Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-03-25

better of travelling in convoy
during the day. At night you bar
your shutters and sleep with
revolver handy. No upper-class
or foreign home is without a
zabania. or night Waterman.
This is not an antiwhite ter
ror. such as the Mau Mau move
ment. 1t is pure and simple
armed banditry. born of poverty
and hopelessness, nurtured on
racial and religious differences,
and matured on hate of Ital-
ians and of dissatisfaction with
the results of the power politics
gave which federated Eritrea
with feudal Ethiopia.
The / million people who
scratch a living from Eritrea's
$4,000 square miles, an area the
size of Alabama. are almost
equally divided religiously be-
tween the Coptic Christians in
the cool highlands and the Mos
lens who live on the sweltering
Red Sea coast and on the fiat
plains which merge in the west
with the Sudan. Racially, no
Eritrean. although his skin may
be an ebony shade, is Negro.
Those in the highlands are
mixture of unknown races and
Semitic strains. The lowlanders
are almost pure Arab. Between
the two groups. war. rape and
pillage constitute not Just an
occasional recreation but way
of life.
Ailing Economically
Economically, Eritrea is in bad
shape. This stems from four
causes:
/. Lack Of water and good
soil.
2. Heavy taxes levied by the
federal ethiopian government
3. Colossal Ethiopian red tape
which discourageS foreign in
vestment.
4. The departure of most of
the country's once considerable
Italian population.
Since the end of World War II,
the number of Italians in Eritrea
has shrunk from more than l00.-
900 to less than $1,000.
And when one Italian leaves"
comments a half-caste govern
ment official, -four Eritreans
starve."
When the United Nations
voted that Eritrea should oe
federated with Ethiopia in 1852,
that was the last straw for the
country's Moslems. Aware of
how little a say Ethiopia's Mos
lens have in that country's gov
eminent, thousands dug up their
weapons from secret caches -
many Eritreans fought with the
Italians against the Philippians
in the l935-36 war-and took to
the hills as brigands.
They are known as shifta, a
word which means. depending
on who's doing the talking and
what tone of voice he uses, pa
triot, bandit. or tramp.
Ignored by Ethiopia
The official Ethiopian line is
the shifta problem doesn't exist.
An Ethiopian army captain told
this reporter one evening:
There are no shifta anymore.
That was only under the British
administration after the war
when everybody was agitating for
the union with Ethiopia. Now,
finished"
The next day. ten cars we're
stopped on the road to Massawa
and the motorists were robbed
and stripped.
Informed opinion puts the
number of bandits operating in
Eritrea today at about 5000. The
typical shifta band numbers
from three TO Ia men armed with
clubs, knives. swords, and fire.
arms. Attacks usually take place
on isolated farms or on the main
roads after nightfall.
In addition to their own free
lance activities, the shifta are
available for hire to the mag
mates Of an ancient and danger
Gus Red Sea game: gun-running
There are indications Of ex-
tensive gun-running in Southern
Eritrea around the port city of
Assab. But the final destination
of such weapons is unknown. A
ready market. as witnessed by
the recent hostilities there, GER
tainly exists in Yemen, less than