A simple tally of the revolutionary movements, who took power, and particularly those who espoused the class struggle in the last century would be an eye opener. Many of them turned into tyrannical governments, and their guerrilla leaders became dictators. Notwithstanding the constant quote made about the "foolish old man who removed the mountains," from the infamous Red book, Mao ended becoming the emperor of China. I argue that anytime a group states "it is out to liberate a people," the first act of violence is committed. The implication of this benign looking word is huge.

It is almost always horrendous. The fate of the rural communities of many nations had been to endure a lot of misery, sandwiched between the constant watch and repression of their guerrilla liberators, and the various state of emergency laws of the status quo governments.

When a bearded commissar goes into a village, and announces his party’s intent that is "to liberate," the emasculation of the peasants and their institutions begins. Their old age customs are questioned, and their close knit communities get crumbling. The vanguard party’s immediate goal was in many instances to launch a social experiment. And would not allow anything to stop it. The organization ends up becoming a control freak.

We are in a quandary, because we have not dealt with the concept "to liberate." Debates in the public realm about it results often in confusion. When did tyranny emerge in Eritrea? One would ask, and chances are you get many answers. There are those that point to the establishment of the PFDJ, and those that choose the period after the recent war with Ethiopia. The link with gedli era has not yet been definitely understood.

When the former leaders in the Eritrean government protested against Isaias, and wrote him a letter before going public, everyone remembers the terse statement he made "tegageyu alekhum." Not long after this almost all the dissenters were made to disappear. He uttered these words at a time when he was cornered. In the early days of the mieda, Isaias’ favorite terse phrase thrown to people he considers disloyal was "alekhul-leku tbl alekha." These words often amounted to a death sentence. His henchmen were also often heard repeating these to others. Woe to the person said this to him. Many were to perish later. When saying this, he is virtually questioning your physical existence. This is nothing but the behavior of emperors and tyrant kings across history, and a symptom of the future absolute ruler of Eritrea.

Angered by the laudatory statements made by some web sites of good repute, Burhan Ali, wrote a sixteen page book review about tyranny in the then fragmented Italy. I enjoyed reading it. A few weeks before Burhan’s article, however, Adhanom Ghebremariam, a veteran of EPLF, and leader of the EPM now was also maddened by the same event. He reacted bitterly to the wide publicity made by the Eritrean government following the death of Ali Sayed. Until then, Adhanom, although a well informed and a capable person refrained from writing any detail about the gedli’s past.

He broke his silence, in his interview with the EPM branch in Addis Abeba. I suspect many have not read this article posted at Meskerem.net (it was undated.) I am clueless, why he chose to disclose it only in his party branch publication only. It was more of an outburst than a calculated decision to spill the beans. Although the pages that dealt with the corruption (remember the famous "ascetic" life) and the killings of an entire educated people from the highlands were far fewer than the entire 21 page interview, it was encouraging.

Nonetheless, Adhanom was ambivalent about the subject. In one instance, he would state an entire book can be written about the corruption and the atrocities meted out to many instances, and yet, he later begs the interviewer to "please stop asking him about the past." He also talks about his misgivings on the issue, and said some corners would consider him their enemy for talking about it.

I believe he is alluding to Mesfin Hagos. I urge Adhanom to write. His writing would help people such as Burhan to dwell on the peculiarities of tyranny in Eritrea. His piece on the infamous Warsay-Yekealo project was great. I suspect many of us would rather seem him writing and exposing the regime than embroiling himself with political organizations.

At Arag in Sahel, on the northern side of the mountain peak, where ganta zero was located, there was a small stone house without its roofs. It probably was a customs house built by the Italians. Nobody considered using it as a shelter. But when the top leaders of the Menkesqas 73 were arrested, the guards who jailed them made it their headquarters. The then dissenters were instead goaled inside the cone shaped wooden structures made for kid goats by the nomads in the area.

After their arrest, Isaias appointed a three man committee to do a "seminar" for the hayletat, in order to justify his deeds. They were also to mobilize their supporters in case any serious opposition arose. Mesfin Hagos, Ali Sayed, and Yemane were its members. Yemane (I forgot his father’s name) was a former Addis Abeba University student. He was later to die, I believe in Asmera, while on a guerrilla mission. The only survivor of this committee now is Mesfin Hagos, who is now a tegadalay/leader of the EDP.

Not long ago, Burhan Ali, unaware of Mesfin’s role in the past, wrote an article begging Mesfin to share his knowledge about the score of teachers and others, who disappeared in the mid 90s. Mesfin chose to say mum about it (tem mebal merisu.) On rare occasions, when the ugly past was mentioned, the convenient excuse made by him and others was " meinti mogogo tehlef anchiwa."

The custodians of our "mogogo" or "liberation" have a lot to answer. Likwise Advocates of dissent and the rest of the public have also to attempt to clear the fog behind lofty phrases such as "to be liberated", and "the liberators". Isaias and his henchmen were supposedly former liberators turned dictators. Adhanom was wrong when he said there were two kinds of fighters in the EPLF: that is those who heroically fought and died, and the rest who were jailers and executors of their fellow fighters. I am certain there can’t be such a clear cut divide.

Unfortunate to us, Isaias remained the sole strong man in the entire period of the EPLF struggle, and was able to recycle people for different tasks. Some of the current dissenters in jail were his fellow henchmen to be later frozen. Mesfin Hagos, and Berhane Gebreegziabher are a few examples. This was before independence. When the regime said, it had the mieda temekero to deal with problems, several of the dissenters in jail served as its implementors.

The Eritrean armed struggle took such a long time, and a lot people’s lives that almost every family had some one to mourn for. To a great extent, many fighters have willing or not been participators of countless acts of violence meted out on both fellow fighters and the public. Haile Jebha, a notorious killer in the EPLF halewa sewra was later killed by the same entity. What do you call him? An executioner, a hero, or a martyr. You decide.