Hail the commander, earn your meagre bread, dream in silence

Whole clans were targeted, villages burned, towns bombed and water wells poisoned. The north of the country, known during the colonial times as the British Somaliland Protectorate, bore the brunt of Siyad Barre’s anger. Somali military planes piloted by hired white South African mercenaries bombed the people of Hargeisa, capital of Somaliland today. Almost the entire population of the north had taken flight to neighbouring Ethiopia and the Somali National Movement (SNM), a resistance group based in Ethiopia, became voracious in its fight against Siyad’s ragtag military which was diminishing by the day.

After showing his ruthlessness in massacring thousands of civilians in the Kurdish town of Halabja, Saddam saw another military adventure as his only way of survival, so meeting his Waterloo in Kuwait in early August 1990. After his defeat by American-led coalition forces, Saddam copied Siyad’s tactics and turned his guns against the popular uprising of the Shias in the north.

When Siyad Barre fled the country in a military tank early 1991, the Somali people gave a sigh of relief. As one dark chapter of their checkered history had come to an end, they thought it was time for them to emerge from the gutter and see the beautiful daylight. Little did they knew, however, that the various clan leaders that had been united to kick Siyad Barre out of power would soon turn their guns against them, commit unprecedented genocides, lay the whole country waste and strip it of everything of value.

Sixteen years after Siyad Barre’s flight from Mogadishu, Somalia is still divided into fiefdoms and tribal enclaves, under the mercy of unholy alliance of clan mafia warlords and Talibani Islamist courts, who scavenge the aid the international community provides to the helpless masses. All attempts made by the international community to restore peace and stability had fizzled into thin air. Even the last government formed in Nairobi in October 2004, after two years of hard labour, couldn’t find a safe place to roost: and with warlords waiting on the flanks to descend on its dead carcass there are no signs that it will survive.

Today, as people of Somalia die in their dozens every month on the high seas in a futile attempt to find a safe home for their kids, who would blame them if they look back with pride at the October 21st anniversaries in which their late tormentor used to celebrate the day he came to power with impressive parades. While the Iraqi people whose life has been turned to hell by hate-driven forces, can but look at Saddam Hussein with some sympathy in his dock - and pray for him. Sallamu Allah Ala Saddam.