Leaders and statesmen
Yusuf Osman Samatar (Barda'ad)
Yusuf Osman Samatar, known as Barda'ad (1932 to 2020), was a Somali lawyer, leader of the left-wing Somali Democratic Union and a member of parliament until the 1969 coup. He was then held without charge or trial for most of the next twenty years, much of it in solitary confinement; Amnesty International called him one of the longest-held prisoners of conscience it knew of. He was freed in February 1989.
Yusuf Osman SamatarBarda'ad · Yuusuf Cismaan Samatar
- Lived
- 1932-03-15 to 2020-02-13
- Known as one of
- Leaders and statesmen
- Era
- The Republic, 1960 to 1991; Rebuilding without a state, 1991 to 2012
- Sources
- 4 sources
Who was he?
Yusuf Osman Samatar, known as Barda'ad, was a Somali lawyer, party leader and member of Somalia's parliament in the 1960s (Wikipedia, Yusuf Osman Samatar). After the military took power in 1969 he was detained for most of the following two decades; Wikipedia calls him the longest-serving political prisoner in Somalia's history (same source).
Early life
He was born in the Nugaal region on 15 March 1932, into the Majeerteen clan, according to Wikipedia. He studied political science at the University of Rome, then returned to Somalia in the 1950s and took a law degree (Wikipedia).
Party leader and MP
He joined the nationalist Somali Youth League and, after independence, helped found the country's first socialist party. He was secretary-general of the Somali Democratic Union (SDU), formed in 1962, which won 15 seats in the 1964 election, behind the Somali Youth League and the SNC (Wikipedia). He sat in parliament until the October 1969 coup, after which the new government banned the SDU (same source).
Prisoner without trial
He was first arrested in 1969 and arrested again in 1975, and held without charge or trial under the Detention Law, which gave no independent review or right of appeal (Wikipedia). From May 1975 he was kept in solitary confinement in Labatan Jirow maximum-security prison, for his non-violent criticism of the government and his refusal to join the ruling Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party, according to Amnesty International material on Refworld (Refworld). Wikipedia, drawing on Amnesty, says he was denied medical care, family visits, lawyers and letters. He was released in February 1989; Amnesty then described him as "one of the longest held prisoners of conscience" known to it (Wikipedia). See The Somali Democratic Republic, 1969 to 1991.
Later life
In 1994 he moved with his family to Boston. In the early 2000s he returned to politics as an adviser to Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, later president of Somalia (Bay State Banner, 3 May 2007). He was married to Maryan Muse Boqor (same source). He died in February 2020 (Somalia Online, 19 February 2020).
In short
An SDU leader and 1960s MP who spent almost twenty years in detention without trial after 1969, and lived his last years in Boston.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Yusuf Osman Samatar · en.wikipedia.org
- Refworld · refworld.org
- Bay State Banner, 3 May 2007 · baystate-banner.com
- Somalia Online, 19 February 2020 · somaliaonline.com
Yusuf Osman SamatarBarda'ad · Yuusuf Cismaan Samatar
- Lived
- 1932-03-15 to 2020-02-13
- Known as one of
- Leaders and statesmen
- Era
- The Republic, 1960 to 1991; Rebuilding without a state, 1991 to 2012
- Sources
- 4 sources
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Where this matters
Same era
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