The Hidden Party

Book excerpt: Colonel Tsegu Fessahaie Bahta gives readers the background to horror stories of Eritreans being held hostage by human traffickers in the Sinai, or dangerously crossing the Mediterranean in unsafe boats, to escape the Isaias dictatorship. A freedom fighter and a senior administrator during and after the liberation struggle, this graphic personal account of the clandestine party that ran the Eritrean People's Liberation Front and the internal security branch that policed its members - Halewa Sewra ('shield of the revolution') - is not only an insight into a hidden history but also a window into the way power is exercised in Eritrea today.