the biggest kick in da mouth

Silanyo We are the Mujahidiin of the Horn of Africa
We are the Mujahidiin of the Horn of Africa
Somali Rebel Chief Silanyo on SNM Aims
Nairobi DAILY NATION in English 23Nov 1989 p 6
Michel Sailham’s article on SNM: “Tactically Strong, Somali Rebels Lack Clear Politics”
[Text] Rebels fighting to bring down President Mohamed Said Barre's regime have made spectacular military gains, but seem short on practical ideas of what they would do if they won the battle.
“The Mogadishu Government is of a brutality that has no parallel in the rest of the world”, SNM [Somali National Movement] President Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo told an AFP reporter at its headquarters south of the northern capital, Hargeisa.
“Barre has no parallel. We want an egalitarian system, a democratic form of government, free elections and a multiparty system,” Silanyo said, setting out the aims of the Somali National Movement, which was founded in London in 1981.
He accused troops loyal to Major-General Barre, who has held power for two decades, of killing and wounding more than 50,000 people in northern Somalia in the past 18 months, mainly in heavy bombing raids against civilians. Many victims are Issaqs, who consider themselves ignored by Mogadishu.
In May, the SNM launched a major offensive against main towns in the north. Though swiftly forced to pull out, it took control of vast tracts of territory east of the border with Djibouti and of several smaller towns, including Zeila and Loya’adde.
Four SNM divisions surround Hargeisa, a correspondent traveling through the region was told as he looked down on the abandoned town from the highlands with the rebel Commander-in-Charge. But Colonel Mohamed Ali Omar, a deserter, would not say how exactly many rebels fighters he led.
The SNM pulled out of Hargeisa for “tactical reason” in August, but sends reconnaissance teams in at night. Government troops hold a nearby barracks and airport. The 800,000 inhabitants have fled.
The rebels want full control over roads from Hargeisa to Borama in the west and the northeastern Port of Berbera, but government troops have mined access to the roads and shot at the SNM patrol taking in this reporter and a photographer early one morning.
Well-equipped, heavily armed, most of the fighters questioned by AFP were unable to give a clear account of the rebel movement's goals, notwithstanding the policies sketched by Silanyo.
“People are fighting, but they don't know why,” one SNM intellectual said of the war that has pitted Sunni Muslims of the same faith and the same language against each other. “All these ideas of democracy are on paper; it is not put into practice.”
As moderate Muslims, SNM militants reject any form of fundamentalism and often forget their daily duties of prayer. “First we fight, then we'll see,” said one, Ibrahim Ahmed Musa.
Most often, the rebels compared themselves with the Muslim guerrillas fighting the Communist government in Afghanistan. “We are the Mujahidiin of the Horn of Africa,” as one put it. “Barre always regarded Issaqs as a threat,” said Silanyo. “The North has a lot of grievances, underdevelopment, and repression. We are at the receiving end.”
The intellectual, who asked not to be named, believes the political vacuum stems from the fact that “no leader has emerged so far from the fighting”.
“We believe we can win the war,” he added, “but there will still be a long way to go in terms of politics.”
Silanyo, who was a minister under major-General Barre until 1982, is not a fighter and his authority has been contested several times. The Movement's Central Committee of 47 only includes seven soldiers; all colonels who deserted form the regular army and no guerrilla leaders.
There are also only seven Issaqs on the Central Committee, though most of the Movement's thousands of combatants are drawn from the Northern clan. Last year, the SNM reached an accord with the neighbouring Issa people, on the fight against Central Authority.
But most of the high-ranking officers who have defected to the rebels come, like much of the Somali army itself, from the Ogaden clan. Internationally, the Movement could well find itself short of heavyweight allies.
The Soviet Union has in the past backed the regime in Mogadishu, which began as a revolutionary government but has over the years turned into what almost resembles a Barre family concern.
The Major-General switched to Washington at the beginning of the Ogaden war against Moscow's Ethiopian allies in 1977.
The United States has recently closely tied its backing for the government to an improvement in its widely criticized human rights records, but it is clear that the political future of the SNM rebels will largely depend on its ability to extend its support among the patchwork of clans in Somalia.