One hazy morning in January, a grey Toyota land cruiser (station wagon) hurriedly approached the administrative buildings of the Northern Red Sea (NRS) Region in Edaga, Massawa. As soon as it parked in the premises' parking lot, two senior military officers jumped off the vehicle and headed towards the Governor's office. The two officials were Major General Haile Samuel (China), Commander of the Fourth Military Operations Zone, and Major General Hummed Karekare, Commander of the Navy.
The two men were soon standing at the door of the Governor, Alamin Sheikh Saleh, demanding to see him immediately. Upon being told that the governor was in a meeting, the generals insisted that he comes right away to see them. When he turned up in the ante-room to see what was up, they told him in no uncertain terms that he was relieved of his duties as governor, effective immediately, and ordered him to leave his office and never come back. Bewildered, he asked them to show him a written directive, to which the generals responded with characteristic cynicism, telling the governor that no written directive or letter could be clearer than the orders they were giving him there and then. The two generals then told a gathering of the staff of the NRS administration that Weddi Sheikh was no longer their boss and from that moment onwards, they (the employees) were under no obligation to take directives from him. Thus ended Weddi Sheikh's governorship of NRS.
I had read the news of the former governor's sacking in Gedab, but had never imagined the dramatic circumstances in which it took place until several people related to me the above episode. The country is by now used to officials being sacked unceremonially, frozen or thrown to jail by the dictator, but this was the first time (or was it?) that a person other than the dictator himself had issued direct orders to the effect of sacking an official with the rank of a minister. "This is nothing short of a coups d'�tat � well, a mini coup, anyway!" commented one friend as a group of us casually discussed the incident. A small debate followed between those of us who said the generals were simply carrying out an order coming from Issayas and those who thought even though the act would have never been entertained without a go-ahead from the top executive, it was essentially initiated and pushed ahead by 'China'. At any rate, we all agreed that it was another sign of the growing influence of the generals who now seem to be in a position of not only exercising enormous powers in their own areas of influence but also using this power to press their own agenda at Issayas' court*.
In fact, this is not the only open display of muscle by the generals, as the public is already familiar with the well-publicised squabbling between Mustafa Nurhussein and General Filippos, which has crippled the Gash-Barka administration for several months now (see Gedab News of 11 Nov 2003). Filippos' stranglehold of the Regional government, including the high-profile detentions of Mustafa's closest aides and family members, has stifled the civilian administration in Gash-Barka almost to a state of paralysis. (Like his counterpart in the Central Region, who has terrorised Asmara's business community, Filippos is nowadays busy grabbing business people - hotel owners, contractors and traders among them - in all the towns under his command in Gash Barka and Anseba. The disappearance of the owner of Sarina Hotel in keren, days after the hotel's inauguration, is one case in point.)
The newest episode in this 'generalissimo-vs.-governor' saga is what is going on these days between General Wuchu, Asmara's de facto ruler and commander of Zoba SrrHeet Hamushte (Fifth Operations Zone), and Semere Ru'ssom the nominal incumbent. Asmara is buzzing with tales of the daily humiliation that the latter is suffering in the hands of Wuchu and his lieutenants - a group of colonels that includes Solomon 'Weddi Kitcha', (more tellingly a.k.a. 'Weddi Qumerji') and 'Weddi Welela'! The increasingly frustrated Weddi Ru'ssom has even been threatened with jail.
These are the new princes of Asmara. Everything from business licenses to the stewardship of government-owned buildings to policing the city is the domain of these colonels and their boss, now that, if you are looking for a place to rent or a license to renew, you would be in the wrong place if you turn up at the Municipio. You should rather pay a visit to Bet Gergish or QeHawta, and not with empty pockets for that matter! And if you have an issue to settle at any of the police stations in town, you would make a better use of your time to ignore the powerless regular police officers and head straight for the special unit (under Weddi Kitcha's direct command) that is embedded in every station. These guys also have their own jails - full with underground chambers and shipping containers - all over Zoba Ma'ekel; dungeons of which you would find no trace in any official records but from where harrowing stories abound. Those known so far are the ones in Mai Temenai, Bet Gerghish, Track-B (on the way to Qushet), Mai Serwa, Adi Abeito and QeHawta. This is, of course, in addition to the more traditional prisons such as Karcheli, Sembel, Tsetserat and Shadshai Medeber.
The wide-ranging powers that Wuchu and his colonels are wielding have become common knowledge in Asmara. People are talking of how Weddi Kitcha could, on a whim, overturn court rulings, distribute public buildings, cancel licenses and contracts, and jail whoever he wishes jailed.
The rule of military junta is now fully accomplished in Eritrea.
