1960 Ethiopian coup attempt
1960 Ethiopian coup d'état attempt | |||||||
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Part of Opposition to Haile Selassie | |||||||
Guenete Leul Palace in 2018, one of the scenes of the failed coup | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Emperor Haile Selassie loyalists |
Council of the Revolution | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Asrate Medhin Kassa Mared Mangesha |
Germame Neway Mengistu Neway Warqenah Gabayahu Tsege Dibu | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
300-2,000 killed, including civilians[1] |
The 1960 Ethiopian coup d'etat attempt (
The coup attempt is considered the most serious threat to Haile Selassie's rule between 1941 and his deposition in 1974 during the Ethiopian Revolution.[3]
Background
Germame then managed to persuade his brother,
Coup
On the evening of Tuesday, 13 December 1960, the group duped several Ministers of the Imperial Crown and other important political personages into coming to Guenete Leul Palace in the capital, Addis Ababa, for an emergency meeting. They then were taken hostage, including Prime Minister Ras Abebe Aregai. At the same time, followers of Colonel Warqenah occupied the central bank, the radio station, and the Ministry of Finance. The Kebur Zabagna surrounded the other army bases in and around the capital.[9]
The next morning, after the members of the coup had secured control of most of Addis Ababa,
The leaders of the coup obviously expected this demonstration would convince the other branches of the military to join them. An uneasy 24 hours followed while the conspirators awaited developments. During this period Mengestu and his colleagues issued an 11-point programme of proposed reforms, and appointed as Prime Minister
Fighting broke out in the afternoon of the next day. Heavily outnumbered, the rebels were slowly driven back. Many ordinary soldiers of the Kebur Zabagna, once they learned they were fighting against the Emperor, lost heart as they had been given to understand that they were fighting for him.[11] Once the fighting started, the inhabitants of the capital gave their support to the loyalists. Before abandoning the capital, Germame and the others turned their machine-guns on their hostages in Genetta Leul palace, killing fifteen of them. Included in the victims were Prime Minister Aregai, Makonnen Habte-Wold, Lema Wolde Gabriel and Major General Mulugeta.[12]
General Tsege was killed in the fighting; Colonel Warqenah committed suicide.
Aftermath
Although Paul Henze asks the relevant question, "Was the 1960 coup the harbinger of the
In contrast, Ethiopian historian Bahru Zewde finds a very clear chain of connection between the two events. First, in his history of modern Ethiopia, Bahru points out an ironic element in this event: "By his colleagues he [Mulugeti Bulli] was more than half-expected to emulate the Egyptian colonel,
- The torch of change that the rebels had kindled was not extinguished with their physical elimination. On the contrary, it sparked a more outspoken and radical opposition to the regime. This can be seen in some of the underground leaflets that began to circulate soon after the end of the coup. They had such uncompromising motifs as "Better be a lion for a day and die than live the life of a lamb for a thousand days", "There is no solution without blood", and "What is sinful is to be ruled by despots, not to rise against them." Above all, the students became the true heirs of the rebels. They had come out on the streets in support of the rebels in 1960. Thereafter, they gave breadth and coherence to the opposition that the rebels had conceived and executed in such a confused manner. As for the imperial régime, unprepared to concede reform, it condemned itself to being swept away by revolution.[17]
Edmond Keller adds that following the coup, "rather than being able to dictate comfortably the rate and direction of change, the emperor was placed ever more on the defensive, having to work harder to mediate the demands of increasingly politically significant social groupings."[18] Keller also disagrees with the assertion that the leaders of the coup were the only organised group critical of the imperial monarchy and its policies, pointing to nationalist organisations coalescing among the Oromo, Somali, Eritreans, and Tigreans, noting that "these pockets of opposition might never have emerged if the emperor's policies had been more sensitively directed at building legitimacy among the masses rather than simply at securing compliance or acquiescence to laws and policies."[19]
References
- ^ a b c Clapham, "Ethiopian Coup", p. 497
- ^ ʼAbaba, Balaṭa (2004). Derona zandero (in Amharic).
- ^ For example, see Bahru Zewde, A History of Modern Ethiopia, second edition (Oxford: James Currey, 2001), p. 211, where Bahru states "The nearest the emperor came to losing his throne was in 1960."
- ^ Keller, Revolutionary Ethiopia (Bloomington: Indiana University, 1988), pp. 133f
- ^ Bahru, A History, p. 213
- ^ Keller, Revolutionary Ethiopia, p. 134
- ^ Paul B. Henze, Layers of Time (New York: Palgrave, 2000), p. 254
- ^ Spencer, Ethiopia at Bay: A personal account of the Haile Selassie years (Algonac: Reference Publications, 1984), p. 316
- ^ Henze, Layers of Time , p. 254; Keller, Revolutionary Ethiopia, p. 132
- ^ Clapham, "Ethiopian Coup", p. 505
- ^ JSTOR 159330.
- ^ Henze, Layers of Time, p. 255
- ISBN 978-1-59884-258-6.
- ^ Henze, Layers of Time, p. 256
- ^ Henze, Layers of Time, p. 258
- ^ Bahru, A History, p. 207
- ^ Bahru, A History, pp. 214f
- ^ Keller, Revolutionary Ethiopia, p. 133
- ^ Keller, Revolutionary Ethiopia, p. 135
Further reading
- John Michael Cohen, "Traditional Politics and the Military Coup in Ethiopia", African Affairs, 74 (1975), pp. 222-248
- Richard Greenfield, Ethiopia: a new political history (London and New York, 1965), pp. 337–452.
- Reidulf Knut Molvaer, "About the Abortive Coup Attempt in Addis Ababa from 5 Tahsas to 8 Tahsas 1953 (14-17 December 1960)", North Eastern African Studies, 3 (1996), pp. 21-38