Military man and former VP, Gen Samatar to be interred in Defence HQs

The body of former vice president and decorated military man General Ali Mohamed Samatar will be interred Thursday in Mogadishu upon arrival from the US where he died Friday.

Major roads in the city have been closed and traffic diverted as security agencies clear the way for a man whose long service as army chief, defence minister and later Prime Minister and Somalia’s only vice president drew both love and hate in varying measures.

The government declared three days of mourning upon the passing of General Samatar who will be remembered for among other feats leading Somalia into war with Ethiopia during the 1977 Ogaden war; a war which defined the souring of relations the more between Somalia and Ethiopia.

It was also a war which exemplified a text book definition of betrayal. On the brink of clash between the Ethiopians and Somalis, the Soviet which was hitherto Somalia’s ally switched positions and declared its support for Ethiopia leaving Somali forces in disarray though they still soldiered on towards a humbling retreat.

But Samatar’s career was checkered in some ways. When Siad Barre regime launched a purgatory in Hargeisa in 1988 leaving in its wake death and destruction which to date remains in the annals of Somalia’s unresolved past, General Samatar was the second senior most in the country. He was the vice president and added to his cap was the title of Prime Minister.

In 2002, a group of Somalis in the US filed a civil law suit against Samatar over claims they had suffered physical abuse in violation of international law at the hands of soldiers or other government officials under his command.

Despite a request for termination of the case by former Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon in 2013 to the US government, the US Supreme court upheld a federal court ruling which slapped Samatar with a $21 million in punitive and compensatory damages.

General Samatar will be interred Thursday in the Defence Ministry headquarters, a place he made and honed a career which span for a quarter century.