The Eritrean “Coup” That Never Was
By Thomas C. Mountain
27 January, 2013
Countercurrents.org
The New York Times and its cult followers in the American media,
amongst others, manufactured an attempted “coup” that never happened
in the small East African country of Eritrea.
The story of this “attempted coup” began last Monday morning, January
21 in a small garrison base south of here when three disgruntled
officers told their command that they were being transferred to the
capital Asmara to guard the Ministry of Information. Excited to be
leaving their remote location for life in the capital the citizen
soldiers in the command packed their bags, loaded their two tanks on
to their trailers, saddled up and headed for the big city.
Several hours later the unit arrived at the unguarded gates of the
Eritrean Ministry of Information, unloaded their tanks and, according
to neighbors, proceeded to engage in boisterous horseplay on and
around their equipment.
In the meantime the three miscreant officers barged their way into the
television studios of Eritrean TV and waving a pistol around demanded
a political screed be read over the air.
A quick thinking technician in the broadcast system quickly cut of the
signal and their plan was suddenly still born.
In the meantime the youngsters in their command outside began to get
wind that something was wrong, and when they found out what was going
on inside the EriTV studios they “mutinied”, as in stopped obeying
their commanding officers orders which eventually included a command
for them to open fire on their fellow Eritreans.
Seeing that the jig was up the three “mutineers” absconded on foot
from the Ministry escaping down the cliffs behind the old “Forto”,
once the headquarters for the Italian Colonial Army in Eritrea.
All’s well that ends well and the three “mutinous” officers were duly
found and arrested. The “mutinous” national service citizen soldiers
were taken out to a very tasty dinner at the Malobar restaurant (quite
a treat for troops used to a diet of sorghum, chick peas and lentils),
spent the night in the daKorea apartments were they enjoyed hot
showers, clean sheets and comfortable beds for a change. The next day
they and their tanks returned to their base with a well deserved
thanks from the countries leaders.
The moral of the story is that the reality on the ground here in
Eritrea is that the military is composed of citizen soldiers, not the
“professional” ie mercenary armies found in most of the rest of
Africa. Our youth are all required to participate in the National
Service program and are paid a very small salary for their services.
In other words, they see their national service, no matter the
difficult conditions or seemingly endless term of service as their
patriotic duty.
Being that the Ethiopian army launched division scale attacks (a
division is made up of some 5,000 soldiers) at least three times in
2012 alone their families here in Eritrea really need them to keep us
safe from invasion by the notoriously brutal Ethiopian military camped
out 500,000 strong on our borders.
The whole description of this incident, what I have described as “a
tempest in a teapot”, as an attempted “coup” by some of the truth
challenged western media is made moot when anyone familiar with the
streets of Asmara will tell you that to get to the hill top Ministry
of Information one first has to drive past the Office of the
President.
To most Eritreans, 90% or more, and especially so amongst the youth
doing their national service, Eritrean President Issias Aferworki is
Eritrea’s George Washington, as in “first in war, first in peace and
first in the hearts of his countrymen”.
You don't have to take my word for this, all you have to do is visit
Eritrea during the carnival week leading up to Independence Day
celebrations in May (like award winning producer Afshin Rattansi and
his film crew did in 2012) and see for yourself the 100,000 and more
young people partying in the streets, almost all of who are doing
their national service duty. Not a firearm in sight, not a fight to be
seen, and the President himself walking down the middle of the street
at the height of the party surrounded by tens of thousands of his
country’s youth.
I don't think any Eritrean familiar with the reality here, especially
amongst the youth, would ever imagine a coup being possible. Even if a
group of officers were to try such they would quickly find that the
citizen soldiers in the Eritrean military would quickly “mutiny” as
was the case in the “tempest in a teapot” on Jan. 21, the coup that
never happened.
Thomas C. Mountain is the most widely distributed independent
journalist in Africa, living and reporting from Eritrea since 2006. He
can be reached at thomascmountain_at_yahoo_dot_com.
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