Qudhac Posted January 12, 2005 Somaliland Forum Welcomes The Lawsuit Against Ali Samater And Yusuf Abdi (Tokeh) Somaliland Forum — WorldWide — 11 January, 2005 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Somaliland Forum Press Release Ref: SLF/EC/01/05/ Somaliland Forum warmly welcomes the case against accused Somali War Criminals, Mohamed Ali Samatar and Yusuf Abdi Ali (a.k.a. Tokeh), both residents of Virginia. These two military officers have committed war crimes and other human rights abuses against civilians; they have committed their crimes in the 1980s during the brutal military regime of Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. Somaliland Forum considers this case as a serious historical step on the way to achieving justice for the victims of the regime's atrocities. Somaliland Forum thanks the Centre for Justice & accountability (CJA) and the law firm of Cooley Godward LLP, who are working on a pro bono basis. We especially would like to thank the lead lawyers Helene Silverberg and Matthew Eisenbrandt of CJA and Bob Vieth, head of the litigation department of Cooley Godward’s Virginia office, who are seeking a much delayed justice and vindication for the victims of Siad Barre regime's atrocities. Somaliland Forum also congratulates the victims who brought forward this case; we understand and sympathize with their tremendous suffering and we have great admiration for the courage and tenacity they have shown. Today, most of the victims of Siad Barre's brutal regime lack effective courts of law and have no means of defending and vindicating their rights as defined by international laws. This absence of judicial recourse enabled men like Mohamed Ali Samatar and Yusuf Abdi Ali (Tokeh) to live freely in the United States without any fear of persecution for their past crimes. This is only the beginning for the victims; the road for justice ahead is still long. BACKGROUND: 1. October 1969: A military coup overthrew the civilian government and ended nine-years of democracy, since the start of the union between Somaliland and Somalia and the establishment of the Somali Republic. Following the assassination of President Sharmarke, the military seized power and the coup leader, Gen. Siad Barre, from Somalia proper, assumed the control of the country. Siad Barre pronounced it a socialist state and re-named it The Somali Democratic Republic(SDR); General Barre then established a tightly controlled dictatorship that soon afterwards imposed a severe curtailment of civil liberties. The already ill-conceived constitution of the first nine years was suspended and the country's civilian parliament was replaced with a Revolutionary Council composed of military. The People of Somaliland fell immediately in the firing line of the General, who professed socialism, but was actually harking back to fascism. In the end, Somalia's strongman waged a relentless campaign of genocide against the majority population of Somaliland, while the world watched in silence. 2. Mohamed Ali Samatar was Minister of Defence of the Barre dictatorship from 1980 to 1986 and Prime Minister from 1987 to 1990. 3. In 1981 and 1982 a group of young professionals in Hargeisa were arrested for volunteering to assist the Hargeisa Group Hospital. They were put in jail for eight long years incommunicado in a maximum-security prison known as Labaatan Jirow. They are internationally known as "Hargeisa Self Help Group" or the "UFFO" group. 4. July 1989: On July 9, 1989, Italian-born Roman Catholic bishop in Somalia, Salvatore Colombo, was killed in Mogadishu. On the heels of the bishop's murder came the infamous July 14 massacre, when the Red Berets lead by Maslax Mohamed Siad (dictator's son) slaughtered people demonstrating against the arrest of their spiritual leader. Many others were seriously injured. On July 15, forty-seven people, mainly from the ***** clan, were taken to Jasiira Beach west of the city and summarily executed. The July massacres prompted a shift in United States policy as the United States began to distance itself from Siad Barre’s regime. 5. 1988: General Barre's government in Mogadishu with Mohamed Ali Samatar as its Prime Minister ordered the bombing of Hargeisa and Buroa, Somaliland's two largest cities, and other towns, resulting in widespread death and destruction. Hired mercenary pilots from the former Rhodesia were even used to bomb civilians fleeing from artillery shells and burning cities. Most of Somaliland's population crossed the border into Ethiopia to seek sanctuary from Barre's killing army, while as much as one hundred thousand lost their lives in the process. The international human Rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Africa Watch have documented this widespread torture and killing of the people of Somaliland in the 1980s. 6. Yussuf Abdi Ali (Tokeh) was a commander of a Somali Army battalion from 1984 to 1989. 7. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC) "Fifth Estate," a weekly news show, on October 28, 1992, aired "Crimes Against Humanity," an hour-long overview of the history of some of Siad Barre men's war crimes. The hour long documentary presented a case against Tokeh in which he hasbeen accused of burning prisoners to death and of dragging one young man behind a military vehicle, shredding his body to pieces. After the airing of the show, Tokeh was expelled from Canada and deported to the United States. 8. May 1997: due to heavy rains the sites mass graves became uncovered in Hargeisa. The first site, known as Malko Durduro, contained the bodies of at least 250 individuals. The corpses were found bound by the wrists in groups of 10 and 15. 9. Feb, 2000 -- The bodies of more than 700 people have been discovered in a mass grave near the airport in the city of Berbera. UN officials speculated that the bodies may belong to victims of a massacre carried out by troops loyal to then-president Siad Barre who was ousted in 1991. 10. Somaliland covers the area of the former British Somaliland Protectorate which merged with Italian Somalia in 1960 to form the Somali Republic. Somaliland declared its independence after the collapse of the Somali government when Dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in January 1991. SOMALILAND FORUM Background The Somaliland Forum is a non-partisan independent think-tank that brings together Somalilanders, mainly in the Diaspora. We believe in a sovereign, democratic and independent Somaliland. Working together with Somaliland Communities and Somaliland friends around the globe, the main goal of the Forum is to contribute and to work towards the socio-economic development of the Republic of Somaliland. Contact: chair@somalilandforum.com For more information about Somaliland Forum, visit: www. 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