Mengistu Haile Mariam (; ; , pronunciation: ; born 21 May 1937) is an Ethiopian communist revolutionary, military officer, and former statesman who served as the head of state of Ethiopia from 1977 to 1991. He was General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Ethiopia from 1984 to 1991, chairman of the Derg—the Marxist–Leninist military junta that ruled Ethiopia—from 1977 to 1987, and president of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE) from 1987 to 1991.
The Derg seized power in the Ethiopian Revolution following the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974, marking the end of the Solomonic dynasty which had ruled Ethiopia since the 13th century. Mengistu purged his rivals within the Derg and made himself leader of Ethiopia, attempting to modernize the country's feudal economy through Marxist–Leninist–inspired policies such as nationalization and land redistribution. His consolidation of power in 1977–1978 is known as the Ethiopian Red Terror—a brutal crackdown on opposition groups and civilians following a failed assassination attempt by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP) in September 1976, after it had ignored the Derg's invitation to join the union of socialist parties. The death toll is unknown but is estimated at between 30,000 and 750,000 by the Ethiopian Red Terror Documentation and Research Center.
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 All-Ethiopia Socialist Movement (MEISON), which had initially aligned itself with the Derg. While this internal conflict was being fought, Ethiopia was threatened by both the Somali invasion and the guerrilla campaign of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front, who demanded independence for Eritrea, then a province of Ethiopia. The Ogaden War of 1977–1978 with Somalia, fought over a disputed border region (Ogaden), was notable for the prominent role of Mengistu's Soviet and Cuban allies in securing an Ethiopian victory. The catastrophic famine of 1983–1985 is what brought his government the most international attention.
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. 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.Fitzgerald, "Tyrant for the taking", in Rapoport, "Knives Are Out", in
Early life Mengistu Haile Mariam was born on 21 May 1937 in Walayitta, Kaffa, during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia. There are conflicting reports about his origins, which are said to be of a slave family from the south.
After the Italians were defeated and expelled from the country in 1941, his parents moved to Debre Markos. There his father Haile Mariam joined Haile Selassie's fledgling army and received the rank of corporal. Corporal Haile Mariam was transferred to Addis Ababa, to the ammunition's production unit of the imperial army. Mengistu was raised in the household of Dejazmatch Kebede Tesemma (the former governor of Gojjam), where his father became Kebede's house guard and his mother is said to have worked as a domestic servant. Mengistu was raised partially in Ethiopian Empire Army camps around the country and partly within the compound of the aristocratic family.
In Debre Markos, Mengistu attended the Negus Tekle Haimanot School, where he was known to be a 'problem teenager' and not serious with his studies. He was later expelled from high school for misbehavior. Mengistu next joined the army, at a very young age.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.
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 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.Edmund J. Keller, Revolutionary Ethiopia (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988), p. 185. General Aman became his mentor, and when the General was assigned to the commander of the Third Division, he took Mengistu with him to Harar.
There the young man later was assigned as an ordnance officer in the Third Division. He was subsequently sent in 1964 to the United States for the first time, in to the Savanna Army Depot in Illinois for a six-month Ordnance testing course.
Aman was abruptly transferred to Addis Ababa. The imperial regime found him too popular with the soldiers, especially after his commendable military exploits in the engagement against the Somali army at Tog Wuchale during the 1964 Ethiopian–Somali Border War. Prime Minister Aklilu Habte Would removed the general, affectionately known to his men as "the desert lion", from army duties and assigned him as a senator. Aman told a later biographer that he hated this job but could not refuse it without arousing the Emperor's ire.
Aman was replaced by General Haile Baikedagn, who found Mengistu to be involved in intrigues and judged him to be a very dangerous young officer. General Haile had written a secret report to his superiors to put a close watch on Mengistu and not give him a promotion in the military ranks. A few years before Mengistu departed a second time to the US for training, he came into conflict with then Third Division commander General Haile Baykedagn. Mengistu resisted the general's policy of strict discipline and order.
At the time, the ordnance group was offered military technical training support in the US. Despite his disapproval of Mengistu's insubordination and disrespect, the General released the officer for training. Mengistu went for an 18-month training program at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. He also took some night classes at the University of Maryland, and became fluent in English. He returned for a third time in 1970, this time as a student at the Combined Arms Center in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Returning after his training, he was expected to command the ordnance sub-division in Harar, but was prevented by General Haile Baykedagn, who cited his previous insubordination. Years later, Mengistu murdered General Haile Baykedagn, along with 60 ministers and generals.
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 author Paul Henze believes gave him an inferiority complex. Henze also notes that Mengistu claimed to have undergone racial discrimination while receiving military training in the United States. He developed a strong anti-American sentiment. But Henze did not find any evidence of such incidents.
When Mengistu took power, and attended the meeting of Derg members at the Fourth Division headquarters in Addis Ababa, he exclaimed with emotion: In this country, some aristocratic families automatically categorize persons with dark skin, thick lips, and kinky hair as "Barias" (Amharic for slave)... let it be clear to everybody that I shall soon make these ignoramuses stoop and grind corn!"Mengistu Haile Mariam: The Profile of a Dictator" , reprinted from the February 1994 Ethiopian Review (accessed 30 July 2009)
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 "street smarts": "it is rather closer to the mark to see it as inner-city smartness (or what in local parlance would be called aradanat)."Bahru Zewde, A History of Modern Ethiopia, second edition (London: James Currey, 2001), p. 249
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 Wollo province, was overthrown in the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974. As a result, power came into the hands of a committee of low-ranking officers and enlisted soldiers led by Atnafu Abate, which came to be known as the Derg. Mengistu was originally one of the lesser members, officially sent to represent the Third Division because his commander, General Nega Tegnegn, considered him a trouble-maker and wanted to get rid of him. Between July and September 1974 through sheer demagoguery and political intrigues, Mengistu succeeded to outmaneuver all officers who stood in his way and climbed the political ladder. Mengistu and Atnafu Abate were the deputy chairmen of Derg from March 1975 to February 1977.
Haile Selassie died in 1975. It is rumored that Mengistu smothered the Emperor using a pillowcase, but Mengistu has denied these rumors.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). Though several groups were involved in the overthrow, the Derg succeeded to power. There is no doubt that the Derg under Mengistu's leadership ordered the execution without trial of 61 ex-officials of the Imperial government on 23 November 1974, and later of numerous other former nobles and officials including the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Abuna Theophilos, in 1977. Mengistu himself has acknowledged that the Derg ordered these deaths but refuses to accept personal responsibility. Members of the Derg have contradicted him in interviews given from prison, saying he conspired and was in full agreement with their decisions.
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.Indian Ocean Newsletter publication, 1985 "Ethiopia: Political Power & the Military" 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.Henze, Layers of Time, p. 302.
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". The Derg subsequently turned against the socialist student movement MEISON, a major supporter against the EPRP, in what would be called the "White Terror".