Used then Disposed: A case study of first Xabash stooge

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Cumar Xaaji Masalle.

 

Any person who followed the ugly qabyaalad-prone Soomaali politics the last decade and half upon hearing that name above has had its synonymous -- Xabash's very first stooge who infamously brought Xabash people into sacred soil of Soomaaliya in mid '90s for a short-lived political gain.

 

Not the usual of getting arms and fighting himself. No. Like today, he led them into bushes of Luuq and Buuloxaawo, halhalna wadaadadii loo laaye.

 

He was then briefly used, discarded as a diaper and humiliatedly when dantii laga lahaa laga dhameystay.

 

Why was he discarded? He realized his mistakes and came to his senses advocating peace with his walaalaha Soomaaliyeed.

 

Will, however, the infamous Stooges of Xabashada today ku waano qaadan doonaan casharkaan kulul?

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NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) [Agoosto 1996] - Aid workers said Ethiopian helicopter gunships and heavy guns bombarded a town in western Somalia Friday after forces seized two other towns nearer the Ethiopian border.

 

The Somali al-Ittihad (Union), a fundamentalist group, said Ethiopia invaded western Somalia with troops and helicopter gunships, seizing at least two towns and killing more than 100 people. An Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman in Addis Ababa declined to comment on the reports of an Ethiopian incursion.

 

The Nairobi-based African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) said four of its staff were evacuated by air to Kenya from the western Somali town of Lugh after it was attacked. One of the evacuees, Ugandan doctor Francis Kizito, told the British Broadcasting Corporation he saw three helicopter gunships approaching Lugh and firing "indiscriminately" on militia installations.

 

"They came from the north which is Ethiopia...They aimed at army organisations of the Islamic organisation which governs Lugh," said Kizito, adding there were definitely casualties as firing from the gunships was heavy.

 

[sNIP]

 

Thousands of Somali families were fleeing because of the Ethiopian attack, backed by Somali fighters of the Somali National Front led by Omar Haji Masalle.

 

In a statement released in Nairobi, al-Ittihad said: "This barbaric aggression against the Islamic Ittihad is planned by General Haji Masalle and the Ethiopian government with the help of international imperialists."

 

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MOGADISHU (June 3) [Juun 1999] The latest reports from Gedo Region, in southwestern Somalia, indicate that the people in Bulo Hawo Town are fleeing their hometown after the Ethiopian forces have started a major looting operation against the well- off people in the town.

 

The Somali National Front spokesman (SNF), Ibrahim Jama Howleh, has accused what he called the Ethiopian occupation forces for ransacking the

major food stores of the town.

 

Speaking to reporters here in Mogadishu Thursday, Howleh said the Ethiopians have taken away four field radios and over 500 quintals of sugar and others food items from three food stores in the town Wednesday.

 

The SNF spokesman did not speak about killing or torturing of civilians by the Ethiopians, but he has called the international community to put pressure on the Ethiopian government to withdraw its forces from Somalia.

 

The spokesman asked the UN, OAU, other regional and international organizations to help stop what he called the Ethiopian aggression and intervention in Somalia.

 

Independent sources from the town of Bulo Hawo, however, confirmed that the Ethiopian forces stationed in the town have launched a looting operation against three major food stores.

 

[sNIP]

 

There is no apparent reason why the Ethiopians have begun the looting, but sources close to the area said the Ethiopians have suspected those businessmen of supporting General Omar Hmar Hajji Masalleh, chairman of the SNF.

 

The Ethiopian forces had used to support General Masalleh during their pursuing of the Al-Itihad fundamentalist group in 1996 and 1997, but General Masalleh and Ethiopia have fallen apart after the General had signed the Cairo peace deal opposed by Ethiopia together with the Somali factions in late 1997. And since then, the Ethiopians have supported late Ali Nur, General Masalleh's political rival who was killed in a bloody ambush at the Somali-Kenyan border on April 8 this year.

[Gabbal]

What a horrid timespan that was for that good region between 1996-2000. It was even the time Morgan turned against the people who helped put him in Kismaayo by taking advantage of the preoccupation with Ethiopia. I pray Somalia does not descend to what that region descended to during that time!

 

It is worthy to mention that Gen Massale immediately loss face with his constituency over the Ethiopian issue. His latter day turn around was to salvage whatever was left of the respect he had in Gedo but by that time it was too late. Not only did reer Gedo abandon him but Ethiopia marked him too!