Salaad Gabeyre Kediye
{{Short description|Somali senior military official and revolutionary}}
{{Infobox military person
| name = Salaad Gabeyre Kediye
| birth_date = 1933
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1972|7|3|1933|}}
| birth_place = Harardhere, Italian Somalia
| death_place = Mogadishu, Somalia
| death_cause = Execution by firing squad
| placeofburial =
| placeofburial_label =
| image =
| caption =
| nickname =
| allegiance = {{flag|Somalia}}
| branch = Somali National Army
| serviceyears = 1956–1971
| rank = General
| commands =
| battles = 1964 Ethiopian-Somali Border War
| awards =
| alma_mater = Frunze Military Academy
| laterwork =
}}
Salaad Gabeyre Kediye ({{langx|so|Salaad Gabeyre Kediye}}, 1933 – 3 July 1972), also known as Salah Gaveire Kedie, was a Somali senior military official and a revolutionary who was executed by the Siad Barre regime.
Biography
Kediye was born in Harardhere, Somalia, at the time an Italian colony. A career army man, he received military training at the Frunze Military Academy in Moscow (Военная академия им М. В. Фрунзе), an elite Soviet institution reserved for the most qualified officers of the Warsaw Pact armies and their allies.{{cite web|last=Ahmed III|first=Abdul|title=Brothers in Arms Part I|url=http://wardheernews.com/Articles_2011/Oct/29_Brothers_in_Army_abdul.pdf|publisher=WardheerNews|access-date=28 February 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120503221634/http://www.wardheernews.com/Articles_2011/Oct/29_Brothers_in_Army_abdul.pdf|archive-date=3 May 2012|df=}} He later rose to the rank of General in the Somali National Army (SNA).Andrew, p.448
Salad Gabayre was also the son in-law of President Aden Abdulle Osman and played a key role in the early years of the Army, working alongside General Daud Abdulle Hirsi in selecting and training the future batch of many famous and decorated members of the Armed forces who still serve the country decades later.
On October 15, 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 October 21, 1969 (the day after his funeral), in which the SNA seized power without encountering armed opposition — essentially a bloodless takeover. The putsch was spearheaded by Major General Mohamed Siad Barre, who at the time commanded the army.Moshe Y. Sachs, Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations, Volume 2, (Worldmark Press: 1988), p.290.Lipschutz, pp.285-286
Alongside Barre, the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC) that assumed power after President Sharmarke's assassination was claimed to be led by Gen. Kediye and Chief of Police Jama Korshel. Kediye officially held the title of "Father of the Revolution," and Barre shortly afterwards became the head of the SRC.Adam, p.226 The SRC subsequently renamed the country the Somali Democratic Republic,J. D. Fage, Roland Anthony Oliver, The Cambridge history of Africa, Volume 8, (Cambridge University Press: 1985), p.478.The Encyclopedia Americana: complete in thirty volumes. Skin to Sumac, Volume 25, (Grolier: 1995), p.214. arrested members of the former civilian government, banned political parties,{{citation|editor-last= Metz|editor-first = Helen C. |chapter=Coup d'Etat|title=Somalia: A Country Study|year=1992|chapter-url= http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+so0031)|publisher= Library of Congress|location=Washington, D.C.|access-date= October 21, 2009}}. dissolved the parliament and the Supreme Court, and suspended the constitution.Peter John de la Fosse Wiles, The New Communist Third World: an essay in political economy, (Taylor & Francis: 1982), p.279. He was appointed Minister of Defence from April 1970 to July 1970.{{cite book |last1=Mukhtar |first1=Mohamed Haji |last2=Castagno |first2=Margaret |title=Historical dictionary of Somalia |date=2003 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |location=Lanham, Md |isbn=0-8108-4344-7 |edition=New}}
A power struggle eventually ensued at the SRC's leadership. In 1971, Kediye and then Vice President Mohamed Ainanshe Guled were charged with attempting to assassinate President Barre. Both men were shortly afterwards found guilty of treason, and along with Colonel Abdulkadir Dheel, were publicly executed the following year.Adam, p.226
Allegations of KGB Spy
In 2005, Cambridge historian Christopher Andrew published The World Was Going Our Way, a comprehensive account of KGB operations in Africa, Asia and Latin America co-authored with the late KGB Major Vasili Mitrokhin. Based on documents drawn from the Mitrokhin Archive, it alleges that Kediye had been a paid KGB agent codenamed "OPERATOR". Ironically, the KGB-trained National Security Service (NSS), the SRC's intelligence wing, had carried out Kediye's initial arrest.
See also
Notes
{{Reflist}}
References
- {{cite book
| last = Adam
| first = Hussein Mohamed
| authorlink =
|author2=Richard Ford
| title = Mending rips in the sky: options for Somali communities in the 21st century
| publisher = Red Sea Press
| year = 1997
| location =
| pages =
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=0m9yAAAAMAAJ
| doi =
| id =
| isbn = 1-56902-073-6}}
- {{cite book
| last = Andrew
| first = Christopher M.
| authorlink =
|author2=Vasili Mitrokhin
| title = The world was going our way: the KGB and the battle for the Third World
| publisher = Basic Books
| year = 2005
| location =
| pages =
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4eSR1rHg5_YC
| doi =
| id =
| isbn = 0-465-00311-7}}
- {{cite book
| last = Lipschutz
| first = Mark R.
| authorlink =
|author2=R. Kent Rasmussen
| title = Dictionary of African historical biography
| publisher = University of California Press
| year = 1989
| location =
| pages =
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=QYoPkk04Yp4C
| doi =
| id =
| isbn = 0-520-06611-1}}
External links
- [http://www.keydmedia.net/en/article/article/the_40th_anniversary_of_the_execution_of_general_salaad_gabeyre/ The 40th Anniversary of the Execution of General Salaad Gabeyre]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kediye, Salaad Gabeyre}}
Category:20th-century executions by Somalia
Category:Frunze Military Academy alumni
Category:Defence ministers of Somalia
Category:Somalian military leaders
Category:Executed military personnel
Category:People executed by Somalia by firing squad