Crime committed and collaborated by the ELF Leaders

Purge and Liquidation in the ELF in the 1970s by Resoum Kidane

Although the second Congresswas attended by 949 democratically elected delegates , many new recruits from secondary schools and Santa familia who joined the ELF were not welcome to the elected leaders of the ELF-RC in the mid-1970s. As a result of this there was conflict between new fighters who joined Front with a secular vision and seeking greater democracy, and the old ELF leadership.

Here is more information related to the ELF internal crisis from ታሪኽ ኣይንረስዕ፡ ጉዕዞና ክቐንዕ -ካብ 1973 ክሳብ 1975 ዓ.ም. ኣብ ዝነበረ መድረኽ፣ ተጋድሎ ሓርነት ኤርትራ ብሓደስቲ ተጋደልቲ እናተዓብለለ እዩ መጺኡ። እዞም ተጋደልቲ እዚኣቶም ብሓያል ሃገራዊ ስምዒት ንናጽነት ክቃለሱ ዝመጹ፣ ኣብ ዝኾነ ድሑር ፖለቲካ ዘይተመራስሑ ንጹሃት መንእሰያት እዮም። ብዘይካ መስዋእቲ ከፊልካ ናጽነት ኤርትራ ምምጻእ ድማ፣ ካልእ ድጉል ተጻባኢ ዕላማን ድርኺትን ኣይነበሮምን። ይኹን እምበር፣ እዚ ምዕባለታት’ዚ ንዓብደላ እድሪስ ኣይተበርሆን። ካብቲ ድሑርን ወገናዊን ኣጠማምታኡ ዝብገስ፣ ነዞም ሓደስቲ ተጋደልቲ ፍጹም ኣይፈተዎምን። ብዓይኒ ጽልኢን ስግኣትን እዩ ጠሚትዎም። ከም ንኣሽቱ ኣሕዋቱ፣ ከም ወገኑን ጸግዑን ኣይርኣዮምን። ምኽንያቱ፣ እዞም ሓደስቲ ተጋደልቲ መብዛሕትኦም ተማሃሮ እዮም። ብዙሓት ካብኣቶም ድማ ደቂ ከበሳ። ዓብደላ እድሪስ፣ ምምጻእ ናይዚ ሓድሽ ሓይሊ ከቢድ ጥርጣረን ፍርሒን እዩ ኣሕዲሩሉ። Read more

1974 ካልኣዊ ግርጭት ብልዝብ ንምንታይ ዘይፍታሕ? ኢሎም ሕቶ ንዘልዓሉ 47 ተጋደልቲ ደቂ ከበሳ ነበሩ። መልሲ፡ ካብ ደቂ ዓዋተ ዝተዋህበ ካብ ላዕለዋይ መሪሕነት ክቕንጸሉ ኣለዎም፡ እዚኦም “ሰውራ ምዳዳ ወይ ጸረ ገድሊ እዮም” ኢልካ ተወሰነ። ሕሩይ ተድላ ባይሩ ኣብ ሜዳ ብምንባሩ፡ ታሪኻዊ ዝኾነ ኣብ ሜዳ ኤርትራ ኣኼባ ሮራ መንሳዕ ንክልተ መዓልትን ለይትን ዝወሰድ ኣኼባ እዩ። ንሱ ድማ፡ ነዚ ውሳኔ ነጸጎ፡ “እዚ ብምርሻን ኣይኮነን ዝፍታሕ ኣነ ውን ነዚ ሓሳቦም ይቕበሎየ ኢሉ” ካብ ምርሻን ኣድሓኖም። ስዒቡ ግና ፋሉል ተባሂሎም ንኽጠፍኡ 1977 ፈ ረድዎም። read more

Gaim(2008: 297 p) states that a small organization known as marksawi gujle (MAGU) (Marxist Group) under the leadership of Hurui Tedla Bairu and Said Saber, was secretly created to provide leadership to the internal opposition, as well as to articulate its demands, but this task proved far beyond its capability and means.(Said Saber later became one of the leaders of the Eritrean Islamic Jihad Movement) Notwithstanding the fact that the internal oppositions was disorganized, disarticulated, spontaneous and scattered, the ELF's leadership felt threatened and unleashed a vicious campaign of demonisation and intimidation of the individuals it suspected of being key actors in the movement. In an attempt to discredit the spontaneous internal opposition, the leadership gave the movement a derogatory name "Falul" which literally means the unruly.

The decision of the RC third regular session was opposed by three groups- a sizeable proportion of the rank and file of the Front, an unknown but substantial number of political cadres and some members of the RC. When the decision to invite the EPLF and the ELF-PLF was taken at the RC's third regular session, some members of the latter opposed the decision, MAGU dispatched its cadres secretly to different battalions and units to provide leadership to the rejectionist Movement, but the iinformation leaked out and ten of the cadres, including Yohannes Asmelash, were caught and detained in a place called Humert Kelbo. Given the seriousness of the case, they were handed over to Abdella Idris, who was at the time head of the Labor Party's Security Department and head of the Front's military office. They were intensively interrogated by Abedella and were later handed over to Melake Tekle, head of the Front's Security Departmrnt. Six cadres from Battalion 149, hereafter B149 were also detained and brought to Humert Kelbo.

Those who were detained included Yohannes Asmelash, Andeab Gebremeskel(member of the RC), Gebrebrehan Zere, Giorgis Habte,Mezgeb Gebrehiwet, Kifle Asgedom, Asgedom Embaye, Zenna Mengesteab, Hagos Zeru and Mengsteam Mesmer all from MAGU. Another six from Battalion 149 were also detained-Fessehye Tareke Medhanie(Abraraw), and four others the list of the detaines was obtained from Yohannes Asmelash [source Gaim 326]

The detainees were subjected to inhuman treatment at the head of two notorious tortures-Haile Woldesellassie and his deputy Zekarias. The two also tortureed to death another fighters, Suleiman Dinni. In Yohannes' view the two tortuers, especially Zekaris were most probably sadists and insane. According to Yohannes who was a detainee himself, the detainees were repeatedly tortured throughout the three years he was there. Although the Rejectionists were everywhere they were most heavily concentrated in batalions B262 in Z4 (Senhit) headed by Said Saleh and B149 in the vicinity of Agordat, in which the commander was Mahmoud Dine. This was notwithstanding the fact that Said Saleh and Mahmoud Dinai were strongly opposed to the demands of the Rejectionists, and later played a key role in the suppression of the movement[Gaim p301]

When the first commander Mahmout Dinai was on leave, the fighters insisted that their demand for an audience with a representative of the RC should be responded to. The deputy commander who was then in charge told them conceitedly that the decision to allow the armed wing of the ELF-PLF to operate in the liberated areas controlled by B149 was his own decision . His blatant lack of accountability incensed the fighters who detained him as a result.

Around July 8-9 1977, those in B149 detected unusual movements of heavily armed contigents outside of Tekerer, where they were grounded, they never suspected that the leadership would use force against them. But later the leadership had cut all supplies and the fighters had no food for two days.What the fighters did not know was that they were already encircled by heavey armed battalions. When two of their comrades Guish Tsehaie and Berhane Woldu, went to a nearby teashop, they never returned. It was later found out that they were killed by the forces that encircled B149. Tedros said " they showered us with heavy rains of bullets from all direction" Those who led the internal opposition ordered the fighters not to shoot back but some disregarded the order and shot back and this gave the survivor a respite to escape..Although many were killed non of the interviewes was able to estimate the number of dead as the survivors fled in different directions[302]

The majority of the surviors from B149 retreated to the Eritrean highlands and Tedros Tsegai with eight of his comrades fled toward Gash Barka.. His group was captured on July 11, 1977, by the militiamen and brought to a detention centre where some of the survivors were detained. Just an hour before Tedros and his group arrived at the detention center; Mahmoud Dinai, Mahmoud Amharay and Hussein Kelifa from the military office came with a list and took away 11 individual whom they suspected were ringleaders. All but one Simon who managed to escape handcuffled were subsequently executed gruesomely. According to Tedros Tsegai the 11 fighters who were summarily and cruetlly stabbed to death did not play any leadership role[303]

According to Tedros Tsegai, the ELF''s military office seized the opportunity to eliminate as many "undesirablr element" as possible before the detainees were handed over to the security office. Salhadin came with a list containing three names including , including Tedros, were about to be taken away for execuation when trucks friom the security office arrived and frustrated the military office's plan.. About 70 fighters were handed over to the security office, which was then headed by Melake Tekle. There were about 800 detainees in the detention centre, the detainees were treated inhumanly in the detention centre. Thet were routinely torured and many suffered disability as a result [303] Six months later, a committee was formed by the leadership to sentence those who were accused of the Falul. Tedros received five years and the others received different punishment some up to eight years. Two were sentenced to death. It is not known who those two were but all interviewees thought that they were Andeab Andemeskel and Gebrebrehan Zere. The seven detainees including Yohannes Asmelash had already served three years indetention and were released immediately. The seven detainees were released when the civil war in progress(1979), and were sent to the front line.. In 1979 a major civil war broke out and Tedros and all the prisoners received amnesty to join the fighting. The ELF which was aleardy weakned by internal feuds could not withstand or resist the coordinated offensive launched against it on two fronts by the EPLF and TPLF. It was therefore thrown in disarry.

The Rejectionist Movement was a popular one, but like many other internal oppoisitions in the Eritrean war of independence, there is nothing written about it.

Gaim adds that the Rejectionist Movement was an expression of tension that exist between the change seeking forces that joined the ELF in the mid-1970s and the conservative forces that were deeply entrenched in the status quo and consequently were opposed to democratic change, the ELF was loosely organized not by design but inefficiency. The loose form of organization provided an opportunity for different trends and sometimes groups to emerge espousing political lines that were different from or opposed to the party line. Since the early 1970s, there was grass roots movement within the ELF opposed to the civil war. The grass roots movement got a new lease on life after the mid-1970s following the large influx into the ELF of thousands of young educated groups who were in favour of change and unity.

Most of the interviwees say that the overwhelming majority of those who actively advocated for change and rejected the mistaken line of the leadership with regard to the third force and its corrupt practices and nepotism were Christian high landers. The military office was dominated by Abdella Idris tribe, the Beni Amer. The Rejectionist Movement, besides being spontaneous, lacked any source of supplies of weapons and other necessary logistics. It therefore faced the same fate as its counterpart in the EPLF, the Menqae. [303]

G. Hiwot (2008) also provided a good analysis to the conflicts between the ELF.RC leaders and new comers in the following “Jebha of the seventies was undergoing a huge identity crisis. With tens of thousands of youth from Kebessa flocked to mieda, it had a hard problem absorbing them without simultaneously undergoing a drastic change in its identity. Many of the powerful Jebha leaders, and many of their followers, couldn’t reconcile themselves to this. In 1977 the conflict between those who were seeking greater democracy (the Falul movement) and the ELF leaders who were against change as the EPLF leaders led the ELF leaders to take military action against the Falul.

Consequence, some of the newly recruited fighters (Falul ) were also killed by the ELF leaders and others were imprisoned and tortured by the ELF security members. Regarding this Mussie Gebreab who joined the ELF(Jebha) as a teen age in December of 1974 and was a prisoner in 1977 states that , I have seen and experienced much worse than these at the hands of Salih Gadi's( Vaseline) Idol Abdella Idris(Hankish) and co. It takes a book to tell all the untold crimes commuted by Vaseline and his bosses on the Eritrean youth at the Eritrean field, but let me share few of them with you.We demanded to meet with the chairman of the organization Ahmed Naser and they told us Okay but they have to divided the battalion in to two group the one who accepts their explanation and the one who still want to meet Ahmed Naser.Taknicaly the one who support unity dialog with the EPLF in the Eritrean field or the Sabe and Agib group in Sudan. Few month later Abdela Idris ordered to the one who want to meet Ahmed Naser a meeting and to the others sent to to other area to guard us from enemies and we was waiting relaxed for Ahmed Naser to show up to met with us.the next minuet I remember was ranting a hell of bullets and bombs on us from all direction by Abdela Idris special forces. we fought back bravely but no body was ready for these broad day light masker.the majority dead fighting heroically, the few lucky made it all the way to EPLF dejen and join the EPLF to continue the struggle with them, and the rest of us fought back until our last bullet and got captured by Abdela Idris forces. they took us to security, torture and tehadso comp run by Saleh gadi(Vaseline) and co from the Security( enda ztetta) organ run under Melake tekle administration,the most notorious interrogators was Haile Woldeselasie. Zekarias wedi keren, and Saleh Gadi of course no body call him Salh Gadi but Vaseline. Read more

Berekhetab Habtemariam in 2010 in his article "Harmonized Constitution’: Too Good To Be True" also wrote that... The signing of the Khartoum Accord in September 1975, which contravened resolutions of the Second National Congress (SNC) and was intended to further marginalize and attack the EPLF, caused a series of opposition within the rank and file of the ELF known as the Rejectionist Movement or derogatively as Falul. Contrary to the Second National Congress’s decision of negotiating unity with the field leadership of the EPLF, the ELF leadership signed the Khartoum Accord only with Osman Saleh Sabbe – a self-appointed leader of the foreign delegation of the EPLF – thus completely disregarding EPLF’s field leadership. This was the cause for the Rejectionist Movement and its members felt that peace and unity could not be attained without direct talks with the EPLF field leadership. This was the recommendation of the SNC. Nevertheless, this movement was seen as a Christian-highlanders motivated plot and the ELF leadership resorted to take drastic measures to quell it. According to Dr. Gaim Kibreab most members of the Rejectionist Movement were in Battalions 262 and 149, and in July 8-9, 1977 they were encircled and cruelly massacred. In his ‘Critical Reflections’, Dr. Kibreab records the following testimony from those who escaped this cold-blooded murder of innocent combatants:

“All the people I have interviewed argued that the aim of the ELF leaders was not only to defeat the internal opposition, but also to use the opportunity to eliminate groups and individuals whom they regarded as a threat to their power. If the aim was to quell the rebellion, the Front could have captured them easily without the use of force. The fighters in B149 were caught unaware while they stood motionless to observe a minute’s silence. They posed no danger to the leadership or to those who attacked them.” (Kibreab, ‘Critical Reflections’, 2008; p. 303).Read more

What is ironically tragic is that all those Falul insurgents who died valiantly in the Massawa front ended up in their executioner’s roaster of martyrs. For all practical purposes, these are the ones of whom we could undoubtedly say, “sighumti tewesidulom”. The way Shaebia handled the Falul crisis comes from the old books of tyrants like Stalin, who got rid of many of those they suspected through a similar process.

The Falul group is part of that naïve student generation that, with all optimism and good will, flocked to mieda in a futile search for that elusive “unity”, that common thread that would weave “Eritrean identity”, only to be wiped out by two regressive identities – the sectarian identity of Jebha and the alien identity of Shaebia"[source: Falul and identity crisis] by Yosief G. Hiwot.

According to Killion (1998, 214) In June a Falul splinter group acting largely on its own, assassinated two RC members in Dankel, provoking a purge of the dissidents and the flight of some 2,000 fighters to Ala, from where they joined the EPLF.

Furthermore, Mengesteab in his book “Anatomy of an African Tragedy” wrote . When the ELF internally fractured, a group of democratic fighters, numbering around two thousand, broke away from the front in 1977 and tried to create their own liberation space. Pursued by the “mother” front, however, they were unable to establish themselves as a viable and independent force, and they were prompted to join the EPLF. Simple commensense dictates that the EPLF leadership would have integrated these democratic by spreading them around the front’s various entities. Instead, the Isaias leadership deployed them as a group to Massawa front where a fierce battle was raging between the EPLF and the Ethiopian army. Msssawa was wherethe former ELF democratis perished without enough survivors to tell their story.

In the 1970s the victms of the ELF leaders were not only Falul but also those fighters who crticize the leadership of the ELF were eliminated under different cover up Yemin, Dugul Yemin, Dugul Falul) by the ELF leaders.

Nabira in his paper Where are the Dots to be Connected Here? point out the declaration of war on the alleged Yemanwi kinfi (right wing) in 1978 in Dankalia, in which many unsung patriots such as Omer Suba were killed and liquidated by special ELF units. Referring the ELF liquidation policy in 1970s there is also a report from other source about individual fighters who questioned the ELF leadership’s corruption and division were placed into the security’s hand and interrogated, imprisoned, tortured and killed.

Furthermore according to Gaim (2008: 307) the Minifere rebels were not driven by religious fanaticism but rather by ethnic sectarianism. When the leader of the rebellion, Mahomud Hussein, was freed from prison in 1975 and joined the leadership of the ELF, he soon became disillusioned by the manner in which the ELF was led. He was particularly concerned about relegation to the background of the Saho-speaking fighters of the ELF. In his view, although the Saho-speaking fighters represented a considerable proportion of the fighting force and were among the foundating members of the Front, they were allegedly used as cannon fodder. Inorder to dramatize the plight of the Saho fighters the leaders of the group referred to them as debaba al beshirriya (human tanks). The group believed that Barentu was liberated thanks to the heavy sacrifice made by the Saho fighters. The Saho and the other fighters from the rest of Eritrea were allegedly told by the people from the Western lowland. " gedem adna t'harret, adkum hariru" (our areas now liberated, liberate your own areas). This is supposed to have infuriated Mahmoud Hussein and a few other Minifere fighters and consequently they decided to "initiate a secreate organization to take over power and rescue the ELF from the domination of the Beni Amer" According to his version, the ELF leadership deliberately labeled the group as Islamic fundamentalist inorder to justify its destruction.

Among them were those 10 veterans ELF fighters who were killed by the ELF force in a place called Ibbi, Dankalia on 22 May 1978 were :

The liquidation of the 10 veterans ELF fighters were confirmed by Ahemed Naser who was the chair man of the ELF at that time in the following
We foiled this reactionary project by resolutely liquidating these elements on May 22, 1978. The Eritrean Liberation Army units assigned this duty executed it perfectly.” One of those martyrs was Hussen the founder of the ELF in Cairo with Taha.

Ahemed Naser

All those killed were from the Saho-speaking Minifere and the chairman of the ELF, Ahmed Nasser, was a Saho-speaking Asaorta, a group of elders and community leaders representing the Minifere issued a scathing condemnation of the Revolutionary Council. Afinger was pointed at the Asaorta, particularly chairman Ahmed Nasser. Although Eritrean civilian elders had often distanced themselves from the misdeeds of the leaderships of the liberation fronts, this was the first time elders claiming to represent a whole tribe condemned the ELF's leadership for a crime committed against a particular social group-the Minifer. Source Gaim 2008 :308}

There are many poems about the heroism of the group and about the betray of the ELF leadership. The Saho language is rich in poetry. One of the poems on the group which was composed by the famous Saho poet, the late Haji Saleh Omer Indigo who lived in Saudi Arabia, read as follows
Garbad ani alaitme	You matured in your mothers' wombs
Gombod ani ifarteme	You joined the struggle when you were toddlers
Sitinat Asmara saiteme	You moved to Asmara in the sixties
Fishalle Meduwed beiteme	You abducted handcuffing officials
Mekinon nini abubutieme	You chose to serve your country instead of your father
Mekinon nini inenuteme	You chose to serve your country instead of your mothers
Dinti kenina aka bahteme	They made you swallow sleeping pills
Tenek lo temen abtene	You were ten in number
Ten sajaak shih abtene	But they received you as a thousand
Sisayo kini gobon tekeme	Your death in their death
Sin iro kini wiiteme	Your orphaned children were also their children
Tenseral Jebha hajemjeme	Yourof death means the end the ELF
According to the elders concerned, the decision to eliminate the group was moivated by sectarianism. Although this claim is difficult to substantiate, the incident clearly indicated that the ELF leadership was still intolerant and had not yet embraced nonviolent means of conflict resolution.The incident was mentioned by a number of interviwees to show that appearance notwithstanding, the ELF had not changed substantially from the time the breakaway groups abandoned it to create the EPLF [Source Critical refelections:2008 p308]

Saed Hussien Mohammed was born in 1935 in the village of Se-ito-lede-gi, between Qohaito and Nebegede. He was recruited to ELF ant the 60s end. His education was at Cairo University and became member of the front in Cairo as a student, being one of the first ones with Idris Awate. Being a mindful and brave man, he recruited many fighters to join the front. To make the Eritrean cause publicized in the world, he became one of the first fedayeens while fighters struggled in the front. He was successful in many deeds and once while trying to hijack an airplane in Asmera, with his comrade Mohammed Birhan they were discovered and caught. High officials like Abey Abebe asked him to work with them and he would be given high position but he refused. He was then sentenced for fifteen years imprisonment and taken to Alem Bekagn prison and was there for 12 years. Then in 1975 he was transferred to Eritrea. That year the ELF freed prisoners in Asmera and Adi Quala.But he was not amongst the freed because he was hospitalized Since he was an important fighter to free, the fighters advanced to the hospital before the Ethiopians and with tactics he was freed and joined the other freed mates. He had contributed to the front and at last was martyred while trying to proceed with his belief.

ስዒድ ሑሴን ድማ፣ ኣብ 1956 ኣብ ውግእ ስወዝ ካናል ኣብ ጎድኒ ሰራዊት ግብጺ ተሰሊፉ ዝተዋግአ፣ ሓደ ካብቶም ኣብ ምምስራት ጀብሃ ዝተዋስኡ ናይ ካይሮ ተማሃራይ ኮይኑ፣ ኣብ 1963 ኣብ መዕርፎ ነፈርቲ ኣስመራ ምስ ገለ ተጋደልቲ ኮይኑ ሓንቲ ስርሒት ክፍጽም ኣብ ዝፈተንሉ ተታሒዙ ዝተኣስረ፣ ድሓር ኣብ 1975 ካብ ቤት ማእሰርቲ ዝወጸ ገዲም ተጋዳላይ እዩ። ኣብቲ ዝነበረ ሕንፍሽፍሽ እዚኣቶም ምስ ሳበ ብምትሕብባር ካብ ጀብሃ ናይ ምፍላይ ፈተነ ገይሮም ነይሮም። ኣብ ደንከል ሓደ ወተሃደራዊ ጉጅለ ክምስርቱ እውን ፈቲኖም። ኣባል ሰውራዊ ባይቶ ዓሊ ኢሳቕ፣ ምስኦም ከምዘሎ መሲሉ ንተግባሮም ክከታተል ድሕሪ ምጽናሕ ንጀብሃ ምስ ሓበረ ከኣ፣ ኣሃዱታት ተዳልየን ጸኒሐን ደምሲሰንኦም። ገለ ዓቃባውያን መራሕቲ ጀብሃ፣ “እዚ ኣብ ውሽጥና ዘሎ ሓድሽ ሓይሊ ናይ ቀደም ጀብሃ ኣይኮነን። ብኮምኒስት ዝተዓብለለ እዩ። ስለዚ ምስ ሳበ ምምሕዛው ይሓይሽ።Source ካልኣይ ጉባኤ ጀብሃን ውዲታት ዓብደላን


Saed Hussien	Ahmed Ibrahim M.	Omer M. Suba	Omer M.Omer	Abdu Idris A.	Haji Saleh	Ibrahim Mahder	M.Shedeli Ismail	Adem Ibrahim Al Haj	M.Mansur