A glimpse of history, Biadoa the city of death

[Emperor]

I have come across a long but informative article which I need to share with you. This is to remember a very tragic incident that happened in Biadio(widely known as the city of death) in which approximately half a million Muslim and Somali lives perished, the perperators of these cruel and inhumane crimes still continue their work they change names, colours and come in different forms, the former SNF and USC-SNA militia now turned into Jubba Valley Alliance or the so called "Walaalaha Galgaduud" have made Somalia into what it is today, we live and Somalia suffers today because of the consequence of these innocent blood. If one gives a close look at the events of Somalia, surely and constructively without any bias one can deduce that it's the combination and the work effort of the two groups previously mentioned, especially as the case with the city of Biadoa and the sarounding regions and cities in which Somalia's most tragic storeis occured. Armed militia's fighting against one another was one thing but ethnic cleansing and genocidal acts against innocent civilians was the behaviour of this groups, with the events and the massacres of cities like Mogadishu, Galkayo, Kismayo and Baidoa and many more in the 90's, its all documented and the stories published fully available on the public domain.

 

This is one of the reports, the author Mahmed Haji Mukhtar:

 

In January 1991, Mogadishu was captured by USC, and Barre’s regime collapsed. However, this was not quite the end of this story. Barre’s forces maintained strongholds in the inter-riverine regions of the country for almost a year,

during which they pursued a scorched earth policy, destroying the infrastructure and bringing agricultural production to a standstill. Because the Reewin were excluded from high ranks in the Somali army, the SDM, had no access to arms and lacked sufficient means to protect their people.

It is estimated that nearly 500,000 people died in the man-made famine that followed. After Barre’s army was forced out of the country in mid-1992, Aideed militia looted Baidoa once again, taking everything the dictator’s soldier’s had left behind. One relief official in Baidoa in 1992 said of the starving Somalis: ‘These people look like they are from Auschwitz’.

The monthly death rate in August in Baidoa was 3,224; that is 104 a day. In September, the figure rose to 5,979 people a month, or nearly 200 a day. The looting and rampage increased when the US Marines landed in Mogadishu, and the fleeing bandits went on a last minute rampage in Baidoa.

[Emperor]

Famine in Baidoa was neither the result of natural or environmental causes, nor the result of the civil war. Baidoa is the richest city in the country and the capital of the most productive agricultural region, and did not experience the level of conflict that was the fate of Mogadishu, Belet Weyn and Kismayu. How then could Reewin suffering be explained, when they had no part in the power struggle? Some have argued that Baidoa was hit by famine due to its inland location which made relief deliveries difficult.

[Emperor]

Video clip, Somalia as the faces of starving, Raqiya Omar makes good point and Prof IM lewis..

 

[Garyaqaan2]

Inaa ilaahi wa inaa ileeyhi raajicuun. excllent topic sxb we have to devently remembar the troble history that happen. We can not hide history. every one knows who was behind that act.

 

Gardaradii lagula kacay Reer beydhabo inkaarteeda maanta ayeey heesataa dadkii ka danbeeyay. dad rayid ah aan waxba galabsan oo layska laayay naagahoodiina la kufsaday :mad:

 

Afweene alaha unaxariistee isaga iyo dadkiisa waa loo heestaa waxeey u geeysteen reer baydhabo.

[Emperor]

^Indeed Sxb, time to reflect history. The looters inc. have contributed nothing more than pain, isbaaro, occupy other poeple land and also extereme cases of rape, umimaginable large scale murder never happened in Somali history...

 

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AllAfrica.com

 

Somalia: Somalia's Silent Sufferers

 

 

 

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Africa News Service (Durham)

 

OPINION

3 January 1993

Posted to the web 8 January 2001

 

Abdi Mohamed Kusow

 

 

The Digil and the ********* Somali clans comprise roughly 30% to 35% of the Somali population and are two of the six major clan families. These two groups are socio-culturally and linguistically different from the other four groups. Their mode of production revolves around agro-pastoralism, a mixture of nomadism and dry-land farming. Geographically, they occupy the land south of the Shabeelle River. They speak the May language, a version of Somali that is as different from the Maxatire spoken in the rest of the country as Portuguese is from Spanish. Economically, their area represents the breadbasket of Somalia and once had the highest rural per capita income in the country.

 

Despite these strengths, the Digil and the ********* have been politically and culturally subordinated over the past 30 to 40 years, and their language has been suppressed. Although the international community has been given the impression that Somalia is virtually homogeneous, the truth of the matter is that the ********* and the Digil are socio-culturally as well as linguistically distinct.

 

 

Because the majority of the ********* speakers live in rural areas, they cannot speak the so-called standard language of Somalia. In fact, when a government official from the north goes to the south for an official visit, he or she must acquire a translator. This difficulty was demonstrated in 1992, at a Somali conference in Ottawa, when a ********* speaker posed a question to a leading Somali historian in the ********* dialect. The scholar had no choice but to seek a translator. Unfortunately, this historian and other students of Somali studies still insist in their writings on the existence of one language intelligible throughout the country.

 

Furthermore, the United States government has recently recruited several hundred native Somali speakers as translators to go to Somalia mainly in the land between the Jubba and Shabeelle rivers. The irony is that these translators will need translators themselves, since the majority of them do not speak the May language, spoken in that region. The danger is that they will give their own interpretation of the ********* tragedy, which will further impose the control of other clans in the region.

 

Politically, the Digil and the ********* have suffered discrimination for two primary reasons. First, they occupy the richest and the most fertile areas of the country and have been the most productive sections of the population. Second, along with the most southerly ****** clans, they have been the fastest growing group of the Somali population. These two realities have made other Somalis, especially northerners, leery of the ********* since the 1930s.

 

During Somalia's first municipal elections in 1954, prior to independence, there were 20 parties competing for 281 seats. The party now known as the Somali Democratic Movement (SDM), which represents the ********* clan, won 57 seats, coming in second to the Somali Youth League (SYL), a *****-based party. But the first SYL-led cabinet completely ignored the Digil and ********* population. The prime minister formed a cabinet consisting of three ******, two ***** and one *** minister. Until the 1969 military coup, the predecessor of the SDM was the most significant opposition party in the country, leading to political reprisals against the ********* clan family.

 

From 1969 to 1990, the Siad Barre regime further subordinated the groups living in the river valleys. In 1990, Barre's troops fleeing from Mogadishu destroyed all the southern cities including the regional capital, Baidoa. They also indiscriminately wiped out rural villages, confiscating property and killing young men between the ages of 15 and 30.

 

Later, the Aidid militia completed the destruction to a point where the people could no longer sustain themselves. As late as September 1992, an average of 200 persons were dying per day in Baidoa alone.

 

That Somalia's human tragedy has been concentrated in Baidoa (the regional capital of the ********* clan family) should not be seen as a coincidence or accident, but as the result of long-standing social and cultural subordination and widespread discrimination. The Digil and ********* clan families are experiencing one of the world's largest unreported "ethnic cleansings." More than 70% of the famine victims are from the ********* clan.

 

Due to the recent U.S. military intervention, the number of famine victims is starting to slow down. But that is not enough.

 

The gangs and the looters who have held the people in the region hostage over the last two years are still around. Those in the land between the rivers do not have any guns to defend themselves. If the mission of the U.S. troops is to help the starving, then they must remove the gangs and the warring factions from the area. Moreover, if the United States wants to understand the situation of the Digil and the *********, it must acquire translators from that region who can speak the May language and can understand the people.

 

Finally, unless the United States and the United Nations provide special protection for the farming population, they will again be subjected to deliberate annihilation once the U.S. military leaves and the gangs return with their guns.

 

Abdi Mohamed Kusow, who comes from the area between the Shabeelle and Jubba rivers in Somalia, teaches social science at Lansing Community College, Lansing, MI.

 

Relevant Links

 

East Africa

Somalia

 

 

 

From AFRICA NEWS, December 21, 1992-January 3, 1993

[Emperor]

The bolded part of this report says and I qoute,

 

From 1969 to 1990, the Siad Barre regime further subordinated the groups living in the river valleys. In 1990, Barre's troops fleeing from Mogadishu destroyed all the southern cities including the regional capital, Baidoa. They also indiscriminately wiped out rural villages, confiscating property and killing young men between the ages of 15 and 30.

 

Later, the Aidid militia completed the destruction to a point where the people could no longer sustain themselves. As late as September 1992, an average of 200 persons were dying per day in Baidoa alone.

200 people were dying a day on average, at some point this rate of death was much higher, and amidst all this disaster the two militia's were enjoying controlling the city and all of the sarouding regions at the expense of the locals, they have had guns, food, money as they looted the whole regions and once became the richest groups in Somalia, bal wixi ladhacay oo intaas maskiin loo baabi'iyay aaway hada, hal maalin ayaa lagu qayilin Xaaraanti faqri unbay kasiiqaadeen... Xasuuqi intaas ahaa iyo danbiyadii kale oo dad gabdhahiisa lakufsanaayay la iska kaxaysanaaya xooga bilaa guur, wax hadlay ama iswaydiiyay majiraan, waligay xasuuq sidan oo kale kama dhicin

[Emperor]

In pictures, heroes of Photography:

 

 

[Emperor]

What have this young khabardaar kids done to deserve this man made hunger and extinction. What, what ooh what? Hard to believe...

[Emperor]

More pictures

 

 

[Emperor]

Xasuuqii Baydhabo

 

[Emperor]

Human Rights Development reports:

 

In March and April, the fighting in Mogadishu began to subside somewhat, although chronic insecurity remained. The lull followed the failure of a major attempt by the Aidid forces to overrun the Mahdi enclave at the end of February. It also coincided with the threat of a renewed offensive by the forces of the former dictator Siad Barre, the Somali National Front (snf), composed mainly of Siad Barre's ******* clan. General Aidid patched together a coalition of forces to confront the snf, and succeeded in drivingit into Kenya in April and May. Aidid also defeated forces belonging to the Somali Patriotic Movement (snm), consisting mainly of the ****** clan, and captured the southern port of Kismayo. The military campaign saw widespread abuses against civilians, including the selective killing of scores, possibly hundreds, of ******* in the towns of Belet Hawa and Luuq.

The ********* towns of Baidoa and Baardheere became the sites of some of the most appalling famine camps seen in Africa.

Death rates reached extraordinary levels, and starvation was common

. By the end of November, death rates were reportedly dropping in Baidoa but had risen sharply again in Baardheere, due to a new outbreak of fighting.

Source

[Emperor]

 

 

[Kashafa]

A few questions for the poster of this thread:

 

a) What dawlad-isku sheeg has fully incorporated the USC remenants and the JVA alliance in it's ranks, together with the Ethiopian tanks and armour ? (Hint: acronym = TFG)

 

b) Is it not than rank stankin' hypocrisy and disgusting political oppurtunism for one to profess support for the same entity that supports, protects, and rewards the architects and leaders of the ethnic cleansing, in Baidoa, and else where in Somalia.

 

c) What do you call someone who conveniently 'forgets' the massacres and genocide committed by men he worships because of clan ties, yet trumpets the massacres of 'the enemy', yet incredibly, turns around and defends and protects 'the enemy' because now, they're on 'our side' ? I have yet to come across a word to describe such a person in the Arabic, English, and Somali languages

[Som@li]

what happened in Somalia in those days is indescribable , but again we have to record it for the next generation of Somalis, and the world to see, and learn from it. How can people became so crual,and savages, I dont understand.It was one the worse genocides of the 20th century.

[Gabbal]

In January 1991, Mogadishu was captured by USC, and Barre’s regime collapsed. However, this was not quite the end of this story. Barre’s forces maintained strongholds in the inter-riverine regions of the country for almost a year,

during which they pursued a scorched earth policy, destroying the infrastructure and bringing agricultural production to a standstill. Because the Reewin were excluded from high ranks in the Somali army, the SDM, had no access to arms and lacked sufficient means to protect their people.

There is some truth to this as well as somethings that were left out. "Barre's forces" or the SNF passed by Baydhabo and the Bay area twice on their way to Gedo.

 

The first instance was when they fled Mogadishu with their families and livelihoods towards Gedo. They were not part of a military campaign this first, but were simply fleeing as civilians. The people of Bay and Baydhabo acted incredibly inhumane practicing such thing as dumping people in containers of hot oil, torturing, cutting limps, and many other indescribable things. I know this as two of my family members were caught by them and forced to die an agonizing death.

 

The second instance was the regrouping in Gedo and marching back all the way to Afgooye. None had thought of the SPM of being a mole, but because they were, the SNF was defeated and was forced to retreat back to Gedo (this is where the USC would take over Gedo briefly before being ousted by Barre Hiiraale). In their retreat, this is where the SNF made sure the people of Bay did not act with them as they had acted the first time. It was a time of great sadness, anger, and frustration for all Somalis and particularly some groups. Even the crops of those groups were burned but they did not necessarily starve because their crops were burned, as Somalia has always been accustomed to drought. Aydiid had a lot to do with the starvation because he also prevented the international community from transporting food to them when he used the food as political tool.

 

None of the things in the civil war were right including dumping fleeing people in containers of hot oil or burning their crops but in any case, present the complete story or don't present the story at all.