Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08ASMARA97
2008-02-25 11:54:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Asmara
Cable title:  

ELF FOUNDING FATHER DIES IN PRISON

Tags:  PGOV PHUM KISL ER 
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VZCZCXRO6304
RR RUEHROV
DE RUEHAE #0097 0561154
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 251154Z FEB 08
FM AMEMBASSY ASMARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9474
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
C O N F I D E N T I A L ASMARA 000097 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/E, DRL AND INR

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/24/2018
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KISL ER
SUBJECT: ELF FOUNDING FATHER DIES IN PRISON

Classified By: Ambassador Ronald K. McMullen for reason 1.4 (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L ASMARA 000097

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/E, DRL AND INR

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/24/2018
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KISL ER
SUBJECT: ELF FOUNDING FATHER DIES IN PRISON

Classified By: Ambassador Ronald K. McMullen for reason 1.4 (d)


1. (U) Taha Mohammad Nur, one of six intellectuals who
founded the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) in Cairo in 1960,
died in an Eritrean prison in mid-February. The ELF, largely
supported by lowland Muslims, was decimated by Isaias
Afwerki's Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front in the late 1970s
and early 1980s in what Eritreans refer to as their "civil
war." Taha M. Nur returned to Eritrea after independence and
served as the Secretary of the Referendum Commission. He was
arrested for unknown reasons in November 2005. Suffering
from ill health, Eritrean prison officials reportedly turned
away medicine provided by his family.


2. (C) According to the Norwegian ambassador (strictly
protect),who considered Taha M. Nur a friend, the family was
informed of his death February 15 and told to collect his
body. No explanation for cause of death was offered. In an
act of supposed magnanimity, the government said it would
permit the family to bury Taha M. Nur in Asmara's Martyr's
Cemetery (reserved for senior "freedom fighters"). The
family refused and chose to bury him at a Muslim ceremony.
When a spokesman from the regime-affiliated Peoples Front for
Democracy and Justice showed up graveside to offer a eulogy,
he was reportedly booed by the other mourners and driven from
the cemetery.
MCMULLEN