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Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan

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Major General Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan (Somali: Maxamed Siciid Xirsi Moorgan, Arabic: محمد سعيد حيرسي مورغان), better known by his nickname General Morgan, is a Somali military officer and former warlord. He was the son-in-law of Siad Barre and the last Minister of Defence of Somalia under Barre's regime.[1] He hails from the Majeerteen Darood clan.[2]

General Morgan
Minister of Defense
In office
1990 – 26 January 1991
PresidentSiad Barre
Personal details
NationalitySomali
Political partySomali Patriotic Movement
RelationsSiad Barre (father-in-law)
Military service
Allegiance Somali Democratic Republic
(1980–1991)
Somali National Front (1991–2003)
Branch/service Somali National Army (1980–1991)
Years of service1980–2003
Battles/wars1982 Ethiopian–Somali Border War
Somali Rebellion
Somaliland War of Independence
Somali Civil War

Career

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Siad Barre Government

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Morgan received his military training in Italy and the USA. As a colonel, he was commander of the Mogadishu sector, where the elite units of the Armed Forces were stationed (ca. 1980);[3] this was probably Sector 77.

Morgan then went on to become commander of the Red Berets,[4][5] responsible for the suppression of the revolt of the Majerteen United in the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF) in 1982. From 1986 to 1988, as a general, he was the military commander of the 26th Sector (the region of Somaliland) and in September 1990 he was appointed as minister of defense and substitute head of state.[5]

Somali Civil War

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Main articles: Isaaq genocide and Somaliland War of Independence

Before the fall of the government and the subsequent 1991 civil war, Morgan was recognized as a state-sponsored war criminal. Morgan was one of the main government officials who spearheaded the state sponsored genocide in Somaliland against the Isaaq clan. This information has been thoroughly documented by Human Rights Watch. Morgan has yet to be tried by the international courts for his crimes against humanity.[6]

In January 1986, Morgan, who was Barre's bodyguard before he married his daughter[7] reportedly told Isaaq nomads at a waterhole "if you Isaaqs resist, we will destroy your towns, and you will inherit only ashes".[8]

Morgan (later to be known as the Butcher of Hargeisa)[9] was also responsible for the policy letter written to his father-in-law during his time as the military governor of the north.[10] In this letter which came to be known as 'The Letter of Death',[11][12] he "proposed the foundations for a scorched-earth policy to get rid of 'anti-Somali germs'".[8]

The policy letter (also known as the Morgan Report)[13] was officially a top secret report to the president on "implemented and recommended measures" for a "final solution" to Somalia's "Isaaq problem".[14] Morgan indicated that the Isaaq people must be "subjected to a campaign of obliteration" in order to prevent them from "rais[ing] their heads again". He continued: "Today, we possess the right remedy for the virus in the [body of the] Somali State." Some of the "remedies" he discussed included: "Balancing the well-to-do to eliminate the concentration of wealth [in the hands of Isaaq]."[15] In addition, he called for "the reconstruction of the Local Council [in Isaaq settlements] in such a way as to balance its present membership which is exclusively from a particular people [the Isaaq]; as well as the dilution of the school population with an infusion of [Ogaden] children from the Refugee Camps in the vicinity of Hargeisa".[16]

More extreme recommendations included: "Rendering uninhabitable the territory between the army and the enemy, which can be done by destroying the water tanks and the villages lying across the territory used by them for infiltration"; and "removing from the membership of the armed forces and civil service all those who are open to suspicion of aiding the enemy – especially those holding sensitive posts".[14]

William Clarke writes that Morgan was appointed as Somali National Army commander-in-chief on 25 November 1990.[17]

On January 8, 1993 Morgan was one of the signatories of agreement reached at the UN-sponsored Informal Preparatory Meeting on National Reconciliation, and the March 1993 Conference on National Reconciliation in Somalia, both in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.[18][19] However, fighting continued in the country unabated.

In December 1993, Morgan's troops captured Kismayo, and awaited the departure of Belgian UN peacekeepers who were stationed there. His troops had taken advantage of the UN's preoccupation with Mohamed Farah Aidid and had rearmed and regrouped.[20]

Transitional National Government

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Morgan was present at the conclusion of the peace talks in Kenya (2002–2004) in which a transitional Somali Transitional National Government (later to become the Transitional Federal Government) was formed. This conclusion, however, was put to risk in September 2004 by the withdrawal of Morgan, who prepared his forces to attack Kismayu, controlled by the JVA which had ousted him in 1999.[21]

According to Amnesty International "his presence at the peace talks, more than any of the other warlords, had highlighted the significance of the issue of impunity and its effect on human rights in the future."[22]

In May 2005 Morgan left Nairobi to pay a short visit with his militia in Mogadishu and talked to representatives of the USC.[23] The battle between the militia and the Islamic Courts Union for the control of the capital would start February 2006. Members of this same USC have been the victims of atrocities by Morgan's troops in 1992. In that year the SNF retook, with assistance of the Kenyan military (in violation of a United Nations Security Council arms embargo), the Gedo region. In October 1992, the SNF captured the town of Bardera, committing atrocities against civilians who were thought to have supported the USC (solely on the basis of their clan identity) and greatly disrupting relief efforts.[24]

In 1991, when Morgan was minister of defense in the Barre government, there still were 54,000 soldiers under his command. Fourteen years later only 1,000 of them remained.[25] Morgan's family lives in the United States.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ The estimate of 40,000 killed is given in SOMALIA ASSESSMENT, Version 4, September 1999, Country Information and Policy Unit of the Immigration & Nationality Directorate, Home Office of the United Kingdom Government, Section OGADEN WAR & OPPOSITION TO BARRE, paragraph 3.13.
  2. ^ "Somalia: Fourteenth time lucky? by Richard Cornwell, Institute for Security Studies, Occasional Paper 87 (section the fall of Siyad Barre)" (PDF).
  3. ^ "A letter to the editor of "Horn of Africa" journal published in U.S.A. (Vol. 2 No. 4) 1980-81, written by Ahmed A. Deria, Nairobi".
  4. ^ "italosomali.org - italosomali ancis ANCIS italia Somalia Italosomali Italo somali comunit italo somala Resources and Information". www.italosomali.org.
  5. ^ a b Harned, Glenn M. (2016). Stability Operations in Somalia 1992-1993: A Case Study. United States Army War College Press.
  6. ^ Einashe, Ismail; Kennard, Matt (2018-10-22). "In the Valley of Death: Somaliland's Forgotten Genocide". The Nation. ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2020-03-04.
  7. ^ Mukhtar, Mohamed Haji (2003-02-25). Historical Dictionary of Somalia. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-6604-1.
  8. ^ a b Abdullahi, Mohamed Diriye (2001). Culture and Customs of Somalia. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-31333-2.
  9. ^ "Analysis: Somalia's powerbrokers". 2002-01-08. Retrieved 2020-03-04.
  10. ^ Lewis, I. M. (1994). Blood and bone : the call of kinship in Somali society. Internet Archive. Lawrenceville, N.J. : Red Sea Press.
  11. ^ Jones, Adam (July 2004). Genocide, war crimes and the West: history and complicity. Zed Books. ISBN 978-1-84277-191-4.
  12. ^ Africa Events. Dar es Salaam Limited. 1989.
  13. ^ Richards, Rebecca (2016-02-24). Understanding Statebuilding: Traditional Governance and the Modern State in Somaliland. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-00466-0.
  14. ^ a b Robins, Nicholas A.; Jones, Adam (2009). Genocides by the Oppressed: Subaltern Genocide in Theory and Practice. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-22077-6.
  15. ^ Mburu, Chris (2002). Past Human Rights Abuses in Somalia: Report of a Preliminary Study Conducted for the United Nations (OHCHR/UNDP-Somalia).
  16. ^ Mburu, Chris (2002). Past Human Rights Abuses in Somalia: Report of a Preliminary Study Conducted for the United Nations (OHCHR/UNDP-Somalia).
  17. ^ Clarke, Walter S. (December 1992). Background Information for Operation Restore Hope (PDF). Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Strategic Studies Institute. p. 31. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  18. ^ The General Agreement signed in Addis Ababa on 8 January 1993 Archived 29 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine The United Nations and Somalia 1992-1996
  19. ^ Addis Ababa Agreement concluded at the first session of the Conference on National Reconciliation in Somalia, 27 March 1993 Archived 13 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine The United Nations and Somalia 1992-1996
  20. ^ Spinning Dunkirk: The Pentagon Quits Somalia Archived 2007-02-21 at the Wayback Machine Somalia News Update
  21. ^ Somali warlord prepares assault on rival as peace talks falter The Independent, 8 September 2004
  22. ^ Somalia: Urgent need for effective human rights protection under the new transitional government Amnesty International (PDF)
  23. ^ "Somalinet May 25, 2005 "General Morgan left Nairobi for Mogadishu"".
  24. ^ "SOMALIA". www.hrw.org.
  25. ^ For the force levels of the Somali National Army, see: The Journal of Conflict Studies, Vol. XVI No. 2, Fall 1996, "The Horn of Africa: Conflict, Demilitarization and Reconstruction", chapter Dimensions of Militarization, section: Growth in Force Levels and Expenditure by Baffour Agyeman-Duah. For the force level of the SNF, see Peacekeeping and Policing in Somalia, by Lynn Thomas and Steve Spataro, Chapter "Background", section "Capacity for Self-Governance": "Mohammed Said Hersi "Morgan" had a well-organized force of 1,000 former soldiers" (in:in R. B. Oakley, M. J. Dziedzic, and E. M. Goldberg, eds., Policing the New World Disorder: Peace Operations and Public Security (Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 1998), ch. 6 pp. 175-214 "Peacekeeping and Policing in Somalia". Archived from the original on 2007-02-09. Retrieved 2007-01-12.)
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