FIRST INTERVIEW WITH ERITREA’S ALI ABDU: INFORMATION MINISTER CONFIRMS: HAS LEFT THE REGIME
Expressen newspaper interview translated by Google Translate from Swedish, 30 January 2013 BEIRUT. Eritrean dictator Isaias Afewerkis Information Minister Ali Abdu Ahmed has fled the country and is living today in a secret location. It confirms himself
Expressen newspaper interview translated by Google Translate from Swedish, 30 January 2013
BEIRUT. Eritrean dictator Isaias Afewerkis Information Minister Ali Abdu Ahmed has fled the country and is living today in a secret location.
It confirms himself today in a world exclusive interview with Expressen Kassem Hamade.
Ali Abdu says he is surprised that the Swedish authorities did not seek him for information about what happened to the imprisoned journalist Dawit Isaak.
But he dare not give any hope to Isaak’s family in Sweden.
– Neither I nor any other minister dared to ask what happened to Isaak says Ali Abdu.
Eritrea’s information minister, Ali Abdu, 47, disappeared without a trace during a business trip to Germany in november.
Since then, not a sign of life heard from the Minister, who has been one of the dictator Isaias Afewerkis closest men for many years.
Now confirm Ali Abdu himself for the first time that he has fled Eritrea and left the regime.
He chooses to do it in an interview with Expressen. Living on secret location
Ali Abdu live today at a secret location. He dares not speak on the phone with journalists, so he responds to Expressen questions via his brother Saleh Younis, who lives in the U.S..
Ali Abdu says that he very well knows who Dawit Isaak is.
– I’m surprised that Sweden has not heard from himself than to me to ask questions about Isaak. No one from the Swedish government or authorities have been trying to contact me about Dawit Isaak, says Ali Abdu told Expressen.
In Dawit Isaak’s family in Sweden and among the thousands who committed his release brought the news that Ali Abdu dropped out of the hope that they will finally get an answer about Dawit Isaak still alive.
But Ali Abdu says he and the other ministers do not have to know anything about what happened Dawit and other imprisoned journalists and politicians.
– Neither I nor any other minister dared to ask what happened to Dawit Isaak. It is taboo to ask about things that are not related to one’s job to do. There is an old guerrilla culture in the country. It carries out orders without asking why, he says. “Can oral orders”
Ali Abdu says it is routine to suspected dissidents arrested without court papers, without any documentation.
– Those who do the work, oral orders. Sometimes, there is over the phone and in coded language. They are afraid of being intercepted by Western intelligence services, he says.
He says he is sorry about what happened Dawit Isaak and other journalists.
– But it is only the president himself and his closest security that has information about Isaak. Not even the police chief know anything about it, he says.
Ali Abdu live under great pressure. Immediately after his defection in November arrested his father, his 15 year old daughter and his brother, who were all left in Eritrea, the Security Service. He says he does not know where they are kept under lock and key today.
He does not want to answer questions about what prompted him to drop out or how he lives today.
– My brother is in shock right now. He is sad and feeling disappointed at how an entire generation in Eritrea has been lost, says the renegade minister brother Saleh Younis.
source : http://martinplaut.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/first-interview-with-eritreas-ali-abdu-information-minister-confirms-has-left-the-regime/
belay nega January 31, 2013
ALI ABDU
WHEN YOU WERE JOINING THE E.P.L.F YOU WERE NOT EDUCATED AND OLD ENOUGH TO PREDICT THE POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCE OF YOUR INTENTION
BUT DO NOT FORGET THAT YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHATEVER YOU BEING DOING DURING YOUR MINISTERAL LEVEL BECAUSE YOU WERE OLD AND EDUCATED ENOUGH TO TELL THE OUTCOME OF YOUR INTENTION.
Binega Markos February 1, 2013
I feel terribly sorry for the family of the ex-minster even though their fate is not unique and is more of the norm in Eri. I hope and pray that somehow someway they will find a way out.
However, I have a hard time to believe that the ex-minister now feels remorseful and sad to see the “lost generation” of the country given the fact that he was one of the main architects that brought the demise of Eritrea and its people! Men of integrity and courage refuse to associate themselves with evil even if it means paying the highest price. I understand it is easier said than done; nonetheless we are talking about a span of time that went on beyond a decade. I think it’s going to be a tough sale. Perhaps one can say what’s done is done and it can’t be undone, but then, he owes it to the families whose sons and daughters fell victims of the regime and its disastrous policies that he helped set up. In my opinion he was playing a role that equals to that of Josephe Goebbels; one of the difference being the ex-minister chose to abandon the dictator unlike Goebbels who maintained his allegiance to Hitler till the very end. I am glad he chose no longer to stay with the dictator, however, in my opinion; he still has to work out his salvation by further choosing to shade some lights into the darkest corner of the regime’s intricacies and schemes. It would be incredibly helpful if he can share some of the secrets of the regime with those that are concerned, not necessarily via mass-media but even behind closed doors as long as his information can bring some relief, closure, hope..etc even to one family. I hope and pray that he will be bold enough to speak up and expose the tactics and plots of the regime.
Thank you for coming back to your senses and it’s never too late…
Dear Mr. Minister, just remember one thing and one thing alone “this too shall pass” and one day peace and justice will prevail in Eritrea.
fthawi February 1, 2013
Mr. Ali Abdu pls tell the truth to Eritrean people
You have a moral responsibility.
Erina February 1, 2013
Ali Abdu I hope you are going to read this.
When i red this article i really got mad. You feel sorry for what happend to David Isaac ant other jounalist, are you serious??? this is all what you have to say. Their lifes was taking away from you and the cruel regime, you have torn them away from their family and friends.
And now you´re in shocked because this happend to you as well. You don´t care at all about Eritrean people and about Eritrea.
You are evil. People like you are ruin our culture and destroying of what we have been so proud to be eritrean. Our independence was payed high. A whole eritrean generation grew up in war and instead of giving the best for the generation who was born after independence it became even more worse.
Lone Selam February 1, 2013
Ali Abdu has left the regime at the right time .it is time to abandon the dictator now !!! We are aware !!! On higdef’s comment . They comment as fighters for change and democracy and forward their evil comments in the way of sdvice. They also comment direcly as they are supporters and they use their words of intimidations such as hassawi, Agame Woyaniye… All what they are trying to do is to disintegrate and intimidate fighters for change and democracy . And to down the people’s movement . We know them on their comments.
Harwel February 1, 2013
Hi, I posted this on 30 january. It appeared briefly among the comments and is not available now together with other comments of the same day.Greatful, for republishing it.
Ali Abdu, you are not the first high ranking official to abandon the regime. So many before you gave up on the dictator, and many of them are fighting to dislodge the dictator. Some have chosen to stay mute and that is hurting the Eritrean people more. You have served the beast for so long time and yet you say you know nothing about Dawit Isaac. Well, what do you actually know? tell and the Eritrean people might embrace you in their camp for freedom might even forgive you. You didn’t manage to free your father from prison while you had the power. Less likely to help him now.
Whoever is jailed from your immediate family members will not be helped by your silence. You know more than anybody else how deceptive the dictator is. You might remeber how he decieved Solomon Weldemariam to come back to Eritrea from the Sudan.
You are free now, no need for hiding.
myth February 1, 2013
Lone Selam,
ali did not leave at the right time. he caused too much heart ache to our people. but he need to stand up now and say NO! to the dictator. that way he can help liberate the people he helped eseyas to oppress.
RH February 1, 2013
When i read the last paragraph
I wonder if he was the real Ali Abdu.
Ali and his god father Isaias have killed,
Tortured many people
His hand is full of blood.
He abandoned his father to die.
Go to hell! Go to hell! Ali
fetsum abraham February 1, 2013
Brother Ali;
Congratulations for the step u take to help the resistance. I hope u will continue Ur contribution by exposing more information about the dictator. God bless u and ur family!!
meskin February 1, 2013
HE – “ALI ABDU” is not only the closest guy to the known devil but the next devil by himself. He should have stayed in Eritrea during the siege on January 21, 2013 so that he would have been the one who broadcasted the the TRUTH – Which he denied for the last decade or so. I am really sorry for his family though such cases are not exceptional. The fact that he is terrorized right now wherever he hides wouldn’t mean any positive thing to the atrocities he facilitated during his ministry to ordinary journalists and activists. “Big daddy” you better watch out and say “Sorry” to the Eritrean people specially the minorities you always used to oppress and crash .