Somaliland: President Acknowledges Youth Heroism, Hosts Surviving UFO Members

[Deeq A.]

By M.A. Egge
The President H.E. Musa Bihi Abdi said that despite the fact that many of the people who are officials in the government and intellectuals are privy to the country’s history of the past three decades most of the populace ere not well informed about it, especially the youth.

The Head of the State thus proposed the indispensability of the fact that the members of the public ought to be informed about the happenings of the revolution that brought about the rebellion that had various aspects of monumental incidences with impacts in the history of the of the struggle for the re-assertion of the independence and nationhood of Somaliland.
The President gave the sentiments when he met the surviving members of the revolutionary youth organization, UFO, in a special luncheon he treated them to their honour on Friday .
UFO happened to be a vibrant organization of the youth who were mostly intellectuals who took to their initiation to rehabilitate state institutions that the then Barre administration overlooked and by thus bore the brunt of the police-state’s wrath and were jailed or sentenced to death.
A major monumental happening in the wake of UFO uprising brought about the famous pelting incident on the 20th of February 1982; an incident which had the students fraternity and youth amongst Hargeisa population throw stones to the authority of the day exuding their defiance of the totalitarian state and demanded the release of the detained UFO members.

By thus, Dagax-tuur which loosely translated means stone-throwing or pelting with stones was dubbed the incident which has since engraved itself into the country’s history hence ultimately became the official National Youth Day thereafter.
The President’s sentiments had it that such a day and many others in the eventual armed uprising that changed the country’s history were issues that the majority of t he members of the public had no details of, if at all, or were not aware of, all together.
The then youth who were members of UFO took a historical get-together picture with the Head of State.
“The gentlemen assembled here today have converged from far and different places,” said the President.
“90% of them were either incarcerated with life-long sentences or committed to death row hence they at least spent five to six years in seclusion cells”, added the President.
The President who is himself a SNM war veteran and leader noted factually that the photograph was a dear treasure.
“The photograph will be a sentimental national treasure which will be something to be cherished by those amongst us who were in the struggle but were not incarcerated”, he said.

He told the UFO survivors that the nation acknowledged their heroism and as to such their history should be engraved formally in the country’s journals.
“40 years later we still haven’t taught the populace of such realities all this while”, lamented the President.
He said that it was quite malicious and ironical that when UFO or one of its individuals was mentioned people had surprisingly no grasp of the history hence just wondered.
The President thanked them profusely hence reiterated their standard of heroism and acknowledgement of their place in the country’s history.
A speaker amongst the UFO survivors, Dr. Mohamed Sh. Hassan thanked the President for treating them to the special luncheon at his residence.
His compatriot Abdi Ismail Yoonis (Duse) highlighted the imperativeness of unity in achieving development.
The UFO survivors generally pledged to support the nation in whatever way it may be deemed hence thanked those who rose up to the occasion and pelted stones in solidarity supporting the then youth who were being taken to court on February 20th 1982.
They had been arrested several months earlier and convicted on the 23rd of February 1982 on trumped up treason charges.