The airstrip was surrounded by soldiers armed with general purpose machine guns and G3 rifles.

The men were told to produce their weapons. Many protested that they didn't have any weapons. That was a wholly unacceptable answer.

The men were stripped naked and allowed to bake in the 40-degrees Celsius heat for hours on end. For people of that culture, this was supreme humiliation.

They were not allowed food or water. From the time they were rounded up, the beatings with rifle butts were continuous.

Those who were foolish enough to question the humiliation were summarily shot in full few of their fellow prisoners.

There were many deaths by the second day. Some had died of the beatings and gun shots.

Some had convulsed in the heat and simply passed out. But amidst all this, there were still others who dared stand up for manly honour. A horrible fate awaited them.

Their hands were bound behind their backs and loaded into a helicopter. The chopper rose and hovered above the prisoners. At some point, the bound men would be pushed out of the open door.

They fell to their deaths hundreds of feet below as other men watched, awaiting their turn. This was repeated several times.

At about the fourth or fifth day, it occurred to the surviving and famished prisoners that nobody would leave this place alive.

And indeed this seems to have been the plan. Another officer offered only one contribution to the recollection of Wagalla. He said: "Nobody was supposed to leave that place alive."

As if taking cue from the prisoners depicted in the movie "Escape From Sobibor" - a depiction of the dramatic escape from one of Nazi Germany's most notorious death camps - Wagalla's tragic survivors started running in all directions.

At first the soldiers, who were also exhausted from the beatings and killings, were too surprised to react. And then they did.

A hail of fire was sprayed in the directions of the fleeing men. Many fell. But some survived.

And it is their narratives that told the world what had happened there.


http://allafrica.com/stories/201005211108.html

What a story.....a very sad one at that!!!!!

This is one reasson why i like Wazua..............You start a thread expecting total concurrence and then this happens.

@ Bwenyenye.

I toadally concur.

KTN (not known for its objectivity) was overly economical with the details. It's no secret that Shifta Territory is a slaughter house for anyone in uniform. Entire units being wiped out is not uncommon.

Somalis refer to as kawa miroz as Modhou Modhou (a derogatory term loosely translated to mean "dark skinned people who are inferior"). Couple this with cession fever, a bandit mentality and the lawless badlands up North and y'all got one nasty little tinderbox.

Army survivors narrate bizarre experiences...like walking past a bui-bui clad figure who'd humbly bow and walk past you...only to turn on you, unleash an AK-47...and the last sound y'all heard is two clicks and KAPOW!

This was a situation where soldiers didn't trust the people they were sworn to defend - with enough proof provided by the bullet riddled bodies of their comrades in military morgues.
Wagalla was the unfortunate climax of a long drawn out war.

Perhaps what KTN can do to provide a balanced view is do a piece on soldiers/cops felled up North while on duty...and let them tell their side of the story.

Lets look at it this way. 1985. one party political system. an attempted coup 3 years ago. . . political dissidents being silenced. . . . then you dare talk succession? lets call it a necessary evil. but we do agree that stability has been maintained.