page_title: Isaaq genocide
section_title: Letter of Death
hierarchical_section_title: Isaaq genocide / Prelude / Planning and preparation / Letter of Death
caption_attribution_description: English: Letter of Death (1/2) by General Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan, the son-in-law of dictator Siad Barre. Policy letter with proposed “final solution” to Somalia's “Isaaq problem.”
context_page_description: The Isaaq genocide or Hargeisa Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored massacre of Isaaq civilians between 1987 and 1989 by the Somali Democratic Republic under the dictatorship of Siad Barre. The number of civilian deaths in this massacre is estimated to be between 50,000-100,000 according to various sources, whilst local reports estimate the total civilian deaths to be upwards of 200,000 Isaaq civilians. This genocide also included the levelling and complete destruction of the second and third largest cities in Somalia, Hargeisa and Burao respectively, and had caused up to 500,000 Somalis to flee their land and cross the border to Hartasheikh in Ethiopia as refugees, in what was described as "one of the fastest and largest forced movements of people recorded in Africa", and resulted in the creation of the world's largest refugee camp then, with another 400,000 being displaced. The scale of destruction led to Hargeisa being known as the 'Dresden of Africa'. The killings happened during the Somali Civil War and have been referred to as a "forgotten genocide".
context_section_description: In January 1986, Barre's son-in-law and viceroy in the north General Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan, who was Barre's bodyguard before he married his daughter reportedly told Isaaq nomads at a waterhole "if you Isaaqs resist, we will destroy your towns, and you will inherit only ashes".
  General Morgan (later to be known as the Butcher of Hargeisa) was also responsible for the policy letter written to his father-in-law during his time as the military governor of the north, this letter came to be known as 'The Letter of Death', in which he "proposed the foundations for a scorched-earth policy to get rid of 'anti-Somali germs'".
  The policy letter (also known as the Morgan Report) was officially a top secret report to the president on "implemented and recommended measures" for a "final solution" to Somalia's "Isaaq problem". Morgan writes that the Isaaq people must be "subjected to a campaign of obliteration" in order to prevent the Isaaq from "rais[ing] their heads again". He continued: "Today, we possess the right remedy for the virus in the [body of the] Somali State." Some of the "remedies" he discussed included: "Balancing the well-to-do to eliminate the concentration of wealth [in the hands of Isaaq]." In addition, he called for "the reconstruction of the Local Council [in Isaaq settlements] in such a way as to balance its present membership which is exclusively from a particular people [the Isaaq]; as well as the dilution of the school population with an infusion of [Ogaden] children from the Refugee Camps in the vicinity of Hargeisa".
  More extreme recommendations included: "Rendering uninhabitable the territory between the army and the enemy, which can be done by destroying the water tanks and the villages lying across the territory used by them for infiltration"; and "removing from the membership of the armed forces and civil service all those who are open to suspicion of aiding the enemy – especially those holding sensitive posts".
  
  In discussing the unusually frank tone of the report, Hassan Abdi Madar states:
  "The report is addressed to the President of the SDR, the Minister of Defence, and Minister of Interior. The latter, Major-General Ahmed Suleiman Abdalla is also a son-in-law of the President, and Third Deputy Prime Minister. Since President Barre is also the Minister of Defence -- the previous holder of that portfolio, General Mohammad Ali Samatar, having been promoted Prime Minister on January 30, 1987 -- the report is seemingly confined to family members. This would explain its extreme frankness in specifying certain clans as targets for implemented and recommended punitive action."
  Other aims of the policy included arming other clans in the region and encouraging them to fight the dominant Isaaq: 
  "Since it has become evident that the Isaaq were, by act and intent, with the SNM; and since we could not see them giving up the line they have pursued so deceptively for some time; and in order to forestall them; we arranged for the other inhabitants of the North continuous meetings and a mobilization campaign designed to rouse them to action and to raise their level of awareness.  This was intended to strengthen their unity and to surround Somali unity with a defensive wall.  Among those inhabitants are: the Awdal people, the various sections of Western Somalis [including Ogaden refugees], the Las Qorey people, and the Daami people, etc. There is no doubt that the unity of these people will restore the balance of the scales which are now tipped in favour of the Isaaq.  If they attack their tasks energetically, their unity will also undoubtedly humble those who arrogantly maintain that they own the North when the reality is otherwise."
caption: Letter of Death (1/2) by General Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan, the son-in-law of dictator Siad Barre, a policy letter with the proposed "final solution" to Somalia's "Isaaq problem"
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