JEFF BAENEN, Associated Press Writer
A federal investigation into the disappearance of young Somali men from the Twin Cities has taken on new urgency with the death of one missing teen, with some saying they are frustrated by the pace.
"Everything is top secret. It's very hard to find out what's going on," said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center.
Last Friday, the family of Burhan Hassan learned the 18-year-old had been killed and buried in Mogadishu, the Somali capital. Hassan was 17 when he vanished last November from his Minneapolis home. His death follows a suicide bombing carried out in northern Somalia by another young Somali man from Minneapolis last October.
About a dozen young Somali men have gone missing from the Twin Cities in the last couple of years, most from Minneapolis.
Family members say they feared Hassan was recruited by al-Shabab, an extremist Islamist group on the U.S. State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations. His family says Hassan was supposed to arrive in Kenya this week, and they suspect he was killed to prevent him from returning to the U.S. to testify in the investigation.
Violence has surged in Somalia as Islamist fighters seek to overthrow the Western-backed government. The U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday that about 200 people had died in the past month.
E.K. Wilson, an FBI spokesman, said Tuesday the FBI could not confirm Hassan's death. He said the investigation into the missing men continues and is "focused" but he would not give details.
Some Somalis may be reluctant to cooperate because of previous harsh treatment by the government in their homeland, Wilson said. He encouraged anyone with information to come forward.
Somalis here say they have been questioned by the FBI or Customs officials or subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury in recent months. In the last month, though, the number of subpoenas has slowed, said Taneeza Islam, civil rights director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Minnesota.
She said that was creating more suspicion among Somalis and Somali Americans in the Twin Cities, home to one of the largest such populations in the U.S.
"The community really wants answers, and it seems it's taking longer and longer," she said.
One of Hassan's uncles, Osman Ahmed, said Tuesday the family plans a news conference to pressure on the government to wrap up its investigation.
"We don't know why" the investigation isn't completed yet, Ahmed said. He accused leaders of Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota's largest mosque, of hindering the investigation by encouraging people in the community not to talk — an allegation denied by the center's director.
Some families of missing young men have accused the mosque of having a role in their decision to leave — an accusation also denied by mosque leaders.
Anyone who approaches the mosque about being subpoenaed is told to cooperate and tell the truth, said the center's director, Omar Hurre.
"That's just not something we made up. That's a verse from our holy scripture," Hurre said. He said those who are subpoenaed also are told to know their rights.
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