Cold War Historical Period: Eritreas Independence Struggle - Essay Example

Lecturer Cold War Historical Period: Eritrea’s Independence Struggle The Eritrean independence war took place between 1961 and 1991. The war involves two key parties; the government of Ethiopia on one hand, and the Eritrean separatists on the other hand. The independence struggle took place in the periods before and also in the course of the Ethiopian Civil War. The war began after the unilateral revocation of the autonomy of Eritrea inside Ethiopia. Eritrea was an area of Ethiopia after the end of the Second World War. The end of the war marked the liberation of the two territories from the Italian occupation. At the start of the liberation period, Ethiopia illustrated that Eritrea was located within its territories. The United Nations General Assembly supported the claim of Ethiopia and hence in 1950, Eritrea was officially declared a province of Ethiopia. The ancient monarchy of Ethiopia was toppled in 1974 through the Marxist Leninist coup, and thus Ethiopia received adequate support of the Soviet Union up to late 1980s. The later stages of the 1980s were characterized through the review of the foreign policies of Moscow by glasnost and perestroika that resulted into the withdrawal of aid or help (Johnson 2011). The conflict involving Ethiopia and Eritrea took place up to 1991, for total period of 30 years. The Eritrean People’s Liberation Front defeated the Ethiopian military based in Eritrea. Ethiopia supported a referendum in 1993, and the Eritreans supported independence during the vote. The Eritrean independence victory illustrated by the referendum win led to the official global recognition of sovereign Eritrea in late 1993 (Harris 2008).Two key Eritrean liberation movements participated in the liberation struggle. They are; the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF), and the Eritrean liberation Front (ELF). Eritrea was colonized by the Italians as from the 1890. Italy also colonized Ethiopia in during 1936, and the new colonized territory was referred to as the Italian East Africa. The Italian East Africa additionally comprised the Italian Somaliland. The entire Italian East Africa Empire was collectively managed through the unified Italian administration. The Italian East Africa was conquered in 1941 by the allied forces, and thus Ethiopia got back its initially occupied land. Italian Somaliland was, however, still under the Italian authority up to 1960 but as the United Nations Protectorate after the integration with British Somaliland. The British Somaliland achieved it independence in 1960, and hence, the development of the Somalia independent state (Killion 2010). Eritrea was turned into a British protectorate after the Second World War up to 1951. The British gave the opinion the Eritrea should be separated according to religious affiliations. According to the opinion, the Christians were supposed to be integrated with Ethiopia, and the Muslims were supposed to be merged with Sudan. This opinion generated a lot of controversy. Hence, the United Nations in 1952 agreed on integrating Eretria with Ethiopia, with the main aims of realizing the Ethiopian sovereignty aspirations, and also the independence goals of Eritrea. Haile Selassie after nine years annexed Eritrea into Somalia. The dissolution of the federation by the Emperor of Ethiopia is what triggered the Eritrean armed conflict, which took place for 30 years (Johnson 2011). Eritrea and Ethiopia were federated during 1952, based on controversial domestic aspects. In the entire aspects of the federation, the Eritrean autonomy was drastically reduced, until it was unacceptable to educate students in the Eritrean languages. The continuously growing divisiveness between the Muslim and Christian Eritreans was greatly influence by the mass media. Thus, the ELF was initiated in 1960 in Egypt’s capital Cairo by several Muslim intellectuals from Eritrea. The ELF was basically socialist, but it greatly attracted majority of the Muslim fighters during the early periods of the 1960s (Harris 2008). In late 1960s, increasing frustrations due to the federation dissolution greatly motivated the Eritrean Christians to participate in the liberation or independence struggle. The involvement of the Christian forces within the Muslim commanded ELF caused frictions between two key groups; the old guard who mostly served as force commanders, and the new entrants who were majorly radical students. In the 1960s, the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) spearheaded the independence desire and struggle. The independence conflict is adequately illustrated as the resistance to the Eritrean annexation that was initiated by the Emperor of Ethiopia. The initial struggle conflict adopted by the ELF entailed the categorization of the liberation efforts through the ethnic and the geographical aspects. The basic zonal commands were four, and they were primarily lowland areas that were Muslim dominated. Following the increasing disenfranchisement due to the Ethiopian occupation, the Christians who majorly resided in the highland areas supported the activities of the EFL through joining its forces. Generally, the Christians comprised the upper social classes due to their high education standards up to the university level. The increasing activities of the Christian volunteers in the operations of the ELF resulted in the formation of a fifth command, the highland Christian. However, the unified EFL command experienced several challenges like sectarian violence between the splintered zonal commands. The conflict bas basically initiated on September 1, 1961 when shots were fired at the Ethiopian forces, by Hamid Idris Awate forces. Thus in 1962, Haile Selassie unilaterally dissolved the Eritrean parliament and also ensured the Eretria annexation (Johnson 2011). During 1970, the members of the EFL force experience a lot of challenges, conflicts and disagreements. Thus several groups opted out of the EFL arrangement. In this period, the EFL and other Eritrean forces engaged in a civil war. But in 1974, the warring Eritrean forces were motivated through popular will to integrate, and engage in joint military activities against the Ethiopian forces. During 1974, a coup was organized in Ethiopia and it resulted in the removal of the Emperor Haile Selassie. The resultant Ethiopian government referred to as the Derg illustrated the Marxist Military Junta, and it was led by Mengistu Haile Miriam, a political and military strongman. The resultant Derg regime used an extra four years to adequately control the Ethiopian, Eritrean and Somalia territories (Killion 2010). The ELF splintered groups agreed to integrate during 1977, and thus the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) was developed. At the later stages of the 1970s, EPLF emerged as the key armed Eritrean forces that engaged in armed conflict with the Ethiopian forces. Ramadan Mohammed Nour was the leaders and also the EPLF secretary general of the, and his assistant was known as Isaias Afewerki. The military supplies and equipments that were used during the conflict with Ethiopia were got through continual attacks on the Ethiopian army. In this conflict period, the Derg was not able to effectively manage the through majorly relying on force. Thus, the Ethiopian forces had extra missions of instilling fear amongst the Eritrean population. One fear approach is illustrated through the massacre that occurred on November 17, 1970 in the Basik Dera village. The whole village population was locked inside a mosque. The mosque was thereafter razed, and the Ethiopian forces shot dead the fire survivors. These types of massacres mainly occurred in mainly the Muslim areas of Eritrea, and also targeted certain Christian areas (Harris 2008). In 1977, there were adequate illustrations that the EPLF was effectively capable of removing the Ethiopian forces from the Eritrean territories. This is through the application of a predetermined and continuous attack from the East, through retrieving the military supplies and equipments of the Ethiopian forces. However, through the adoption of an effective military repulsion strategy, the Derg succeeded in preventing the Somalia incursion. This was made possible through the huge airlift of the soviet military supplies (Killion 2010). In addition to the great manpower and military equipment present during the Somali mission, the Ethiopian forces gained extra competencies that resulted in a retreat by the EPLF forces. This conflict scenario explains two key battles; Battle of Massawa and Battle of Barentu. As from 1978 up to 1986 the Ethiopian forces applied eight key offensives; however, the military approaches did not eliminate the guerilla movements. During the 1988 Battle of Afabet, the rebels adequately gained control of the Afabet area. Afabet was a strategic area because it served as the Ethiopian army headquarters within north eastern Eritrea. Thus, the Ethiopian army lost the garrisons in western lowlands. The EPLF forces thus got the opportunity of accessing Keren, the second biggest city of Eritrea. Several other dissent forces made progress in key Ethiopian areas. In the entire conflict, the Ethiopian forces utilized napalm (anti-personnel gas) and several related incendiary equipments (Killion 2010). During the later period of 1980s, the Soviet communicated to Mengistu that it will not accept the renewal of the agreement on defense and cooperation. After the stoppage of the military support by the soviet, the motivation of the Ethiopian forces drastically reduced. Thus the EPLF and supporting rebel forces effectively advanced towards the Ethiopians strategic positions. The efforts to remove the Marxist and Mengistu rule was mostly performed by the EPLF forces and likeminded Ethiopian faction organizations that comprised mostly tribal liberation movements like; the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), the EPRDF and also the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The TPLF engaged in conflicts against the ELF, and thus several Tigrayans lost their lives during the civil war of Eritrea (Harris 2008). The EPDRF comprised a collection of the TPLF regime and the Oromo’s People Democratic Organization. The Oromo organization was very effective in the recruitment and trainings of the Derg defects. The EPLF and the EPRDF were mainly responsible for occupying the Ethiopian areas of Shewa and Wollo. Several international stakeholders agreed to mediate peace efforts between the TPLF and the Ethiopian government. Jimmy Carter, former US president, with the assistance of key federal officials and the United Nations representatives, tried to initiate peace mediation efforts between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF forces. The mediation attempts were made through the Carter Presidential Center that is based in the Atlanta area of Georgia. The peace efforts took place during September, 1989. Ashagre Yigletu was very instrumental during the negotiations, and thus a peace deal was signed between the EPLF and the People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE). The peace agreement was signed in Nairobi, with Jimmy Carter and Al-Amin Mohammed Seid. Yigletu was the Deputy Prime Minister of PDRE (Killion 2010). Several other conflict challenges were experienced after the signing of the peace deal in Nairobi. The hostilities resumed immediately. Yigletu again took the Ethiopian official delegation to the peace meetings that involved Meles Zenawi, the leader of the TPLF. The meeting took place in Rome, during November 1989 and also March 1990. He also tried to take the Ethiopian Government team for peace negotiations involving the EPLF. The negotiation duration was up to March 1991, and the venue was Washington DC (Johnson 2011). The United States performed key roles during the peace negotiations between Ethiopia and Eritrean independence rebels after the cold war. The negotiations occurred during the periods that led to the collapse of the Mengistu regime during May 1991. Mengistu resigned from office during mid-may, as the leader of the Ethiopian government. Thus, he allowed a caretaker government based in the Capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa and he resided in Zimbabwe during the exile period. The United States also sent a powerful delegation to Addis Ababa during the July conference in 1991 that formed the transitional political leadership in Ethiopia (Harris 2008). Based on the defeat of the Ethiopian forces within the Eritrean territories, the EPLF delegation participates as the observer in the transition process, and also engaged in discussions with the transitional Ethiopian administration in terms of the relationship between Ethiopia and Eritrea. One key major result from the discussions involved the rights by the Eritreans to participate in a referendum on the subject of independence. The referendum took place in April 1993 and the Eritrean voters unanimously favored the independence of Eritrea (Killion 2010). The referendum results were declared credible by the United Nations Observer Mission to Verify the Referendum in Eritrea (UNOVER). Eritrea was officially registered by the United Nations as part of its membership admission procedure. Admission into the United Nations membership was done on May 28, 1993. The results of the referendum indicated that 99.79% of the voters want a sovereign and independent Eritrea. Bibliography Harris, Paul. (2008). "Eritrea: A Small War in Africa". Combat & Survival. Johnson, Michael. (2011). "Eritrea: The National Question and the Logic of Protracted Struggle". African Affairs 80 (319): 181–195. Killion, Tom. (2010). Historical Dictionary of Eritrea. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow. Read More