Ottawa may hope the public comes forward with the whereabouts of 30 suspected war criminals believed living in Canada, but members of Toronto’s Somali community don’t trust that will serve justice.
Four of the 30 alleged criminals hail from Somalia — the most suspects from a single country on the list, alongside Afghanistan. All four were last living in the Toronto area.
But for many in the Somali community, the distinction between right and wrong is not as clear-cut as government officials would hope.
“It depends on the definition of war criminal,” says Ahmed Yusuf, a Somali-Canadian social worker who moved to Canada in 1989.
Most accusations of war crimes stem from the African country’s deadly civil war that raged in the 1990s. But it was a war of clans, said Yusuf, one where tribes constantly retaliated against each other, and identifying the criminals depended on who you asked.
Yusuf and others are therefore suspicious of the information given to Canadian officials, and will be reluctant to turn in people who may be victims of others’ animosity.
“The reason we are in this mess is because of tribal grievances, and some of the tribal grievances are being taken down here,” said Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, a Somali Canadian who witnessed the war. “I wish the government would be cautious about labelling someone.”
Yusuf knew one of the men on the list, Abdullahi Said Hersi, when he lived in Toronto “well over 10 years ago,” and believes he is no longer in the country.
In his opinion, Hersi was given the title of war criminal because his brother was a high-ranking general who became implicated with corrupt government officials. He says Hersi was not living in Somalia during the civil war, but working for the Somali embassy in the United States. (A 1996 news article identifies a man by the name of Abdullahi Said Hersi, awaiting deportation from Canada, as a Washington, D.C., diplomat.)
“Anybody who calls Mr. Hersi a war criminal is really far away from the truth,” Yusuf said.
It’s also possible the men no longer reside in Canada; Yusuf says he’s confident two of the men left years ago, and suspects the other two left as well.
Other members of Toronto’s Somali community were reluctant to comment Thursday. Some said the generic names of the suspects — common among many from Somalia — made identification difficult, though some said a few of the suspects looked familiar.
“We’re concerned that our community, and the Afghani community, has the largest share of names on the list. That’s the only reaction I have,” said Ahmed Hussen of the Canadian Somali Congress.
Source: The Star
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