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Europe
Sweden holds Somali accused of war crimes
2005-10-17
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (Reuters) -- A visiting Somali has been arrested in Sweden after exiles denounced him as a war criminal, police said Monday.
Swedish authorities did not name the 57-year-old man, who was held in the university town Lund late Sunday and taken to the city of Gothenburg for questioning, they said. But a Somali legislator identified him as Abdi Awale Qaybdiid, an ex-police officer associated in the past with some warlords and now an aide to the Somali parliament's speaker.

A former colleague of Qaybdiid, who also asked not to be named, said he was accused of ordering a mortar attack that killed 10 people in a Mogadishu market in 1996. "The guy came here for a conference and some other Somalis in Sweden went to the police in Gothenburg and told them about him and brought a video tape," Hans Olvebro, head of the Swedish national police's war crimes unit, told Reuters. Sweden's Foreign Ministry said the man was part of a six-person Somali delegation led by parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan.
Wonder if they forgot to fill out the paperwork giving him diplomatic immunity?
The speaker, Hassan, leads a Mogadishu-based faction of the interim Somali government, which was formed in neighboring Kenya in 2004 and relocated home earlier this year. The split has stopped the government from imposing authority in the Horn of Africa nation run by warlords and their militia since they ousted ex-dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

Qaybdiid was a police officer under Barre. After 1991, he worked for warlords including Mohammed Farah Aideed, whose 1993 clash with U.S. troops was made into the film "Black Hawk Down". Qaybdiid's ex-colleague, talking to Reuters in Nairobi, said he was remembered for the 1996 attack on Bakara market, which killed some 10 people, while working for warlord Osman Ali Atto. The legislator close to Hassan, also speaking in Nairobi, said the arrest was inspired by supporters of the opposing government faction, based in Jowhar outside Mogadishu. "We appeal for the immediate release of Abdi Qaybdiid," he added.

The legislator added that Hassan's delegation had also been troubled on a recent trip to the United States where some people called police to denounce them as "terrorists".
Fred, was that you?
A spokesman for Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi in Nairobi said he could not confirm the arrest. "I have heard the rumors but I cannot comment or deny it," the spokesman Abdirahman Meygag told Reuters.

Some human rights groups estimate 500,000 Somalis have been killed since Barre's toppling plunged the nation of 10 million people into anarchy. The United States and United Nations intervened in 1992-1993 but withdrew by early 1995. Sweden is involved in the Somali peace process.

The weekend conference about "Good Governance and Rule of Law" in the Horn of Africa was supported by local authorities in southern Sweden and the Swedish foreign development agency.
So, it's a Science Fiction convention?
The Somali speaker was due to visit the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm this week but a spokesman said the visit was in doubt.
Posted by:Steve

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