Camden New Journal - EXCLUSIVE by PAUL KEILTHY Published: 27 September 2007
Saida Mahamed, Mison Cobdi Hassan and Shareo Osman, whose sons were convicted for their part in the fatal attack
Together in one room, the mother of a murdered student and the families whose sons were in the gang that killed him
THEY had eyed each other across the corridors of the Old Bailey, but the families of the killers and the killed had never met.
On Sunday, Aisha Samatar sat calmly as the sitting room of her Chalk Farm maisonette filled with the parents of the young men convicted of a part in her son’s death. Mahir Osman, an 18-year-old student, was murdered by a 30-strong mob in Camden High Street in January last year. “We came to show our condolences, and we wanted to start the Somali way of resolving things,” said Midiyoum Ahmed Roble, the father of one of the boys who is now in prison. “These parents are very sorry about what has happened and, if they had known, they would have stopped it.”
Mahir’s killing was the culmination of a series
of violent exchanges between predominately Somali groups, the Camden Boys and the North London Somalis, based in Haringey and Enfield.
Sunday’s meeting had brought the parents into Aisha Samatar’s home to fulfil their duty under Somali custom to make amends for the actions of their family.
They perched on sofas and along the floor and spoke to Aisha Samatar in turn, some tersely, some at length.
Two of the mothers wept, while Mohammed Hassan, the father of Liban Hassan, serving five years for conspiracy to wound and weapons offences, called the room to a prayer that included a reminder of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasts and forgiveness. “I accept your condolences,” said Mrs Samatar, who had listened in silence.
She said afterwards: “I told them: ‘I accept your condolences, but you are very late. Why did you not come when my son was buried?’ I will never forgive, never. “But these condolences, though they are late, I accept, because I respect my culture. This is not a reconciliation, but it is a beginning.”
For the community leaders from Camden and Enfield who had arranged this meeting the exchange was a success. “It took great courage for them to come here,” said Enfield-based Ahmed Elmi. “The boy who got killed is our boy too. We have to wake up as a community and prevent this type of accident from happening again. “They know that under the Somali way they were late, but that was because there was state involvement [the court case] and they could not intervene.”
But there was also recognition that the murder has created bitterness and confusion among the families and in the wider Somali community.
The killing of engineering student Mahir Osman was of a savagery that shocked onlookers and the Old Bailey jury who watched it unfold through CCTV footage of the night of his death.
One Somali-speaking bystander heard the cry “Kill him, kill him, stab him through the heart” as the gang surrounded Mahir. Of the 13 accused convicted for their part in the attack, 10 are teenagers and the oldest is 25.
Mrs Samatar has no time for the observation that her visitors, like her, have lost sons, although three are serving life sentences for murder. “I will never see my son,” she said. “Theirs will be in prison but they will see them again, perhaps after they have had the chance to learn or to receive some training.”
But she added that she had some sympathy for them. “As a mother I know how they feel inside,” she said.
The puzzle for community leaders is to explain how the children of predominantly middle-class parents should be caught up in a cycle of violence. “The boys arrested for this were from a cross-section of clans,” said Abdul Farah, from Camden’s Somali Community Centre. “It is what has happened to them in London – the experience of being a refugee – that has led to this. Some of them start in crime as early as 10, even eight. “We as parents feel helpless, as if we have no control over our children.”
Now that contact has been made between the families of the killers and the killed, further meetings will seek to break down the resentment and suspicion that still underlies their dealings. “This is a beginning, but it is important. We aim to stop such events from happening again,” said Mr Farah.
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