Allajnat Aleaskaria
The Allajnat Aleaskaria is the military junta that rules the north islands of Zarnos called Assab. The official name of the Allajnat Aleaskaria is the Provisional Military Government of Socialist Assab.
The Allajnat Aleaskaria was established in June 1975 as the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police and National Militia, by officers of the Assab Army and police led initially by Chairman Mohamed al-Qasim. The Allajnat Aleaskaria was formally renamed the Provisional Military Administrative Council and in October 1975 overthrew the government of the Assab Empire and Emperor Fuad II during mass protests. The Allajnat Aleaskaria abolished the monarchy and established Assab as a Marxist-Leninist one-party state with itself as the vanguard party in a provisional government. The abolition of feudalism, increased literacy, nationalization, and sweeping land reform including the resettlement and villagization from the Assab Highlands became priorities. Abdul al-Hassanal became Chairman in 1976, launching the Red Terror political repression campaign (al'iirhab al'ahmar) to eliminate political opponents, with tens of thousands imprisoned and executed without trial.
History
After the February 1975 popular revolution, the first signal of any mass uprising was the actions of the soldiers of the 6th Brigade of the 5th Army Division in Arid in southern Assab. They were unhappy about the state of their food and water and arrested their brigade commander and other officers. When the government sent the commander of the ground forces, General Saddam al-Omar to treat with the rebels, they held him and forced him to eat their food and drink their water. Similar mutinies took place at the Assab Air Force base at Artak, on 14 February, and at Second Division at Amara on 24 February. It was these protests that gave rise to a general armed forces uprising.
The coordinating committee of the armed forces, police and national militia, or Allajnat Aleaskaria was officially announced 29 June 1975 by a group of military officers. This was done in order to maintain law and order, due to the powerlessness of the civilian government following widespread mutiny in the armed forces of Ethiopia earlier that year. Its members were not directly involved in those mutinies nor was this the first military committee organised to support the administration of Prime Minister Assad Farouk. Assad Farouk had established the armed forces coordinated committee on 24 March. Over the following months, socialist radicals in the Assab military came to believe Farouk was acting on behalf of the hated feudal aristocracy. When a group of notables petitioned for the release of a number of government ministers and officials who were under arrest for corruption and other crimes, three days later Allajnat Aleaskaria was announced.
The Allajnat Aleaskaria, which originally consisted of soldiers at the capital, broadened its membership by including representatives from the 40 units of the Assab Army, Air Force, Navy, Haris Milkiun (Royal Guard), National Militia and police: each unit was expected to send three representatives, who were supposed to be privates, NCOs and junior officers up to the rank of major. No new members were ever admitted, and the number decreased, especially in the first few years, as some members were expelled or killed. They assembled at the Sixth Division headquarters.
The committee elected Major Abdul al-Hassanal as its chairman and Major Mohamed al-Qasim as its vice-chairman. The Allajnat Aleaskaria was initially supposed to study the grievances of various military units, investigate abuses by senior officers and staff and to root out corruption in the military.
In the months following its founding, the Allajnat Aleaskaria steadily accrued more power. In July, the Allajnat Aleaskaria obtained key concessions from the emperor, Fuad II, which included Assad Farouk and Bashar Hazar, along with most of their cabinets, most regional governors, many senior military officers and officials of the Imperial court were imprisoned. In August, after a proposed constitution creating a constitutional monarchy was presented to the emperor, the Allajnat Aleaskaria began a program of dismantling the imperial government in order to forestall further developments in that direction. The Allajnat Aleaskaria deposed and imprisoned the emperor on 12 September 1974.
On 17 September, the committee renamed itself as the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC) and took control of the government. The Allajnat Aleaskaria chose Lieutenant General Ziad Pashar, a popular military leader and a military academy graduate, to be its chairman and acting head-of-state. This was pending the return of Crown Prince Faud III from medical treatment in Zarnos, when he would assume the throne as a constitutional monarch. However, General Ziad Pashar quarreled with the radical elements in the Allajnat Aleaskaria over the issue of a new military offensive in Harab and their proposal to execute the high officials of Faud's former government. After eliminating units loyal to him—the Engineers, the Royal Bodyguard and the Air Force—the Allajnat Aleaskaria removed General Pashar from power and executed him on November 25, 1975, along with some supporters and 60 officials of the previous Imperial government.
Brigadier General Tafir Yashar became both the new Chairman of the Allajnat Aleaskaria and head of state, with Abdul al-Hassanal and Mohamed al-Qasim as his two vice-chairmen, both with promotions to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. The monarchy was formally abolished in March 1976, and Marxism-Leninism was proclaimed the ideology of the state. Emperor Faud II died on 28 August 1976 while his personal physician was absent. It was commonly believed that the Allajnat Aleaskaria killed him.
Politics
After internal conflicts that resulted in the execution of General Tafir Yashar and several of his supporters in February 1978, and the execution of Colonel Mohamed al-Qasim in November 1977, al-Hassanal gained undisputed leadership of the Allajnat Aleaskaria. In 1988, he formally dissolved the Provisional Military Administrative Council and established the country as the People's Democratic Republic of Assab (PDRA) under the rule of the Provisional Military Government of Socialist Assab.
Many of the Allajnat Aleaskaria members remain in key government posts and also serve as the members of the Provisional Military Government and the Politburo of the Workers' Party of Assab (WPA). This is Assab's civilian version of the Eastern bloc communist parties. al-Hassanal became Secretary General of the WPA and President of the Provisional Military Government of Socialist Assab, while he still remains the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces.
Military