Editing History of Eritrea (section)

==British administration and federalisation<span class="anchor" id="British Eritrea"></span><span class="anchor" id="British Military Administration (Eritrea)"></span>==
{{more citations needed|date=April 2016}}

British forces defeated the Italian army in Eritrea in 1941 at the [[Battle of Keren]] and placed the colony under British military administration until [[Allies of World War II|Allied forces]] could determine its fate. Several Italian-built infrastructure projects and industries were dismantled and removed to [[Kenya Colony|Kenya]] as [[war reparations]].<ref>First reported by [[Sylvia Pankhurst]] in her book, ''Eritrea on the Eve'' (1947). See Michela Wrong, ''I didn't do it for you: How the World betrayed a small African nation'' (New York: HarperCollins, 2005), chapter 6 "The Feminist Fuzzy-wuzzy"</ref>

In the absence of agreement amongst the Allies concerning the status of Eritrea, the British military administration continued for the remainder of World War II until 1950. During the immediate postwar years, the British proposed that Eritrea be divided along religious lines, with the Muslim population joining [[Sudan]] and the Christians Ethiopia. The [[Soviet Union]], anticipating an [[Italian Communist Party]] victory in the [[Italian general election, 1946|Italian polls]], initially supported returning Eritrea to Italy under [[Chapter XII of the United Nations Charter|trusteeship]] or as a colony. Soviet diplomats, led by [[Maxim Litvinov]] and backed by [[Ivan Maisky]] and [[Vyacheslav Molotov]], even attempted to have Eritrea become a trustee of the Soviet Union itself.<ref>[[Vojtech Mastny (historian)|Vojtech Mastny]], ''The Cold War and Soviet Insecurity: The Stalin Years'' (New York: [[Oxford University Press]], 1996), pp. 23–24; Vladimir O. Pechatnov, "[https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/ACF17F.PDF The Big Three After World War II: New Documents on Soviet Thinking about Post-War Relations with the United States and Great Britain] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706020732/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/ACF17F.PDF |date=2017-07-06 }}" ([[Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars]] Cold War International History Project Working Paper 13, May 1995), pp. 19–21.</ref>

Arab states, seeing Eritrea and its large Muslim population as an extension of the Arab world, sought the establishment of an independent state. There are only two main Christian-Muslim conflicts reported in Asmara, Eritrea (the Ethiopians supported by the Unionist Party played a big role in it), one was in 1946 where Sudanese Defence Forces were involved, and the other was in February 1950. This note is about that of 1950.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

The UN Commission (UNC) arrived in Eritrea on February 9 and began its months-long inquiry 5 days later. Unionist Shifta activities supported by Ethiopia increased after its arrival, they became daring, better planned, better coordinated and innovative. The main target of the shifta was to disrupt the free movement of the UNC in areas controlled by the independence bloc supporters. The shifta attempted to prevent the rural population that supported independence from having an audience with the UNC. They targeted transportation and communication systems. Telephone lines connecting Asmara with major cities of the predominantly areas pro-independence areas of the western lowlands and Masswa were continuously cut.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

An active Muslim League local leader, from Mai Derese, Bashai Nessredin Saeed was killed by the Unionist Shifta while praying, on February 20. According to an account of the incident written by Mufti Sheikh Ibrahim Al Mukhtar, at 07:30 in the evening of a Monday that date  5 shifta came and fired several bullets at him while he was praying. The reason for the killing was that they had asked him to abandon the Muslim League and join the Unionist Party (UP), but he refused. The killing sparked an outrage among Muslims in Asmara. A well organised funeral procession was arranged and attended by youth and Muslim dignitaries. The procession passed through three main streets before they reached the street where the UP Office was located. According to the Mufti, then the UP members started first to throw stones at the procession which was followed by three grenades and then chaos followed. There was open confrontation between both sides and many were killed and injured from both sides. The police intervened by firing live ammunition, but the confrontations continued. Despite all this, the procession continued to the cemetery where the body was buried. The riots then spread to other areas and took a dangerous sectarian form. Many properties were also looted and burned. On Wednesday, the British Military Administration (BMA) declared a curfew, but the riots continued.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

On Thursday, the BMA administrator called for a meeting that included the Mufti and Abuna Marcos and asked them to calm the people and ask for reconciliation and both agreed. The wise men from both sides accepted the call, but the looting of properties of Muslim merchants continued for three more days before the riots came to an end.

On Saturday 25 February, the Copts met at the main church and Muslims at the grand mosque and discussed ways to end the violence. Both sides agreed to take an oath to prevent violence against each other. Each side appointed a four-member committee to oversee the agreements. Later 31 members from each side took an oath in front of the eight-member committee. To prevent further violence in other areas, the committee of both sides decided to visit the Muslim and Christian cemeteries and laid flowers on the graveyards of the victims of both sides. More than 62 persons were killed and more than 180 were injured and the damage on the properties was huge. {{Citation needed|date=April 2017}} This way the riots, which the Ethiopian Liaison Officer played a big role to ignite, was brought to an end by the wise religious leaders and elders of both sides.

Ethiopian ambition in the Horn was apparent in the expansionist ambition of its monarch when [[Haile Selassie of Ethiopia|Haile Selassie]] claimed Italian Somaliland and Eritrea. He made this claim in a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, at the Paris Peace Conference and at the First Session of the United Nations.<ref name="un">{{cite book|last=Habte Selassie |first=Bereket |title=Eritrea and the United Nations |isbn= 0-932415-12-1 |publisher=Red Sea Press|year=1989}}</ref> In the United Nations the debate over the fate of the former Italian colonies continued. The British and Americans preferred to cede Eritrea to the Ethiopians if possible as a reward for their support during [[World War II]]. "The United States and the United Kingdom have (similarly) agreed to support the cession to Ethiopia of all of Eritrea except the Western province. The United States has given assurances to Ethiopia in this regard."<ref>Top Secret Memorandum of 1949-03-05, written with the UN Third Session in view, from Mr. Rusk to the Secretary of State.</ref> The Independence Bloc of Eritrean parties consistently requested from the UN General Assembly that a referendum be held immediately to settle the Eritrean question of sovereignty.

A [[United Nations]] (UN) commission was dispatched to the former colony in February 1950 in the absence of Allied agreement and in the face of Eritrean demands for self-determination. It was also at this juncture that the US Ambassador to the UN, [[John Foster Dulles]], said, "From the point of view of justice, the opinions of the Eritrean people must receive consideration. ''Nevertheless'' the strategic interest of the United States in the Red Sea basin and the considerations of security and world peace make it necessary that the country has to be linked with our ''ally'' Ethiopia."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Heiden|first=Linda|title=The Eritrean Struggle for Independence|journal=Monthly Review|volume=30|issue=2|date=19 June 1978 |url=https://monthlyreviewarchives.org/index.php/mr/issue/view/330 |pages=15|doi=10.14452/MR-030-02-1978-06_2 }}</ref> The Ambassador's word choice, along with the estimation of the British Ambassador in Addis Ababa, makes quite clear the fact that the Eritrean aspiration was for independence.<ref name="un"/>

The commission proposed the establishment of some form of association with Ethiopia, and the UN General Assembly on 2 December 1950 adopted that proposal along with a provision terminating the British military administration of Eritrea no later than 15 September 1952. The British military administration held [[Eritrean parliamentary election, 1952|Legislative Assembly elections]] on 25 and 26 March 1952, for a representative Assembly of 68 members, evenly divided between Christians and Muslims. This body in turn accepted a draft constitution put forward by the UN commissioner on 10 July. On 11 September 1952, Emperor Haile Selassie  ratified the constitution. The Representative Assembly subsequently became the Eritrean Assembly. In 1952 UN General Assembly Resolution 390 to federate Eritrea with Ethiopia went into effect.

The resolution ignored the wishes of Eritreans for independence, but guaranteed the population some democratic rights and a measure of autonomy. Some scholars have contended that the issue was a religious issue, between the Muslim lowland population desiring independence while the highland Christian population sought a union with Ethiopia. Other scholars, including the former Attorney-General of Ethiopia, [[Baraket Selassie|Bereket Habte Selassie]], contend that, "religious tensions here and there...were exploited by the British, [but] most Eritreans (Christians and Moslems) were united in their goal of freedom and independence."<ref name="un"/> Almost immediately after the federation went into effect, however, these rights began to be abridged or violated. Pleas in Eritrea for a referendum for independence were received by the American, British and Ethiopian government, and a confidential American memo estimated around 75% of Eritreans supported the Independence Party.<ref>Department of State, Incoming Telegram, received 1949-08-22, From Addis Ababa, signed MERREL, to Secretary of State, No. 171, 1949-08-19</ref>

The details of Eritrea's association with Ethiopia were established by the [[UN General Assembly]] Resolution 390A (V) of 2 December 1950. It called for Eritrea and Ethiopia to be linked through a loose federal structure under the sovereignty of the Emperor. Eritrea was to have its own administrative and judicial structure, its own flag, and control over its domestic affairs, including police, local administration, and taxation.<ref name="un"/> The federal government, which for all intents and purposes was the existing imperial government, was to control foreign affairs (including commerce), defense, finance, and transportation. As a result of a long history of a strong landowning peasantry and the virtual absence of serfdom in most parts of Eritrea, the bulk of Eritreans had developed a distinct sense of cultural identity and superiority vis-à-vis Ethiopians. This combined with Eriteans who had a desire for political freedoms alien to Ethiopian political tradition, was the reason why the British administration left the country and the Eritreans finally won that fight. From the start of the federation, however, Haile Selassie attempted to undercut Eritrea's independent status, a policy that alienated many Eritreans. The Emperor pressured Eritrea's elected chief executive to resign, made Amharic the official language in place of Arabic and Tigrinya, terminated the use of the Eritrean flag, imposed censorship, and moved many businesses out of Eritrea. Finally, in 1962 Haile Selassie pressured the Eritrean Assembly to abolish the Federation and join the Imperial Ethiopian fold, much to the dismay of those in Eritrea who favored a more liberal political order.