The ELA Meeting in Ansaba, September 1968
The meeting at Arota, Ansaba, usually referred as
the Ansaba meeting, was convened between 11-18 September 1968. It was attended by 40 delegates
from the 3rd, 4th and 5th Divisions of the ELA
in addition to leaders of the Training and
Support Units. The 2nd Division, which was engaged in a murderous
battle at Halhal three days earlier on 8 September
1968, could not attend this meeting. Likewise, the 1st Division was
absent although it sent two envoys to the meeting (Halibe Sete, alias Ahmed Ibrahim
Nafie, and Mahmoud Ibrahim
M. Saed) asking for a postponement because of the
absence of key division leaders in the field and because of the tragedy that
occurred at Halhal in which over 45 fighters,
including the Commander Omar Ezaz, were martyred. But
the majority of the participants of the Ansaba meeting
felt that the Battle of Halhal was not necessary and
that the meeting should go ahead without the participation of the 1st
and 2nd Divisions, which earlier requested several times for the
postponement of this meeting. The meeting gave birth to the Tripartite Union
whose new leadership, the Provisional Revolutionary Command, consisted of 12
members.
Leaders of the Tripartite
1.
Mohammed Ahmed Abdu, chairman
2.
Abdalla Idris
Mohammed
3.
Mohammed Ali Omaro
4.
Ramadan Mohammed Nur
5.
Abraham Tewolde
6.
Isayas Afeworki
7.
Mohammed Omar Abdalla (Abu Tiyara)
8.
Ahmed Ibrahim
9.
Mohammed Abdalla Taha
(al-Safi)
10. Omar
Damer
11. Abdalla Yusuf
12. Hamid Saleh
Although the meeting participants
could have done better by being more patient and postpone this particular
meeting and wait for the other two divisions to attend, especially in light of
the tragedy at Halhal, the very fact of unifying at
least three divisions of the fragmented liberation army was not a negative
development. After the Ansaba meeting, fighters and
the people intensified their demands for the convening of a general congress.
But two leadership members (Omaro and Isayas) are usually singled out to have strongly campaigned
against the idea of a general congress, insisting that the 1st and
the 2nd Divisions must accept the 12-man Provisional Revolutionary
Command as their leadership and abide by all the decisions made at the Ansaba meeting.
ELF Branches Meet in Gedaref, November 1968
In November 1968, branch members
of the ELF throughout the
Efforts for a wider military
conference continued. Eventually, even the majority of the 12-man leadership of
the Tripartite Union agreed for a joint ELA meeting. However, there were
difficulties because two key of its leaders, Omaro and
Isayas resigned from the leadership in opposition to
the agreement for a conference, although both finally agreed reluctantly to
attend the conference at Adobaha.
The Military Conference of Adobaha, August 1969
The Military Conference of
Adobha met between 10 and 25 August 1969 with 162
participants and took decisions as follows:
- Dissolved
the system of the ethno-regional autonomous 5 Regional Commands (Menatiq/Kiflitat) and agreed to name a 38-man
Provisional General Command (Kiyad Ama muaqat giziyawit Teklalit Merihnet) of a unified army. After heated discussions,
the conference agreed to give 10 seats each to the 1st and
2nd Divisions and 18 seats to the Tripartite Union (consisting of
3rd, 4th and 5th Divisions).
- Formed
a preparatory committee for a national congress.
-
Formed an 18-member committee to investigate mistakes committed in the struggle
for the period up to August 1969.
-
Formed a third committee tasked of taking care of the property of the
organization.
-
Froze the authority of the five field Commanders and of the Kassala-based Revolutionary Command until their cases are
investigated and cleared at a national congress of the ELF.
-
The Supreme Council in
(The Adobaha Conference was convened without the blessing
from Supreme Council.)
Members of the General Command
(Kiyada Ama) named at
Adobaha were: 1. Mohammed Ahmed Abdu, chairman,
2. Ramadan Mohammed Nur, 3. Ahmed Mohammed Ibrahim, 4.
Tesfai Tecle, 5. Saed Saleh, 6. Abdulkader Ramadan, 7. Abdalla
Idris Mohammed, 8. Isayas
Afeworki, 9. Birhan
Bilata, 10. Saleh Omar Kekiya, 11. Osman Ajib, 12. Saleh Ibrahim Mohammed (Jimjam),
13. Adem Saleh Al Haj (Shedeli), 14. Saleh Hayoti, 15. Ahmed Adem Omar, 16. Ahmed Ibrahim Mohammed, 17. Ibrahim Abdalla Mohammed, 18. Yassin Al
Haj, 19. Amir
Tahir Shihabi, 20.
Abdulraqib Mussa,
21. Mohammed Osman Izaz, 22.
Mohammed Ahmed Idris, 23. Jaffer Jabir Omar, 24. Abdalla
Mahmoud, 25. Ibrahim Jamil,
26. Hamid
Mahmoud; 27. Ibrahim Mohammed, 28. Ahmed Hayten, 29. Mussa Mohammed Hashim, 30. Hamid Ahmed Osman, 31. Saleh Faraj Ali, 32. Mohammed Saed Shineti, 33. Abraha Mekonnen, 34. Mohammed Osman Omar
Shaeban, 35. Abdulkadir
Hamdan, 36. Mahmoud Chekini, alias, Mahmoud Ibrahim
Mohammed Saed, 38. Saleh
Mohammed Fikak, and 38. Afa Mohammed Hamid.
The differences, mistrust and
conflicts that were created during the 1965-1969 period of the Regional Commands
(zemene-kiflitat or ayam-menatiq) were not to be healed easily.
Understandably, the conference was heavily affected by the legacies of the
ethno-regional divisions of the preceding five years. Even in the aftermath of
Adobha, allegiances to personalities in the Supreme
Council continued as before. The former members of the Tripartite Union were
still supported by some elements in the Supreme Council and the rest by
others.
By all measures, Adobaha was an end of one era and a beginning of another
whose story will be told later in this series. The upcoming Part V will focus on
the major battles that the ELA fought during that period of ethno-regionalist
rivalries between August 1965 till Adobaha in August 1969.
Source :From the
Experiences of the
Eritrean Liberation
Army (ELA)
Part VIII and Final
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