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Hargeysa, Somaliland, June 20,
2009 (SL Times) – Garaad Saleebaan Dahir Af-qarshe, a prominent
Somaliland traditional leader and the former secretary of the National
Contracts Committee passed away in Addis Ababa on Monday where he had
gone to seek medical treatment. His body arrived in Hargeisa on
Wednesday.
According to the former Minister of Rural Affairs Fuad Adan Adde, who
had known the deceased Garaad since childhood, Garaad Saleebaan Dahir
AF-Qarshe was born in Las Anod where he attended both Quranic school and
elementary schools. He went to intermediate school in Sheikh, started
high school in Amoud but transferred to Sheikh where he finished high
school in 1963.
Mr. Fuad Adan Adde who was a classmate of Garaad Saleebaan Dahir AF-Qarshe
throughout grade school said that after finishing high school, Mr.
Af-Qarshe went to the Soviet Union and studied journalism for four
years. Towards the end of the sixties, Mr. Af-Qarshe started working for
Radio Mogadishu, but left the country after Siyad Barre's military coup
joined the BBC Bush house staff.
In 1977 Mr. Af-qarshe began working for the Abu Dhabi government.
In 1979, Mr. Af-qarshe joined the SSDF armed opposition in Ethiopia and
worked at its Radio Halgan.
In the mid-eighties Mr. Af-qarshe left the SSDF after a dispute with its
leader Abdillahi Yusuf and joined the SNM.
Mr. Af-qarshe held several successive positions at Somaliland's ministry
of information, but his last job was as the secretary of the National
Contracts Committee which he left after disputes with the government.
Mr. Af-qarshe took part in the Berbera preparatory conference as well as
the Burao conference in which Somaliland's independence was declared. He
also participated in many of the other peace and reconciliation
conferences, such as those of Borama, Erigavo and Hargeysa.
Mr. Af-qarshe leaves behind a wife and seven children. The Somaliland
Times send its condolences to the family of the deceased and to all
Somalilanders.
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