But let me also repeat what I wrote yesterday to Asena when they run a news story about Abdella. Asena.com announced the death of Abdella Idris, saying the Harbegna tegadalai Abdella Idris is dead. He doesn’t deserve such recognition of a Harbegna. He was a tegadalai alright, but he was also a cold blooded murderer who ordered the killing of Mel’ake Tekle, a member of both the Executive Council and Revolutionary Council of the ELF. The Executive Council was a nine-member body that run the ELF day to day, of which both Abdella and Melake where members, as the Military Office chief and the Security Office chief, respectively. When Melake was murdered by the order of Abdella 30 years ago on March 25, 1981, an incident that brought the demise of the ELF as we knew it, the ELF of course disintegrated. The direct cause of the disintegration of the organization was therefore Abdella Idris. So, please don’t call this murderer a patriot (Harbegna). Would you call Isaias Afwerki a patriot, a Harbegna after killing Mahmood Sherifo and others of the G-15 he detained in 2001? No! Similarly, Abdella was a cold-blooded murderer, not a Harbegna. The world today is one less tyrant, one less evil murderer. And that is good. Thus, I say good riddance!! I don't think any sensible Eritrean, except for his own family and his cronies would mourn this monster. Some folks in the opposition at the time objected to my characterization of Abdella as a warlord. I think he fits perfectly the role of the murderous warlord. Had he been able to become the leader, president of Eritrea, he would have even been more murderous than he was in the ELF. [Amazingly, this news is coming also in the same day president Obama announced the death of another monster, Osama bin Laden. Good riddance again!]
This is what I wrote at the time in response to the Interview by Awate.com:
LET HISTORY BE THE WITNESS: The Case Against Abdella Idris, the Warlord! (Part 1)
(Paulos M. Natnael)
Recently, the Awate.com team, with the following quoted passage, introduced its readers to one of Eritrea's "historic" figures.
"We have been trying to interview Abdella Idris since September 2000. He is one of the most talked about Eritreans and one who rarely speaks. We believe he is a historic figure in the Eritrean revolution and he should be given an opportunity to tell his story, in his own words, with his compatriots. The following is an English translation of the interview (conducted in Arabic.) Here's how it began….."
But of course, the notorious Abdella Idris needs no introduction. In the past, when they conducted laudable interviews with "historic" figures such as Hiruy Tedla Bairu (vice chairman, 1971-1975), Ahmed Mohammed Nasser (chairman of the ELF, 1975-1982), they called them a "legend" and an "icon", respectively. I am glad the Awate.com team, to its credit, managed to restrain itself this time.
My reaction to the interview (complete with a photo of this warlord) was one of repulsion, revulsion, and horror! Historically, the notorious Abdella was a reactionary with despotic tendencies and an incompetent commander to say the least. The ex-chief of the Eritrean Liberation Army (ELA) is, in my opinion, the main player who caused, single-handedly, the destruction of the ELF as we knew it. Abdella thus is a criminal warlord who should be indicted for war crimes (in a fair world) and held responsible for the death of many ELF fighters. (By saying this, it should be clear to all that I am not in any way attempting to absolve from responsibility the rest of leadership of the ELF at the time, the RC and EC in particular. But there is no doubt in my mind Abdella Idris played the key role).
Here are a few reasons why I think Abdella is a criminal warlord:
Let's put aside his role before the demise of the ELF. In August 1981 Abdella Idris was in charge of the ELA as a member of the Executive Committee (EC) of the ELF and chief of the military office, when the conspiratorial forces of the Eritrean People's Liberation front (EPLF) and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) finally, after a year's bitter fighting, managed to push the ELF out of Eritrea and into the Sudan. That military defeat of the ELF, history will show some day, was neither due to weakness of the ELA nor the competence and effectiveness of enemy forces; but largely due to the incompetence and internal bickering of the nine-member (EC) and the ELF leadership as a whole.
That month, the warlord Abdella, instead of guiding and leading the ELA in its most traumatic and difficult time, chose to abandon it to be humiliated at the hands of the Sudanese army. At the same, he somehow slipped away or, mostly likely, obtained the permission from the Sudanese to head north taking with him some remaining units and most of the assets of the ELF including the mobile radio station. As a result on August 25, 1981 several units of the ELA, surrounded by Sudanese armed forces, were forced to surrender their arms at a place called Tahdaysis. That sinister move by the warlord Abdella Idris sealed the fate of the ELF, in my opinion, and its ultimate demise became only a matter of time. However, more despicable acts of betrayal were yet to come, including Abdella's vicious accusation of the ELA as refusing to fight the EPLF/TPLF conspiracy forces. Such an accusation came to many fighters as a total shock. After a year of fighting a bitter civil war** all over Eritrea, the accusation was a betrayal to martyrs, to those who were wounded, and a stab on the back of the surviving army as a whole. [By the way, Abdella repeated this same baseless accusation in his Interview with Awate.com].
**The 1981 war was not strictly between the ELF and EPLF; it was between the ELF and the EPLF/TPLF coalition forces. TPLF forces participated not only in the border areas but within Eritrea proper in EPLF units as well. There were also two thousand or so TPLF recruits who were in training in Sahel when the war broke, and the EPLF simply sent them to its own units, instead of to their organization in Tigray, Ethiopia. So, in a way, it is hard to characterize it as a "civil war" between Eritrean forces in the literal sense of the word.
To be continued...
Comments
On national unity, about the only thing I can agree, the majority of the elites are gun ho on maintaining a colonial border at all cost... to extinction. On all other issues where is the national unity? The political polarization and difference of worldview is an Eritrean narrative. The question has been asked before, what is it that glue Eritreans to claim unity?
"our society it is characterized by national unity"
In complete agreement with you on linguastic and cultural/ethnic diversity of Eritrea; there is no racial difference however, and I fully agree with Terazeb below... that there is only one race, human race, although we are witnessing abuse meted out on Eritreans in the Arab world because they happened to posses different skin color or different religion--its unique to a society that sees itself as superior to others based on color or religion and sadly they happen to be our neighbors and reminicent of history, they have the power to subjugate.
I also want to know what you meant by what you called "... different racial orgin". As far as I know, there is only one human race on earth with many linguistic, geographical, cultural, ethnic ... differences, just like there different types of dogs.
You also wrote: "... thoughts that denys openly the diversity of the Eritrean social Identity". There is no doubt that there is a dominant linguistic group in Eritrea because of population, Ghedli participation, economics and education in Eritrea. I believe, Eritrea or any nation should give equal opportunity to all ethnic and linguistic groups in its own territory as much as possible.
By the way, it was the monster and murderous Abdella who ordered the burning of the Tigre text books that were prepared by ELF's department of education in the mid 1970s. This person has not only committed human genocide but also cultural and linguistic genocide.
I find this laughable!
Your points are well-taken. I appreciate and understand where everyone, from both sides of this issue, is coming from. Hopefully time will heal the hurt. Thank you for your heartfelt responses.
Paulos
"soon or later those ethnic families on both side of the border will have to interact and live together."
Zeroism,
The moment you limit Habesha to ethnic Tigrignas on both sides of the border, you put the issue in a political context, which is not. Historically, the Habeshas are all groups in the Horn who speak Tigrigna, Tigre and Amharigna. They are Christians and Moslems. They live in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan. It's mainly a large cultural group made of diverse ethnic groups. It is clear that it's not only about Tigrigna Orthodox Christians "divided by Italians" as some of you want us to believe. Abyssinia has never a political entity but a vast land where actually Habesha were and still are a minority. Don't tell me the Oromo, Somalis, Afar and many others in Ethiopia are Habesha too ...!!
... Beni Amer are an integral part of the social structure of the Eritrean society ...
I didn't deny the nobility of the Ben Amir people, I only said, as far as I know the Ben Amir are descended from Habesha, like most Eritreans, Muslim or Christian.
Funny! Can you tell us your evidences, if any, that Abdella Idris was a killer and power hungry? How many people he had killed? Where? When? How? Do you know him personally?
Evidence is only possible in an open society, in Eritrea all the leaders of Ghedli ruled by terror and secrecy, so I can't give you evidence beyond the testimonies of those who were in Jebha.
If he was a Jebha leader, he was a killer and power hungry, by definition.
I didn't know him, and thank God I didn't.
Semere 1
What a fairy-tale!! You have been a prosecutor, judge, and jury. Funny! Can you tell us your evidences, if any, that Abdella Idris was a killer and power hungry? How many people he had killed? Where? When? How? Do you know him personally?
I'm trying to question your judgment, but so far, you have failed to provide facts, other than general statements about Hitler and Stalin, to back up your accusations.
Majority of Eritrean, including those who fought along side with him, eye witnesses, know that the guy was a brave liberation fighter, and never accused of anything.
... the defeat of Eritrean liberation front came as a result of fabricated conspiracies ...
Those who can not defend themselves against conspiracies shouldn't play the liberation front game, because they are gambling with people's lives.
Jebha was ruined, not because of conspiracies, but because it shouldn't have existed in the first place. We are all praying Shaebia will follow in its evil mother's footsteps.
semere 1,
Do u think the bin amer are habesha ??? Bin Amir =Habesha
what is wrong with ERITREA??
As far as I know all tribes in Eritrea, with the exception of Kunama, Nara and Rashaida are Habesha. But I am not an expert on this question, so if I am mistaken I am willing to be corrected and educated.
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