Siad Barre

Siad Barre

Mohamed Siad Barre ( Somali Maxamed Siyaad Barre , * according to his own information October 6, 1919 in Garbahaarrey , Somalia , according to other information 1910 in Shilabo , Ogaden , Ethiopia ; † January 2, 1995 in Lagos , Nigeria ) was a Somali officer and from 1969 until 1991 the dictatorial president of Somalia.

Having come to power after a military coup , he led his country in the 1970s according to the principles of " scientific socialism " and carried out various reforms, some of which were popular. In 1977/1978 he waged the Ogaden War against Ethiopia, which Somalia lost, and in the course of it switched from the Soviet Union to that of the USA , since the Soviet Union supported Ethiopia. In the 1980s, his government became more corrupt, unpopular and repressive and increasingly fought by various guerrilla movements until Barre was overthrown in 1991. His fall also marked the escalation of the civil war in Somalia , as the various anti-Barre movements could not agree on a successor government. Barre spent his last years in Kenya and Nigeria.

He himself preferred to be called Jaalle Siyaad ("Comrade Siad"). Another name was Afweyne (" loud mouth"), a nickname given to him by other shepherd boys in his youth.

Life

Origin and career

Siad Barre's date and place of birth are not known beyond doubt. It is undisputed that he was born as a member of the South Somali clan of the Marehan- Darod and that his mother belonged to the Ogadeni-Darod. Siad Barre himself stated that he was born in Garbahaarrey in the Gedo region in southern Somalia in 1919 . According to other information, however, he was born in 1910 in Shilabo in the province of Hararge in Ogaden , Ethiopia , later traveled to Luuq and Mogadishu for training in what was then Italian Somaliland and gave Garbahaarrey within Italian Somaliland as the place of birth to join the Corpo Zaptie der Polizia Africana Italiana .

After Great Britain had occupied Italian Somaliland from Kenya in the course of the Second World War , Barre completed an apprenticeship with the King's African Rifles in Kabetti, Kenya . Within the British Colonial Police , he rose to the highest rank possible for a Somali native. After the Italians returned as a trustee , he went to the Scuola Allievi ufficiali Carabinieri in Italy for two years , after which he attended courses in politics and administration in Mogadishu. He was the first Somali to become a police officer . He later joined the Somali National Army, founded in April 1960 .

Seizure of power

Somalia was a democratic state from independence in 1960 to 1969, but the high level of corruption and nepotism caused displeasure among parts of the population. After President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke was assassinated on October 15, 1969, Siad Barre led a group of 20 army officers and five police officers who took power on October 21 . Several politicians were arrested, the national assembly ( parliament ) closed, the Supreme Court abolished, the constitution suspended, political parties banned and the country renamed the Somali Democratic Republic . On November 1, the putschists formed the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC).

Presidency

Major General Siad Barre soon became head of state and chairman of the SRC, its Politburo, the Cabinet and the Defense, Security and Justice Committees. In the first year of his presidency, he had various potential rivals and opponents, including members of the SRC, arrested or executed. He declared "scientific socialism" to be a state ideology and brought the few "modern" areas of Somalia's economy under state control. This affected banks, insurance companies, electricity production, oil refineries, the small industrial sector and sugar production, but not the banana plantations and the livestock industry as the most important branches of the economy. In these two areas the state brought trade and export under its control, but not production. Numerous laws increased the state's control over various areas of life.

1974–1975, with the support of the Soviet Union and other countries , the government successfully contained the consequences of a drought in north-eastern Somalia . Attempts to resettle drought-affected former nomads in more fertile areas in southern Somalia as farmers on state farms or in fishing cooperatives, however, have met with limited success.

Domestic and social policy

In terms of social policy, Barre sought to overcome traditional differences and discrimination based on clan structures , which he viewed as the Somali version of class differences. Mention of clans was sometimes enough to get arrested. However, this could not prevent the clan system from continuing to play an important role in everyday life.

Further socio-political reform measures concerned the situation of women. Thus a national women's organization was founded, within the framework of which women received “revolutionary instructions”. Their legal position with regard to marriage, divorce and inheritance law has been improved and the widespread female circumcision (infibulation) has been banned.

Poster depicting Barres in Mogadishu

The government's measures to promote education in Somalia were popular : in 1972 the standardization and writing of the Somali language, which had been politically required for decades, was implemented, and literacy campaigns were then started. According to official data, these reached a literacy rate of 60% by the mid-1970s (independent data estimated the success to be less).

At the same time, a pronounced personality cult was introduced around Siad Barre. "Orientation centers" were set up across the country, where much of public life would take place and enthusiasm for the revolution would be cultivated. Barre was stylized as the “father” of the Somali nation and, in part, a “new trinity ” of Marx , Lenin and Barre. Opponents of the regime were persecuted by the National Security Service (NSS) and torture was widespread in prisons.

Foreign Policy and the Ogaden War (1977–1978)

In terms of foreign policy, Siad Barre entered into a close relationship with the Soviet Union , which culminated in a friendship treaty in 1974. In the same year he led Somalia into the Arab League and was elected chairman of the Organization for African Unity . It is said that he held Nasser , Kim Il-sung , the leadership of the People's Republic of China , Ahmed Sékou Touré and Nicolae Ceauşescu in high regard.

In 1976, on the advice of the Soviet Union, Barre formally transferred power to the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party , creating a one-party system based on the Soviet model. He also pursued the goal of uniting all Somali in one Greater Somalia , which included territorial claims on parts of Ethiopia and Kenya. Somalia made massive armaments with Soviet help in order to be able to realize these ambitions. These were primarily aimed at the Somali- inhabited border region of Ogaden , which had belonged to Ethiopia since the end of the 19th century. There, Barre founded the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) in the mid-1970s , which started an armed uprising.

In 1977 he launched an open attack on the neighboring country because Ethiopia was weakened domestically after the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie . On the side of the WSLF, the Somali army took much of Ogaden. However, the tide soon turned when the Marxist military junta Derg under Mengistu Haile Mariam had consolidated its power in Ethiopia. The Soviet Union decided to support this new Ethiopian government. Barre then broke with the Soviet Union in November 1977 and turned to the United States. Since the USA did not support him to the same extent as the Soviet Union, on the other hand, strengthened the communist regime in Addis Ababa , the Ogaden War ended in 1978 with the defeat of Somalia.

Barre came into Germany's field of vision in the autumn of 1977 when he allowed the German special unit GSG9 to storm the hijacked Lufthansa plane Landshut that had landed in Mogadishu . This permission came as a surprise, as Barre was considered a staunch socialist and sympathizer of terrorist groups, such as certain radical groups inside and outside the PLO .

After the Ogaden War

The loss of the Ogades War is widely viewed as the turning point at which the situation within Somalia became more difficult, the Barre regime lost popularity, and became more corrupt and repressive. The war resulted in numerous deaths, high costs for Somalia and the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Ogaden, all of which contributed to a decline in the economy. The nationalist mood, which had peaked in the early months of the war, gave way to widespread disappointment. In domestic politics, various actors accused themselves above all of who was responsible for the loss of Ogaden. In 1978 officers from the Majerteen Darod clan attempted a coup for the first time. The government responded by deploying the Red Berets (Somali: Duub Cas ) special unit on the Majerteen and destroying water reservoirs in their area in Mudug . One of those involved in the coup attempt, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed , escaped to Ethiopia and in 1982 led an Ethiopia-backed military offensive of the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF) in the border regions of Mudug, Galguduud and Hiiraan .

After switching to the West, the Barre government received extensive military and development aid from the USA and other Western countries. Corruption and nepotism increased significantly during this time, while the economic situation deteriorated due to the consequences of the Ogaden War, persistently high military spending, drought and unsuccessful economic policy. Barre based his power more and more clearly on his own clan of the Marehan Darod, on his mother's Ogadeni Darod clan and on the Dolbohanta Darod, the so-called "MOD Alliance". In order to get the appearance of a participation of all clans, however, he included some members of other clans like the Isaaq and minorities like the Benadiri and Midgan in the state apparatus. Various politicians were arrested, then moved to ambassadorial posts abroad and then again elevated to high state offices (such as Mohammed Haji Ibrahim Egal ). Public trust in the state fell dramatically in the course of the 1980s.

In addition to the SSDF, other guerrilla movements against Barre, supported by individual clans, arose. In 1981, members of the Isaaq clan in Northern Somalia founded the Somali National Movement (SNM), which aimed to overthrow the regime. In 1988 the clashes between the SNM and the government army expanded into open war. The army responded with extensive retaliatory measures against the Isaaq, which culminated in the bombing of the cities of Burao and Hargeysa . The Hawiye clan in the south, although initially on the side of the government, was hit by repression; Exiled Hawiye formed the United Somali Congress (USC), which led a rebellion in 1989. Protest rallies and riots broke out in the capital Mogadishu, to which the state apparatus responded with massacres of demonstrators and civilians and arbitrary death sentences against critics of the regime. To secure his power, Siad Barre also used the divide-and-rule tactic by pitting clans against one another, namely the Hawiye against the Darod. While China, Libya, apartheid South Africa and Italy continued to support him, the US distanced itself from Barre as his regime’s human rights violations became widespread and more obvious and he lost his role as an ally after the end of the Cold War . Without US support, he came under even greater pressure from the various rebel movements, and ultimately he only controlled the capital Mogadishu, which was surrounded by USC rebels. This state of affairs earned him the mock designation "Mayor of Mogadishu".

Fall and escape from Somalia

On January 26, 1991, Barre was forced to leave Mogadishu. Heavy fighting soon broke out between USC leaders Aidid and Ali Mahdi Mohammed over his successor , which culminated in the ongoing Somali civil war . Members of the Darod clan living in Mogadishu were targeted for retaliation for being collectively viewed as supporters of Barre.

Barre himself went with parts of the state army to the territory of his clan in southern Somalia. On their way through the Shabelle and Jubba valleys , the army wreaked havoc and wreckage , contributing to the war-related famine . Barre continued to regard himself as the legitimate president of Somalia. He attempted a return to Mogadishu and temporarily advanced into the city of Baidoa in southwest Somalia . However, the USC pursued him, eventually penetrated into southwestern Somalia and finally ousted him from Somalia to Kenya .

There he was initially comfortably accommodated at state expense. Criticism in the Kenyan media led President Daniel arap Moi to turn to Nigeria's President Ibrahim Babangida , who agreed to accept him in Nigeria. Barre and several allies were then flown to Nigeria. On January 2, 1995, Barre died of a heart attack in Lagos .

Siad Barre was buried in Garbahaarrey. His son-in-law Mohamed Siad Hersi Morgan fought as a warlord in the civil war in the Kismayo area , but was also allied with a faction of the Puntland separatists.

Private life and family

Siad Barre was married to Khadija Maalin and Dalyad Haji Hashi . He was diabetic. In May 1986 he was injured in a car accident. Given his deteriorating health and dwindling power, he apparently wanted to make sure that power remained with his family. It is believed that he had intended his son Maslah Mohammed Siad Barre , an army general, to succeed him. Maslah ran for President of Somalia's interim government in early 2009 , but lost clearly to Sharif Sheikh Ahmed .

Remarks

1. ↑ Information in Libya: History and Revolution . Google books, p. 58
2. ^ Mohammed Haji Mukhtar : Historical Dictionary of Somalia (New Edition) , Scarecrow Press 2003, ISBN 978-0-8108-4344-8
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} The Independent: Obituary: Mohamed Siad Barre (on findarticles.com)
4. ↑ Besteman 1999, p. 143
5. ↑ Besteman 1999 (pp. 13-14)
6. ↑ Besteman 1999 (pp. 14-16)
7. ↑ Interview with Barre. In: Walter Michler: Somalia - a people dies. The Civil War and Foreign Failures . Dietz, Bonn 1993, ISBN 978-3-8012-3049-4 .
8. ^ New York Times: Somalia's Overthrown Dictator, Mohammed Siad Barre, Is Dead
9. ↑ The press : Islamist leader Ahmed new President of Somalia, January 31, 2009.

Web links

Commons : Siad Barre  - collection of images, videos and audio files