THE ROAD TO ZERO Somalia’s Self-Destruction MOHAMED OSMAN OMAR THE ROAD TO ZERO Somalia’s Self-destruction Personal Reminiscences HAAN Associates 1992 Published in 1992 by HAAN Associates PO Box 607, London SW 16 IEB © Mohamed Osman Omar 1992 ISBN 1 874209 75 8 Front cover map drawn by Shannan Mohamed Abdu Hag Reprinted 1993, London Reprinted 2004, New Delhi Typeset by Digigrafics, New Delhi Printed by Everest Press, New Delhi Sources which have been consulted in the preparation of this book are referenced in footnotes on the appropriate text pages. The photographs are reproduced from the following sources: Somali News, Mogadishu; the author’s personal photographic collection; Mogadishu from the Air Calendar 1986, USAID, Mogadishu, Somalia; Somalia National Film Agency; UN Archives. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. DEDICATED TO THE SOMALI PEOPLE ‘Hal bacaad lagu lisey’ A camel milked into the sand has all its efforts dissipated SOMALI PROVERB Acknowledgements First and foremost, I am indebted to my family and relatives who have patiently borne with me during the course of my professional career, which provides the setting for my narration. I am also beholden to those of my friends who gave me continuous encouragement to write these few lines. I was born in Mogadishu in 1937, and my lifetime has spanned five changing and momentous decades in the life of my people and country. My personal reminiscences of living through these decades, being moulded by them, and participating in them as a citizen, government functionary, and diplomat, may strike a chord with others of my countrymen and women who have a story to tell. I hope this may encourage them to make their own contribution to the record for the sake of our succeeding generations. Most of the chapters of this took were written during the year of civil war in Somalia which followed the ousting from power in January 1991 of Mohamed Siad Barre, and during which my mind was constantly distracted by the daily news of killing and destruction taking place in the country. My thanks to the Diplomatic Staff of the Somali Embassy in New Delhi for their cooperation and support during the period of my writing. My thanks to Mr. I. Edward, my driver, who willingly extended a helping hand to assist with household responsibilities, allowing me enough time to complete the book; I am most grateful to him. My profound gratitude to Professor Shams-ud-din, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, who read through the first draft of my manuscript and gave me some useful suggestions to bring it to shape. My sincere thanks also to Mr. Jagdish Chander Vidyarthi for typing the manuscript, my gratitude to the U.N. Information Center and U.N.I.C.E.F. in New Delhi for their valuable assistance, and last, but not least to my publisher and editor, who has been a friend for more than half the span of years which this book covers. The views and conclusions expressed in the book are attributable only to me. M.O.O. New Delhi, July 1992 Contents Preface 9 Foreword 11 CHAPTER I Towards Self-Rule 13 CHAPTER II Preparations for Independence 24 CHAPTER III The Constituent Assembly 34 CHAPTER IV The Historic Day 51 CHAPTER V The Legacies We Inherited 65 CHAPTER VI In London: My First 80 Diplomatic Assignment CHAPTER VII President Shermarke is 91 Dead... CHAPTER VIII At the Protocol Department 111 CHAPTER IX In Tehran 134 CHAPTER X The Growing Rift between 144 Somalia and its Socialist Allies CHAPTER XI The Gap between Saying and 151 Doing CHAPTER XII In Khartoum 170 CHAPTER XIII In Belgrade 194 CHAPTER XIV The Deepening Crisis 199 CHAPTER XV The Manifesto 210 CHAPTER XVI The End of a Dream 216 Postscript 218 Index 223 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Mogadishu: the Government building on the right of 15 the minaret, and Umberto di Savoia Arch just visible. 2. Abdullahi Issa Mohamud: Prime Minister during the 28 UN Trusteeship 1956-60. 3. National Assembly building. 35 4. Aden Abdulle Osman: First President of the Republic, 53 1960-67. 5. Abdirashid Ali Shermarke: Prime Minister 1960-64, and President 1967-69. 6. Abdirazak Haji Hussein: Prime Minister 1964-67. 7. Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal: Prime Minister 1967-69. 8. The Author as Diplomat in London. 81 9. Major General Mohamed Siad Barre: after staging the 93 coup in 1969. 10. First Charter of the Revolution. 94 11. Second Charter of the Revolution. 97 12. The Supreme Revolutionary Council Members and 98 Civilian Members of the Government, during the early period. 13. Life-size paintings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Siad: 117 ‘Architects of Socialism’. 14. Third Charter of the Revolution. 154 15. The way ‘Revolution Day’ was celebrated: tight 159 security. 16. Party Members saying “Yes”. 160 17. Insignia of the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party. 169 18. The Author with Tennis Trophy. 192 Preface Recent developments in Somalia have been a source of anxiety and pain to all Somalis, wherever they may be. Our future is uncertain and bleak. As an independent nation we have collectively failed to establish a political system which could have guaranteed the fundamental right to existence. We have miserably failed to fulfil the basic needs of our people. Perhaps, we devoted too much of our attention and resources to overcoming the disabilities, problems and disputes which we inherited from our colonial masters and which, naturally, led us to involvement in external struggle, giving us no time to consolidate the gains of our national freedom by creating and development the institutions without which no nation in modern times can survive. The civil war which is now raging in the country should open our eyes. If we are to learn anything from this event— which has been appropriately described as “a human disaster of the first magnitude”—it must be that we sink our differences and start afresh. If necessary, we should not shy away from accepting advice and the good offices of the United Nations, the O.A.U. (Organization of African Unity), the Arab League, and friendly countries, to put an end to the genocidal conflict which we have been waging upon ourselves. The world is aghast at the macabre dance being played out in Somalia. Our friends are worried about our continued ability to survive as a nation. But we still seem to be oblivious to the threat. Somalia was one of the countries that emerged during the sixties as independent states in Africa. Unlike other countries of Africa, Somalia has the distinction of being a homogeneous society. Somalis are Muslims and speak the Somali language. It should have been easier for us to consolidate our hard-won freedom had our leaders been a little more sincere and mature and a little less power hungry 10 THE ROAD TO ZERO—Somalia’s Self-destruction and selfish. In the following pages I have made a modest attempt to narrate the story of our country as it has evolved during the preceding four decades. A large part of my narration is based on my personal observations during the years in which I have, in one capacity or the other, been employed in the service of my country. May Allah help us to resolve our problems and guide us to reconstruct our nation. Foreword Both the author and publisher of this book are friends from the pre-Siyadism ultra-liberal times of the Mogadishu of the mid-sixties. The three of us belonged to the extravagantly free budding media of Somalia. Mohamed Osman and Anita Suleiman were crucial officers of SONNA, Somalia’s state- owned news agency, and key members respectively of Il Corriere della Somalia and the Somali News, the Government’s Italian and English newspapers. I was the owner-editor of the leading anti-Government periodical of the time, the English language Dalka. It is consequently a special pleasure for me to congratulate both the author and publisher of The Road to Zero. It is not easy to classify this fine work as a ‘modern history of Somalia’ or an ‘autobiography’ or a ‘travelogue’. It is much more than ‘Reminiscences of a Somali Diplomat’— and not merely because it goes substantially beyond the author’s diplomatic assignments. There is first the fact that not many of the Somali diplomats of the era of Siyadism would have the literary ability, or even the literacy, to write such a book. Still fewer would have shown, in recording their experiences, the captivating scruples and honesty mani- fested by the author throughout this work. My lauding of the author’s scruples and honesty does not mean that I find accurate, or even adequate, all the author’s presentations and comments on the events of our recent past. For instance, the author gives the impression that former President Siyad Barre’s atrocious State terrorism— founded on the unprecedented use of blatant tribalism while denouncing it with equally unprecedented force—was embarked on only after the 1977 war wit Ethiopia. In fact, I myself was among the first 13 victims of Siyadism— specifically selected on tribal criteria and in order to terrorize the people, subjected to dawn arrests for detention at secret locations, indefinitely. That was on 22 April 1970, or exactly six months after the assumption of power by Siyad Barre. Political executions, with or without show trials, were resorted to shortly thereafter.