Osman Ali Atto

Osman Hassan Ali Atto (1940 – August 5, 2013), also spelled Ato, was a controversial Somali businessman, faction leader, and politician affiliated with the Somali National Alliance.

Career

Atto owned the biggest landed property in Somalia, including many of the buildings in Mogadishu that were rented to relief agencies and the media.[1] He derived significant profits from a tanker trucking company operating from a strategically situated truck yard at Eldoret, in northwestern Kenya, from which he shipped gasoline to Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. This business was allegedly operated by his relatives.[2] In addition to his Somali passport, Atto used passports from Kenya, the United States, and possibly Italy.[3]

Somali Civil War

Atto was a manager of an American oil company during the Somali Civil War. Later, he founded his own oil company and reportedly acquired a stake in Bluebird Aviation during the early 1990s in order to import khat from his close relatives who were based in Kenya.[4]

Osman Ali Atto was already wealthy and strategically well positioned when the civil war started in the spring of 1990. Atto had also been involved with the construction industry. He had been able to acquire trucks and heavy construction machinery, making him the only Somali capable of being a reliable contractor for construction projects by Western companies. Among the Somali country managers of international oil companies, Atto was known as "Monsieur Dozer" because of his ability to cut through the most difficult territory and establish access roads to remote sites. His monopoly made him powerful before other faction leaders started to ascend.[5] Atto was the khat industry leader during the early 1990s, when he was second in command to Mohammed Farah Aidid. Aidid thus became the strongest faction leader.[6][7] Atto was also said to be involved in trade of hashish from countries in Asia, which was smuggled into Kenya and Tanzania on vessels and small boats. Information indicates that they exported more than 400 kilograms of hashish to neighbouring countries. There has also been information about marijuana plantations in Camba, Jilib and Merere in the Jubba Valley region.[8]

Atto was captured by Task Force Ranger on September 21, 1993, from a location near Digfer Hospital. The Rangers had made an earlier attempt at Atto's capture, but missed him by seconds. In a speech at a church in Daytona, in January 2002, William Boykin, responsible for the operation, recounted, "There was a man in Mogadishu named Osman Atto... He went on CNN and he laughed at us, and he said, 'They'll never get me because Allah will protect me.'"[9] The arrest was later portrayed in the 2001 film Black Hawk Down.[10] In an interview with the BBC, Atto indicated that many aspects of the movie are factually incorrect. He took exception with the ostentatious character chosen to portray him; Atto does not look like the actor who portrayed him, smoke cigars, or wear earrings,[11] facts which were later confirmed by SEAL Team Six sniper Howard E. Wasdin in his 2012 memoirs. Wasdin also indicated that while the character in the movie ridiculed his captors, Atto in reality seemed concerned that Wasdin and his men had been sent to kill rather than apprehend him.[12] Atto additionally stated that he was not consulted about the project or approached for permission, and that the film sequence re-enacting his arrest contained several inaccuracies:[11] "First of all when I was caught on 21 September, I was only travelling with one Fiat 124, not three vehicles as it shows in the film... And when the helicopter attacked, people were hurt, people were killed... The car we were travelling in, and I have got proof, it was hit at least 50 times. And my colleague Ahmed Ali was injured on both legs... I think it was not right, the way they portrayed both the individual and the action. It was not right.[11]

On July 9, 1994 the Lower Jubba Peace Conference led to a peace agreement signed by Atto as the Somali National Alliance (SNA) representative and by general Hersi Morgan of the Somali National Front (SNF). However, Hersi Morgan's adversaries in Lower Jubba, the Absame clan, did not take part, making the peace accord stillborn. In late 1994, Atto's car drove over a land mine and broke both his feet.[13]

Atto's war with Aidid

On June 15, 1995, General Aidid declared a government and was elected president by his coalition, but at the same time, his faction split. Atto declared that he was Chairman of the SNA. Aidid's self-declared government was not recognised internationally and was unable to administer the portion of the city it claimed to control. Fighting between the forces of Atto and of General Aidid in South Mogadishu led to 200 dead between April and June 1996 and 150 in July 1996. A son of Atto was shot by a sniper in the so-called "banana war".[14]

On April 27, 1996, the faction of the United Somali Congress/Somali National Army (USC/SNA) which supported Atto decided on a programme to enforce sharia (Islamic court and laws) in southern Mogadishu, where Atto's forces were trying to impose control. A committee was nominated to prepare the installation of Islamic courts, and an appeal was issued to Islamic leaders to decide on the religious personalities most suited to head these courts. Islamic courts were already in place in the northern part of Mogadishu controlled by Ali Mahdi Mohammed, Atto's new ally.[15] The U.S. Department of State asserted, in its Country Report for Somalia for the year 2000, that the killing of Yusuf Tallan, a former general under the Barre regime, was connected to Atto. The report did not provide specific corroboration for the assertion.[16] According to the UNHCR, Atto was responsible for an attack on July 26, 2000, in which about fifty militiamen in heavily armed vehicles attacked the Mogadishu compound of the NGO Action Internationale contre la Faim (ACF), in which two international staff members (French administrator Francoise Deutsch, and British logistician Jonathan Ward) were taken hostage. They were released after the International Committee of the Red Cross intervened on their behalf.[17]

Militiamen loyal to Atto are also alleged to be responsible for a July 14, 2001, ambush of a World Food Programme (WFP) relief convoy near Mogadishu, in which six persons were killed.[18]

In 2004, the Chairman of the Security Council Committee described Atto as an individual who exemplifies "the interaction between looting and the exploitation of Somalia's resources and infrastructure and the financing of warfare".[19]

Transitional Federal Government (TFG)

In 2006, Atto was involved in peace efforts between the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). He told the media that he welcomed the operations by ICU to eradicate all illegal checkpoints formed inside and outside of the capital.[20] On July 27, 2006, 19 ministers resigned, including Atto. Atto said he came back from the capital with an agreement from the Islamic courts that fresh talks be held, but he said that Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi was "an obstacle to progress" and had refused to listen.[21] On May 30 he was kidnapped by the ICU, who were waging an insurgency against the Ethiopian troops and the Somali government soldiers. Atto was kidnapped by insurgents manning a checkpoint while he was driving to Mogadishu. The Islamic Courts later released him.[22] On August 5, 2013 Atto died of natural causes at his Mogadishu residence.

Airports and checkpoints

The most significant commodity brought to all airports in Somalia is khat, which accounts for 30–50% of the total income for each airport. Daynile airport, located near Mogadishu, generates an estimated $1.5 million in revenues each year. In 2006, shares of those revenues were said to be split between Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, Atto and two other shareholders (Omar Muhamoud Finnish and Ifka Halane of the ICU).[23] Atto collected $4.3 million from checkpoints at Afgooye, about 30 kilometres west of Mogadishu.[24]

See also

References
  1. Jutta Baykoni, Instabile Staatlichkeit, Zur Transformation politischer Herrschaft in Somalia, 2001, pp. 89-90
  2. Letter dated 25 March 2003 from the Chairman of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 751, pt. 109 (1992) concerning Somalia addressed to the President of the Security Council
  3. Letter dated 25 March 2003 from the Chairman of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 751, pt. 110 (1992) concerning Somalia addressed to the President of the Security Council
  4. Report of the panel of experts on Somalia pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1474 United Nations 2003 a, p. 36
  5. Letter dated 25 March 2003 from the Chairman of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 751 (1992) concerning Somalia addressed to the President of the Security Council, pt. 107
  6. Jonathan Stevenson, Krazy Khat: Somalia's Deadly Drug War, in New Republic. Vol. 207, No 22, (23 Nov 1992), p. 17. cited in Journal of the Singapore Armed Forces, Journal V28 N1 (Jan-Mar 2002), Global White Powder Kegs: The Smoking Gun of Drug Money & Dirty Wars by MAJ Irvin Lim Fang Jau & LT Douglas Tastad
  7. Alessandro Politi, Analisi strategica dei nuovi rischi all'inizio del millennio nella Regione Mediterranea: Verso la fine degli anni '90 sembra che gran parte del traffico di droga sia stato controllato dal signore della guerra Osman Atto, che era precedentemente il vice di Aidid. Per Aspera ad Veritatem N.17 maggio-agosto 2000
  8. "Letter dated 11 August 2004 from the Chairman of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 751 (1992) concerning Somalia addressed to the President of the Security Council" (PDF). Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  9. The Pentagon Unleashes a Holy Warrior Archived 2012-07-21 at the Wayback Machine
  10. "Warlord thumbs down for Somalia film". 2002. Retrieved 2018-06-27.
  11. "Warlord thumbs down for Somalia film". BBC News. January 29, 2002. Retrieved February 3, 2012.
  12. Wasdin, Howard (2011). SEAL Team Six – Memoirs of a US Navy Sniper. pp. 225–226.
  13. "S O M A L I A". www.africa.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2018-06-27.
  14. Extensive analysis of the "banana war" in Somalia: Fighting for the Plenty: The Banana Trade in Southern Somalia by Christian Webersik, The Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York, USA, Oxford Development Studies, Vol. 33, No. 1, March 2005
  15. Indian Ocean Newsletter, 27 April 1996 and Indian Ocean Newsletter, 4 May 1996
  16. "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000: Somalia". US Department of State. 2001-02-23. Retrieved 2007-01-14.
  17. http://www.unhcr.org/home/RSDCOI/402d08b14.pdf Archived 2006-11-26 at the Wayback Machine UNCHR Somalia country report, chapter 3: groups at risk 3.18 (p.142)
  18. Somalia, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2002, Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 31, 2003, chapter: RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom From:, subsection: a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life (10th paragraph). The ambush was first reported in: Somalia, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2001, Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 4, 2002
  19. Letter dated 11 August 2004 from the Chairman of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 751 (1992) concerning Somalia addressed to the President of the Security Council
  20. Wed. June 28, 2006 08:52 am. SomaliSpot Politics
  21. Blackwell-Synergy Africa Research Bulletin 16709 Juli 1st -31st 2006
  22. Garowe Online - Home
  23. Letter dated 11 August 2004 from the Chairman of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 751 (1992) concerning Somalia addressed to the President of the Security Council, pt.134-137
  24. United Nations S/2006/229 Security CouncilDistr.: General 4 May 2006 Original: English 06-30515 (E) 050506*0630515* Letter dated May 4 2006 from the Chairman of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 751 (1992) concerning Somalia addressed to the President of the Security Council, p.17 and 18
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