Descripción de las características de diseño presentes en el proyecto

During the stint of the Second Eritrean Assembly, Emperor Haile Selassie could easily have pushed forward the termination of the federal arrangement but refrained from doing so. This was partly for the fear of international reactions but the main reason was his ambition over Somalia. On several occasions his chief ministers, Aklilu Habteweld and Weldegiorgis Weldeyohannes, advised the Emperor to keep the federation alive. This was in a hope that it would attract the Somali who were in British and Italian trusteeship to join the empire in a similar arrangement to that of Eritrea. This hope, however, faded away following the independence of Somalia in July 1960. Henceforth, there was no reason to maintain the federation.

One development that possibly extended the life of the federation was the December 1960 Imperial Guard's coup d'état against the Emperor. This abortive coup was staged while the Emperor was on a state visit to Brazil. He had to land in Asmara and stay there until matters settled down in his capital, Addis Ababa. Brigadier-General Assefa Ayena of the Air Force, Generals of the Army Merid Mengesha and Kebede Gebre, and the Emperor's Representative in

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Zewde Retta, Be Qedamawi Haile Sellssie Zemene Mengist Ye Ertra Guday 1941-1963 [The Affair of Eritrea in the Era of Emperor Haile Selassie I]. (Addis Ababa: Artistic Printers, 2000,) p. 515.

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Tekie Beyyene, Kab Riq-Hfnti: Poletikawi Tezekrotatey Kab Mefarq Hamsatat Ksab Felema Semanyatat [Fist from Barn: My Political Memories from Mid-1950s to Early 1980s]. (Asmara: Hdri Publishers, 2009), p. 4. According to Tekie Eritrea's autonomy was gradually diminished and the tense political atmosphere and the events in the period were indicating that the federation would be dissolved soon. He also stated that many Eritreans believed that the UN Federal Resolution binds the federal association of Eritrea with Ethiopia for a maximum of ten years, after which many expected a referendum to decide the fate of Eritrea. Therefore, many believed that the Third Eritrean Assembly would be staying only two years in office.

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Eritrea, General Abiy Abebe, helped to restore the Emperor to power.9 While still holding his post of the Crown's representative in Eritrea, Abiy Abebe was promoted to Lieutenant-General for the role he played in crushing the coup. He was also appointed Interior Minister of Ethiopia and spent the year 1961 in Ethiopia consolidating the Emperor's government. In the early months of 1961, therefore, Eritrea was not a concern for the Emperor. He was busy in Ethiopia securing the maintenance of his regime. With General Abiy absent from the political scene of Eritrea, the Chief Executive, Dejazmatch Asfaha Weldemikael, who was promoted to Bitweded, had to run the office of the Emperor's Representative in addition to being the head of the Eritrean government.10

Another key development that deterred the Emperor and his agents in Eritrea from terminating the autonomous status of Eritrea was the formation of the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) and its declaration of an armed struggle against Ethiopia. By 1961 Eritrea was in a state of revolution. Anti-Ethiopian sentiments were growing, and were manifested in the form of demonstrations and strikes. The ELM, operating clandestinely, was active in recruiting more members and was behind most of the demonstrations and strikes featured against the Ethiopian grip. It was these movements that had prepared the setting for an armed struggle and the emergence of a more organized militant organization, the ELF. Established by Eritrean exiles in Cairo in 1960, the ELF declared the Eritrean Armed Struggle by September 1961. This marked the beginning of the longest guerilla war in Africa. At the forefront of its political leadership the ELF had Idris Mohammed Adem, former President of the Eritrean Assembly, who lost his post in 1956 for insisting the institution of an independent electoral commission to supervise the elections for the Second Eritrean Assembly and giving wide publicity to the decision of the president of the Supreme Court, Sir James Shearer, which was in favor of the commission's formation.11

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John H. Spencer, Ethiopia At Bay: A Personal Account of the Haile Selassie Years. (Algonac, Michigan: Reference Publications, Inc., 1984), pp. 317-318. Spencer claimed by 1960 there was great animosity towards Haile Selassie's rule among the educated classes of Ethiopia.

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Zewde Retta, op. cit., p. 517. In February 1961 Abiy Abebe was promoted from Brigadier-General to Lieutenant- General at the same time he was appointed Interior Minister of Ethiopia replacing Ras Andargachew Messai, the former Emperor's representative in Eritrea. The Eritrean Chief Executive, Asfaha Weldemikael, who was given the title of Dejazmatch when he assumed the post of the Chief Executive of the Eritrean government in 1955 like his predecessor, Dejazmatch Tedla Bairu, was bestowed Bitweded, the highest civilian title in Ethiopian feudal hierarchy below prince. Asfaha Weldemikael was the sole Eritrean to have this title from the Emperor. Zemen, February 15, 1961.

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Idris Mohammed Adem was actively working for the formation of an armed front opposing Ethiopia ever since he left Eritrea in early 1959. In 1960 the core leadership that formed the ELF actively toured the Middle East and

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The declaration of the armed struggle was the climax of the confrontation that developed throughout the federation years. While concluding his book, the former British Administrator of Eritrea, G. Trevaskis, warned Ethiopia that it would be in Ethiopia's own interest, as well as Eritrea's, for the federal arrangement to survive in the way it was devised. His advice was prophetic: "It is for Ethiopia to make her choice. The temptation to subject Eritrea firmly under her own control will always be great. Should she try to do so, she will risk Eritrean discontent and eventual revolt, which, with foreign sympathy and support, might well disrupt both Eritrea and Ethiopia herself."12 This was exactly what came about after Eritrea was reduced to an Ethiopian province. ELF's declaration of armed resistance and its growing guerilla activities, mainly in the Western lowlands, somehow delayed the termination of the federation.