Somalian MP arrested in Sweden

October 19th, 2005 at 19:46 Björn Hallberg

Hard to say what to make of this. Somalian affairs is hardly my forte, but more generally I would warn alleged war criminals, Somalian or American, to stay away from Sweden for the time being. The question arises what makes this arrest so urgent. Is it Qeybdid’s minion status perhaps that makes it convenient to make an example out of him? The fact that he is virtually unknown to the public? Could I file charges against Bill Clinton or George W Bush the next time they stop by or is this charade just reserved for the henchmen following orders?

Reuters - Abdi Hassan Awale Qeybdid was taken into custody on Sunday in the southern Swedish town of Lund, said Osman Gobdon, a Swedish-based Somali journalist. Qeybdiid has since been transferred to Gothenburg, he added.

The director of information in the Swedish police, Mats Glansberg, said the type of offences Qeybdid was being accused of were difficult to investigate because they involved both international and national law.

“Conventions and many other kinds of legislation apply. The way these control each other is very complicated,” Glansberg told the Swedish radio station, Ekot.

The arrest of Qeybdid, a former faction leader allied to Usman Ali Ato, the public works minister in the Somali Transitional Federal Government, followed allegations to the police by a group of Somalis living in Sweden that he had committed murder in Somalia.

It is also interesting to note that

Qeybdid, a former Mogadishu police chief, was one of the late Gen. Muhammad Farah Aydid’s chief lieutenants, who was involved in a firefight with American troops in 1993, when 18 Americans and hundreds of Somalis were killed.

So, I wonder if there could be more behind this than just a few immigrants filing charges.

Edit: Apparently the evidence didn’t hold up and so Qaydid was freed after a Swedish court rejected a prosecutor’s request to keep him in custody (The Local).
Somalinet offers an analysis of the Somali clan system and how deeply it is rooted in everyday life and consequently in the ongoing conflict. Also, they note that the arrest has only further divided Somalis around the globe along clan lines.
Somalian Homeland Security Minister Mohamed Qanyareh Afrah was quoted saying that “Sweden would not be able to deliver justice as they don’t understand Somalis and their differences.” Overall it seems that the situation and history of Somalia requires a gentler and more informed touch and that after decades of warring clans turning the country upside down, it is not so simply to point out the guilty and the innocent. Somalia, one should note, has been without a functioning national government for 14 years.

Entry 284 filed under: Africa. This entry was posted 2 years, 11 months ago. RSS feed for comments on this post.