Page 166 - The Winter of Islam and the Spring to Come

THE WINTER OF ISLAM AND THE SPRING TO COME
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Before World War II, the population of Eritrea was around 1 mil-
lion. According to Western sources it is now in the area of 2.5 million,
although according to resistance organizations active in the area a fig-
ure of 3.5 million would be more accurate. Most of the population con-
sists of Muslims.

The Struggle of Eritrean Muslims
After the end of Ottoman rule Eritrea was occupied by Italy, and
by a U.N. decision of 1952 it became a federal state linked to Ethiopia.
However, the people refused to accept that situation, which ended in
widespread public uprisings. On Nov. 14, 1962, the Emperor Haile
Selassie announced that he had assimilated Eritrea, using the internal
in Ethiopia as an excuse. With the Selassie period, there began a policy
of oppression and torture of Muslims. Many Muslims who opposed
the Ethiopian regime were killed.
As a result of Ethiopia's campaign of violence and terror, hundreds
of thousands of Eritreans were forced to leave their lands between 1967
and the early 1970s. These women, children and old people, who
formed one of the largest refugee groups in history,
were abandoned and left to die. This followed the
death of some 200,000 people from famine, itself
the result of wrongheaded agricultural policies.
As a result of all this, Haile Selassie's
regime was overthrown by a coup in 1974.
The administration was taken over by a
junta with Marxist views, although this
made no difference to the Muslims. A
Marxist dictatorship was set up to re-
place a fascist one. Muslims continued
to suffer oppression, torture, arrests
and hardships.
Haile Selassie's successor, the

Ha ile Se las sie Marxist Mengistu Haile Mariam, fol-