Clan Cleansing in Somalia: The Ruinous Legacy of 1991

Clan Cleansing in Somalia: The Ruinous Legacy of 1991. By Lidwien Kapteijns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. Pp. ix, 308; maps, photographs, bibliography, index, glossary. $69.95/£45.50.The notion of "ethnic cleansing" was coined during the Bosnian civil war to describe the violent expulsions of non-combatants by the militias of another ethno-religious community, often accompanied by rape and murder perpetrated on civilians. The military struggles in Somalia that began as a movement to topple President Siad Barre from power soon evolved into a civil war between militias anchored in different clan communities. Somalia has the distinction of being one of two mono-ethnic States in Africa, with citizens who share a single Eastern Cushitic language, Islam, and shared social values and institutions, in particular a system of quasi-territorial clanship.The Somali civil war has usually been depicted as a protracted post-Barre struggle for State power between "warlords," none strong enough to consolidate power alone, but sufficiently resilient to deny power to others. But the author of Clan Cleansing in Somalia: The Ruinous Legacy of 1991 insists that the civil war between Somali militias in fact involved what she calls "clan cleansing," in a convincing analogy with ethnic cleansing in poly-ethnic states. In Somalia, clan militias and civilian supporters single-mindedly cleared members of Barre's Darood clan group from the national capital of Mogadishu and wide regions of Somalia's southwest. Clan cleansing involved forced displacement, rape and genocidal murder aimed not just at the ejection but also the extermination of communities based only on their clan affiliations. Western powers and members of the press, caught up in the political maneuvering of factions, perhaps compromised themselves to gain access to warlords and combatants and choosing sides during the battle for Mogadishu and its aftermath, by willfully ignoring this grim aspect of the civil war.The book focuses on the three-year period of 1988-1991 that led up to Siad Barre's fall, and was followed by chaotic post-Barre struggles. But this account is preceded by a description of the Barre government's manipulation of clans as a strategy for maintaining power, including the ruthless suppression of Majeerten officers after Somalia's withdrawal following its defeat in the Ogaden war (with Ethiopia), and of its subjugation of the Isaaq insurgency in Somalia's "northwest" (adjacent to Ethiopia in what is now the quasiindependent state of Somaliland). This sequence of events foreshadowed the rapid development of anti-government resistance groups that were followed by Siad Barre's repressive reactions, from the "Mosque Massacre" of 1989 to the Battle for Mogadishu in late 1990 to early 1991. As Barre was weakened, the broad-based United Somali Congress (USC) opposition coalition splintered, with both the USC-Cali Mahdi and the USC- Caydiid (Aydeed) divisions fighting both against government forces and one another, each seeking to capture the state and the presidency. The author brings attention to the shift from conflict between the government and the insurgent coalition to conflict between clanbased militias, with USC-Caydiid at a certain moment marginalizing its own supporters with Darood affiliations and quietly welcoming previous government leaders of Hawiye origin. …