The Life in Prison 1981-1989 by Late Dr. Adan Yusuf Abokor – UFFO Member

When each one of us was locked up in solitary confinement, in single separate cells, that was the moment everybody started reflecting on what was going to happen to him and to his friends. One of the coping mechanisms we used was to convince ourselves that this was not going to last long, that this would not continue for long, that we would not remain there for long. We were trying to console ourselves that we would only be there for a short time. But, there was no possibility of communicating with each other.

The guards were not allowed to talk to us. We were completely in a solitary environment for 24 hours. In the afternoon at four o’clock or five o’clock you are given your last meal, your outer door is locked so there is no light, you are in a blackout until the next morning. When you are in a blackout in a cell like that you struggle with insects like cockroaches, and with rats in the cell, and with other kinds of things which come out in the dark. So, you try to remain in your bed because you are afraid that you might meet one of those things.

In the beginning it was very difficult for us to cope with that darkness, complete darkness—blackout—and it took some time to get used to that unusual environment of remaining in a completely dark room for more than fourteen hours. When we were brought to Labaatan Jirrow, which was the name given to the prison because the nearest village was called Labaatan Jirrow, we were told that no people were allowed to come within fifty kilometers of the prison. It was the high security prison. Not even nomads could come close. And the security was very tight. If we climbed to look through that ventilation hole in the cell to the outside world, we saw nothing but soldiers outside guarding the prison.

On the top of the prison there were security towers. The prison was meant only for those designated by Siyad Barre, the dictator. He was the only person who could order people to be taken there and the only one who could release people. It was not part of the custodial system. The head of the custodial corps had no idea of what was going on in Labaatan Jirrow. The guards were the notorious Red Brigades who were used for security purposes, who belonged to the same clan as the President. The man who was the head of the prison was very close to President, and from the same sub clan. Although a young man, he was a full colonel. We were told that not long before he was appointed he was a corporal of the guards who guarded the house of the First Lady. But he was quickly promoted to colonel.

On the first night we arrived at the prison, we were taken one by one to his office and there we had our bags checked. The bags had come with us from Hargeisa and had clothes and books and other things. We were deprived of the clothes and books; we were deprived of everything. He even took away our eye glasses, accusing us of pretending to be upper class people, and highly educated by putting on glasses. He thought that people who wore eye glasses were people who pretend to be educated.

Everybody was allowed to have the Holy Qoran. The only clothes we were allowed to wear were t-shirts and mawcis. He started abusing us, calling us names, threatening us, taunting us: ‘Do you imagine that the SNM (Somali National Movement) will come and liberate you from here? Never dream about that. Nobody can come here and…liberate you from this prison.

He actually found a note in the bag of one of our colleagues written by a friend in Jeddah. The letter said ‘please support SNM and please…resist the dictatorship and liberate the country from dictatorship’ and words of that kind. The Colonel became very, very, angry and told the guards to take that prisoner to a place far from our cells and to lock him up for twenty-four hours in chains. So, that friend was taken away from us and was locked up and chained all the day in a black room.

There were times when they used to come and close all the doors of our cells so that we stayed in a blackout for more than a week or two. Later after we were released we came to realize that this punishment occurred whenever the SNM had been victorious, like when they attacked Mandera prison and released prisoners. The government retaliated by punishing us in Labaatan Jirrow. He was actually punishing people who were already in solitary confinement. You just can’t imagine what sort of additional punishment he can do to that person. One of the coping mechanisms when we were in those cells was of course praying, and reading the Quran. It was the only book we had. And we maintained our sanity by becoming more religious and praying. We knew that our friends and family were really supporting us and we prayed for them all, for our sanity, and for our release.

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