Mengistu Haile Mariam
Aman Mikael Andom | |
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Succeeded by | Tafari Benti |
In office 3 February 1977 – 10 September 1987 | |
Deputy | Atnafu Abate |
Preceded by | Tafari Benti |
Succeeded by | Himself as President |
Personal details | |
Born | Commander-in-Chief | 21 May 1937
Battles/wars | Ethiopian Civil War Eritrean War of Independence Ogaden War |
Criminal details
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Years active |
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death penalty (in absentia) | |
Details | |
Victims | +1,200,000 |
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leader of Ethiopia 1974-1974,1977-1987,1984-1991(1987-1991)
Government
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Mengistu Haile Mariam (
The Derg took power in the
Internal rebellion, government repression, and economic mismanagement characterized Mengistu's presidency, the Red Terror period being a battle for dominance between the Derg, the EPRP, and their rival the
Mengistu fled to Zimbabwe in May 1991 after the PDRE National Shengo dissolved itself and called for a transitional government. His departure brought an abrupt end to the Ethiopian Civil War. Mengistu Haile Mariam still lives in Harare, Zimbabwe, despite an Ethiopian court verdict which found him guilty of genocide in absentia.[6] Mengistu's government is estimated to be responsible for the deaths of 500,000 to 2,000,000 Ethiopians, mostly during the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia.[7][8][9][10]
Early life
Mengistu Haile Mariam was born on 21 May 1937 in Jimma during the Italian occupation.[1][2] Mengistu was the son of a former slave under the service of the aristocratic Shewan landowner Afenegus Eshete Geda, who encountered Mengistu's father, Haile Mariam Wolde Ayana, while on a hunting expedition in the district of Gimira and Maji then under the governorship of Dejazmatch Taye Gulilat. After the Italians invaded Ethiopia, they abolished slavery, freeing Haile Mariam. The Italians then recruited Haile Mariam as an askari soldier and sent him to Jimma. Here, Mengistu's mother who was of Konso origin met Haile Mariam and the two got married. The marriage resulted with the birth of Mengistu's elder sister, and then Mengistu himself.[a][12][13]
After the Italians were defeated and expelled from the country in 1941, the couple moved to Debre Markos where Haile Mariam joined Haile Selassie's fledgling army and received the rank of corporal. Corporal Haile Mariam was then transferred to the ammunition's production unit of the imperial army in Addis Ababa. Mengistu was raised in the household of Dejazmatch Kebede Tesemma (the former governor of Gojjam), where Mengistu's mother worked as a domestic servant. In Debre Markos, Mengistu attended the Negus Tekle Haimanot School where he was known to be a problematic teenager and not serious with his studies, he was later expelled from high school for misbehavior. Mengistu then joined the army at a very young age.[14][13]
Army life
As an ambitious young soldier, he attracted the attention of the Eritrean-born General Aman Andom, who raised him to the rank of sergeant and assigned him duties as an errand boy in his office. Aman then recommended him to the Holetta Military Academy, one of the two important military academies of Ethiopia. After Mengistu graduated from the Holetta Military Academy in 1957, he received the rank of Second Lieutenant.[15] General Aman then became his mentor, and when the General was assigned to the commander of the Third Division took Mengistu with him to Harar, and later was assigned as an ordnance officer in the Third Division. He was subsequently sent to the US for the first time in 1964 to the Savanna Army Depot in Illinois for an Ordnance testing course for six months.[16]
Aman was abruptly transferred to
Mengistu typically endured derogatory comments about his appearance, rooted in his Konso background. His features were far more "negroid" than the average highlander Ethiopian, which Paul Henze believes gave him an inferiority complex. Henze also notes that while receiving military training in the United States, Mengistu experienced racial discrimination which led him to develop a strong anti-American sentiment, but Henze was unable to find any evidence of such incidents.[14] When he took power, and attended the meeting of Derg members at the Fourth Division headquarters in Addis Ababa, Mengistu exclaimed with emotion:
In this country, some
Bahru Zewde notes that Mengistu was distinguished by a "special ability to size up situations and persons". Although Bahru notes that some observers "rather charitably" equated this ability with intelligence, the academic believes this skill is more akin to "
The rise of the Derg
Emperor Haile Selassie's government, having lost the confidence of the Ethiopian public following a drought and crop failures in
Haile Selassie died in 1975. It is rumored that Mengistu smothered the Emperor using a pillowcase, but Mengistu has denied these rumors.
Leadership of Ethiopia
Mengistu did not emerge as the leader of the Derg until after the 3 February 1977 shootout, in which Chairman Tafari Benti was killed. The vice-chairman of the Derg, Atnafu Abate, clashed with Mengistu over the issue of how to handle the war in Eritrea and lost, leading to his execution with 40 other officers, clearing the way for Mengistu to assume control.[20] He formally assumed power as head of state, and justified his execution of Abate (on 13 November of that year) by claiming that he had "placed the interests of Ethiopia above the interests of socialism" and undertaken other "counter-revolutionary" activities.[21]
Political conflicts
Resistance against the Derg ensued, led primarily by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP). Mengistu cracked down on the EPRP and other revolutionary student organizations in what would become called the "Red Terror".[22] The Derg subsequently turned against the socialist student movement MEISON, a major supporter against the EPRP, in what would be called the "White Terror".
The EPRP's efforts to discredit and undermine the Derg and its MEISON collaborators escalated in the fall of 1976. It targeted public buildings and other symbols of state authority for bombings and assassinated numerous Abyot Seded and MEISON members, as well as public officials at all levels. The Derg, which countered with its own counter-terrorism campaign, labeled the EPRP's tactics the White Terror. Mengistu asserted that all "progressives" were given "freedom of action" in helping root out the revolution's enemies, and his wrath was particularly directed toward the EPRP. Peasants, workers, public officials, and even students thought to be loyal to the Mengistu regime were provided with arms to accomplish this task.[23]
In a public speech in April 1977, Mengistu shouted "Death to counterrevolutionaries! Death to the EPRP!" and then produced three bottles filled with a red liquid that symbolized the blood of the imperialists and the counterrevolutionaries and smashed them to the ground to show what the revolution would do to its enemies.
Military gains made by the monarchist
Embracing Marxism–Leninism
In the 1970s, Mengistu embraced the philosophy of Marxism–Leninism, which was increasingly popular among many nationalists and revolutionaries throughout Africa and much of the Third World at the time. In the mid-1970s, under Mengistu's leadership, the Derg regime began an aggressive program of changing system of Ethiopia from a mixed feudal-capitalist emergent economy to an Eastern Bloc-style command economy. Shortly after coming to power, all rural land was nationalized, stripping the Ethiopian Church, the Imperial family, and the nobility of all their sizable estates and the bulk of their wealth. During this same period, all foreign-owned and locally owned companies were nationalized without compensation in an effort to redistribute the country's wealth. All undeveloped urban property and all rental property were also nationalized. Private businesses such as banks and insurance companies, large retail businesses, etc. were also taken over by the government. All this nationalized property was brought under the administration of large bureaucracies set up to administer them. Farmers who had once worked on land owned by absentee landlords were now compelled to join collective farms. All agricultural products were no longer to be offered on the free market but were to be controlled and distributed by the government. Despite progressive agricultural reforms, under the Derg, agricultural output suffered due to civil war, drought and misguided economic policies. There was also a famine in 1984, which was the 10th anniversary of the Derg.
The Soviets hailed Ethiopia for its supposed similar cultural and historical parallels to the USSR. Moscow said it proved that a backward society could become revolutionary by adopting a Leninist system. It was hailed as a model junior ally that Moscow was eager to support. In the 1980s Ethiopia plunged into greater turmoil and the Soviet system itself was collapsing by 1990. Russian commentators had turned scornful of the Ethiopian regime.[30]
In early 1984, under Mengistu's direction, the Marxist–Leninist
However, the government's military position gradually weakened. First came the
Removal from power; asylum in Zimbabwe
By 1990, the Soviet Union had all but ended its support for Mengistu's regime. In May 1991, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) forces advanced on Addis Ababa from all sides, and Mengistu fled the country with 50 family and Derg members. He was granted asylum in Zimbabwe as an official guest of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. Although Mugabe has since been removed from power in 2017, no new extradition requests have been submitted.
Mengistu left behind almost the entire membership of the original Derg and the WPE leadership. The regime only survived without him for another week before the EPRDF streamed into the capital, precluding the previous leadership's escape. Almost all were promptly arrested and put on trial upon the assumption of power by the EPRDF. Mengistu has claimed that the takeover of his country resulted from the policies of Mikhail Gorbachev, who in his view allowed the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the termination of its aid to Ethiopia.
An assassination attempt against Mengistu occurred on 4 November 1995, while he was out walking with his wife, Wubanchi Bishaw, near his home in the Gunhill suburb of Harare. While Mengistu was unharmed, his alleged attacker, Solomon Haile Ghebre Michael, an Eritrean, was shot and arrested by Mengistu's bodyguards.[32] He was later tried for this assassination attempt, pleading not guilty in a Zimbabwean court on 8 July 1996.[33] The Eritrean Ambassador to South Africa, Tsegaye Tesfa Tsion, flew to Harare to attend the trial.[32] The attacker was sentenced to ten years in prison, while his accomplice Abraham Goletom Joseph, who had been arrested in a police raid, was sentenced to five years. They said that they had been tortured under Mengistu, and on appeal, their sentences were reduced to two years each due to "mitigatory circumstances".[34] The Ethiopian ambassador to Zimbabwe, Fantahun Haile Michael, said his government was not involved in the assassination attempt, and that he heard about the incident from the media.[32]
As of 2018[update], Mengistu still resided in Zimbabwe,[35] despite the Ethiopian government's desire that he be extradited. He is said to live in luxurious circumstances, and it is claimed that he advised Mugabe on security matters; according to Zimbabwean intelligence sources, he proposed the idea of clearing slums, which was implemented as Operation Murambatsvina in 2005, and chaired meetings at which the operation was planned.[36][34] However, the State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa strongly denied that Mengistu was involved in Operation Murambatsvina.[34]
In 2018, the former prime minister of Ethiopia Hailemariam Desalegn published a photo of himself meeting with Mengistu. He withdrew the photo after criticism.[35]
Genocide trial
Mengistu was charged by the Ethiopian government led by Meles Zenawi, in absentia, for the killing of nearly 2,000 people. The charge sheet and evidence list for his crimes were 8,000 pages long. The evidence against him included signed execution orders, videos of torture sessions, and personal testimony.[37] The trial began in 1994 and ended in 2006. The court found Mengistu guilty as charged on 12 December 2006, and imposed a life sentence in January 2007.[38] In addition to the genocide conviction, the court found him guilty of imprisonment, illegal homicide, and illegal confiscation of property.[5] Michael Clough, a US attorney and longtime observer of Ethiopia, said in a statement:[39]
The biggest problem with prosecuting Mengistu for genocide is that his actions did not necessarily target a particular group. They were directed against anybody who was opposing his government, and they were generally much more political than based on any ethnic targeting.
Some experts believe hundreds of thousands of university students, intellectuals, and politicians (including Emperor Haile Selassie) were killed during Mengistu's rule.[37] Amnesty International estimates that a total of half a million people were killed during the Red Terror of 1977 and 1978.[27][28][29] Human Rights Watch describes the Red Terror as "one of the most systematic uses of mass murder by a state ever witnessed in Africa."[37] During his reign it was not uncommon to see students, suspected government critics, or rebel sympathizers hanging from lampposts each morning. Mengistu himself is alleged to have murdered opponents by garroting or shooting them, saying that he was leading by example.[40] Estimates of the number of deaths for which he was responsible range from 500,000 to over 2,000,000.[7][8]
106 Derg officials were accused of genocide during the trials, but only 36 of them were present in the court. Several former members of the Derg have been sentenced to death.[41] After Mengistu's conviction in December 2006, the Zimbabwean government said that he still enjoyed asylum and would not be extradited. A Zimbabwean government spokesman explained this by saying that "Mengistu and his government played a key and commendable role during our struggle for independence". According to the spokesman, Mengistu assisted Zimbabwean guerrilla fighters during the Rhodesian Bush War by providing training and arms; after the war, he had provided training for Zimbabwean air force pilots. The spokesman said that "not many countries have shown such commitment to us".[42]
Following an appeal on 26 May 2008, Mengistu was sentenced to death in absentia by Ethiopia's High Court, overturning his previous sentence of life imprisonment. Twenty-three of his most senior aides also received death sentences that were commuted on 1 June 2011. As of 4 October 2011, 16 former Mengistu officials have been released from prison on parole, due to their old age and good behavior while incarcerated. However, Mengistu's sentence remained unchanged.[43]
Memoirs
In 2010, Mengistu announced the publication of his memoirs.[44] In early 2012, a manuscript of the memoir, entitled Tiglatchin ("Our Struggle" in Amharic),[45] was leaked onto the internet. Some months later the first leaked volume was published in the United States, and in 2016 the second volume followed. This time it was published in Ethiopia. Mengistu accused the remnants of the EPRP of leaking the first volume to sabotage his publication.[citation needed]
Personal life
Mengistu married Wubanchi Bishaw in 1968. They have a son, Andinet, and daughters, Tigist and Timihirt.[46] Mengistu has resided in Zimbabwe, due to his friendship with Robert Mugabe, ever since 1991.
Notes
References
- ^ a b c "Profile: Mengistu Haile Mariam". BBC News. 12 December 2006. Retrieved 13 December 2006.. Other accounts state 21 May 1941 "Эфиопия". Archived from the original on 23 June 2006. Retrieved 21 August 2006., 27 May 1941
- ^ a b "Mengistu Haile Mariam | president of Ethiopia". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
- ^ "Mengistu Haile Mariam's Biography". Durame News Online. 1 May 2012. Retrieved 6 May 2012..
- ^ "Four facts about Mengistu, the Ethiopian dictator who overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974". Face 2 Face Africa.
- ^ a b "Mengistu found guilty of genocide". BBC News. 12 December 2006. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
- ^ "Profile: Mengistu Haile Mariam". BBC News. 12 December 2006. Retrieved 11 January 2007.
- ^ a b Fitzgerald, Tyrant for the taking in White, Matthew (2011). Atrocitology. Edinburgh: Canongate. p. 615. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
- ^ a b Rapoport, Knives Are Out in White, Matthew (2011). Atrocitology. Edinburgh: Canongate. p. 615. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
- ^ "Peter Gill, page.44 "Famine and Foreigners: Ethiopia Since Live Aid"" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 May 2018. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
- ISBN 0-932415-34-2.
- ^ Shinn, David. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Scarecrow Press. p. 287.
- ISBN 978-0-19-161592-4.
His roots—apparently in a Konso slave family in the south—were somewhat more obscure than those of Tewodros, who at least could claim some kind of noble blood; but they shared a continual anxiety concerning questions over their legitimacy.
- ^ a b c "Mengistu Haile Mariam: The Profile of a Dictator" Archived 11 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine, reprinted from the February 1994 Ethiopian Review (accessed 30 July 2009)
- ^ a b c Paul B. Henze, Layers of Time (New York: Palgrave, 2000), p. 290 n. 13. In Mengistu's last interview, he mentioned that he knew Kebede Tesemma, but denied a blood relationship.
- ^ a b Edmund J. Keller, Revolutionary Ethiopia (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988), p. 185.
- ^ a b Provisional Military Administrative Council
- ^ Bahru Zewde, A History of Modern Ethiopia, second edition (London: James Currey, 2001), p. 249
- .
- ^ Gettleman, Jeffrey, "Ethiopian court convicts Mengistu Haile Mariam of genocide", The New York Times, 12 November 2006. Paul Henze, however, states this accusation as a fact (Layers of Time, p. 188).
- ^ Indian Ocean Newsletter publication, 1985 "Ethiopia: Political Power & the Military"
- ^ Henze, Layers of Time, p. 302.
- ^ "Mengistu Haile Mariam | president of Ethiopia". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
- ^ A Country Study: Ethiopia (US Library of Congress)
- OCLC 60705727.
- ^ Ethiopian Dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam Human Rights Watch, 1999
- Stephane Courtois, et al. The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression. Harvard University Press, 1999. pg. 691
- ^ a b The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, pg 457
- ^ a b US admits helping Mengistu escape BBC, 22 December 1999
- ^ a b Talk of the Devil: Encounters with Seven Dictators by Riccardo Orizio, pg 151
- ^ Diana L. Ohlbaum, "Ethiopia and the Construction of Soviet Identity, 1974-1991". Northeast African Studies 1.1 (1994): 63-89. online
- ^ "Ethiopia Fizzled Coup", Time, 29 May 1989 (accessed 30 July 2009).
- ^ a b c "Report: Mengistu Survives Assassination Attempt", Ethiopian Review, Vol. 5, Issue 12 (31 December 1995), p. 14 (accessed 15 August 2009)
- ^ The Washington Times, 11 July 1996, page A10.
- ^ a b c "Mengistu 'brains behind Zim clean-up'". Mail & Guardian. 20 February 2006. Retrieved 2018-02-18.
- ^ a b "Why a photo of Mengistu has proved so controversial". BBC News. 2018-08-02. Archived from the original on 2019-06-29. Retrieved 2019-06-29.
- ^ "Ethiopia's Mengistu brains behind Zimbabwe cleanup campaign". Sudan Tribune. 21 February 2006. Archived from the original on 30 June 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
- ^ a b c "Ethiopian Dictator Sentenced to Prison" by Les Neuhaus, Associated Press, 11 January 2007
- ^ Mengistu is handed life sentence BBC News, 11 January 2007
- ^ "The irony of the Anuak Masscare and Zenawi's genocide verdict over Mengistu". Retrieved 4 February 2015.
- ^ Clayton, Jonathan. "Guilty of genocide: the leader who unleashed a 'Red Terror' on Africa |". The Times. Retrieved 2017-01-08.
- ^ "Court sentences Major Melaku Tefera to death" Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine, Ethiopian Reporter
- ^ "Zimbabwe hails Mengistu's role in liberation", AFP (IOL), 13 December 2006.
- ^ Court Sentences Mengistu to Death BBC News, 26 May 2008.
- ^ "Ethiopia's Mengistu Haile-Mariam speaks". Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
- ^ Book Review: "Tiglachin", Ethiomedia online, 6 February 2012
- ^ "Mengistu Haile Mariam Facts". biography.yourdictionary.com. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-465-00311-7
- Coppa, Frank. 2006. "Mengistu Haile Mariam". Encyclopedia of Modern Dictators: From Napoleon to the Present, Frank Coppa, ed., pp. 181–183. Peter Lang Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8204-5010-0.
- ISBN 1-932236-78-3.
- Courtois, Stephane; Werth, Nicolas; Panne, Jean-Louis; Paczkowski, Andrzej; Bartosek, Karel; Margolin, Jean-Louis & Kramer, Mark (1999).
- Orizio, Riccardo. Talk of the Devil: Encounters with Seven Dictators. Walker & Company, 2004. ISBN 0-8027-7692-2
- Ulrich Schmid. Aschemenschen. Berlin, 2006 (in German)
- Taffara Deguefé, A Tripping Stone: Ethiopian Prison Diary, Addis Ababa University Press, Addis Ababa, 2003.
- Scott Rempell, "Five Grounds: A Novel Archived 2019-10-24 at the ISBN 1-4792-0172-3.
- Aryeh Y. Yodfat, "The Soviet Union and the Horn of Africa", Northeast African Studies (1980) 2#2 pp. 65–81 online
External links
- "Mengistu defends Red Terror", BBC News, 28 December 1999.
- "A U.S. Strategy to Foster Human Rights in Ethiopia" Archived 2006-08-23 at the Wayback Machine, by Michael Johns, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder # 692, 23 February 1989.
- "Ethiopian Dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam", Human Rights Watch, 29 November 1999.
- The Trial of Derg on YouTube. Reuters, 2007