The Killing of Mohammed Salih Mohammed Hagos Exposes Dictator Isaias Afwerki’s Sadism.

I owe it to my late dear friend Mohammed to write this memoir which unfortunately has to be published using a pen name. Me and Mohammed were very close: we spent a lot of time together and we trusted each other. We talked freely--I could say there was no secret matter between me and him. 

For almost three months now since the tragic death of Mohammed, I, like many others, have been going through the nightmarish reality. Who killed Mohammed and why would anybody do this to him? I have gone through all the intimate discussions we have had and tried to decipher some of the stories Mohammed told me. My conclusion is that the head of the Eritrean Mafia dictator Isaias was present in the murder chamber enjoying the sight of the process of getting Mohammed killed by his personal body guards.

Swiss Government Honors Mohammed

About four months before Mohammed was killed, the Swiss government had proposed to appoint the dynamic gentleman to become an honorary consular to Switzerland beginning September 2008. The process of appointing an honorary consular requires the approval of the host country’s foreign ministry.  Well, in Eritrea's case, such approvals are passed to the president. There was similar request from another European country, Sweden, for another Eritrean citizen to be appointed as their honorary consular. The Swedish request was approved immediately by the dictator. Mohammed and I were surprised why his appointment approval was delayed. We did not guess what the paranoid president had in his malaria-infected brain.

Mohammed & Isayas In Massawa

Mohammed shared with me his encounter with the dictator about two months before he was murdered. Mohammed had gone to Massawa for a weekend and was having a drink with James (Berhe) the ex bank robber and drug addict friend of the president. The mafia boss and his death squad know who is in and out of Massawa at any given time. It was early evening and the dictator was having a drink by himself and was in the mood of playing his sadist game. He sent members of his personal bodyguards Tesfalidet (tall) and Bereket (short and stocky) to bring Mohammed and James to join him.  "Make it look like an arrest," he said to them. A very serious-looking Tesfalidet came to where Mohammed and James were sitting and ordered Mohammed to come with him as he is wanted. Mohammed would have died of heart attack if Bereket had not intervened and told them that it was a joke. The guards told them where to go and join the president. It was going to be the first time for Mohammed to sit in the company of Isaias so he was a little nervous.

When Mohammed and James reached at the venue, the dictator was half way through a bottle of blue label whiskey. James was chatty and throwing jokes, the dictator enjoys this ex-convict’s company. After they settled down, Isaias began his mental punishment, Mohammed had no idea that this was going to be a long and torturous evening. The dictator was well into his sadist game. Mohammed told me how Isaias had kept him on the edge of nervous breakdown during the evening with his ugly sarcastic smiles, murderous looks and vulgar talks. Ever since this nasty experience, Mohammed had been troubled why has the president decided to treat him in this manner.

Days later Mohammed was to travel with Minister Askalu [Menkorious] to an International Labour Organisation conference. Having heard the story of the Massawa encounter, I regret and feel guilty for not advising Mohammed not to return as I knew the dictator’s sadist game is a trade mark of his pre-elimination process. He enjoys looking at a person being humiliated in front of him before he disposes for good.

Mohammed & Eri-TV

Three days after Mohammed returned from his trip abroad, the dictator, via his hoodlums, instructed his propagandist minister of information to air a documentary on Red Sea Soap Factory. The broadcast on Eri TV was exactly 10 days before the murder took place. I could not still work out the logic behind this--you have to have a very sick mind to think like Isaias.

Murder of Mohammed Salih

On the evening of Tuesday July 1 2008, Isaias instructed his brutal death squad, who are also his personal body guards--Tesfalidet, Bereket, Amanuel and Debeat--to bring Mohammed to the underground murder chamber at a villa in Asmara off  the road to Massawa. The killers most probably in the presence of their boss executed their order then drove Mohammed’s car with his dead body and pushed his car down the mountains along Massawa road. 

We, his friends and family, must thank God for his mercy that Mohammed’s body was found so early and so near to the road. According to the sick dictator’s plan, Mohammed’s body should have ended up 100’s of meters down the hill and most likely be eaten up by hyenas. Till today, and may be forever, we would have been wondering where Mohammed has disappeared to. Having lost him once we would have lost him twice.

When the shocking news of Mohammed’s death spread on Wednesday July 2, the propagandist minister, Ali Abdu, went about working on a memorial publication and broadcast for a man the entire government officials--including the so called ministers, PFDJ officials and army generals--loved and respected. Suddenly, he realised that the president’s office was quiet on the story that was shaking Asmara. He then checked with the dictator’s office and soon realised that he should make 100% news blackout on the story. The dictator does not want to see someone he had just got rid off being honoured. He, Ali Abdu, had to pretend that nothing had happened although he knows the man whom his Eri TV had hailed as a champion of Eritrea’s Industry only 10 days ago had died.  He also knew the boss had something to do with it.

The police and the hospital that began to carry post-mortem investigations were suddenly instructed to stop any further activity on this issue by the mafia operators and any result obtained in the early stage of the investigation were to be withheld from publicity.

Isayas's Methods

I was at the bereaved family's house and can confirm that everybody in the regime minus Isaias had come to pay respect. Even the official wife of the dictator was there. Dictator Isaias is a very envious character who despises anything that he believes outshines him. He ordered the killing of Mohammed and his hoodlums made it obvious that they executed the order.

The sadist dictator has many ways of punishing individuals who gain respect for their achievements in various aspects of life. Some he put in jail and make them disappear. With others, like a mutual friend of Mohammed and I, he would go after their wife thereby causing divorce and personal life misery. Some he would get them poisoned and make it look like natural death.

May God punish him worthy punishment for his evil deeds. May God end the desperate miserable life of the poor people of Eritrea.