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| Africa: Subsaharan |
| Outrage as Somali militia dig up Italian graves |
| 2005-01-21 |
| Somali militiamen, allied with Islamic clerics who rule by sharia law, have dug up hundreds of skeletons from an Italian colonial-era cemetery and thrown them in the trash, sparking anger in the Italian and Somali capitals. The motive for the mass exhumation by gunmen allied with the clerics who rule northern Mogadishu remained unclear on Friday. Witnesses said hundreds of corpses were dug up over the past five days and thrown away at a dump near Mogadishu's airport, which drew a strongly worded protest from Rome. "The profanation of a silent and historical place, sacred to all civilisations, is a vile and particularly hateful act which can have no justification whatsoever," the Italian government said in a statement. Gunmen told residents near the cemetery in south Mogadishu that the courts ordered them to clear the site of non-Islamic elements, witnesses said. But a number of high-ranking court clerics have denied that, and residents and other Muslim religious leaders condemned the exhumations as out of keeping with their faith. There is also speculation in Italy and Somalia that the grave destruction is simply a land grab by local businessmen. A number of wealthy businessmen from the capital have regularly financed the Islamic courts and their militias. Ahmed Alore, a guard at the cemetery for more than 30 years, said most of the 3,000 people buried there are soldiers, traders and missionaries from Italy. Italy, which controlled parts of Somalia from 1889 until independence in 1960, urged "that those responsible for this barbarous act will soon be identified and brought to justice." But how that could happen in the lawless capital remains in question. The new transitional government has yet to return from Kenya, where it has remained because of security fears at home since its formation in Nairobi over the past five months. Dozens of fractious militias have been the de facto rulers of Somalia since 1991, when a militia coalition ousted military dictator Mohammed Siad Barre and ushered in an era of anarchy. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #1 If any place deserved to get hit by the tsunami this was it |
| Posted by: Cheaderhead 2005-01-21 9:34:43 PM |