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Saleh Eyay
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Remembering Eritrean heroes in contemporary history
A Short
Biography
Of
Saleh Eyay
Compiled and edited
By
Emnetu Tesfay
This biographical sketch is
compiled from the book Historical
dictionary of Eritrea by Dan Connell and Tom Killion and Woldeyesus Ammar’s
notes in Nharnet News of november 14, 2004.
Stavanger, Norway
2013
By Woldeyesus Ammar (November 14, 2004)
In Blin, Saleh Eyay’s mother tongue that he could not use except in his
early childhood, there is a saying that goes: “Sabur girga entgini”. It
literally translates: “May the day of praise not arrive[to you]” - i.e. death.
It implies that people usually talk about the good part of you when the ‘Day of
Praise’ falls on you. That unwanted day of admiration has come to Saleh and the
Palestinian leader on 11 November 2004. And no wonder that a couple of articles
eulogized Saleh Eyay within our Eritrean
community as the entire Palestinian nation mourned and praised Saleh’s other friend of the
old Beirut days, the late Yasser Arafat. May their souls rest in peace.
Saleh Ahmed Eyay was a member of a remarkable generation of Eritreans who
reached adulthood in the late 1950 and early 1960s, at a time when peoples of
the Third World were being set on fire in a passion called Revolution for
National Liberation. Many Eritreans of different backgrounds and origins were
engulfed by that irresistible zeal and devotion for independence that lasted
their lifetime – but may probably not continue in the same degree of fervour
beyond Saleh’s generation and the one that followed it immediately.
It was the political environment that mattered, and matters. Within Eritrea,
Saleh Eyay’s political environment was special. It was Keren, the town that
served as the headquarters of the first and the second biggest Eritrean parties
that advocated for independence a decade earlier – i.e. the town that was the
headquarter of Ibrahim Sultan’s League, and the reformed New Eritrea Party.
There was no escape for Saleh Eyay from being part of “a poisonous generation”. And let me first tell you
something about this “poison”. When he replaced Tedla Bairu as Eritrea’s Chief
Executive in the summer of 1955, Asfaha Woldemichael arranged a visit to Keren
and gathered everybody at the football field to tell them as follows: “This
Keren, your Keren, is a cup of poison and the rest of Eritrea is a barrel of
water. If we mix the two, it is the cup of poison that transforms the barrel of
water to poison and not the other way round. We will see to it that the poison
is not mixed with the water”. Ibrahim Sultan was around listening to
the talk and probably also the then 18-year old Saleh Eyay. But
unfortunately for the new Chief Executive, Asfaha Woldemichael and his masters,
there was no way for them to stop that “poisonous generation” from cropping up
in Keren and other places and gradually spreading to every corner of the
country.
Saleh was already a known agitator in Keren before he went to Port Sudan where
he met like-minds to continue spreading the ‘poison’. On 2 November 1958, eight
young Eritreans, among them Saleh Eyay, met at Mohammed Saed Nawd’s house at Hay
Al-Transit in Port Sudan and formed the Eritrean Liberation Movement (ELM – Mahber
Showate) that spread all over Eritrea within a short time. In January 1961, Mahber
Showate/ELM held its first and last conference in Asmara. Saleh Eyay was one
of the 40 Asmara conference participants, who also included: Mohammed Saed Nawd,
the ELM co-founder-leader, Yassin Uqda, Adem Melekin, Mohammed Burhan Hassen,
Ali Berhatu, Tiku’e Yihdego, Kahsai Bahlbi, Mohammed Omar Akito, Abdulkerim Saed
Qasim, Sheikh Saddadin Mohammed, Khiyar Hassen Beyan (a rich and courageous
compatriot who hosted the conference in his house) and other well known names.
Saleh Eyay was present almost in every important meeting place or a place of
difficulties that had something to do with and about the Eritrean cause – e.g.
he even spent one year in the infamous Alem Beqa prison in Addis. He was at
Adobaha in 1969 where he reportedly played an important role, and at the first
ELF congress at Arr in 1971.
The purpose of my writing is not give details about Saleh’s life history which
has been sufficiently summarized in a few pieces written in the Eritrean
websites recently. However, I worked in the foreign relations office which was
under his administration during most part of the 1970s and early 1980s, and
wished to agree as a witness to the views expressed by his old colleagues whose
comments were published in the websites. The ELF-RC’s statement posted in
Nharnet.com described Saleh Eyay as “a modest, sociable, generous and at the
same time confrontational when the need arose and stubborn in defense of his
political convictions”. Ibrahim Mohammed Ali, the Speaker of the ELF-RC,
said these were the qualities that won Saleh the respect of his comrades during
many years of the struggle. Ahmed Nasser of the ELF-NC also confirmed this by
saying Saleh was a man of “a unique courage”.
Yes, he was a man of unique courage. He was a co-founding leader of the ELM but
he had no problem of changing membership to ELF in 1965 when he was convinced
that he would do good to the cause for national liberation than by insisting to
revitalize ELM. The fear of changing political organization is a malaise that
Eritreans suffer to this day. Once separated - EMD or Sagem, Obeleen or whatever
- want to remain aloof from the mainstream struggle even when the right moments
call for reconciliation and coming together. Saleh’s had a unique courage to
defy that fear. He was bitterly criticized for standing against the legal
leadership of the ELF in 1982 but he was a man of singular decisions, and he
went ahead with it, even when it meant separating him from his closest friend,
Mohammed Omar Yahya. Again, most of his old comrades surprised to see him going
to Asmara after liberation, but he wanted to try to change from within.
Unfortunately, and like Yasser Araft, he was not able to achieve success in
creating a democratic Eritrea in peace with itself and its neighbours.
I also agree with Herui Tedla Bairu’s comment that Saleh was free from narrow
feelings of region or religion, except that he, Herui, should have added that
Saleh Eyay would not agree with anyone of his old comrades in today’s opposition
who have been spoiling the political environment and minds of so many innocent
compatriots by using unnecessary political language that bred hatred and
encouraged mobilization of our people on the basis of ethnicity, region and
religion.
May Saleh Eyay’s soul rest in peace.
A Historical Account
From A German Historian’s
Interviews with Eritrean Figures
Part I
(Edited by Woldeyesus Ammar)
Did you know that:
·
Amanuel Amdemichael, Ethiopia’s one time Prosecutor General, and Fitewrari
Bezabeh, another high official later killed by ELF in the late 1960s as
agent, were among the early members of Mahber-Showate/ELM?
·
A short time before his death in an attempted ‘coup’ in June 1963, Tedla Uqbit
tried to reach ELM through Hedad Karrar and Sheikh Sa’adadin Mohammed?
(Günter Schroeder, a German historian and political analyst, had
been writing about and closely following developments within the Eritrean
liberation struggle for over three decades. And not only that: he possesses a
rare collection of first-hand information on the Eritrean liberation struggle
some of it in the form of interviews with over one hundred Eritreans, most of
whom played key roles in the struggle. In the absence of sufficient books
authored by those key actors in the struggle, it is gratifying that such a
valuable record exists. The other good luck for us is that, unlike others,
Günter Schroeder generously shares his documents with any interested Eritreans
to use it in their different ways.
A co-founder of Haraka, Saleh Ahmed Eyay, who passed away recently in
Asmara, was one of Schroeder’s interviewees in the 1980s. In fact, Schroeder met
him in Asmara after liberation. It is with profound gratitude to Günter
Schroeder, who permitted the use of this material, that I am sharing with you,
readers, major parts of the interviews Schroeder conducted with Saleh Eyay
on 10 January 1988 in Kassala, on 24 January 1988 in Khartoum and again on 13
July 1988 in Khartoum. Slight editorial touches were deemed necessary in small
parts of the original verbatim text in order to paraphrase one or two long
tracts or to edit typographical errors and to standardize spelling of names; of
course I remain responsible for any wrong editing or inappropriate deletion. In
today’s Part I is presented the material mainly dealing with the establishment
of the ELM. Sections of the interviews concerned with ELF-related issues
like the Eslah Movement, the emergence of ‘Kiada Amma’, the civil wars and
questions raised about the Labour Party will presented under Part II. Good
reading.)
***
About the Rise and Fall of the Haraka/ELM:
Günter Schroeder:
[Mr. Saleh Ahmed Eyay], I would like
to start with the Harakat [a-Tahrir al-Eritria] as you were a founding
member of Haraka [or the Eritrean Liberation Movement/Mahber Showate]. How
did this idea of establishing the Haraka start? What were the preparations and
how was it actually formed?
Saleh Eyay: In 1956 I went to Port Sudan in order to proceed to Cairo to
continue my education. However, my plans failed and I stayed there and started
to work with a company called the African Oil Company.
There was a large Eritrean community residing in Port Sudan at that time -
approximately 5,000, most of them students and workers. But other 10,000
[migrant] Eritreans used to visit this port [annually].
In November 1958, Mohammed Saeed Naud invited us for a meeting in his
house [beside Naud and Eyay, the other the participants included:
Idris Mohammed Hassan, Sheikh Osman Hassan Haj Idris, Osman Mohammed
Osman, Yassin Mohammed Saleh Al-Aqda, Mohammed Al-Hansan Osman, Habib
Omar Gaas]. We discussed our national case, and we agreed to call our
organization Eritrean Liberation Movement. We named ourselves the
‘leadership’ of this movement and assigned Mohammed Saeed Naud to draft all our
thoughts into a programme, and write a structure and a constitution. At the
second meeting, he brought the programme. I can say our movement was
a progressive movement; Mohammed Saeed Naud himself was a member of the Sudanese
Communist Party. He informed us that he had left the party because he could not
keep membership in both.
As far as we were concerned, we were looking at our movement to be a national
movement for all Eritreans, and not only for the progressive ones. And in our
programme, we established that our struggle will be a political struggle
organized in secret cells... Within two years the movement was spread to all
Sudan with main branch in Port Sudan and branches in Kassala, Khartoum,
Gedaref etc. Other branches were formed in Saudi Arabia. [After covering
the Sudan], we decided to move the movement to Eritrea. Yassin Al-Aqda and I
were asked to go inside Eritrea and form cells. I was assigned to form cells in
all of the western provinces from Keren to the Sudanese border. My friend Yassin
was assigned to form cells in Asmara, the rest of the highlands as well as in
the eastern provinces of Semhar and Dankalia.
Schroeder:
When did you go inside [Eritrea]?
Saleh Eyay: That was at the end of 1959.
Schroeder:
How did you go about organizing the cells inside?
Saleh Eyay:
I began the mission from Ali Ghidir where I had friends working as teachers and
in other professions. That was the main cell for the Gash area and it multiplied
itself up to the towns in the vicinity like Galuj and Um Hajer. Then I moved to
Keren where I met my friends, teachers, and some old politicians. We formed a
leadership for the town and the province of Keren. My friend Mohammed Omar
Yahya listed the names of the leadership; they were: myself, full-time political
activist; Suleiman Idris Merir, merchant; Ali Karrar and Saeed Shaush,
goldsmiths; Mohammed Adem Mohammed Omar Kamil, chief from Beit Maala; Haj
Abdulkerim Saeed Kassem, trader; Mohammed Karar, teacher; Omar Haj Idris,
cashier at Keren municipality; Afa Usman Derar, ‘smuggler’, Mohammed Omar
Yahya, student; Yassin Mohammed Nur, tailor.The list was correct except that the
name Merir should read Merikh.
Schroeder:
Who in the list were from the old parties?
Saleh Eyay: Suleiman Merikh, Ali Karrar, Abdelkerim, Saeed Shaush, they were from
the Muslim League. But Umar Haj Idris, Usman Derar [and others] were my own
generation.
Schroeder:
So Saeed Shaush, Abdelkerim, Ali Karrar had been active in the Muslim
League?
Saleh Eyay: Yes, there was some relationship between people who had been active
before and the younger generation; the students were a bit more radical.
Schroeder:
How do you see it looking back to Haraka in relation to Jebha?
Saleh Eyay: The differences between Jebha and Haraka? The leader of Haraka,
Mohammed Saeed Naud and all the leadership of Haraka were trying to organize the
Eritrean Liberation Movement politically – that is a well organized political
opposition against Ethiopia. The ELM was very successful to organizing the
Eritrean people [civilians, prisoners, the police..]. But they ways [or the
strategy] was very weak. The ELF started directly with guerrilla warfare... The
ELM was never against armed struggle as such but we were thinking that the
situation was not suitable for such things. But when it exploded, the people
accepted it because they were already organized or at least informed of their
cause. Therefore, there was not a problem for the ELF to take over the ELM
people to its side.
Schroeder:
In the committees you mentioned there were different professions represented.
How was that when you started to organize inside the military and the police?
Did you have special cells for policemen or you included them with
students or traders?
Saleh Eyay: The students had their own leadership and the police were guided by
policemen. The cells were organized according to the social categories and only
at the level of leadership were the different professions coming together.
There were also many, many high-ranking persons from the Parliament, from the
personnel of the Eritrean Government and Administration. All of them were
directly guided by their friends, not by us. They did not know us, but we knew
them. They did not know who was guiding them. Everything was secret. Even the
leadership in Port Sudan did not know who was leading the organization.
The ELM/Haraka was a new experience but it played a good role in
organizing the Eritrean people in cells. Then when the ELF came, the difference
between us and the ELF was the question of armed struggle which was very
necessary at that time.
Schroeder:
After the ELF started the armed struggle or before, had there been attempts to
create a union of the two organizations?
Saleh Eyay: There were many attempts but they failed. While I was with Haraka, we
sent Ali Said Berhatu from Eritrea to the Sudan and Cairo to dialogue for unity
between the two organizations... Our contradictions were useful to the enemy and
harmful to Haraka and Jebha both of whom had their members imprisoned... In
1968, when I was a member of Jebha, we [ [Idris Gelaidos, Azien Yassin...] met
in Khartoum with Naud and his colleagues. That also failed because Mohammed Said
Naud was thinking that Jebha is going to be destroyed and he was waiting for its
death. After that, the differences within Jebha increased and Naud joined the
PLF formed by Osman Saleh Sabe.
Eritrean Liberation Army
(source: Nharnet News)
Schroeder:
In 1960/6, a lot of people were arrested. This means that the Ethiopian
security must have penetrated into the cell structure. How did they succeed in
that?
Saleh Eyay:
Well, the main thing I want to make clear for you, is that when the ELF
was established and started armed confrontations, many of our friends joined
Jebha and were no longer with us. All of my old friends in the committees went
to Jebha where they took leadership posts and I remained in Haraka alone.
At that time, there was [another] damaging propaganda against us which said that
Haraka people were communists and those in Jebha Muslims. To be called a
communist at that time was a very, very bad thing. It was difficult to confront
this policy and ELM’s position against armed struggle.
I came here [from Eritrea in the Sudan] before I declared myself being a member
of ELF. I met Mohammed Saeed Naud and the ELM leadership and I said we
should be with the ELF. They refused. After that I met Osman [Sabbe] and Idris
Glawdeyos in Kassala in 1965 [to talk about my decision to join the ELF].
Schroeder:
Before you came out to Sudan you had been arrested for some time, hadn't you?
Saleh Eyay: Yes, I was in prison for 11 months in Keren and then for one year in
Alem Beqa of Addis Ababa. Our case was submitted to the High Court and they
lacked any evidence against us. Therefore, we were liberated.
Schroeder:
That means you were arrested in 1962 or in 1963?
Saleh Eyay: In 1962 and in 1963 and then also in 1964 when one Colonel was killed
in Keren. They arrested me also I was in Asmara. After one year I came out to
the Sudan.
Schroeder:
In 1965 you joined the ELF. But before that there was an attempt by Haraka to
build up its own armed force.
Saleh Eyay: Yes, I came at that time exactly when they built that force and before
the clash I came to Port Sudan and I met them and I clarified for them my
position and I asked them first to join the ELF and they refused. So I clearly
declared from that time on I'm a member of Jebha.
Schroeder:
Some of those who went inside Eritrea [to start armed struggle] with Haraka had
been trained in Cuba. How did that connection come about?
Saleh Eyay:
I do not remember the number of those trained in Cuba because at that
time I was in prison when they went to Cuba. Many forces played a role in that,
mostly the Egyptians because Haraka was friendly with the Communist Parties of
the Sudan and Egypt. But after the October Revolution in the Sudan, the position
of the Sudanese and the Egyptian Communist Parties was a little bit to give some
importance to the ELF. However, the Cubans gave training for about 30 Jebha
members in 1966 or 1967, among them Ibrahim Afa, Mohammed Hazeb and many others
who are dead.
Schroeder:
Coming back to the situation in Port Sudan before the Haraka was formed, did the
large Eritrean community there had some kind of social club or association like
the Eritreans in Egypt, Jeddah and Aden?
Saleh Eyay:
At that time, the Eritreans in Port Sudan were mainly [mixing]
with the Beni Amer tribe and they were not giving much importance to clubs or
associations. Even today, I think, they don't have such associations and
separate clubs. But there were one or two football teams. One was having a kind
of club within the teashop of Hussein Eyasu in Deim Sawa. This I remember and I
was a member of this team. After one year and a half all of them returned to
Eritrea or went to Saudi Arabia, so there was no team.
Schroeder:
How did [the first ELM founding group] come together?What was the basis for it?
Was the selection made by Mohammed Said on the basis of his knowledge of the
individual persons or was there a kind of informal discussion before you
started to call people together for the meeting?
Saleh Eyay:
Yes, Mohammed Said had the idea. So he was trying to contact people.
And he started that before one year, connecting and contacting all the
Eritreans. He was told by some of my friends that I have feelings for the things
he was discussing. So he invited me and we discussed those ideas. He was trying
to tell me that we can do something, that we should do something, because no one
will start it if we wait.... (In the interview, Saley Eyay tells in detail where
each one of the founding ELM leaders were by 1988).
About ELM leaderships: [After the congress of 1961], key leaders in
both the Asmara region and the leadership at the national level consisted of the
following persons: Saleh Eyay, Yassin Aqda, Ali Said Berhatu, Khiar Hassan
Beyan, merchant; Tikue Yihdego, civil aviation; Abdelkader Blatta,
merchant; Kahsay Bahlebi (wedi libi) travel agent; Mohammed Saleh Mahmud,
journalist; Musa Mohammed Nur, merchant; Mohammed Berhan Hassan,
trader-accountant and Ibrahim Iman, traffic manager of Haji Hassan
Company; Mahmoud Ismail, who worked as chief clerk at Public Words; Musa
Mohammed Hashim, Saleh Omar, and Fit. Bezabeh, who later became agent of
Ethiopia and was killed by ELF in Asmara. (Hedad Karar, Sheikh Sa’adadin and
Amanuel Amdemichael were assigned to organize high-ranking government
officials.)
END