Abraham Atse
Abraham Rehn | |
|---|---|
 Rehn in 1982 | |
| Leader of the National Revolution | |
| In office 20 July 1988 – 15 September 1991 | |
| Preceded by | Office created |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| President of Preisland | |
| In office 3 October 1978 – 15 September 1991 | |
| Preceded by | Damien Paasche |
| Succeeded by | Albert M. Blumberg (as Head of the Vonzumier Occupation Authority) |
| Chairman of the Council of National Liberation | |
| In office 13 September 1978 – 2 February 1979 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Abraham Geïlo Rehn 18 December 1920 Dangopa, Preisland Province, Vierz Artalia |
| Died | 29 April 1991 (aged 70) Crimnitz, Preisland |
| Manner of death | Assassination by gunshot |
| Political party | Preisland National Union |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Preisland |
| Branch/service | Preisland Armed Forces |
| Rank | Marshal |
| Battles/wars | Vonzumierian invasion of Preisland |
Abraham Geïlo Rehn (18 December 1920 – 29 April 1992) was a Preislander politician and military officer who served as the President of Preisland from 1978 to 1992.
Rehn was born to a poor black family in Dangopa, then part of the Preisland Province of Vierz colonial Artalia, in 1920. He enlisted in the Vonzumierian Army in 1945 and fought in the Great War. In 1957, he became an officer in the army of the newly-independent Preisland, where he rose to the rank of Oberstleutnant by 1965. Rehn was initially an ally of the regime of Damien Paasche, but later came to oppose him. In 1978, Rehn and other military officers engineered a coup d'état to depose Paasche, with Rehn declaring himself the new President of Preisland. He moved to silence all opposition to his new military government and purge all former members of the Paasche government, resulting in the jailing, torture, and murder of some 10,000 people from 1978–1979. A fraudulent election in 1979, in which Rehn won 98.5% of the vote, confirmed his position as president.
As president, Rehn extolled values of populism and black nationalism. His economic policies aimed to make Preisland economically self-sufficient, with state control of most industries. Rehn's personality cult depicted him as the saviour of Preisland and of all black people. His regime repressed all dissent; persecution against minority groups, such as the Apelian-speaking Caponoirs and the White Preislanders, intensified. Rehn, while initially popular, became more despised by the population as time went on, leading to more severe state-sponsored brutality.
By 1987, many parts of Preisland were seeing open rebellion against Rehn's regime and thousands of Preislanders had emigrated to neighbouring Remeria and Vonzumier as the country became increasingly unstable and unsafe. In 1988, Rehn further consolidated executive power and gave himself the Vierz honorific Führer, meaning "chief". After a massacre of Preislander refugees on the Vonzumierian border by pro-Rehn death squads in July 1991, the Vonzumierian government began an invasion of Preisland to depose Rehn in August. After four weeks of fighting, Rehn was captured and placed under house arrest. He died on 29 April 1991 as a result of a gunshot wound while under house arrest. While the Preisland occupation authorities and the Vonzumierian government initially declared it to be a suicide, an independent investigation carried out in 2005 revealed that Rehn had been assassinated by opposition agents with the tacit approval of the Vonzumierian government.
It is estimated that some 50,000 people were killed by Rehn's security forces. Another 100,000 people were detained, jailed, or tortured by the regime, and upwards of 500,000 people were internally displaced or fled the country altogether.