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Experiences Of The Eritrean Liberation Army - September 1., 1961 - December.30, 1982
Posted by omaal on April 12 2007 23:35:59

ERITREAN LIBERATION FRONT

Experiences Of The Eritrean Liberation Army - September 1., 1961 - December.30, 1982
Prepared by the Military Department. Published by the ELF-Foreign Information Center Damascus (1983 )
CONTENT
Introduction
1. Brief history of Hamid Idris Awate
2. Eritrean Liberation Army Experience
3. The First Stage (1961-65)
4. Major Battles Conducted by the First Vanguards (1961-1965)
5. The Second Stage (1965-1969)
6. Experience of Armed Struggle
7. Major Battles (in the Second Stage)
8. The Third Stage (1969-1971)
9. Major Battles of the Third stage
10. The Fourth Stage (1971-1975)
11. First National Congress of the ELF
12. Major Battles of the fourth Stage
13. The Fifth Stage (1975-December 1982)
14. Second National Congress of the Front
15. The Battle of the Cities
16. The Ethiopian Military Campaign (June 1978)
17. The Agreement of October 20th
18. The Attack and our Response/lnternal Crisis
19. Third National Congress (Dec.9-13, 1982)
20. Conclusion
Dedication
To the Eritrean Liberation Army. The Army of our Heroic People. To our courage ous fighters. To our martyrs. To our heroes who are marching to the battle fields with honor. To those who are sacrificing with blood for the freedom of our nation. To those heroes who are writing the new Eritrean history. History of heroism and sacrifices. To those who fell and to those still standing with arms to pursue the struggle of the fallen till victory.
Free Eritrea shall emerge! Eritrea, glorious, proud and of our forefathers! To all of them we dedicate this book.
INTRODUCTION
The perseverance of the Eritrean fighter, its determined confrontation, the continuous challenge to the difficult and cruel conditions of the daily life, and our fighters challenge to the difficulties that face us in regard to the Ethtopian co lonizer supported by the US Imperialism with ultra-modern weapons during Haile Selassie's era and the present supports it receives from the Soviet Union, who has been known to support the Eritrean cause and the world liberation movements, all this resolve of our fighter stems from deep conviction

in the justness of our national cause; its preparedness to sacrifice for the objective of liberation and our fighters confidence in the people that rallied around its revolution since its initiation by its leader Awate, September of 1961, ensuring that a new stage has begun in the life of our people, tying its fate with the revolution and its victory. There is no alternative to our people except the confirmation of the struggle till liberation.
The vanguard - the Eritrean fighter- has always been, along with the people, the hope of bright future to achieve victory, glory and pride to our people. It said no to colonialism, no to oppression, no to exploitation, no to the splitting and divding of the forces of the Eritrean Revolution; its striking forces, and its determined people. The Eritrean fighter has discovered through its daily experiences that there is no choice to perseverance and raise its struggle to confront all dangers and serious work to unite the forces of the Eritrean Revolution, because unity is the necessary condition to achieve victory and because unity has been the principal factor in safeguarding the continuity of the Eritrean Revolution despite the difficulties and hinderances on the path of the revolutionary struggle.
The facts of the resolve and perseverance and continuity of the revolution has been represented by the folowing:
1) Hope in the future and in achieving victory and liberation.
2) Belief and confidence in the Eritrean masses, which have stood with the revolution since its initiation.
3) Belief in the justness of the Eritrean cause and the necessities to pay the needed sacrifices.
4) Belief in the principles and goals of the Eritrean revolution, its national scopes and its basic ideological fundament for national liberation and establishment of an independent Eritrea.
5) Belief in the unity of the forces of the Eritrean revolution and its vanguard Eritrean Liberation Army and escalation of the struggle for unity.
With this deep belief and understanding of the struggle, the Eritrean fighters managed to pay every sacrifice, and pave the revolutionary path with its innocent blood and the wounded of liberation war, despite loss of vital extremities, to register heroic precedence, which has enabled our liberation fighters to achieve all the victories, which we shall represent in this book and we hope to make this an important historical document to the fighting experience of the Eritrean Libera tion Army since its initiation on the 1 st September 1961 to 30th December 1982.
Last but not least, it should be indicated in this introduction, the Eritrean Liberation Army has been playing main roles in various political, military organizational, activities in the Eritrean Liberation Front. It has been the backbone to the Eritrean Revolution; its gurantee to victory, its continuity, developments of its forms of struggle for national tasks of total liberation and national independence.
I am glad to register these words and to present to the fighters of the ELF and the friends of the Eritrean revolution. It is a great achievement of the leadership of the Eritrean Liberation Army since the firing of the first bullet and the 2nd National Congres.
The value of this work emanates not from the facts and events that it constitu tes, but by documenting the experience by itself and its publication that reflects an advanced awareness of the necessity to register revolutionary experiences. It also confirms at the same time the genuinity of the revolutionary values of the ELF fighters and recognition of their initiatives and achievements. Besides of the historical value of this work, its political and practical usefulness to the fighter surpasses the limits of imparting knowledge and rallying around past facts to wards participating the fighter in the process of ideological termination of the present Eritrean fighter and place the fighter in its natural position as an exten sion to our long fighting history. To ensure the continuity of the revolution and its future; this work represents rich and vital material, that every fighter should learn from. This is a deep-rooted experience that is useful for every fighter, and in the final analysis is the documentation of the experiences of the whole people. The experience of the ELA is not only a military experience, it is a comprehensive revolutionary experience that is related to various aspects of political, economic, social and cultural life of the Eritrean people.
The ELA has been the watching eye and the blowing fist of the Eritrean revolution; the hope in need and symbol of victory. It is from the people and for the people. When we say the fighter of the ELA stands in the front trenches, we don't mean it in its geographical but in its conscious sense as the first to sacrifice as defender with his permanent readiness and in short his total life ties to the revolution, he lives and dies for the revolution.
Documenting the experiences of the Eritrean Liberation Army confirms all those significancies and explains the source of its vanguardness that emanates from its leading position and role and continous sacrifice. Thus it is providing objectivity to reality besides historical facts. It is necessary to present achievements without any exaggerations or underestimations. A true revolutionary whose purpose is to take advantage of experiences must not distort or decorate real ex periences. Reality is always the best source of truths.
This experience belongs to every ELF fighter, to every martyr and to every fighter who is struggling to this day and even to those who are keeping distance to our experience for various reasons. The experience in the final analysis is a result of common efforts, outlook and contribution - be it positive or negative.
Since this is the weight of the ELA in the national struggle and the ELF, one can realize the priority given to the ELA by the conference of the organization and meetings of its leadership in providing all necessary needs and accessing all the arms and institutions of the organization to support the ELA in its development and to strengthen its capabilities. This has been the experience of the ELA in the past and it continues its vanguard role in scoring heroic deeds and sacrifice. Hen ce is its historical role and destiny till national liberation of the nation.
Glory to the ELA fighter and once more my pride in this wonderful effort to produce this important historical and fighting document and put it in the hands of every Eritrean fighter - to learn from it as guidance and to contribute through the continued struggle in the ELA.
ABDALLA IDRIS MEHAMED
Chairman Revolutionary.Council and Executive Committee of the ELF
and
Commander-in-Chief of the ELA