Mengistu Haile Mariam: Difference between revisions

Col. Mengistu gave a dramatic send-off to his campaign of terror. In a public speech in 1976, he shouted "Death to counterrevolutionaries! Death to the EPRP!" and then produced three bottles of what appeared to be blood and smashed them to the ground to show what the revolution would do to its enemies. Thousands of young men and women turned up dead in the streets of the capital and other cities in the following two years. They were systematically murdered mainly by militia attached to the "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kebele Kebeles]," the neighborhood watch committees which served during Mengistu's reign as the lowest level local government and security surveillance units. Families had to pay the Kebeles a tax known as "the wasted bullet" to obtain the bodies of their loved ones.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-15">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mengistu_Haile_Mariam#cite_note-15 [15]]</sup> In May 1977 the Swedish general secretary of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Save_the_Children Save the Children Fund] stated that "1,000 children have been killed, and their bodies are left in the streets and are being eaten by wild [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_hyena hyenas] . You can see the heaped-up bodies of murdered children, most of them aged eleven to thirteen, lying in the gutter, as you drive out of Addis Ababa."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-16">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mengistu_Haile_Mariam#cite_note-16 [16]]</sup>

[[File:Red Terror Martyrs Memorial Museum, Addis Ababa (26820858566).jpg|thumb|Red Terror Martyrs Memorial Museum, Addis Ababa ]]

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amnesty_International Amnesty International] estimates that up to 500,000 people were killed during the [[Ethiopian Red Terror]]<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-books.google.com_17-0">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mengistu_Haile_Mariam#cite_note-books.google.com-17 [17]]</sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-US_admits_helping_Mengistu_escape_18-0">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mengistu_Haile_Mariam#cite_note-US_admits_helping_Mengistu_escape-18 [18]]</sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Devil_pg_151_19-0">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mengistu_Haile_Mariam#cite_note-Devil_pg_151-19 [19]]</sup>

In the mid-1970s, under Mengistu's leadership, the Derg regime began an aggressive program of changing Ethiopia's system from a mixed feudo-capitalist emergent economy to an eastern bloc style command economy. Shortly after coming to power, all rural land was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalization 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 was 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|civil war]], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famines_in_Ethiopia drought] and misguided [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Ethiopia economic policies]. There was also a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983%E2%80%931985_famine_in_Ethiopia famine in 1984], which was the 10th anniversary of the Derg.

During the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogaden_War Ogaden War], learning that after the fall of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jijiga Jijiga] to units of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_Somalia Somali army] (2 September 1977) Ethiopian units had started to mutiny, Mengistu flew to the front and took direct control. According to Gebru Tareke, he ordered those suspected of leading the mutiny "bayoneted as cowardly and counterrevolutionary elements", then had the soldiers regrouped and ordered to recapture Jijiga in simultaneous attacks from the west and north. The Ethiopians recaptured the city on 5 September, but Jijiga remained within range of the Somali artillery, which shelled the city the whole night long. The next day the Somalis counterattacked, "considerably strengthened and ever more determined", and before he could be encircled inside the city, Mengistu fled back to Adew on the 7th where he boarded a plane back to Addis Ababa. The Somalis broke through Ethiopian lines, recapturing Jijiga on 12 September, and managing to overrun Ethiopian positions past the Marda Pass.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-20">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mengistu_Haile_Mariam#cite_note-20 [20]]</sup>

He received the anti-communist dictator [[Samuel Doe]] in a friendly manner in 1980, something very ironic due to his communism.