dead bodies. And whatever you think of Richburg - that black-skinned former Washington Post correspondent in Nairobi who saw nothing good in Africa - at times you have to agree with some of his conclusions. A recent trip to Hargeysa, capital of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, gave me a view of a nation which is afraid of history and the truth. This is a nation that does not want to unearth war crimes committed by President Mohammed Siad Barre for fear that to do so would wreck its fragile unity. If you have never seen a nation built on fear, this is one. Take the case of 46-year-old Sheila Nugal. She knows the exact spot - a huge mass grave below a former milk factory - where her husband was buried in 1988 when Barre crushed a revolt in the north. The government of Mohammed lbrahim Egal also knows everything about this mass grave. So does the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights. In Somaliland, people fear the past Yet, nobody wants to open the more than 100 mass graves that today dot Somaliland, which means that the perpetrators of these war crimes will continue to walk free. This is not fair to the affected families and humanity as a whole. In the territory, people fear the past like the dragon. "The greatest danger and fear is that the issue of crimes would be immediately politicised and used to further divisions and extremism," Ahmed Ibrahim, a Somaliland politician, told me over a cup of coffee. But when you speak to the families, you hear a different story. "We want justice," says Sheila. "If the government cannot help us, then the international community should move in and do so," adds Sheila as her 18-year-old daughter cuddles her father's portrait. And the perpetrators are going scot free because of a declaration, that has no effect in international law, which says that "the past is forgotten". "Most of the families are afraid to speak out because some of the killers walk free in Hargeysa, saying there is an amnesty," says Sheila. It all started in 1997 when heavy rains exposed bones, ropes, broken skulls and torn pieces of clothing in shallow graves in Hargeysa. Had this not happened, little would have been known about the Barre regime's mass graves. An independent expert of the UN Commission an all-international forensic team, was quickly provided by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) in December, 1997. More than 100 alleged mass graves were marked in Somaliland and the team reported that some of the sites "contained evidence of gross human rights abuses". The team recommended that the sites be preserved and that an international team of forensic specialists be authorised by the UN to carry out further investigations. But little has been done to follow up their recommendations. President of Somaliland Mohamed Ibrahim Egal When you listen to President Egal defend the 1991 amnesty as the "right thing to have been done", you know the truth might be sealed for ever. He says: "We passed a resolution that everything is forgiven and forgotten. It was the right thing to do because, at that time, fingers were being pointed at certain clans for the killings. Had that continued, Somaliland's unity would have been completely undermined. So one of the first resolutions was that we were starting on a clean page. We are all brothers." But we all know that Egal is playing politics. Although the Somaliland administration has set up a local Technical Committee for the Investigation of War Crimes to collect documentation, take testimonies and preserve the mass graves, no forensic investigations have ever been carried out. Crimes against humanity It is time the international community moved in to investigate what happened in northern Somalia. Those who remember the 1999 report by UN Special Rapporteur, Mona Rishmawi, on the issue know that the matter has been forwarded to the UN. The report recommended that "authorities in foreign countries take steps to bring to justice those suspected of committing war crimes or crimes against humanity in Somalia". * John Kamau is editor of Rights Features Service and Writes for London-based "New African". |
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