Wave of Arrests in the Aftermath

Given the nature of the Isaias Afwerki regime, that any kind of mutiny, uprising or attempt of coup de tat (we don’t know which happened on Jan 21, 2013), that it would be followed up with a new wave of arrests is to be expected. And, given its totalitarian nature, the sweeping nature of these arrests make predictably fail to make any distinction between the merely suspected and the confirmed ones, The modus operandi of its security apparatus is arrest first, confirm later; and whenever confirmation is not possible, the regime follows the safest approach: keep the arrestees in the dungeons indefinitely.

Already reports of various arrests in the aftermath of the unrest are appearing in various websites. www.farajat.net, based on the information it got from the Gulf Centre for Media Services, has reported that 63 from the military and some from civil have been arrested. Among the top brass, it mentions Amanuel “Hanjema” Haile; Abdella Jaber, the Director of Organizational Affairs; and Mustafa Hussein, the Adminstrator of South Zone and Colonel (?) Osman Saleh among the arrested. Awate.com differs in this list of the top brass arrested in that it includes the Osman Jem’ee Idris, the Eritrean Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, as being either in prison or under house arrest; and that Brig. General (?) Osman Saleh is safe in the South zone, protected by his soldiers. That Isaias will use the latest dissent as pretext to make sweeping arrests of anybody suspected of anything is confirmed by this latest news from the Christian Post [Eritrea Officials Arrest 10 Church Leaders; Christians Fear Increase ... ]:

“Although an incident in which dissident Eritrean soldiers seized the country's information ministry earlier this week is now being downplayed as not a coup attempt, a heightened tension between political and faith groups remains. The Christian persecution watchdog group Open Doors says that at least 10 leaders of churches banned by the government have been arrested.” And then it adds, “‘The arrest of 10 church leaders in Eritrea could be the start of another wave of systematic persecution in this unpredictable, tiny country bordering the Red Sea,’ says Open Doors USA Media Relations Director Jerry Dykstra.”

Given the closed nature of Eritrea, it has become hard to get the exact news of what actually happened on the 21st of January and in its aftermath. But the little information that is coming out of the country tells that it is a deja vu moment: a failed mutiny by the top, followed by a wave of arrests. What has remained consistent is that the Revolution keeps eating its own children: if the news from Awate.com and farajat.net is to be believed, it seems that the very men who were instrumental in devouring the G-15 (none other than Abdella Jaber and Mustafa Hussein) are now being devoured by that same Beast.