Mereja Forum

[Aurorae]

ill wish and impractical and pompous rhetoric toward Eritrea and its people. We all know that Ethiopia does not have any capacity to do harm to Eritrea or any other country however small for that matter. All the bullsh--itting the idiot regurgitated is not sanctioned by the world order or the United Nations charters. By the way, Ethiopia would have disintegrated back in 1991, had the Weyanes chose independence instead. However, Eritrea can not afford to make any mistakes yet it did in the gazillions and yet still continue to survive. In a way, it is a wake up call. Twenty eight years of irresponsibility will catch up sooner or later. A country without youth is a country at risk of losing not only its independence but its identity as well. That is what is encouraging him to be audacious in his flattery of how powerful his country is. Both Eritrea and Ethiopia are houses made out of glass. Throwing stones to each other is not a good idea.

[Awash]

Well, in that case, the tyrannical regime should heed the advice of this learned Ethiopian.

https://amharic.voanews.com/a/4616141.h ... o758CLerGU

[Zack]

Eritrean soldiers had the best chance in 1991 to Bury the expansionist Ethiopia empire. By supporting olf and onlf. Let the empire disentigrate like the former yougeslavia. But instead Eritreans I don't know who's call it was supported meles and sebhet and let Ethiopia be intact. Do you know how many Ethiopians have Eritrea and Ethiopia in a unified map on their social media.

Dr Zackovch

[Awash]

Zacky,
The Number 1 CIA and Ethiopian agent - Eritrean people's worst enemy.

[Zack]

Awashy I don't think it was isias his idea only but it was a collective decision to support tigray and to support the unity of Ethiopia. EPLF had allot of influence back then as an organisation after 2001. And isias locked up g15 the pfdj group became more of organisation with one voice that of wedi afom.


Dr Zackovich

[Awash]

Zacky,
The wedi komarit tyrant had even proposed the formation of unity government with Ethiopia in 1991. Ask the Lion of Afabet, Mesfin Hagos

[Awash]

Higdef mendef

[Sabur]

ሓሳድ : ጋዕ ጋዕ ዓጋመ ወዲ መድሕን በራድ Isayas in 1993 mentioned about confederation with Ethiopia as an option while people like ሓርበኛ General Biteweded were calling for a clear cut separation and well defined relations with Ethiopia like that of Kenya, Sudan and other foreign countries.

But the ጋዕ ጋዕ ዓጋመ ወዲ መድሕን በራድ Isayas who betrayed the Eritrean Trust had an agenda of weakening and destroying Eritrea to reverse the hard won Eritrea's Independence.

Awashy I don't think it was isias his idea only but it was a collective decision to support tigray and to support the unity of Ethiopia. EPLF had allot of influence back then as an organisation after 2001. And isias locked up g15 the pfdj group became more of organisation with one voice that of wedi afom.


Dr Zackovich

[pastlast]

Issays’s hypocrisy concerning Anti-Americanism and CIA.



By Resoum Kidane

One of the political deceptions which the public should know about is Issays’s hypocritical anti-Americanism. The story of Issays’s connection with the CIA goes back to April 1970 and to the Kagnew, US. base, in Asmara.

Issays managed to keep this a secret for nearly 30 years, from 1971 to 2001, by covering up and systematically eliminating key figures who knew about the meeting between him and CIA at Kagnew Station. However, in the era of Internet nothing can be kept secret, and the true story has been published online by Hagos Woldu in 2003, Alem Tesfay in 2004, Woldeyesus Ammar in 2004, Oqabanquel Tesfatsion in 2007, Aida Kidane in 2007 and Ruth Habtemariam in 2008. In connection with this story, Alem Tesfay in 2004 explained the cause of Abrham Twoldeo death which is still secret, in the following words:

After Issays came back to the Ala groups from the meeting he held with members of the CIA, he decided to split from the ELF. Because of this there was an argument with Abraham Tewolde who was against splitting from the ELF, and over the talks with the Americans and the Ethiopians. After one month of arguments between them Abraham Twold died(1) suddenly on 17 May 1970, which is still a secret for most of us.” Concerning this Erlich (1988: 97), states that one of Issays’s main rivals in the rebel movement was poisoned to death. After Abraham Tewolde death, Issays succeeded to the leadership of the group and then he took steps to split from the ELF.

Regarding the story linking Issays and the CIA, most of the EPLF fighters who joined the Front in mid 1970s didn’t know about the secret meeting. And it would never have crossed their minds because there was a lot of campaigning against Imperialism and the CIA within the Front. The author of this paper still recalls when young students from Petogo in Asmara who joined the Front were accused of being CIA agents, and they were forced to confess in our presence that they were sent by the CIA. It was also intended to convince the new recruited fighters that the rumour disseminated by the ELF about the above meeting was groundless. It was designed by Issays to serve as an excuse for liquidating anyone who was a threat to his power during the period of the Menkaa movement. The Issays group spread the rumour that there were up to one hundred and fifty CIA agents within the movement (Megiesteab Kidane 2005:49). For example Tewelde Tesfamariam, who joined from Hamburg in 1972, was wrongly killed as a CIA spy.

It was Tesfamichael Giorgio who first broke the news about the Kagnew deal in the Eritrea Liberation Front. He also presented a paper at the Massawa Symposium ’Secessionists and CIA Connection’ in 1982. This paper is available for public reference from: www.ehrea.org/TesfaMikegiorgioAmarina.pdf. It gives full coverage to the entire story and should be recommended reading for everyone.

“At the end of the meeting, the negotiators went to Kagnew for dinner. Essayas and Wodi Giorgio spent the night at Copland’s residence. The next day, Essayas and Wodi Giorgio were taken out of Kagnew Station in a Cadillac car driven by Copland himself, with curtains drawn, and flying the US flag”. Excerpt from Revisiting the Kagnew Station Incident.Amar(2004)

Amar(2004) states that Wodi Giorg , who was at the meeting with Issays and Col. Mamuzer Copland on 2 July 1970(note), had an interview with the local press in Addis which appeared in an Amharic newspaper called “Senay”, volume 1 number 3 of February 1993. A short while later, Wodi Giorgio was shot dead in front of his Addis Ababa house in order to keep the meeting secret.

Others who knew about the meeting at Kagnew Station, Habteselassie Ghebremedhin and Tweldeo Iyob were killed on the pretext of Menka; and Solomon Woldemariam and Haile Jebah also were killed on the pretext of the conflict with Yemen. The remaining founder of Self Nistnet who knew the story, namely Weldemichael Haile (note) was killed shortly after the victory of Segeneti in 1977 by an unidentified gunman. Tesfa Ytbark and Beraki were killed in the battlefield. The only survivor from the founders of Self Nitsnet was Asmerom, who has never wished to tell this secret to the public out of loyalty to Issays.

Both Mesfin Hagos and Abdella Adem who were members of the Central Committee knew this story but since both collaborated with Issays in crimes against innocent fighters in the 1970s, I doubt that they will ever publicly tell the truth. Only Haile Menkeros, who taught foundation politics to the new recruits at Beleqet military training camp in 1975, when the fighters were accused of being CIA agents could inform the public. He was also Ambassador to Ethiopia in 1993 at the time when Tesfamichael Giorgio was assassinated by the EPLF security. He arranged to return the body of Tesfamichael from Addis Ababa to Asmara.



Tesfa Mikel Giorgio

By and large, the Front systematically eliminated thousands of new recruits from among progressive Eritrean students under various pretexts in the 1970s., in contradiction to Issays’s proclaimed anti- Imperialism. This was well documented by historians and journalists who were experts in the Eritrean liberation struggle. According to Dan Connell (2003:271) in the 1970s. Issays insisted that American imperialism has been our enemy, is our enemy and will remain our enemy as long as it exists as an imperialist force in the world. Furthermore, in his 1984 interview with Adulis he also called the U.S an imperialist power which had exerted considerable pressure to destroy the Eritrean Revolution ( Adulis, 1984).



The Central Committee in session in 1984.(Adluis 1984)

But, unexpectedly he ceased to call the US an Imperialist power. An example of this was a 1986 interview in which he criticised the US policy in the Horn of Africa without calling the US either imperialist or an enemy of the Eritrea people. He simply claimed that “ a political solution to the Eritrean problem remained a secondary issue to the U.S. administration”(Levit, 1986). This occurred when he emerged as leader from the mid 1980s through eliminating his challengers (example Ibrahim Afa in 1985),

This was an attempt to revitalise his relationship with the USA which he had already established in 1970 . Indeed in the 1980s his relationship with the U.S improved, and he was invited for lunch with a senior member of the Bush Administration during the Atlanta meeting, 1989. Also he was invited to address a seminar at the Brookings Institution (Perlez 1990 ). Shortly after liberation, 1991, Issays chose to ally himself with the United States and Israel rather than have relations with liberation movements, despite this being in contradiction to what the EPLF had taught its members in the 1970s.This stance greatly contributed to enhancing his relations with the Bush Administration which had led to the opening of the Israel embassy on March 15, 1993. This followed Issays being flown to Israel for medical treatment in 1993 ( Muhammed, 2003).



Issayas Afeworki in Tel Aviv hospital 1993

Throughout the 1990s America considered that “Issays was one of the new generation” of African leaders who could preserve the USA interests there, through protecting Israel’s regional security, and combating the extremist regime in Sudan. The first step by the Eritrean government was to accuse Turabi of helping the Jihad in Eritrea, Ittihad in Somalia, and the Oromos in Ethiopia.(The Middle East magazine, 1995) Consequently, the Islamist regime in Khartoum began to distance itself from Eritrea and in 1995, the tension between Khartoum and the Asmara government grew worse, leading to the closing of the Sudanese Embassy in Asmara.

In relation to the above, during Issays official visit to Washington in 1995, there was an agreement between Isaias Afeworki and Washington that the Eritrean military would be trained in US army camps. This was in line with the aim to overthrow the Sudanese government. Ruth Simon (1997) reported that Eritrean soldiers fought alongside rebels in neighbouring Sudan. The escalation of tensions between the Sudanese and Eritrean governments served to strengthen U.S –Eritrean relations. On 4 May 1997, it was announced that the US was providing as much as $20 million in military supplies to the country (Timeline). This was due to the agreement reached between Issays Afework and Washington in 1995, and also to his great contribution in Laurent Kabila replacing Mobutu in Congo.

After a year of the military assistance from the USA, Issays, to ensure his hegemony in the region, ordered the Eritrea Defence Force to occupy Badema on 8 May 1998, which caused the Ethiopian –Eritrean 1998-2000 border war.

Despite the fact that Issays provoked the border conflict in May 1998, the following year he received honours from a US group for his leadership skills to end hunger, war and poverty (Visafrica, 1999). This was despite the fact that his conduct had opposed development, prosperity and peace by refusing to accept the U.S-Rwanda peace plan. He had rejected it on the grounds that Eritrea didn’t have to raise its hands in surrender, indicating that he was not willing to end the war through peaceful dialogue. Thereafter, in 2001 he accused a member of the national assembly, who wrote a letter to him advising that Eritrea should accept the U.S-Rwanda peace plan, of being recruited by the CIA, a cover up for his humiliating defeat in the 1998-2000 border war .

President Isaias Afewerki of Eritrea: CIA accused of ‘coup plot’ in Eritrea

Issays also accused the Central Intelligence Agency and the US envoy to Eritrea-Ethiopia, Anthony Lake, of plotting to overthrow him in 2000 (Gedab 2006) .Regardless of this accusation and the Government’s poor human rights record which was reported by the State Department, in May 2002, National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, made clear that, in the event that Eritrean extremists were to overthrow the regime, the US would be compelled to opt for the “lesser evil” and would defend Issays’s presidency in order to prevent the possibility of Eritrea becoming a menace to Israel( Mengesteab Kidane 2005: 181)

Furthermore, when the U.S. secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld visited Eritrea in December, 2002 he was asked about Eritrea’s abysmal press freedom record. Instead of condemning Afeworki as one of Africa’s most brutal rulers, he answered: “it is a sovereign nation, and they arrange themselves and deal with their problems in ways that they feel are appropriate to them.” (News Transcript , 2002).

These two “pleasant” people are, from left to right, Donald Rumsfeld and Issays Afeworki, actual Eritrean dictator: they are shaking hands with great affection. ( source ).Rumsfeld: My goodness Mr. President I expected to hear some words from you.President: I will go right after you

Despite the fact that there had been little criticism from the US, in 2007 Issays tried again to divert the attention of the international community from his dictatorial rule and internal problems by portraying the US as the “historic enemy of Eritrea”. This contradicted what happened five years earlier when he had asked the US to set up a military base. Regarding this Kidane, Megisteab(2005:181) added that Issays’s offer to devote Eritrea’s scare resources to help America fight global terrorism, at a time when other countries in the region were working hard to use their geopolitical position as a leverage to squeeze more American aid, simply exposed Issays’s utter desperation to secure the regime preservation with U.S military patronage.

Eritrea President Issayas Afewerki accused US again in 2007″A plan initiated by the Washingtonadministration”

However, in 2007, only a year after he had tried to become a major ally in the US-led “war against terrorism”, Issays made a u-turn, branding the US as the “historic enemy” of Eritrea, alleging it to be behind its conflict with Ethiopia,” (afrol News, 2008)

Regarding this Analysts stated: “Eritrea has in a matter of years gone from being a U.S. ally to a frontman for rival interests from Muslim north Africa and the Middle East” ( Kimbal, 2006)

The US-Eritrean relationship has deteriorated not because the Issays regime is a dictatorship but because the United States has supported Ethiopian intervention and helped the Somali interim government. On the other hand the Eritrean government supported the Islamist insurgents in Somalia, which was in contradiction to Issays’s earlier attitude toward Islamist extremism.

Issays has accused the US of an unjust and unfriendly policy in the Horn of Africa in 2007, he has never been a principled opponent of the U.S. In early 2008, during talks with US Congressman Donald Payne, he illustrated his hypocrisy by saying: “Eritrea wishes to improve its relations with the U.S”.

In general, his hypocrisy of being Anti-American has existed for the last 40 years, and includes branding the US as the “historic enemy of the Eritrean people to manipulate and divert Eritreans from thinking about justice and democracy and to get support from them when he planned to crush dissidents.

In fact he has betrayed the Eritrean people, more than anyone else since he has never wished to see a bright future for the younger generation of Eritrea. He has killed thousands of innocent young fighters under different pretexts accusing them of spying. His attitude towards the Eritrean people is no different from the former governor of Eritrea, Ras Asrate Kassawho said that he would leave Eritrea as bare as his bald head in 1967, just 40 years ago. Issays has still a desire for what he had in the mid-1990s to form a confederation between Eritrea and Ethiopia and to become the head of both states. Since he has this dream he has currently chosen to be allied with Kinjet (an Ethiopia opposition party which has never accepted the independence of Eritrea) in order to recreate a Greater Ethiopia.

In connection to his hypocrisy, the following questions should be raised:

1.Was the systematic purging of progressive fighters in 1970s related to the meeting between Issays and Col. Mamuzer. Copland on 2 July 1970?

One of the points in that meeting was Self Nitsnet (the new force which was founded by Issays after the death of Abrham Twoldeo who had been against the talks with the CIA at Kagnew Station) This organisation worked strongly against communist and socialist influences within the front. By the mid 1980s the front gradually abandoned its leftist outlook.

Issayas accomplished his task 10 years after his contact with the CIA in the 1980s through eliminating thousands of progressive intellectual fighters of the EPLF who had been Marxists. Issayas, was able to say in 1989: “ I don’t think there is even a trace of Leninst-style structure in the EPLF now “.(Perlez 1990)

To find information about those who were executed in the 1970s by the Front and mentioned by Mengeisteab Kidane(2005:50) please visit this web page.

2. Rumours were spread in the Menkaa movement, in the 1970s, accusing progressive fighters of being CIA recruits and this tactic was repeated in 2001. Why does Issays always accuse his challengers of being CIA agents ? Is he trying to cover up his 1970 secret meeting with the CIA?

3. How is one to explain the recent antagonistic relationship of Issays with the US? Is it going to develop a new anti-US relationship or is it mere demagogy.

In conclusion, the author appeals for the second time to all former members of the EPLF who survived the war, especially those who were in the Central Committee between 1977-1987 (Abdella Adem, Haile Menkerios, Mesfin Hagos and Andebrhan Wolde Giorgis ) and other senior post holders, especially members of the 72 ( the EPLF Intelligent Centre ) to tell the public the truth about the EPLF leadership’s crimes against innocent fighters. They should also break their silence about what they knew, concerning the conspiracy by Issays against the interest of the Eritrean people during their liberation struggle, and after liberation especiallyregarding to the proposal for the establishment of a confederation between Eritrea and Ethiopia and the development of relations between Israel and Eritrea. This had been a surprise for most EPLF fighters in 1993.

Note.

1.Excerpt from Kab Mezgeb Tarich by Alem Tesfay

source

INTERVIEW-Eritrean leader blames CIA plot for youth exodus 13 May 2008 16:18:40

Brief summary: why does Issayas always accuse CIA?Is he trying to cover up his 1970 secret meeting with the CIA in Asmara ?

Category: General Comments