[Aljazeera] Arhe Hamednaca is a member of Sweden's parliament, but his commitment to social justice began as a child fighter.When Eritrea formally declared its independence from Ethiopia on May 24, 1993, it marked the culmination of a more than 30-year-long struggle for freedom. Few understand the human toll of this conflict better than 62-year-old Arhe Hamednaca.
He was just 15 years old when, in 1968, he became a child soldier, joining the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF). But he already understood well the enemy he was fighting.
A year earlier, he had been picked up by the Commandos, an anti-independence force comprised largely of Eritreans from the country's highland region and Ethiopians. For a month, they tortured him.
Trained by the Israelis, and armed by Israel and the US, the Commandos were known for their brutality.
Ahhh yes, the obligatory anti-Israel, anti-US rant.
Rapes and massacres were routine, and the lowland and coastal regions, where support for independence was at its greatest, felt their full force.
In a bid to satisfy both Ethiopian claims to Eritrea and Eritrean desire for independence, the UN declared Eritrea an autonomous part of the Ethiopian Federation in 1952.
Nine years later, Ethiopia began to violate the agreement. Political parties were banned, newspapers were censored, and schools were prohibited from teaching in Tigrinya and Arabic in favour of Ethiopian Amharic.