Historic Picture of Major General Maxamed Ainanshe Guleed

[Siciid85]

One of the biggest opponents of Siad barre in the 1969 Coup alongside Salaad Gabeyre(Abgaal) & Col.Abdulqadir Dheel who later all were executed unlawfully as siad bare saw them as a major threat to his early reign.




Major General Maxamed Ainanshe - Habar Yoonis - Reer Ainanshe




Major General Salad Gabayre - Abgaal





Col. Abdulqadir Dheel - Majerteen - Osman Maxamud

[Siciid85]

The man who testified against them - Abdalla Fadil was butchered by the USC when they captured and entered Mogadishu. Justice has been achieved for those men killed unlawfully.



Mogadishu Memoir (Part VIII): Crimes and Concoctions


"It was no secret that Fadil testified against Salad Gabayre in the kangaroo court the regime set up to convict the alleged coup organizers. When Barre’s regime fell in 1991, Abdalla Fadil was mercilessly butchered by Aidid militia in retaliation, among other things but not exclusively, for his early double-crossing of Salad Gabayre. The inclusion of General Ainanshe and Colonel Dheel were perhaps a pure political ploy by Siad Bare to get rid of his opponents once and for all."

[Somalistan]

The man who testified against them - Abdalla Fadil was butchered by the USC when they captured and entered Mogadishu. Justice has been achieved for those men killed unlawfully.

Good to see justice was served.

[Cumar-Labasuul]

Siciid why did you only post part of it, here's the rest:

Political Crimes

Mohamed S. Barre
The military government waged a campaign of fighting “tribalism” and made it a state crime. I remember government officials holding countless rallies and even burning effigies of what was termed ‘tribalism’. It was one of these rallies in our neighborhood that I heard an anecdote in which Brigadier General Hussein Kulmiye Afrah had asked one of the dignitaries sitting next to him about a local leader who rose and denounced tribalism as a pernicious disease that needed to be extricated from Somali society. “Kan yuu yahay (who is this guy [clan-wise]?”, Afrah had allegedly inquired.
In 1969, Siad Barre was not an absolute leader of the military government but he was a master manipulator who was well adept in consolidating power incrementally. In the first few months of the coup, Barre maneuvered in sending Major General Mohamed Ibrahim ‘Liiq-liiqato’ (Shiikhaal) and the second highest ranking officer in the armed forces to Germany, Colonel Abdullahi Farah Hoolif (Majertein) to Egypt as ambassadors respectively. Officers Mohamed Farah Aidid (Habar-Gidir) and Abdullahi Yusuf (Majertein) were each offered diplomatic posts abroad because they were not in tune with the new regime. When these two officers refused to be posted abroad, Barre jailed them for a total of six years which consequently led to Aidid suffering from a bout of nervous breakdown in Mandhera prison. Liiq-Liiqato, on the other hand, was seen by Barre as a threat because of his ranking status and older age in contrast to the younger members of the SRC. General Mohamed Abshir (Majertein), a retired Police Commissioner, was arrested along prominent civilian government officials and they were all sent to a presidential guest house in Afgoi which was made a make-shift detention center. Farah Gollalleey (Abgaal) a former parliamentarian and one of the detainees best known for his acerbic and biting assessments summarized that early period of the military government as the following’



Liiqliiqato Kulmiye Afrah
“Ama afkaaga hayso’
Ama Afweyne ammaan
Ama Afgoi aad”.
“You either keep your mouth shut,
Or flatter Afweyne [Barre]
or go to Afgoi”

After getting rid of some of the disgruntled officers outside the Supreme Revolutionary Council, Barre began conspiring against his own colleagues. Major General Ainanshe (Isaak) had opposed Barre on critical issues like who would be the head of the military government. Major General Salad Gabayre Kediye (Abgaal and the son-in-law of former President Adan Abdille Osman) was perhaps the most charismatic officer who had posed a clear threat to Siad Barre. Gabayre apparently wanted to be the head of the armed forces but Barre favored Mohamed Ali Samatar instead. It was said that Barre had secretly campaigned against Gabayre and wooed SRC members one by one. In a mock election within the 25-members of the SRC, Ainanshe and Samatar emerged as frontrunners and Gabayre lost. Then, in the run-off, Samatar defeated Ainanshe. To placate Gabayre, he was offered the position of Defense Minister. Gabayre became more sullen and embittered because he realized that his political fortunes were coming to wane. Incidentally, the 25-member SRC body had 10 Darod, 7 Hawiye, several Dir (1) Isaak (4), Isse (1) Gadabursi (1) officers; two minority officers, Samatar (Tumal) and Fadhil (Arab) and, to the dismay of 4.5 clan system proponents, no Digil and Mirefle representation. Those who knew Gabayre characterized him as an uncommonly leader and a brave man not known to cower or cringe, but his ambition, like Barre, took a quantum leap. In fact, in a speech given by General Mohamed Ali Samatar at Somali National University in late 1970s, he profusely praised the impeccable character of Salad Gabayre and his wide popularity among officers. Samatar also mentioned how close he and Gabayre were as the two had attended the same military academies abroad. In essence, Samatar admitted that the incarceration of Gabayare was a preventive measure on one hand as the latter was feared of toppling the regime. Interestingly, Samatar, in that lecture, gave a much abbreviated account of the roles of General Ainanshe and Colonel Abdulkhadir Dheel (Majertein). Ainanshe or “Odayga” (the old man).





Barre, perhaps, used Samatar and Abdallah Fadil, two good friends of Salad Gabayre to elicit nuggets of information about Salad Gabayre’s plans of staging a coup. It was no secret that Fadil testified against Salad Gabayre in the kangaroo court the regime set up to convict the alleged coup organizers. When Barre’s regime fell in 1991, Abdalla Fadil was mercilessly butchered by Aidid militia in retaliation, among other things but not exclusively, for his early double-crossing of Salad Gabayre. The inclusion of General Ainanshe and Colonel Dheel were perhaps a pure political ploy by Siad Bare to get rid of his opponents once and for all. Abdi Warsame Isaak (Dir) was a member of the SRC and, in an interview with VOA Somali service “Ifbixii & Dhicitaankii Kacaankii 21kii October 1969” on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the “revolution”, hinted that the inclusion of Ainanshe and Dheel in the coup plot was at best suspect. Ainanshe was a cautious individual not known for undertaking impetuous actions and Dheel had already left the army because he had falling with Siad Barre before the 1969 coup. Dheel was a man of sanguine temper and he had, according to my sources, physical confrontations with Barre during the civilian government. There was even an incident in which Dheel grabbed General Siad Barre by the neck in an official meeting and the two were separated. Dheel had ridiculed and insulted his superior, General Barre, for being “provincial” and “pedestrian”. In that same interesting VOA program, Osman Jeelle (Hawadle) and also former SRC member opined that the coup plot, perhaps, was blown out of proportion and the killing of these officers was unnecessary and “avoidable”. “Prison could have done the job better”, Said Osman.

At the risk of oversimplification, a long-time confidant of Siad Barre and former high-ranking government official who knew Barre since the colonial period told me that Siad had always misgivings about the Majertein and the Isaak; the Majertein for “their guile and treachery” and the Isaak for their “uppity” attitude. It is interesting to note here that Prime Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Egal tried to remove Siad Barre from his position as the head of the armed forces but that his efforts were thwarted by Darod leaders at the time. Mohamed Ali Samatar, in his lecture at the Somali University, mentioned that General Ainanshe placed an early call in the morning of October 21, 1969 to Egal to find out what the curfew was all about but that the latter was already under arrest. Whatever Siad Barre’s attitude toward the Majertein whom he ruthlessly targeted after the 1977 War and Isaak tribes had been, his genocidal campaign against the latter remains crime against humanity; from the massacre of Jezzira in which 47 innocent Isaak were shot point blank to the all-out war against the rebel group Somali National Movement (SNM) when the latter launched desperate military offenses and the regime responded with iron fist; thousands of civilians in the north were massively killed, maimed, and dislocated.
The Execution of a Father
The American journalist Philip Gourevitch chronicled the Rwandan massacre in his fascinating book, We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with our families: Stories from Rwanda (1999). The title of his book was a telegram presciently sent by a group of Tutsi individuals surrounded in a church. These terrified souls were well-aware of the painful fate awaiting for them as their extermination became imminent. Imagine being a ten year old Somali girl coming home from school and the kids in your neighborhood tell you that your father would be killed tomorrow at GEEDKA.


Colonel Abdulkadir Dheel
This is what happened to the daughter of Abdulkadir Dheel Abdulle. Ms. Dheel was evidently traumatized as she told me many years later, about that painful news. “I was very close to my father and loved him dearly,” she said. The children’s’ words proved prescient when the next day, on 7/3/1972, Siad Barre sent Gabayre, Ainanshe, and Dheel to the gallows. The government portrayed the ‘coup’ plotters as power-hungry sycophant bent on destroying the nascent regime. During the court proceedings, Salad Gabayre questioned why Ainanshe and Dheel were being lumped together with him because the two had nothing to do with his failed attempt to topple the Barre regime. Moreover, Gabayre and Dheel were rivals and that Dheel had indeed threatened the former to kill him due to personnel disputes in the army during the civilian government. It was Gabayre, with the blessing and the full knowledge of Siad Barre who dismissed Dheel from the armed forces in late 1969.
When Dheel was arrested in 1971 for the coup plot, he was a businessman operating a pharmacy. The killing of these officers ushered a new era in the country when political dissent became synonymous with self-destruction. When the Somali populace heard the song, “Danaystow dugagu waa daldalaad aan dacwa lahayn. Sama Diidow Dabin baa kuu Dhigan Lagugu Dili Doonoo” (You) opportunist, your demise is lynching without due process. You rejected peace and there is a noose waiting for you”, over the radio, it was an ominous sign that someone was arrested for a serious political breach and that the individual was inevitably making his way to the GEEDKA. I have never heard a song that filled many Somalis with terror and apprehension than this song. The military government not only killed the bread-winners of these families but it went after the women and the children in some cases. The effect was catastrophic for these families as some were reduced to abject poverty.


A Military Parade during Barre regime

After the Somali army was defeated in 1977/78 during the Ethiopian War, Siad Barre’s henchmen began a massive campaign of house searches in Mogadishu. Soldiers would come to houses and search for anti-government forces or weapons. The husband of my sister’s best friend, Hawo Haji Abdullahi Qore, was involved in an attempted coup staged by Majertein officers. Colonel Abshir Muse happened to be in Italy when the botched coup, led by Colonel Cirro, was prematurely staged. The government’s response was swift and heavy-handed. Several officers, including Colonel Cirro, were sent to the gallows. Abdullahi Yusuf escaped to Ethiopia. It was ironic that, several years later, Siad Barre was successful in luring a small number of these Majertein defectors, including Colonel Abshir Muse, back to Mogadishu. One of these officers was my relative, Said Ali Haji “Said Garaame” and an artillery specialist. I last saw him in one of my visits to Mogadishu in the 80s. Siad Barre had heard about an incident of heavy artillery firing by the rebel group, the Somali Salvation Democratic Force (SSDF) and asked who was directing them. “Said Garaame”, he was told. “I never heard that name,” Barre muttered. Of course, he could not have because Said Garaame was a young officer trained in then the Soviet Union. When Said Garaame became disenchanted with the SSDF, he decided to leave the group and return to Somalia, but he was already a wanted man. Garaame turned to a relative and a government official in order to intercede. Enter; Mohamed Hassan Barre “Shimbiralaaye” (Majertein), an intriguing fellow, and highly educated who had spent many years with the United Nation’s FAO as an agricultural specialist. Shimbiralaaye was later appointed as Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Planning, and Finance respectively. This seemingly quiet and low-key politician, perhaps, had secret mission for Siad Barre for a while; luring disgruntled Northeastern officers who had defected to SSDF back to Somalia. In return, Siad Barre, once these former rivals came back to Mogadishu, would pardon them and they would go back to their old jobs.


Mohamed Hassan Barre ‘Shimiralaaye’ (in the middle)

Siad Barre was targeting the ‘Osman Mohamoud’ officers because they had a great deal of respect and admiration for Shimbiralaaye; a self-made man not known for being an ideologue. At any rate, Shimbiralaaye was successful in being a go-between-guy between these Majertein officers and Siad Barre. Barre, who had waged a brutal campaign against the Majertein (‘Omar Mahamoud) clan in late 1970s was facing a new, and perhaps, a formidable clan in the Isaak and he could not have afforded fighting in two fronts.

When officer Said Ali Haji returned to Mogadishu, he was taken to Siad Barre by Shimbiralaaye. That was the first time Barre met the pesky young officer face to face. Barre, the consummate politician, was capable of charm and lectured the young officer about patriotism asking him to use his exceptional skills to defend motherland. “I know that you “Bah-Gareen” [a sub-clan of Osman Mohamoud] are not going to listen to me since you had disobeyed your own king long time ago,” Siad Barre ruefully added.

Which mandheera prison, is it the one in somaliland?

[Voltage]

You have to admire Aabe Siyaad, a leader with intelligence and cleverness unmatched. It was a coup, with hungry military officers all trying to back stab each other but he outwitted and outsmarted every single one of them. No wonder he ruled Somalia for 21 years, this was no luck it was battle of the fittest and he was the fittest

Gabayre apparently wanted to be the head of the armed forces but Barre favored Mohamed Ali Samatar instead. It was said that Barre had secretly campaigned against Gabayre and wooed SRC members one by one. In a mock election within the 25-members of the SRC, Ainanshe and Samatar emerged as frontrunners and Gabayre lost. Then, in the run-off, Samatar defeated Ainanshe.

[Cumar-Labasuul]

No, I much rather admire the young gabeyre's bravery to stand up for himself. Voltage wouldn't you say that was a cowards move to execute those men 'accused' of treason rather than to arrest them.

[Voltage]

No, I much rather admire the young gabeyre's bravery to stand up for himself. Voltage wouldn't you say that was a cowards move to execute those men 'accused' of treason rather than to arrest them.

You execute anyone that is khalkhal to the security and stability of the state. Siad Barre was the leader, the SRC supported him as can be seen through capitulating to his desires and anyone who wanted to upset the line of command warranted liquidation. No I admire Siad's tenacity and nationalism of stabilizing order instead of the treason attempted by renegades within the ruling apparatus.

Aydiid and Abdullahi Yusuf have taught us, it is better to liquidate while in control than risk the stability of the future.

[Siciid85]

Cumar-Labasuul. The one in somaliland.






Voltage. This proofs siad bare was a dictator even in the beginning his early reign ordered the execution of his political opponents and this was eventually the start of a cycle of hate and violence in Somalia started by your beloved "aabe "siad".


Siad Bare started the cycle of Hate & Violence that continues to haunt somalia even to this day and this is a testimony.

The killing of these officers ushered a new era in the country when political dissent became synonymous with self-destruction. When the Somali populace heard the song, “Danaystow dugagu waa daldalaad aan dacwa lahayn. Sama Diidow Dabin baa kuu Dhigan Lagugu Dili Doonoo” (You) opportunist, your demise is lynching without due process. You rejected peace and there is a noose waiting for you”, over the radio, it was an ominous sign that someone was arrested for a serious political breach and that the individual was inevitably making his way to the GEEDKA. I have never heard a song that filled many Somalis with terror and apprehension than this song. The military government not only killed the bread-winners of these families but it went after the women and the children in some cases. The effect was catastrophic for these families as some were reduced to abject poverty

At the risk of oversimplification, a long-time confidant of Siad Barre and former high-ranking government official who knew Barre since the colonial period told me that Siad had always misgivings about the Majertein and the Isaak; the Majertein for “their guile and treachery” and the Isaak for their “uppity” attitude. It is interesting to note here that Prime Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Egal tried to remove Siad Barre from his position as the head of the armed forces but that his efforts were thwarted by Darod leaders at the time. Mohamed Ali Samatar, in his lecture at the Somali University, mentioned that General Ainanshe placed an early call in the morning of October 21, 1969 to Egal to find out what the curfew was all about but that the latter was already under arrest. Whatever Siad Barre’s attitude toward the Majertein whom he ruthlessly targeted after the 1977 War and Isaak tribes had been, his genocidal campaign against the latter remains crime against humanity; from the massacre of Jezzira in which 47 innocent Isaak were shot point blank to the all-out war against the rebel group Somali National Movement (SNM) when the latter launched desperate military offenses and the regime responded with iron fist; thousands of civilians in the north were massively killed, maimed, and dislocated

[Voltage]

Siad Barre established order!

You are the opposition so of course, your propaganda will continue and my stance and support of the actions of the former government will continue as a patriot, a nationalist, and one who loves security and order.

[Siciid85]

So you think to establish order he had to execute those men? even Samatar says in his book it was wrong to execute those men jail would have been enough for them just like Abdulahi yusuf & Aided.

[Cumar-Labasuul]

It's obvious voltage that siad barre was targetting men who he suspected of being his main rivals in particular Dheel, who even physically fought with him. It's one thing to execute men accused of treason but it's a whole different thing to wrongfully kill innocent men; Dheel and Caynaanshe

The inclusion of General Ainanshe and Colonel Dheel were perhaps a pure political ploy by Siad Bare to get rid of his opponents once and for all. Abdi Warsame Isaak (Dir) was a member of the SRC and, in an interview with VOA Somali service “Ifbixii & Dhicitaankii Kacaankii 21kii October 1969” on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the “revolution”, hinted that the inclusion of Ainanshe and Dheel in the coup plot was at best suspect. Ainanshe was a cautious individual not known for undertaking impetuous actions and Dheel had already left the army because he had falling with Siad Barre before the 1969 coup. Dheel was a man of sanguine temper and he had, according to my sources, physical confrontations with Barre during the civilian government. There was even an incident in which Dheel grabbed General Siad Barre by the neck in an official meeting and the two were separated. Dheel had ridiculed and insulted his superior, General Barre, for being “provincial” and “pedestrian”. In that same interesting VOA program, Osman Jeelle (Hawadle) and also former SRC member opined that the coup plot, perhaps, was blown out of proportion and the killing of these officers was unnecessary and “avoidable”. “Prison could have done the job better”, Said Osman.

[The_Emperior5]

So you think to establish order he had to execute those men? even Samatar says in his book it was wrong to execute those men jail would have been enough for them just like Abdulahi yusuf & Aided.

Maxammad siyad bare feared caynaashe and the other generals they would overthrow him, thats why execution was the only option

[Voltage]

So you think to establish order he had to execute those men? even Samatar says in his book it was wrong to execute those men jail would have been enough for them. However the were more of a threat to siad bare then Abdulahi yusuf & Aided which he jailed aswell.

Who cares about what a simple professor of cultural studies in the US says. Actions then warranted execution. They were attempting a counter-coup. I hate all this revisionism. Gabayre was caught red-handed and they even tried to enlist my own father who as a very young man was starting out as an auditor of Xeradi Qoriloow, Somalia's biggest base at that time. They were trying to take some of the weapons and even divert some of the funds to the base from Ministry of Defense to their own coffers to fund their activities. They tried to enlist my own father man, but little did they know he was a Marehan/reer Diini man but by that time the SRC was on to them and later caught them red-handed.

[Voltage]

So you think to establish order he had to execute those men? even Samatar says in his book it was wrong to execute those men jail would have been enough for them just like Abdulahi yusuf & Aided.

Maxammad siyad bare feared caynaashe and the other generals they would overthrow him, thats why execution was the only option

The brief transitional period in the beginning was very unstable, everybody feared each other but Caynaanshe and Gabayre feared Siad more which is why they struck the first move when they started planning a counter-coup.

The execution was warranted.

[Siciid85]

Salaad Gabayre la gartay ee. Why did he ordered the execution of a innocent man Abdulqadir Dheel who left the army and worked in a pharmacy other then having a physical fight when they were both in the army? don't tell me he was also part of plotting the coup because there is no evidence of it. Its clear siad bare ordered the execution and targetted high level profile Generals & Colonels who were from Isaaq, Hawiye, Majerteen who he suspected was a threat to him even without a evidence showing if they were plotting a coup or not.