Hostage Survivor: A True Story

By Ali Mohammed

My name is Ali Mohammed, 58 Ethiopian origin lives in South Africa. I am not a writer and had no experience on writing, but there is something pushing me from inside to go ahead, to tell the truth to get rid of the bad things that happened, which I kept it to myself.

HOSTAGE SURVIVOR is based on a true event that took place in the western Ethiopia in South Wellega a place called Jarso, (Sirba 1) and that was the beginning. It focused on one man`s long and difficult journey.

The story displays how a single incident that happened in a blink of an eye could have the power to maneuver my future in different directions without pre - conditions. Initially it was written as an attempt of healing from the trauma which resulted from the tragedy.

However it is not easy to avoid the emotional pain and the anger, which pops-up suddenly at any time, sometimes the past comes at the front and manifests in many different ways.

HOSTAGE SURVIVOR, is written in a form of novel, which takes us from one challenge to the extreme, which looks very deem and impossible to overcome. It also displays how a great deal of internal strength patience hope and with blessing of the creator will take us to the next stage. At the end of everything I myself have changed I have learn to see prospectively and appreciative of everything I do not get depressed easily, bored or stressed even if something bad happened to me I say thank you.

I had been through grueling and despicable conditions under captivity, I believe everything happened for a reason.The hardship I went through would serve as a bench mark, a measuring stick for any challenge I might be facing.

Ali Mohammed

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ali Mohammed
• Release date: Apr 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005394578

Book preview

HOSTAGE SURVIVOR

A TRUE STORY

ALI MOHAMMED

Copyright © 2021 Ali Mohammed

Published by Ali Mohammed Publishing at Smashwords

First edition 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

Published by Ali Mohammed using Reach Publishers’ services,

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Edited by Andrew Pender-Smith for Reach Publishers

Cover designed by Reach Publishers

Website: www.reachpublishers.org

E-mail: [e-mail]

Ali Mohammed

[e-mail]

Table of Contents

Intoduction

East Germany (Budfrankenhousen)

The Start of Everything

The Headquarters of the Resistance Fighters

Destination Unknown

A New Beginning (Ethiopian Territory)

Kenya

Nairobi

The Bandits of Simbire

Southern Africa

Lilongwe (Malawi)

Maputo (Mozambique)

Mbanbane (Swaziland)

Johannesburg (South Africa)

Cape Town

Moira Henderson’s House

Andrea’s Story

Back to the Start

Eucalyptus

Intoduction

It all started on the morning of Thursday, 28 April 1988. I was sitting in a small house where I lived, and suddenly I heard the sound of heavy machine-guns, exploding bombs, crackling fire, the screaming of children, and the shouts and screams of men and women.

We all lived in a camp, in a small village called Jarso. The camp was built on a tiny farm site called Sirba 1. There, we farmed during the day and came back to the camp late in the evening where we would wash, feed and sleep.

The workers woke up early in the morning before daybreak. As was our custom, the first thing we did was routine check-ups and daily maintenance on all farm machinery in general.

Each tractor had its implements therefore it had to be hitched up to the appropriate implements before we proceeded to the farm field, which was about 3 miles away. From ploughing to harvesting, this was our daily cycle.

According to the schedule that had been supplied by the planning department of the Min. of Agriculture, this was so that we would be able to cultivate about 3 000 hectares of forest land for the specific year.

Jarso is a tiny village found in the far west corner of Ethiopia. It is about 200 miles from the Sudanese border. This part of Ethiopia is particularly known for its fertile land and dense forests.

A programme of re-settlement had been introduced by the government. They wanted to move large numbers of people from the desert and dry parts of northern Ethiopia to the west and south-west. It is a part of Ethiopia which is relatively fertile.

A few of the settlers were settled at Jarso and the surrounding areas. The entire re-settlement operation was controlled and regulated by the political cadres of the ruling party.

The settlers were strictly not allowed to go back to their places of birth. Any movement of the settlers was regulated through roadblocks and by any other means possible.

***

Ethiopia lies in the north-eastern part of the Horn of Africa. The country is landlocked and surrounded by Djibouti to the east, Somalia to the south-east, Kenya to the south, Sudan to the west, and Eritrea to the north and north-east.

It has a total area of 1,127,127 square kilometres. Its landscape includes high and rugged mountains, flat-topped plateaus, and deep gorges with rivers flowing along with them and then rolling plains.

Ethiopia was originally called Abyssinia, and it is well documented that Ethiopia is the oldest state in sub-Saharan Africa.

The dynasty descended from King Menelik, the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The old system of rule by monarchy ended when Emperor Haile Selassie was removed from power in 1974.

Ethiopia is a unique and distinctive state among all the African countries. The ancient monarchy maintained its freedom from colonial rulers except between 1936-41 when Italian occupied it during the Second World War.

Haile Selassie, who had ruled since 1930, was deposed on 12 September 1974. A socialist state was established under a collective military dictatorship called the Derg. Lt. Col. Mengistu H. Mariam became the head of state in 1977.

During that period, there was a great deal of political, economic and social unrest, not only in Ethiopia but also in the entire region of the Horn of Africa.

Throughout this time and the following years, Ethiopia was torn apart by the bloody war against Eritrea and Somalia, internal uprisings, wide-scale drought, and massive refugee problems.

Ethiopia has never recovered from many years of civil war and drought. Throughout this time, the resettlement programme was introduced as a lasting solution and a mass exodus of people began in 1985.

The operation was designed by the ruling party and carried out by the political cadres, who were the eyes and ears of the ruling party. These political cadres were known for their brutal killings, torture and rape.

In 1985 Ethiopia was hit by a severe drought which created shortages of food, medicine, and clean water. This resulted in mounting death tolls which reached their peak in that year.

In a short period of time, the famine caused thousands of deaths due to hunger and diseases. The most affected were those who lived deep in the rural areas. They remained out of reach for any assistance.

***

In 1980 I completed the national matric exam and, later, I joined a technical college and studied agro-mechanics technology. At college, I gained the skills required for the operation, maintenance and repair of farm machinery.

After I graduated in 1984, I was employed by the Ministry of Agriculture as a mechanic of farm machinery in the central region of Ethiopia, which is a relatively fertile and peaceful place.

A few months later, I was transferred to the remote western part of Ethiopia to a settlement area in the Assossa region.

I was among many government employees who had been called to be part of the Agricultural Mechanization Service Corporation (AMSC), an organisation that operated under the Ministry of Agriculture.

The old town of Assossa is found at the far end of the western part of Ethiopia, about five hundred miles away from the capital, Addis Ababa and about fifty miles from the border with Sudan to the north. Assossa was the regional co-ordination centre for the resettlement programme.

At the beginning of March 1986, we began our journey from Addis. It was at the peak of the hot season. We drove through the bush and travelled along dusty roads to the very old town of Assossa.

On our arrival, we were met by the political cadres who oversaw any activity in the settlement area.

The political cadres were carefully recruited to serve and prolong the ruling military dictatorship and to purposely create confusion and havoc among the people of the nation. They were responsible for the killing of thousands of innocent people in many parts of the country.

A week later, most of us had been given our specific work assignments and were dispersed to different farm sites in the settlement areas. I was sent to a recently created tiny farm village called Megelle about ten miles to the south of Assossa.

It was late in the afternoon when I arrived at Megelle. The new settlers were arriving in vehicles such as buses and trucks. There was no road and the vehicles had big challenges riding on unmarked dusty roads.

Many people were camped in the open fields. They had come from very far, from the northern parts of the country. And large numbers of them of them were trapped in the rain and cold. They had no shelter or food. Some of the settlers were very sick and were vomiting and unable to move.

Many of the settlers were dying by the minute and were being buried along the roadside in unmarked graves. There was great concern because of the sharp rise in the deaths of the settlers, which were caused by outbreaks of deadly diseases.

The effects of drought and war brought millions to starvation and death. It is important to note that Ethiopia depends heavily on agriculture, which is often affected by drought.

The reason the government began to move hundreds of thousands of people away from the desert land of the north to the fertile land in the south-west was to provide a lasting solution to food shortages.

Thus, I found myself in the middle of these chaotic activities. I was shocked and devastated to have witnessed the worst human tragedy. It was the most traumatic experience of my life.

The magnitude of the catastrophe and the severity caused by the drought was bizarre and beyond my imagination. The sanitation and the living conditions, in general, worsened as more and more people arrived by the day.

As a civil servant, I had a commitment to assist the settlers, to farm the land for food security for the coming season.

We needed to put in maximum effort to save the living, because those who had died were already gone. There was a shortage of necessities – food, shelter and medicines, which could have saved many lives. The children were the ones who were affected the most.

The government and all international aid agencies throughout the country were directing their manpower and resources to the rescue of the starving and dying people in the settlement areas.

The Irish Concern.org (a non-governmental organisation) was the only one of its kind and first to arrive in the Assossa region to supply food, clean water, and medicine to the surrounding settlement areas.

Within one week we had organised ourselves a short distance from the village. We began clearing the forest and preparing the land for the cultivation of crops. The farm was about two miles away from the village.

The pressure was mounting from every side to start farming. A couple of weeks later, we began our farming operations with eight Russian-made tractors. Initially we had planned to farm about two thousand hectares of land.

At the start of the operation, there was no specific time for breaks or changes of shift. We worked fourteen hours a day. Every one of us was willing to work long hours due to the circumstances.

We did not have a camp or shelter where we could rest – just the open field in the middle of the forest. Everything was happening so fast, and there was no time to think about our basic needs.

During the first few weeks, we slept in the open field surrounded by tractors. A few of us would go hunting small wild animals. They were our main source of food as there was no other option.

Before long, everything started to take shape. Many temporary houses had been built and the workers were accommodated in various types of shelter. As the days progressed, we become more and more aware of the surroundings of Megelle, the new farm village.

Mr Tesfaye was the unit manager in charge of the operation. There were tractor operators, mechanics, and surveyors – altogether about twenty-eight of us had been deployed at Megelle farm village.

In such circumstances, whenever a human tragedy occurrs, it is natural that we feel we have to push aside our personal interests and, as a moral obligation, assist during times of disaster. And that was exactly what happened.

Our priority was to save human lives and provide a sustainable food supply. We had to work very hard to bring about change in terms of food security for the settlers. We anticipated a good harvest for the coming season.

East Germany (Budfrankenhousen)

In mid-1987 I was offered training. It was a short-term course in East Germany, sponsored and organised by one of the biggest suppliers of farm machinery based in Germany, Fortschritt Land Machinen.

The team was made up of six employees from different farm locations. The course was designed to upgrade our knowledge of modern farm machines. Fortunately for us, it was a relief to get away for a while.

One afternoon, we boarded the flight in Addis Ababa just after midnight. The next day we landed in Berlin, the German capital. Two people were waiting for us at Berlin Airport – the school principal and the driver.

We drove through the night. The small van was packed with meals and beverages. After a long journey, at about mid-morning, we arrived at a small East Germany town called Bud Frankenhausen.

We stayed at a guesthouse that was provided for us. The following day the school governing body welcomed us and introduced the schedule we would follow until the completion of our studies. It included touring as well.

It was a technical school providing technical knowledge and training for German and foreign students. It was one of the oldest schools in the country. It had many departments, mainly focused on practical lessons specifically on advanced farm machinery.

Throughout our stay and during every weekend, a special arrangement was made for us to tour historical places in East Germany. Besides the historical places, we were taken to several industrial zones, mega factories, and manufacturers of advanced farm machines.

Apart from attending school, we visited some of the Nazi concentration camps, museums and historical collections. This gave us insight into the past.

I felt uneasy and became distressed during and after visiting the concentration camps – the places where gruesome killings took place. Beside the slides of pictures and the collections in museums, the physical buildings contained other evidence of the atrocities.

***

After three months of training and touring in East Germany, we returned to Ethiopia, and I hoped that I would be spending some time with my family before I went back to the job. However, just a couple of days later I was rushed to report to Assossa, the regional co-ordination centre.

In mid-January 1988, I was transferred to a new farm site at Sirba 1, one of the many newly opened farm units. It was a very tiny and dusty settlers’ village found in Jarso zone.

The village is about 100 miles south of Assossa and 150 miles from the Sudanese border. This part of Ethiopia is known for its fertile land and forestry. The thick, almost impenetrable forest covers a large area, stretching out for hundreds of miles along the Sudanese border.

Sirba 1 is found deep in the forest and far from towns and other villages. It is a great distance from everything. None of us had been there previously. I had no prior information about Jarso. It was very remote, and communication was possible only through two-way VHF radio transmitters.

Mr Eshetu Mulat, the head of the regional co-ordination centre in Assossa, had given us a briefing about the farming operation and other related matters, but nothing about the security issues at Jarso.

There had been many kinds of speculation about the security problems at Jarso. There had been kidnappings and torture by the separatists. The Jarso settlement area was referred to as a high-risk security region.

On various occasions there had been reports of kidnappings and killings. However, I did not take it seriously; neither did anyone else as there were many false rumours spreading from time to time.

The first thing that came to my mind was the need to adjust to the new environment and forget all about city life. I had to be able to blend into the environment and fit in with the workers in order to perform whatever required of me.

There were about forty of us workers at Sirba 1 camp doing different jobs in various categories such as tractor operators, mechanics, and store-men. Some of them lived with their wives and children.

The Sirba 1 camp was newly built. The workers’ houses, the store, and everything looked identical. They were built from corrugated sheet metal; it was more like temporary accommodation.

I walked slowly through the middle of the camp guided by one of the workers to the small house allocated to me. As we got closer, he pointed out the house where I would be staying before he returned.

I opened the door wide. The room was completely dark and empty. There was nothing to sit or lie on. I was hungry, thirsty, and exhausted. However, I had expected and mentally prepared for such a situation.

I lit my candles, spread my bedding on the floor and took out my diary. I wrote down the events of my life so as to help keep the memories alive. Soon I was fast asleep, and that was my first night at Sirba 1, Jarso.

I got up early in the morning and went outside to get fresh air as I always do. The camp was surrounded by thick, green forest. It was a beautiful day. I toured through the camp introducing myself to everyone. At the centre of the camp were the kitchen and dining hall. They faced each other.

Late in the evening, we held our first meeting with the workers. We discussed several issues related to our operation. This gave us an opportunity to get to know each other. It was more of a get-to-know- each-other and friendly meeting. No issue of security in the village was raised

It was time to work on the land; time to put our minds together. There was no moment to spare. Before the beginning of the rainy season we had to plough day and night – three shifts of eight hours.

The operation ran smoothly because it went completely according to plan. Our primary objective was to plough the land and it had to be completed before the end of May 1988, before the start of the rainy season.

Farming requires teamwork, and the workers needed to have self-motivation, encouragement, and high spirits and morale. Good communication was also very important.

The interests of the workers had to be maintained regularly to achieve a high standard of performance. This could only be realised through good communication. Every one of us was determined to bring about change productivity.

I had to take part in every activity in the camp as well as on the field. According to the circumstances, I had to adapt and apply fresh thinking so as to be able to discuss new ideas with the workers to the best of my knowledge.

At the time, I had little or no experience with administration work. I mainly enjoyed the technical side of running a farm, but I needed to learn and be part of the administration team so as to gain more experience.

In order to achieve a good performance, I needed to know everyone and I had to be part of everything. I needed to learn to adapt to the environment, the settlers, and the job very quickly.

Everything looked promising as our daily output was increasing, and we were ahead of schedule with our work. However, there was always a feeling that something unexpected could happen, but our focus was on our daily operations and that made us less concerned about our security.

As part of our routine, every morning the operators drove off on their tractors to the farm’s fields and the rest of the workers were transported to and from the farm by a service pickup truck.

This was a daily schedule which we had been following seven days a week right from the beginning. 14 April 1988 was the start of a critical chain of events which lasted for many years and it is the primary reason why I am here today.

My story shows that as a human being we tend to think and plan to acquire the best of everything and happily carry on with life. However, sometimes something can suddenly happen unexpectedly and it takes away everything we have dreamed of.

Life has to carry on, and we need to do our best to forget the bad happening very quickly, and start everything all-over again, so that we can move forward with fresh thinking in a new direction as if nothing has happened.

The Start of Everything

On Thursday 14 April 1988, at about seven-thirty, I came back from the farm and went straight