Somalia. A chronicle of major events in the four weeks leading up to the 1969 Military Take over
October 21, 2020 - Written by admin
September
5: Egal leaves for the African Summit in Addis Ababa
September
11: The Minister of the Interior convenes the Diplomatic Corps begging for
necessary aid for the drought-affected populations in some regions of the
country.
September
14: Egal returns from Addis Abeba.
September
18: The price of gasoline has been increased from 1.20 to 1.40 per liter
September
19: Abdirashid, together with Sheikh Mukhtar, President of the National
Assembly, leaves for Rabat to attend the Conference of Muslim Heads of States
taking place in Morocco.
September
20: The Taxi drivers are on strike due to the increase in petrol prices;
workers and students feel most the inconvenience.
September
23: Police armoured vehicles are positioned at all strategic junctions in
Mogadiscio. Gatherings in public places
are dispersed. The strike of taxi drivers continues and it is feared that it
might turn violent.
September
24: The strike of the taxi drivers continues without violence. The discomfort
of the public is great
September
25: A sense of insecurity pervades Mogadiscio with heavy police presence
patrolling the streets to maintain order. It was probably meant to prevent the
striking taxi drivers from staging protest concurrently with the arrival of the
Head of the State, scheduled for following day.
September
26: At the Islamic Conference in Morocco the unexpected happened: India, with
80,000,000 Muslim populations, out of total inhabitants of 450, 000, 000, was
admitted to the Conference as full member despite Pakistan making a formal
protest to the Summit about the matter. The move, as predicted, prompted
Pakistan to withdraw from the Conference.
September
27: The taxi drivers ended the strike in the afternoon. It was reported in the
“Il Corriere della Somalia” that they had been allowed to increase the fare,
from ShSo 0.50 to ShSo 0.60 per person per trip.
The
10th Somalia International Fair opens in Mogadiscio.
September
28: Abdirascid Ali Sharmarke returns with an Alitalia flight. Every time the
President leaves or arrives, it is a real torment as the police block the
traffic and shut down the streets for the presidential motorcade hours before
his arrival.
October1:
Egal leaves for New York; in addition to his entourage, normally numerous, he
takes with him, to be left in Rome, the Ministers of Communications, the
Minister and the Undersecretary of Agriculture, The Minister of Education also
leaves the same day for the Soviet Union.
October7:
Abdirashid and Sheikh Mukhtar leave for Migiurtinia Region (now Punt land) to
visit the drought stricken populations.
October
8: This morning heavy rain continued pouring from 6:30 to 11 a.m. Mogadiscio is
a city that does pity, especially after every fall of water, due to the lack of
sewerage. Streets become covered by sand, pebbles and debris that rainwater
drags from the sand hills.
October
11: A new Italian language monthly magazine “Nuovi Orizzonti” has been
unveiled with more articles and letters from the readers that will not please
the government. Except Ismail Giumale, who became a Cabinet Minister, the new
magazine is lunched by the same group of editorialists who collaborated with
the previous Magazine “La Tribuna”, one of the most read papers in
the country. Eng. Abdulkadir Aden Abdulla, Dr. Mohamed Aden Sheikh and
Benvenuto Francesco Issak were the most known among the editorial board
members. It was quite well written and carried many interesting topics but, surprisingly,
it had avowedly leftist stance. The newspaper covered sympathetically the
military coups in the Sudan (May 25, 1969) and Libya (September 1, 1969)
respectively. In fact, the editorial run an ominous article entitled “Dove’e’
l’Esercito”? (Where is the Army)?
October
12: The 10th Somalia International Fair opened on 27 September, closes its
doors.
October
15: Policeman slays Somali President. Assassin seized after shots killed
Shermarke instantly at Las Anod, in northern Somalia. A sense of power vacuum
was felt in the first hours following the death of the President, particularly
when rumours started circulating that it had proven impossible to locate the
Prime Minister who was on vacation in the USA. “The Somali Embassy in
Washington took the trouble to seek the FBI’s assistance in order to locate the
whereabouts of our Prime Minister” (Mohamed Aden Sheikh, 2010).
The
slain president’s body on board of a plane was carried back to Mogadiscio
airport and then transferred to Villa Somalia. In 1968, Sharmarke narrowly
escaped an assassination attempt. A grenade exploded near the car that was
transporting him from the airport but failed to kill him. Fifty years on,
President Sharmark’s killing remains a mystery.
October
20: Hundress of thousands of people lined the streets of Mogadiscio to watch
Abdirashid’s body being driven in motor hearse from Villa Somalia to the
cemetary.The solemn procession then continued on to the new burial site where
Somalis and some foreign leaders gathered for the state funeral. Abdirashid was
buried with full military honors at the new National Cemetery. A five days
national mourning was declared. Among the foreign dignitaries who attended the
burial were President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia and Vice President Daniel Arap
Moi of Kenya.
Late
in the afternoon, the central committee (CC) of the ruling SYL party, which
commanded an absolute majority in the then National Assembly (parliament) with
122 out 123 MPs, held a meeting in the evening, The meeting proposed the election
of a new president by legislators without delay.
October
21: Twenty-four hours after the state funeral of the slain Somali President, a
self-styled revolutionary council seized power without bloodshed. The coup
signaled the end of Somalia’s democratic era, and saw the beginning of Siad
Barre’s long reign.
Barely
six months since the general elections were held, the entire Somali political
landscape was suddenly thrown into turmoil by the military, and Egal and his
SYL cronies had little time to enjoy the stolen electoral victory. Prime
Minister Egal, his 12 ministers, Somalia’s first President Aden Abdulla, and
other influential politicians, including Haji Moussa Bogor, Ambassador Omar
Moallim, Abdirazak Haji Hussein and the Chief Justice, Abdurahman Sheikh Ali,
were picked up by a special army unit and whisked off to a house in a farm near
Afgoi town, 30 km southwest of Mogadisho.
Why
the Chief Justice was arrested
Picked
up and detained with the politicians was also the President of the Supreme Court,
Abdurahman Sheikh Ali whose impartiality many openly questioned. His
credibility and impartiality as a Judge came under fire when, contrary to
previous decisions, the Court ruled that it was not empowered to judge
electoral petitions brought forward by unsuccessful candidates in 1969
multi-party political elections. Among the petitions rejected, the one
submitted by the Popular Movement for Democratic Action Party (PMDA) against
the non-acceptance of its list of candidates in the electoral district of Bur
Hacaba had captured wider public interest. In fact, the public has reacted with
utter disbelief to the Court’s decision sanctioning the openly fraudulent
action of the District Commissioner.
The
Military Junta suspended the above-referred Judge from the service in November
1969 placing him under arrest “pending unspecified criminal case against him”
(Decreto del Presidente del Consiglio Rivoluzionario Supremo n° 2 del 9
Dicembre 1969).
Crimes
against the Somali State as an Internal Person. (Delitti contro la Persanalita’
Interna dello Stato Somalo)
The acts committed by the coup leaders constituted a crime against the constitutional order punishable under article 217 of the Somali Penal Code (SPC) with life imprisonment. The article provides:”Whoever commits an act for the purpose of changing the Constitution or the form of the government by means not authorized by the Constitution shall be punished with life imprisonment”.
With
this serious accusations hanging over their head, the military ruled the
country for over 20 years, in the course of which, except perhaps, in the first
few years, their celebrated merits were few and very modest in the face of
dramatic failures in foreign and domestic policy exacerbated by a military
adventure in 1977/78 against Ethiopia which proved to be a fatal
miscalculation. From a serious historical trial, the leaders of the golpe of
1969 would not be able today to escape from the grave accusation of having
subverted democratically established institutions.