CONCERNED: East London undertaker Nazeer Obary, seen here at the Muslim section of the East Cemetery opposite Buffalo Park , says this year he has buried eight Somali nationals who were murdered in the city. Picture: NIGEL LOUW

2008/09/15

AN EAST London Muslim undertaker can attest to the fact that the city has not been kind to Somali nationals who have left their country to seek refuge in South Africa .

Although Nazeer Obary is a plumber by trade, he has worked as an undertaker in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape for the last 20 years. Over the last five years he has buried at least 30 Somali nationals – most of whom have died at the hands of thugs. Only one of the Somalis he has buried died of natural causes.

This year alone, Obary has buried at least eight Somali nationals who have been shot. These murders took place in Mdantsane, Ziphunzana and Orange Grove near the East London Airport .

“It's only young men under the age of 30,” he said yesterday, adding that he has buried only one female.

Obary described the mood in the Somali community as desperate.

“They have nowhere else to go. They are running away from a war in their country,” said Obary.

The plight of Somali nationals has recently come under the spotlight in East London , after a spate of attacks resulted in the death of three Somali shop owners in the last two weeks.

The East London police made a possible breakthrough into these killings earlier this week, when they arrested six suspects at a spaza shop in Amalinda Forest on Thursday.

The suspects were apprehended after police foiled armed robbers at the Somali-owned shop. A seventh suspect was shot dead in a shootout between suspects and police who surprised them following a tip-off.

Obary said Somalis are probably considered “soft targets” by criminals because they have nowhere to run to. “They (Somalis) are frustrated because there is nothing they can do about it,” he said.

Obary said he is called in when the state mortuary has completed an autopsy. Once the body is handed over to the undertaker, it is washed, shrouded and buried immediately.

It is believed that Somali burial sites compromise 90 percent of the Muslim section of the East Cemetery opposite Buffalo Park .

Obary has been involved in a number of burials for Egyptians, Pakistanis and Libyans. In the last 20 years, he has had to send the bodies of about 14 foreign nationals back home.

“Somalis believe where you are, you are buried there. That is the correct way,” he said.

He called on communities that are now home to Somalis to stand up against crime. - By CHERI-ANN JAMES

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