02.45
Asmara It's Sunday morning in Asmara. As the Eritrean capital wakes to the sound of church bells, a son of the country's liberation war is visiting his mother. It's more than twenty years since an Ethiopian bullet crushed the spine of Alem Gebrehannes. But he's still greeted with the jubilation that befits a war hero. Alem comes from a typical family of Eritrean fighters.
03.22 Even his mother and sister fought in the same war. The Eritreans call them the Tegadelti, the fighters.
The Tegadelti are fighting again. Six years ago Eritrea won independence from Ethiopia, but the two countries are once again at war.
03.30
Alem Gebrehannes War Veteran I'm not sad, I'm happy because I shed my blood for my people. My legs are rotten, my eye's are rotten, my everywhere is rotten. I started the struggle and I want to finish it.
Title The Tegadelti
(The fighters)
3.54 This road leads to the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea. There over half a million soldiers are positioned for the next round of a pointless war. Over the past two years, 70 000 Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers have died.
4.16
The Tsorona
Front Alem's youngest brother is somewhere on this frontline. So are his three cousins. One of them is 20-year old Milliona Mehari. She's doing her national service in the trenches of Tsorona. On this battlefield, there's no distinction between men and women.
4.44
Milliona Mehari
Eritrean soldier This is our trench. Our team's territory.
I was near to that tank over there.
04.52 In March last year, Ethiopia invaded Eritrea... supported by over 5,000 tanks. Milliona fought in the very front trench... side by side with her male counterparts. It was the single biggest battle of the war.
05 10
Milliona Mehari
(Fighter)
It lasted three days: 14 to 17 March 1999.
At five am, they started shelling us.
At 6:20, they came with soldiers and tanks.
05 33 They came in waves, wave after wave.
They kept coming to us.
They had more arms; but we were strong.
They lost their arms, property and lives.
After 3 days they were destroyed.
They have never attacked us again.
06 09 There were dead bodies everywhere.
Tanks were burning.
Blood was pouring on to the ground.
It was very ugly to look at.
I don't feel sorry for them at all.
They came to our land to attack us.
They wanted to harm us.
06 43
Abeda Tesfagiorgis
(Author & Women's Rights Activist)
They were so brave that they would not mind the bullets coming to them. They would dash and sometimes fight hand to hand.
06 55
Milliona Mehari
(Fighter) I am very proud after this battle.
This is an insurance that the Ethiopians can never be victorious.
Abeda Tesfagiorgis
(Author & Women's Rights Activist)
07.07 You could not conceive that a woman could fight so bravely and would just capture a soldier with her hands. The soldiers would be paralyzed.
07.21
War Front It's been labeled a "crazy war". It started in May 1998 as a border dispute over a stretch of barren land in the Badme area. But it's quickly blown up into a full-scale conflict. Ethiopia claims the Eritreans invaded first and demand their withdrawal. Eritrea admitted it had entered the area, but said it was re-claiming its territory. Despite international peace efforts, the war continues.
07.55
Professor Asmarom Legesse
(Community Leader and Philosopher)
Deep disappointment. You know you just want your freedom and you just learned to relish it and then all of a sudden you have to fight this wear all over again. And then on the Ethiopian side they're telling us they're going to fight as long as it takes.
08.12
Alemseged Tesfai
(Historian and Former Fighter)
I can't believe that they want to recapture Eritrea. It must be madness. I don't know whether it is access to the sea that they want.
08.20
Professor Asmarom Legesse
(Community Leader and Philosopher)
It's a terrible war, a needless war. And it's a war that has all kinds of hidden agendas. It really isn't a war which isn't what it purports to be. It's a war about Ethiopian expansionism.
08.36
Alemseged Tesfai
(Historian and Former Fighter)
I think we could have done this peacefully. We can argue peacefully. We can defend peacefully and settle this problem peacefully.
08.48
Abeda Tesfagiorgis
(Author & Women's Rights Activist)
It's death. It's destruction. It's pain. It's torture.
08.51
Alemseged Tesfai
(Historian and Former Fighter)
I don't think we need go to war with all this destruction. It's an unnecessary result of something which started as a border skirmish.
09.05
Abeda Tesfagiorgis
(Author & Women's Rights Activist)
It's still a nightmare for me. It's a nightmare for me. I don't want to talk about it. This war is nonsense. It's very painful.
09.20 Eritrea is a mysterious land of stark contrasts. It rises from the Red Sea in the east, to mountains of the interior. To the south is desert.
09.28 Three million Eritreans live in this land of ancient legends and rituals. The monastery of Debre-Bizen is 600 years old. Here Coptic monks have isolated themselves from the outside world. Not even female animals are allowed onto the mountain.
09.59 In the village of Adi-Bibel, people live a traditional Eritrean life. Robel Mockonen is a former freedom fighter. His whole family is buried at Adi-Bidel... except for his father and two brothers. They've all died on the battlefield.
10.18
Robel Mockonen
War Veteran Actually our culture is such a nice culture. Our culture is a culture of helping, of solidarity. A culture of helping each other. A culture of happiness. A culture where everything is good.
10.38
When we arrived in Adi-Bidel, women were celebrating the harvest. There are few young men and women left. Most of them are on the frontline.
10.47
Robel Mockonen
Without my brother dying, without my father dying. Without me dying or other people from Eritrea dying I don't think Eritrea could have achieved something like what we have now.
11.00
Professor Asmarom Legesse
(Community Leader and Philospher)
Of course there were a class of warriors in Eritrea throughout history. But a nation of warriors we were not that at all. We became that as a result of the 30 year war of liberation.
11.13
Robel Mockonen Any Eritrean can do no better than dying for his country. This is the best thing he can do for his country.
11.21
Throughout its history, Eritrea has fought invaders... among them Ethiopian emperors, Egyptian kings and Turkish rulers. In 1890 it was colonized by Italy... and in 1935 Mussolini used it as a base to invade Ethiopia.
11.37
Six years later, Allied forces took Addis Abeba. Britain was now in charge of Eritrea.
11.44 In the 1950s it became part of Haile Selassie's great Ethiopian empire. But Selassie was an authoritarian... and in 1958 armed resistance started. The Eritrean People's Liberation Front or the EPLF was born. A thirty-year war of liberation from Ethiopia had begun.
12.08
Alemseged Tesfai
(Historian and Former Fighter)
They were denied freedom and they wanted freedom. They were very simple people who wanted freedom, that's all.
12.16
Professor Asmarom Legesse
(Community Leader and Philosopher)
One word that is critical in the Eritrean revolution is the word Tsinaat, which means fortitude, commitment.
12.21
Alemseged Tesfai
(Historian and Former Fighter)
There was a lot of humanity in the fighter. These were not people who carried the gun because they loved the gun.
12.28
Professor Asmarom Legesse
(Community Leader and Philosopher)
If you are strong in your beliefs and if you are willing to make every conceivable sacrifice the enemy will sooner or later fall apart.
12.42
The Ethiopians bombarded the Eritrean rebels daily... and the rebels literally went underground. They built a series of trenches and caves... that offered them almost complete protection from the bombers. It was one of the most unique aspects of the war...
12.59
Robel Mockonen
We are 7 brothers in our family. Five of us and my mother and father joined the struggle.
13.09
Professor Asmarom Legesse
(Community Leader and Philospher)
People simply gave up everything, absolutely everything. They were given food, meagre food, meagre clothing and shelter, mostly caves, and that was it. That was their lives.
13.23
Robel Mockonen
My father and two of my brothers were sacrificed in the war for independence.
13.33
In the seventies, the rebels started sending women to the frontline. They got the same training as men and did the same duties. It's a tradition that continues to this day.
13.48
Professor Asmarom Legesse
(Community Leader and Philosopher)
Tens of thousands of Eritreans living in caves and doing amazing things. Schools, hospitals, clinics, libraries, factories. Incredible things. Things that people are not able to do.
14.05
Alemseged Tesfai
(Historian and Former Fighter)
Everything we did was underground. Everything was underground. We had a school with 4,000 children. We had a hospital underground. It was known as one of the lowest hospitals in the world because it followed a ravine, a riverbed.
14.22
Professor Asmarom Legesse
(Community Leader and Philosopher)
Barefoot doctors did amazing things to keep people alive. Doctors gave a description of one fighter who was wounded 20 times. And every time he was put back on his feet he went back to fight.
14.40
With the backing of Russia, Ethiopia launched a series of offensives against Eritrea in the late seventies. At least 15 000 Ethiopians were killed.
14.50
Abeda Tesfagiorgis
(Author & Women's Rights Activist)
There were tank drivers, teachers, nurses, mechanics, combat leaders. They participated fully.
15.02
Alemseged Tesfai
(Historian and Former Fighter)
They died, they fought. They performed feats of heroism that are very difficult to describe.
15.13
Abeda Tesfagiorgis
(Author & Women's Rights Activist)
The Ethiopian soldiers were more scared of women fighters than men because they were merciless.
15.20
Robel Mockonen
I don't think there was any difference. I'm sure there were so many better than men.
15.27
Abeda Tesfagiorgis
(Author & Women's Rights Activist)
In 1986 I went to the base area at Sahaan to see my children. One of my daughters who was there. I could not imagine my own baby having a child in those circumstances.
15.41
Alemseged Tesfai
(Historian and Former Fighter)
There was so much bravery in the Eritrean revolution, so much I don't know about because Eritreans, especially Eritrean fighters, don't talk about themselves.
16.02
We came across a place, a place that was heavily painted, a piece of ground, with blood, curdled. On close inspection we saw a piece of flesh, a human heart.
16.16
Alem
Gebrehannes
War Veteran In my spine I got hit with a bullet, a shell. It went up from this corner to this corner, a bullet from our war.
16.33
Alemseged Tesfai
(Historian and Former Fighter)
I found this human heart and I wrote about it. I described the battle of Ahmet through the heart of a fighter and everything thing that went into that fighter, into that Eritrean fighter.
16.47
Battle During the war of independence, another tradition was started.... Not to tell relatives that their loved ones had died. Although the EPLF kept meticulous records, it never released the information. Relatives were expected to wait, accept and understand.
17.06
Professor Asmarom Legesse
(Community Leader and Philosopher)
In terms of maintaining the morale of your people it was better for them not to know.
17.11
Robel Mockonen Then you lose the connection. Then you just guess. You just guess. I didn't hear until independence. Then you just guess and you accept it.
Abeda Tesfagiorgis
(Author & Women's Rights Activist)
17.25 For a parent it's never easy. Yes you love your country. Yes it will be easier for me to go to the front and die instead of my daughters. There is always that fear.
17.39
Alemseged Tesfai
(Historian and Former Fighter)
If you ask the mother if she wants to know if her son is dead or alive she will probably tell you not now.
17.45
Professor Asmarom Legesse
(Community Leader and Philosopher)
You know that members of your family are going to die and have died in all probability. But their death is not exceptional.
17.59
In 1990, the rebels launched Operation Fenkil... the battle for Massawa, the ancient and strategic Eritrean port on the Red Sea. The rebels came from the desert and from the sea. After three-days, they finally overwhelmed the mighty Ethiopians. For the Ethiopians, it was the beginning of the end.
18.23
Alemseged Tesfai
(Historian and Former Fighter)
It was a very fierce battle, very fiercely fought because for both sides the significance of Massawa was very clear. The regime, especially Mengistu, was always making this big point that if Massawa goes, then Eritrea goes, if Eritrea goes then Ethiopia's head goes.
18.41
Professor Asmarom Legesse
(Community Leader and Philosopher)
From 88 to 91 it was a continual series of defeat after defeat. The Ethiopian army was simply demoralized.
18.51 A year later, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front took the capital of Asmara. There was little resistance. At the same time Mengistu's regime was overthrown.
19.04
Alemseged Tesfai
(Historian and Former Fighter)
Perhaps for the first in my life as a rebel I cried. I immediately went to bed, covered myself completely and wept my heart out. I guess I wept for those who didn't make, for those who didn't see this day.
19.26
Abeda Tesfagiorgis
(Author & Women's Rights Activist)
People were happy leaving their homes, dancing in the streets making phone calls, ululating, crying. All kinds of emotions.
19.37
Alem
Gebrehannes I don't believe it when I slept that time in my bed. It seemed like I had a dream.
19.47 After thirty years of fighting, the rebels finally formed a government. In a referendum Eritreans voted overwhelmingly for independence... and on 24 May 1993 the world's newest independent state was born.
As the soldiers of the Liberation Front prepared for independence, they at last started notifying families about the deaths of their loved ones. Officials went from village to village and read out the names of those who'd died. Across the country, candles were lit. A time of national mourning had begun.
20.27
Alemseged Tesfai
(Historian and Former Fighter)
We had lost so much, we had suffered so much as a people. I'm talking about 65 000 martyred people. But I'm not telling you how many other people died at the hands of the regime and Haile Selassie throughout the struggle. It goes in the hundreds of thousands.
20.44
Professor Asmarom Legesse
(Community Leader and Philosopher)
When the fighters came back and the family had a fighter who'd been absent for 15 years suddenly showing up and the next door neighbour didn't get anybody coming back this family, the first family, would stop their celebrations to share the sorrows of their neighbours.
21.01
Alem
Gebrehannes My mother until now doesn't ask me about my brothers.
21.06
Robel Mockonen I know they are dead because there's been no connection for a long time. I pretended, I didn't ask because I didn't want to know.
21.16
Alem
Gebrehannes My brothers are brave. I'm happy about my brothers. So I'm not saying anything.
21.25
Church The first years of independence were sweet. The country was hailed as an African miracle. It had positive economic growth, low inflation and virtually no corruption or crime.
Eritreans were determined to make their hard-won freedom work... to rebuild their country. Asmara was virtually untouched by the war. To this day it remains a city steeped in its Italian colonial history.
But the ancient port of Masawa still carries the scars of war. On the outskirts of the city is this graveyard of armoured cars and tanks... a stark reminder of one of the fiercest battles fought in modern Africa.
The rebuilding of the impressive railway line between Asmara and Masawa illustrates the determination of the Eritreans. Built by the Italians more than a century ago, it climbs dramatically from sea level and snakes through almost thirty tunnels. This grand old track was once one of the world's great railway lines.
22.34
Professor Asmarom Legesse
(Community Leader and Philosopher)
The ride itself was quite an extraordinary sight. We went through all kinds of tunnels. And every time we went into the tunnel there was a peculiar smell about and it got dark and the kids had fun.
22.50 It was almost completely destroyed during the war. After independence, European donors offered to repair the track. When it turned out to be too expensive for them, the Eritreans decided to fix it themselves. Veteran engineers who had worked with the Italian railway builders, volunteered for duty. Working with some of the original machinery, they started restoring six old steam locomotives and wagons.
23.18
Beyene Gubran
(Railway Worker) There is war between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Most of the youngsters are at the front.
23.31
Some sections of the railway line are now open.... and already farmers use the train to take their produce to market. Now the final stretch of the track to Asmara is being built... the last leg of one of the worlds' most spectacular and unusual journeys.
23.54
Since independence, Eritrea has been at odds with several of its neighbours. It had a dispute with Yemen over islands in the Red Sea and took up arms against Muslim infiltrators from Sudan. It also had strained relations with Djibouti. Life on the streets of Asmara and other towns and cities seem normal ...
24.14
Professor Asmarom Legesse
(Community Leader and Philosopher)
There's no Eritrean family that doesn't have a member of his family at the front.
24.20
Alem
Gebrehannes This war I myself don't accept it because they didn't need war. This is a conflict about the border. It must be solved at the table.
24.33
Abeda Tesfagiorgis
(Author & Women's Rights Activist)
I'm not only sorry for my fellow Eritreans. I'm sorry for the Ethiopians as well. It wasn't necessary.
24.42
The battle fronts of Eritrea and Ethiopia have divided families and separated loved ones. After Mengistu's regime was overthrown in 1991, many Eritreans stayed behind in Ethiopia, some even taking Ethiopian citizenship.
24.58
Alemseged Tesfai
(Historian and Former Fighter)
I spent most of my life, a big chunk of my life, in Adis Abeba as a student. I have many friends there. Some of my friends and myself are now on opposite sides of this whole conflict.
25.15 Mimi Kidanemariam was born in Ethiopia from an Eritrean father and an Ethiopian mother. She came to Eritrea four years ago and decided to stay.
25.26
Mimi
Kidanemariam I feel more Eritrean than Ethiopian. I don't know why. The war separated me from my family. Now I am in Eritrea and they are in Ethiopia. So I don't know when I'm going to see them again.
25.50 Young people are called up for national service and sent to the Front. The tradition of silence established during the liberation war continues: families are not informed of the deaths of their loved ones. They're expected to be patient, trust the authorities and wait for peace. And yet, ordinary Eritreans DO seem to support the war.
26.21
Alem archery For Alem Gebrehannes and his family, war has almost become a way of life. His brother and three other family members are on the front. He hasn't heard for months from his younger brother. No letter, no word, nothing.
26.33
Alem
Gebrehannes He doesn't want to go to the front to eat ice cream, he wants to go there to eat blood or something like that, a bomb, rifles.
26.43
Mimi
Kidanemariam Whenever I finish my front. I'll go to the service.
26.48
Robel Mockonen There'll be a time they will call me and then I will go to the front.
26.51
Mimi
Kidanemariam I'll be scared of doing it but I love my country so I have to do whatever my country needs from me.
26.59
Robel Mockonen Q: You don't mind to go and fight again?
A: No I don't because as I told you I lost my brother and my father so this will be nothing.
27.14 It's a war neither Eritrea nor Ethiopia can afford. Both are poor and under- developed. Ethiopia faces massive famine, while Eritrea still has to rebuild so much that was destroyed during its war of liberation. Yet, inexplicably, the "crazy war" continues.
ENDS.