Dokument #1177188
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
Please find attached two documents that
provide information further to that provided in Responses to
Information Requests SOM6503 of 16 July 1990, SOM6462 of 19 July
1990, SOM9850 of 3 December 1991, SOM15220 of 10 September 1993 and
SOM19446.E of 30 January 1995. Please note that brief references to
the Red Berets or Red Hats can also be found in Responses to
Information Requests SOM3461 of 3 January 1990 and SOM9977 of 30
December 1991.
One of the attached documents provides some
detail on the organization and operations of the Red Berets (Duub
Cas), describing it as "a dreaded elite unit recruited from among
the president's Mareehaan clansmen" (Somalia: A Country
Study 1993, 49). The source also describes this unit as one
"whose members acted as bodyguards for Siad Barre, and which was
commanded by Siad Barre's eldest son" (ibid., 154). The other
attachment does not refer by name to the Red Berets, but describes
a massacre that involved "members of the 77th Sector of the army,
which is under the personal command of Masleh Mohamed Siad Barre,
the son of the president" (News from Africa Watch 21 July
1989, 1). This source does not clarify whether the commander of the
army unit was the eldest of the President's sons. However, the
first attachment attributes this massacre to the Red Berets
(Somalia: A Country Study 1993, 52). For additional
information, please refer to the attached documents.
This response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the DIRB within time constraints. This response is not, and does
not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular
claim to refugee status or asylum.
News from Africa Watch [New
York]. 21 July 1989. "Somalia: Tiananmen Square Revisited: Soldiers
Shoot Demonstrators: Reprisal Killings and Mass Arrests
Follow."
Somalia: A Country Study. 1993.
Edited by Helen Chapin Metz. Washington, DC: Library of
Congress.
News from Africa Watch [New
York]. 21 July 1989. "Somalia: Tiananmen Square Revisited: Soldiers
Shoot Demonstrators: Reprisal Killings and Mass Arrests Follow,"
pp. 1-2.
Somalia: A Country Study. 1993.
Edited by Helen Chapin Metz. Washington, DC: Library of Congress,
pp. 48-52, 154, 224.