Supreme Revolutionary Council (Somalia)

History

Main article: Somali Democratic Republic

Assassination of President and coup d'état

On 15 October 1969, while paying a visit to the northern town of Las Anod, Somalia's then President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke was shot dead by one of his own bodyguards. His assassination was quickly followed by a military coup d'état on the afternoon of 21 October 1969 (the day after his funeral), in which the Somali Army seized power without encountering armed opposition. The putsch was spearheaded by Major General Mohamed Siad Barre, who at the time commanded the army.

Establishment of Revolutionary Council

Alongside Barre, the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC) that assumed power after President Sharmarke's assassination was led by Lieutenant Colonel Salaad Gabeyre Kediye, General Mohamed Ainanshe Guled and Chief of Police Jama Korshel. Shortly afterwards Barre became the head of the SRC.

The SRC renamed the country the Somali Democratic Republic, arrested members of the former civilian government, banned political parties, dissolved the parliament and the Supreme Court, and suspended the constitution. Essentially a military junta, the SRC became the de facto executive government and consisted of 25 almost exclusively military officials. The SRC took over all the duties of the President, the National Assembly and the Council of Ministers through the proclamation of the Law Number 1. The old constitution nominally remained under perpetual suspension until the SRC later repealed it in 1970.

Functions and political programme

The revolutionary army established large-scale public works programs, including construction of the Mogadishu Stadium. It also sought to improve the social position of women, using Islamic precepts as a reference point. In addition to a nationalization program of industry and land, the new regime's foreign policy placed an emphasis on Somalia's traditional and religious links with the Arab world, eventually joining the Arab League (AL) in 1974.

The Supreme Revolutionary Council also attempted to resolve the outstanding issue of which of the various writing systems then in use in Somalia should be officialized as the main national orthography. In October 1972, the government unilaterally elected to use the modified Latin script of the linguist Musa Haji Ismail Galal for writing Somali instead of the Arabic or Osmanya scripts. It subsequently launched a large urban and rural literacy campaign designed to ensure the orthography's adoption, which helped dramatically increase the literacy rate.

The SRC further enacted a number of reforms designed to weaken the influence of traditional lineage structures and processes, which Barre regarded as a potential threat to his rule. Offences deemed clan-related were punished with fines and prison sentences, and traditional headmen employed by the previous civilian administration were substituted with hand-picked government peacekeepers (nabod doon). Orientation centers were likewise established, which took over hosting duties for marriage services. Over 140,000 nomadic pastoralists were also resettled in littoral towns and agricultural areas with the additional aim of increasing productivity.

Dissolution and reinstatement

In July 1976, Barre's SRC disbanded itself and established in its place the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party (SRSP), a one-party government claiming to be based on scientific socialism and Islamic tenets. The SRSP was an attempt to reconcile the official state ideology with the official state religion by adapting Marxist-Leninist precepts to local circumstances. Emphasis was placed on the Muslim principles of social progress, equality and justice, which the government argued formed the core of scientific socialism and its own accent on self-sufficiency, public participation and popular control, as well as direct ownership of the means of production. While the SRSP encouraged private investment on a limited scale, the administration's overall direction was nominally socialist.

After the unsuccessful Ogaden campaign of the late 1970s, a new constitution was promulgated in 1979 under which elections for a People's Assembly were held. However, the Politburo of Barre's Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party continued to rule.

In 1980, a state of emergency was declared and the SRC was reconstituted. On 23 October Barre reinstated the Supreme Revolutionary Council via Presidential Decree No. 3, and five subcommittees were established, including Defence & Security and Political.

Members & clan composition

Despite the revolutionary regime's intention to stamp out the clan politics, the government was commonly referred to by the code name MOD. This acronym stood for Mareehaan (Siad Barre's clan), Ogaden (the clan of Siad Barre's mother), and Dulbahante (the clan of Siad Barre son-in-law Colonel Ahmad Sulaymaan Abdullah, who headed the NSS). These were the three clans whose members formed the government's inner circle. In 1975, for example, ten of the twenty members of the SRC were from the Daarood clan-family, of which these three clans were a part; the Digil and Rahanwayn, the sedentary interriverine clan-families, were totally unrepresented.

The following is a list of members of the Supreme Revolutionary Council in February 1970:

Notes

References

• The Europa World Year Book 1970

References

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5. ''The Encyclopedia Americana: complete in thirty volumes. Skin to Sumac'', Volume 25, (Grolier: 1995), p.214.
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12. (1982). "Constitutions of the countries of the world: Somali democratic republic".
13. Abdi Sheik-Abdi. (March 1981). "Ideology and Leadership in Somalia". [[Journal of Modern African Studies]].
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