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The Reminiscence of Colonel Mengistu Hailemariam

Posted on by EthiopianReview.com

BOOK REVIEW By Fikre Tolossa

Ye Colenel Mengistu Tizita, Volume II
(The Reminiscence of Colonel Mengistu Hailemariam)
Published by Kibru Publishers
Addis Ababa, 2002 (Eth. Cal)
Pages: 183
Author, Genet Ayele

The second volume of the reminiscence of Colonel Mengistu Haile-mariam, the ex-president and Prime Minster of Ethiopia, authored by Weyzero Genet Ayele saw the light of the day recently. I had a chance to read review and analyze it. The book is divided into two parts. Part I, deals with the Colonel’s memoir and his views on personalities and events. The second part covers the reactions and comments of former soldiers and ex-members of the Colonel’s Government on the Colonel, his government, the Ethiopian Revolution, the Somali invasion of Ethiopia, the civil war in Eritrea and the failed coup against the Colonel.

In the first volume of his reminiscence, the Colonel was accusatory, emotional and angry at everyone including his former comrades, his adversaries and the EPRDF Government. In the present volume, he seems to be mellow, composed, reflective, nostalgic and even considerate to some extent. He now calls his incarcerated ex-comrades his brothers and friends, unlike in the past, even though he shows no sign of remorse still. Genet has captured even the humane side of his split personality.

I intend to review this book and use the occasion to analyze it and pose a few crucial questions to Colonel Mengistu Hailemariam, the former President of Ethiopia. Even though it is almost 20 years since the Colonel was exiled, the impact of his legacy is still fresh in the minds of many Ethiopians. As such, it won’t be inappropriate to address the Colonel, whether he responds or not. I will also offer him an advice with regards to the book he is currently writing whether he heeds to my advice or not.

In part one, the Colonel touches many subjects speaking briefly about Major Dawit Wolde-giorgis, Emperor Haile-selassie, Ex-prime Minster Endalkachew Mekonen, the late Oromo leader Baro Tumssa, the Felasha, Robert Mugabe, Garbachov and Paul Henze, He also airs his views on power and African leaders, Derg and democracy, his opponents, the EPRDF court that gave him death sentence, remorse and forgiveness, betrayal, his security officers, his counselors, those injured in war, Somalia, and last, the book he is currently writing.

Colonel Mengistu doesn’t dwell at length on most of the topics he touches. I can cite Emperor Haile Selassie as an example. Whereas he could have given an account of how he met the Emperor first, how he impacted him, why he was opposed to him, what he thought of him as a person and leader stating his achievements and failures, he makes statements irrelevant to these. Perhaps, the questions posed to him by the author didn’t lead to these points. I have no clue how the author posed her questions to him, but his answers are too brief and too unrevealing even when it comes to topics that warrant detailed responses such as his childhood.

Speaking about his childhood, he remembers how his mother made him a ball of rags, and how later on his uncle bought him a real ball, and how other kids of his neighborhood flocked after him begging him to kick his ball. However, he does not say where in Ethiopia this event took place. I wish the author took this opportunity to ask him further the whereabouts of this and the details of his childhood as we don’t have much information about his childhood and boyhood except a few rumors regarding his early life.

The Colonel doesn’t say much about the character of his former comrades either. It would have been great if Genet had selected a few of the personalities that were closely associated with him such as Colonel Atnafu Abate, Captain Fikre-selassie Wog-deres, Generals Tesfaye Gebre-kidan, Teferi Benti, Aman Andom, Colonel Birhanu Bayeh, Col. Teka Tulu, Col. Debela Dinssa, and even Captain Legesse Asfaw; and spurred him to give a detailed account of their character.

The Colonel misses Ethiopia in general, and is very nostalgic for Harer in particular. He has a particular affection and yearning for Harer since it was there he had spent his life before he joined the Derg in Addis Abeba. His situation reminded me of the proverb, “bidir be midir”, the equivalent of which in English would be “what goes around, comes around” or “what you sow, you’ll reap”. Weren’t the Colonel and his regime responsible directly or indirectly for the fact that tens of thousands of Ethiopians were uprooted from their motherland and were made to flee for their lives to lead a life of anxiety and homesickness in distant lands? Would the Colonel now put his feet in the shoes of such unfortunate Ethiopians and feel their pain and anguish? Whether he would or not the fact that he is as homesick as other refugees is a poetic justice.

I have heard various opinions pertaining to the peaceful life he leads in Zimbabwe as a refugee though he chooses to call himself “the guest of the people of Zimbabwe“. Some exclaim, “I can’t believe he finds himself well and alive after he caused the deaths of so many people? I just don’t comprehend the reality that he is not languishing in jail like his comrades after what he had said and done!… Where is poetic justice? “ Others respond to this, “He suffers deep down inside, even though he looks okay outwardly. He is scared of his own shadow. His condition is worst than being incarcerated!”

“It is the prayers of his wife that has kept him safe and alive. His good wife is pious. She prays for the “forgiveness of his sins fervently and ceaselessly. His wife remained faithful to God when he “renounced God and claimed to be a Marxist. Maybe he now has repented and believes In God;” would remark a few. There are also those who refute this, “But how could he repent and beg God’s forgiveness when he hasn’t yet expressed his apology to the people of Ethiopia?…”

Indeed, those were words I heard for the last 20 years. Speaking of his wife, Weyzero Wubanchi Bishaw, she is a true and devoted wife who shared his fate all the way through without flinching. Without her, he would probably have collapsed, unable to bear all the pressure exerted on him. According to what I read and heard about her, she was gentle and God-fearing. When her husband was in power, she never abused her power nor amassed wealth like some women of her position would have done. She left the palace and her country to share the misfortune of her husband without partaking of his glory, always maintaining a low profile. In not dedicating a chapter or two to her, the author of this book, Genet Ayele has missed a wealth of information the former first lady would have shared with her on herself, her husband, her children, and most of all, on the Ethiopian Revolution. Weyzero Genet should not only interview her in the future, but also her children and the uncle, as well as the brother of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam. Genet, let me give you this assignment for the future. Your task is not completed yet as you think it is.

The present book authored by Genet Ayele reveals that Colonel Mengistu is writing a book about his life, the Revolution and Ethiopian history. It is long overdue that you wrote such a book, dear Colonel. So far, we haven’t read your own testimony composed with your own hand.

As stated earlier, the second part handles interviews the author conducted with former soldiers who served under the Colonel’s regime. I find this part to be engaging and mind-stimulating. The insight of some of them on the Revolution, The Ethio-Somali war, the aborted coup in Asmara and the Ethio-Eritrean civil war is profound and original. These interviews add some more facts to our knowledge of these subjects. In enjoyed them a lot.

The finale of the book ends abruptly. It has no designated conclusion. I wish the author summed up the book by summarizing it in a conclusion stating her personal comments and views on the interviews. Moreover, the colonels views on a variety of topics and burning issues are too short, and do not reveal as much as we expect them to. I wish the author stirred the Colonel to elaborate them.

Overall, Genet Ayele should be applauded for presenting us with this book and the previous one which dealt with the life of Colonel Mengistu Hailemariam. I gather that she spent her own hard-earned money to write and publish it. It is obvious that it has cost her a fortune. If she didn’t dedicate her money, time, energy and talent, we would never had the information enshrined in these two books. We know for fact that it is extremely expensive, time-consuming and exhausting to fly back and forth to Zembawe so many times, deal with the security situation there, spend tons of money and get something out of the Colonel’s mouth single-handedly. Her readers owe Genet a few nice words for her extraordinary achievement. I was saddened to read on Ethiomedia Eskinder Nega’s “book review” in which he tried to link Genet with the Derg because her late father and her ex-husband were soldiers, and associate her with the current Government because, among the persons she thanks in her page of indebtedness happens to be Prof. Endrias Eshete, President of Addis Abeba University.

Genet’s father, Sergeant Ayele Anbesse was a brave soldier who died defending the territorial integrity of Ethiopia. She also lost two brothers in battlefields. Regarding Prof. Endrias Eshete, she didn’t dedicate any special page exclusively to him. His name simply appeared in a sentence among a number of other names. I couldn’t fathom why Ato Eskinder singled him out. I can’t still understand Ato Eskinder’s logic. Is every person that happens to know Prof.Endrias an associate of the Government? Furthermore, what is wrong if the Professor indeed advised and encouraged her to write a book of this much historical significance on the man who ruled Ethiopia for 17 years, and she thanked him for it, regardless of his political stance and his position in the Government? Wouldn’t it make Genet ungrateful and opportunistic if she thanked all those people who encouraged her to write her book and leave out the Professor after she made a good use of his valuable advice? I feel that Ato Iskinder Nega has made a sweeping generalization in stating that the fact that Genet expressed her gratitude to the Professor is an indication of “her proximity to the Government”. It is regrettable that he discredits her name instead of saying a few nice words for her effort. I wish he focused on the substance of the book than becoming personal for a reason unclear to the reader.

Back to Colonel Mengistu, when I think of Colonel Mengistu Haile-mariam, I wonder how he rose to prominence among his fellow soldiers. What was the secret of his rise to power not only among his rank and file, but also among all those intellectuals by whom he was surrounded. Some people attribute this to his callousness and sobriety of mind in the face of calamity, as well as his ruthlessness and speed to take action while others take time to reflect and deliberate instead of acting decisively when situations called for immediate action. Granted this was so, I think the main reasons were his leadership ability and audacity. He didn’t elect himself to be the Chairman of the Derg, did he? Was it not because the Derg members detected in him some leadership qualities that they chose him to lead them in the beginning? And how would he outmaneuver and outsmart the intellectuals that were keen on using him to seize power themselves, as well as his foes and friends alike unless he had some intellect, persuasive power and was crafty? True, he eliminated his opponents violently to emerge as a total winner. Non-the-less, without some leadership qualities and the initial backing of the Derg, he wouldn’t have seized power absolutely.

If the colonel would take my advice worth one cent regarding the book he intends to write, I have something to say. I read in this book the outline of your forthcoming book. It is ambitious. Besides your life, you are writing on Ethiopia history. Unless you dedicate only a chapter to Ethiopian history, the reader will lose track of your own history. So, avoid devoting too many pages to Ethiopian history. People can access Ethiopian history on their own if they desire to. However, they can’t access your life history unless you tell it yourself. Even though your interpretation and perspective of Ethiopian history would be interesting of and in themselves, your own life history should be the focus and the issue. For this reason, I encourage you to detail it truthfully. Please give us the truth, and the whole truth. Avoid justifications of allegations and counter allegations, and focus on the facts. Personally, I would like to know more about your childhood, boyhood, your life as a soldier, your parents, family members, the personalities that you met, encountered and impacted on and influenced you, incidents and events that affected and shaped your views and character. If you don’t do that, people will continue speculating about your background. If you pass away without telling your life history truthfully, it will remain shrouded in mystery for eternity. It is only you who can record your life history best as long as you are alive.

A friend who read your late father’s interview that he granted years ago to a local paper told me what he remembers about the interview. According to your father, shortly before the Ethio-Italian war broke out in 1936 (European Calendar), your mother was engaged to your father. After the war broke out, your father and mother lost track of one another. Your mother married another man and lived at Chefe-denssa (?) around Shenkora. When your father found out this he went to the Italian authorities, showed the agreement of engagement and expressed his desire to marry his fiancée. The Italians asked your mother to choose between your father and the man she had married. Your mother chose your father and married him. Then you were born. Your father moved to Addis Abeba and you started to live with Dejazmatch Kebede Tessema on your own, even though you were not related to him biologically. He helped you to join the army and also to win a short scholarship for a military training in the USA.

Colonel, is this all true? How much of this is true? It is important that you include such details in your autobiography. How was growing up in Ethiopia? For instance, it is rumored that some people had teased you when you were young on the basis of the dark tone of your skin. If this is true, how did this affect you and impact your social and political behaviors and actions later on? Did you do something to change the mentality of such color-conscious, abusive individuals in a black African country? A while back when you were in power, I was shocked to hear some individuals who didn’t like your politics cursing you, referring to the color of your skin, ridiculous and outrageous as this was. I have also eavesdropped when others were saying, “since the light-colored leaders were oppressing the people of Ethiopia, God raised a dark-skinned man to straighten them up …” Colonel, it would be good to address in your book such mental backwardness to teach such individuals a lesson, if you think it is important to do so.

On another note, since you were the head-of-state of Ethiopia for 17 years, you are held accountable for both the good and bad actions you and your government took during your tenure as a leader. Too much blood was shed during your reign. You are responsible for this to a significant extent, even though you can’t be held responsible for all the bloodsheds, because everybody was killing anybody in those days of madness. Please allow me to pose to you a few questions for the record, pertaining to bloodletting and other issues. I understand that you were one of the major actors of a historical time marked by a revolution. Yes indeed, I am cognizant of the fact that making a revolution is not attending a wedding party. My contention is that, you could have minimized the death-toll, had you cared much to preserve human life. One way of doing this would have been to keep in prison the people you had captured and incapacitated, instead of executing them in an act of retribution. Let me start with the death of Emperor Haile Selassie. I don’t think it was necessary to kill him since he was old and dying by himself anyway.

In your interview with Weyzero Genet in this latest book you have said that you were not around when the Emperor died, and you were as surprised as everyone about the news. According to you, you were upset and suspicious of his death since Professor Asrat had announced a few days prior to that, that the Emperor’s health was in mint condition. I find this assertion of yours hard to buy. It was said then by witnesses (probably by the servants of the Emperor) that the ruthless Colonel Daniel Asfaw, the Derg’s Chief of Security and a certain doctor injected the Emperor with a poison or chocked him to death. If this is true, it is unlikely that Colonel Daniel would dare do this without your prior-knowledge and approval as he wouldn’t take an action of this magnitude on his own. What do you say about this? Even if you deny this, who buried the Emperor under the floor of an office in the palace? People say that you used that room as your office and you sat above the remains of the Emperor. Is this a slander or true? Weren’t the bones of the Emperor dug out of that office and exhibited a number of years ago and reburied at the Trinity Cathedral by the relatives of the Emperor in a full view on TV while the Ethiopian people were watching? Or do you dismiss this as a fabrication of the current government? Please share the truth, Colonel.

You say often that you didn’t kill any one unjustly, and you even uttered to a foreign journalist, if you remember, that you hadn’t even killed a fly unkindly. Therefore, you had no and you still don’t have any regrets about the death of some of the people you encountered, and you owe no one an apology. Leaving aside the tens of thousands of people who perished in the cities and war-fronts under your leadership, let me ask you a question about the killings of your own comrades. As you know, Colonel Atnafu Abate had been a founding member of the Derg long before you joined it coming from Harer. You knew he was brave and genuine. He trusted you and passed through thick and thin with you. Why did you kill him? The main reason your media gave then was that he proposed the application of “mixed economy” like Sweden, for instance. You yourself accepted this economic policy pressured by the demand of the times and attempted to apply it towards the end of your regime. Why did then you kill that innocent man throwing his poor mother into a sate of immense sorrow? His mother was as unfortunate as your mother. She loved her son even as your own mother loved you. Don’t try to give me another reason. No any other reason or excuse you come up with will justify Colonel Atnafu’s death. Since you were possessed with the urge to kill, the conscious people of Ethiopia knew that he was your next target. Even I, who was in Europe then used to predict that your next victim would be Colonel Atnafu. Many people didn’t trust you then. It was Col. Atnafu alone who thought that you won’t exercise on him what you had exercised on others. So, people used to call him, “the sheep that would be slaughtered next.” It seems that you got rid of him to get rid of the last obstacle on your way to power. Don’t you feel you owe an apology to his mother and the people of Ethiopia for shedding innocent blood? I won’t list here the numerous well-meaning Ethiopians that were executed extra-judicially directly or indirectly by you for such unfounded reasons.

Next, why did you kill or you had Colonel Daniel Asfaw, The Derg’s Chief of Security, kill (if you prefer to blame it on Colonel Daniel) General Teferi Benti, who had been like a father to you? He was never caught red-handed while attempting to murder you. Nor did he try to have you arrested. Why did you condemn him to death? After you and Daniel killed him and the rest, you said, “le kurs yasebunin, le missa adergnachew.”Okay, let’s say that they had plotted to make a coup against you. Why didn’t you confine them in prison instead of executing them in the palace basement? Weren’t you able to resolve any acute problem except by killing your opponents?

Furthermore, granted all those generals of yours that you executed at the war fronts and cities for imagined and real reasons and for attempting the coups on you, such as General Tariku, General Fenta Belay and the others were treacherous and criminals as you say, why did you have to kill them when you could have kept them in prison indefinitely.? You knew that Ethiopia had paid a lot to train them. You knew that there was no one to comfort their wives and raise their children after you had annihilated them. Why did you then kill them? You and I know the answer- You were vindictive. The word “mercy” was not in your vocabulary. But you forgot one thing blinded by your retribution: The domino effect of your execution. Regardless of the reasons why you humiliated and executed General Tariku, General Fenta Belai and the rest, it delighted the EPLF leadership and enabled them to march into Ethiopia unhindered by your dwindling army a good number of which had surrendered to EPLF and TPLF, demoralized and confused by your vindictive actions. In other words, your own action backfired on you and caused your downfall. This proved that you were not as farsighted as you gave the impression to be. Worst of all, you fled Ethiopia leaving her to the adversaries you had been fighting against, besides abandoning your comrades who trusted you and were willing to die for you.

Concerning the execution of the 60 individuals who had served under Emperor Haile Selassie’s Regime just like you did, you have denied time and again that you were not the one who condemned them to die. While this may have some germs of truth, it is impossible to absolve you completely, because the facts indicate that you were the principal architect that instigated openly and behind the scene their execution, particularly after the death of General Aman Andom. This you did to diminish the shock of the General’s death as he had been popular among the armed forces, and also to confuse the populace and compel it to focus on the 60 persons including the few soldiers that faced your firing-squad because of their opposition to your leadership, rather than focusing on the General. Those officials should have been tried at a court of justice and proven guilty before they were executed mercilessly. A good number of them had served their county well, and some of them, like Prime Ministers Mekonen Habtewold and Endalkachew Mekonen could have served their country further if they were not condemned to die. All were harmless and helpless in prison. Their properties were confiscated. Why did you and your Derg members have to kill them as long as it was not proven in court that they had taken the lives of others. Don’t you think that you and your comrades owe an apology to the families of the 60 people? Why should their blood be the blood of dogs?

You have declared in this book and elsewhere that the interest of Ethiopia precedes that of individuals. Hence, it was okay for you to execute those that, in your opinion, violated the sovereignty of Ethiopia. Did this hold true for you too? Or did you have a double-standard? Were you the only one that safeguarded the interest of Ethiopia among the members of your government? Why didn’t you relinquish power when your comrades told you time and again that your leadership would damage the sovereignty of Ethiopia? You said in his book, “who am I going to relinquish power to? To Weyane?” Why Weyane? If you really had the interest of Ethiopia at heart, why didn’t you relinquish power to your rank and file comrades who were capable of leading Ethiopia when your leadership was under question mark? If you didn’t trust individuals, you could have given back power to a committee that would check and balance itself, so that no individual would abuse power and emerge as a dictator. The Ethiopian soldiers who attempted the coup negotiated a cease-fire and peace-accord with the leaders of Shabia and Weyane having the best interest of Ethiopia at heart just like you claimed you had. Let us think of a scenario in which the coup had succeeded. Since the Ethiopian army was intact then, Shabia would not have seceded. If it broke the deal, it would continue fighting eternally. As it was tired of fighting, it would have abided by the arrangement that would have been made with the coup makers. Moreover, Weyane would not have ceased power by itself. It would have been compelled to share power with the members of the new Ethiopian government. As such, the partition of Eritrea from Ethiopia and all the ethnic upheaval that followed would have been averted. You see what I mean? If you really loved Ethiopia more than yourself and your power, you would have relinquished your power for the welfare of Ethiopia when your leadership was beginning to cause the downfall of Ethiopia.

You know General Fenta Belai and the rest of the coup attempters were Ethiopian heroes. Why didn’t you spare their lives when they were at your mercy if you cared for Ethiopia as much as you claimed you did? I read that even General Tesfaye Gebre-kidan was begging you to spare their lives. In killing them, you didn’t show any clemency and magnanimity. Even Emperor Haile Selassie was merciful and magnanimous at times. He didn’t kill all those who opposed him, and even attempted to kill him. He has spared the lives of many including Bitwoded Negash and Dejazmatch Takele who were attempting to kill him all the time. You were unmerciful, and I should add, cruel. Yes, you vindicated yourself and appeased your ego. But what did the Ethiopia you “love” benefit from their death? The answer is that Ethiopia lost immensely because of their death. Of course, the immediate loss was to their family. They could at least have raised their children and done whatever they chose to do with their lives including writing books on the Ethiopian revolution exactly as you do. Because you didn’t die you were able to raise your children to be medical doctors and you are writing a book besides sharing your story with us. Had you died early on in Ethiopia, you wouldn’t have achieved all this, would you?

By your own admission in this book, there were nine attempts on your life in Ethiopia. As to why you didn’t die or even languish in prison like your comrades, is a big mystery. God works in mysterious ways and only the God you don’t believe in (unless you believe now) knows why he didn’t let you suffer as thousands of Ethiopians did; and most of all, why He spared your life. I know only one thing- your family has benefited much from it. And if you write a book truthfully, history too, can gain from it. Frankly, I do not expect you to be truthful and admissive of mistakes. So far, none of the principal actors or leaders of the Ethiopian Revolution, be it from your camp or the camps of your opponents, have told the whole truth and admitted where they went wrong. Sadly, it seems that it is not in our tradition to tell the truth, admit mistakes or wrongs and apologize for them. Hence, it would be unfair to expect you to be exceptional.

You say that you didn’t mean to flee and that you had not planned to head for Zimbawe. I don’t believe you. You had appointed your uncle as ambassador to Zimbawe ahead of time so that he could pave the way for you flight. Was it purely a coincidence that your uncle was your ambassador in Zimbabwe at the time of your flight? I could also furnish you with other evidences that your flight was pre-arranged. But this alone suffices.

You used to break bottles filled with red ink symbolizing blood at Abyot Adebabay (the former Meskel Square), screaming that you would fight until you were left with the last bullet. Dear Colonel, you fled without shooting even a bullet. If you say that you didn’t want to cause the destruction of Addis Abeba by meeting the enemy there, why didn’t you meet it outside Addis Abeba and fight it until the last bullet? Your conscience knows the answer to this question; and you have to live with it for the rest of your life.

Now pertaining to the exportation of the Felasha to Israel. you stated that you simply signed a done deal, that you were not aware the Felasha were present in Addis until the eleventh hour. How could this be true? Would then a tiny bird fly from one tree to another without your pre-knowledge, let alone the exodus of a whole nation all the way from Gonder to Addis? The fact was that you permitted Ato Kassa Kebede, he in whose father’s house you had spent a good part of your boyhood, to negotiate with the Israelis on account of his good connection with them. Didn’t you allow US $30 million Dollars to be deposited at a government account in New York as a compensation for exporting those Ethiopian subjects of yours to Israel? If you did, wasn’t that equitable to blood money, Colonel? Wasn’t that a sale-out of your people? Please correct me if that was not the case. Even the EPRDF leaders refused to put their fingers on that account in the beginning labeling it as “blood money”. I have no clue where that money is now. Whoever has taken it has blood in his hands.

In this same book, you state that the Felashas were Ethiopians through and through. You don’t believe that they had emigrated from Israel to Ethiopia as it is claimed. They practiced Judaism like most Ethiopians before the advent of Christianity. You are right in saying that most Ethiopians practiced Judaism before the advent of Christianity. I like your insight here. Nevertheless, you are not right in asserting that they didn’t immigrate to Ethiopia from Israel or elsewhere. They did. The Jewish people had immigrated to Ethiopia three times en mass- the first was when Moses was still alive 3500 years ago. They immigrated to Ethiopia from Media (Medyam) escorting Ethiop, the grandson of Jethro, the Ethiopian high priest of Median, Moses’ father-in-law. The mother of Ethiop was RuthAmin. She was a Jewish of the tribe of Judah. The second immigration occured when the Jewish were escorting, ironically, another half-cast by the name of Menilik I, son of King Solomon and Queen Sheba, 3000 years ago. The last immigration took place during the Babylonian captivity about 2400 years ago. True, physically the Felashas now look like the rest of Ethiopians. This was due to their intermarriage with other Ethiopians. Technically, they are every inch Ethiopians. That’s why they don’t accept them in Israel as full-fledged Jews. Since you are writing the history of Ethiopia in your autobiography, please check these facts.

How about your legacy and positive qualities? To be fair, I have to admit that you had some positive qualities too. You didn’t compromise an iota on the territorial integrity, and even sovereignty of Ethiopia at trying times. You aspired to see the advancement of Ethiopia in your own way. You built and improved some of the infrastructure of your county. You were instrumental in providing land to he tiller and in the effort to eliminate illiteracy. In fact, you played a vital role in breaking the backbone of the oppressive feudal system. You were sober and decisive at critical moments such as the invasion of Ethiopia by Somalia. You didn’t favor one ethnic group over another. You didn’t let one ethnic group dominate another. You were proud of being Ethiopian and you cherished the great Ethiopian history. Your judgment was fair in some situations that called for fair judgment. You had a fine ability to chair meetings. You were articulate, yet absolutely attentive while others spoke, a quality which enabled you to summarize the ideas of others and make them your own if you liked the ideas and were new to you. You were a fast learner and very alert. Given your educational background, you learned a great deal from reality, educated yourself during the Revolution and tried to tackle complex subjects. Most of all, you lived humbly, and neither you nor your good wife plundered the resources and wealth of Ethiopia. Nor did you allow your family members and friends to do so. These qualities of yours should be appreciated and be recorded in Ethiopian history. If your Government was not pre-occupied with a civil-war, it would perhaps have fared well in nation building. Dear Colonel, let me rest your case with these final words.

A note to the reader- I was informed that Colonel Mengistu’s latest book, which I just reviewed above, will be available in the US and Canada soon. You can order it from the publisher or buy it at stores when the publisher announces its release.

(Fikre Tolossa, Ph. D., is a poet-playwright, critic, essayist and educator. His latest book entitled,The Hidden and Untold History of the Jewish People and Ethiopians, as well as his original songs that he himself has composed and plays on the Kirar, will be released soon to the public at large. His film in English, “Multi-colored Flowers” was featured with great resonance in the USA, Canada, Europe and Ethiopia. He has written extensively on Ethiopian history and culture for the past 20 years finding common factors that united the peoples of Ethiopia at a time of historical confusion and denial. Dr. Fikre Tolossa has authored over forty published and unpublished articles and books. He can be reached at: [email protected])

37 thoughts on “The Reminiscence of Colonel Mengistu Hailemariam”

  1. One more obvious question the good doctor missed, why Mengistu in cold blood murdered thousands of children? My friends and I at the time thought and acted as if we were a grown up, but by Americans standard we were just children, forget a bullet in the head , we should not even sent to jail with adults!!!

  2. I don’t like dictator Mengistu for what he has done to the Ethiopian mass but that his critics are totally blind chauvinists devoid of any appreciation for his bold removal of the unjust feudal aristocratic hedonistic minority parasites enriching itself at the total cost of the starving and dying in masses while the aging emperor passively sits isolated from reality in his palace and feeding prime quality BEEF to his dogs. Come on guys and gals.Open your eyes!

  3. well done Dr it is very fanastic critic becouse you mention evry thing in these well compact critic. for instance you mention about what he did bad and good thig when he was in power. and also if want to write he needs to write truthfully about his auto graphy not about ethiopia history. we have more referance about ethiopina history. the burnning issue is who is mangestu in childhood or boyhood that part of his history hidden from ethiopian people you lead him to write the demand of ethiopian people you did good job. thank you!

  4. Dear Dr. Fikre, I was eager to read your article as I usually do when it entails your name. It is well discussed. I have some points to add though.
    Why he was nominated in the first place as a chairman! To me, because the people around him did not have much confidence as they could have evaluated themselves with respect to the leadership requirement at that time; but he did not care much if every thing goes upside down by his unfitness. Dej. Kebede came to the picture to help him in underground, a man of plenty of experience and a grand father to him. As yours is a rumor let me add a rumor of my version. Don’t you notice that Mengistu resembles Kassa Kebede? Yes he does. Dring the pre-italian war Mengistu’s father, Hailemariam was hired as a servant for Dej. Kebede’s premises. During the invasion, when Dej. Kebede left for the war which took place in Maichew, hailemariam was left with the family home. However when Dej. Kebede came back home he discovered that one of the teenagers who was actually his own illegal daughter born to one of the slave servants had gotten pregnant. He did not entertain it. So he sent him away, but helped him to join the army. Eventually Mengistu was born, the most notorious child because of him his mother suffered a lot. Then she was forced to leave her father’s house and got married to Hailemarim in Jima where he was dwelling after he joined the military.

  5. Thank you Mr Tolosa. It is indeed a great review.Well I didn’t know Col Mengstu, I was just a little kid when the war was ended. But I always thought Mengistu loves his country but didn’t have enough knowledge and experiance to lead the country with multiple problem. I beieve all that killing was the result of fear and lack of knowledge than arrogance. I think he thought he was the only person who can take care of the country. and he assumed ethiopia was a very fragaile base which was true at the time. Honestly speeking I was complitly lost when I read Eskinder’s reveiw. Some how he tok it to personal level.
    thank you again and again, for this great review.

  7. For the purpose of this Statute, Crime Against Humanity means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack[17]:

    (a) Murder;
    (b) Extermination;
    (c) Enslavement;
    (d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population;
    (e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;
    (f) Torture;
    (g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;
    (h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;
    (i) Enforced disappearance of persons;
    (j) The crime of apartheid;
    (k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.

    http://www.charlestaylortrial.org/

    http://xrl.us/bhvyjx

  8. Tolosa, this is not book review at all.
    It’s a personal diatrab disguised as a review. you can talk about the author or her style, etc., but You have no right to ridicule, question, suggest . . . as a reviewer, to the main character of a book. Your personal ego or politics has totally taken over.
    Every one has an opinion about President Mengistu, but I was not looking for yours when I started to read your “Book Review”. Ye Ager Merin badebabay Mezertet ras mewared naw.
    Get a grip on yourself and

  9. Dr. Tolossa,

    It sounds like you had your own agenda. You should put your emotion away and be pragmatic about what you are asking. Why do you need to know about his life story? Would you like to know when and how he was concieved also?

    Mengistu was ruthless and is responsible for the dire situation in Ethiopia. The majority of the issues you broached are irrelevant in terms of history.

  11. It amazingly brought back a lot of sad and fearful memories and thank you Dr Fikre , I wish you get a chance to write a book on him and ask him yourself . I have a question about the Felashas, why doesn’t Doctor Kasa Kebede tell us his side of the story 1.On the where about of the blood money and let us know on his own words how the Exodus was conducted? 2. If Colonel Mengistu is really his nephew ? otherwise how did he live the way he did and his father the Dejazmach Kebede when every one around them were executed and exiled?

  12. Dr Fikre,I found your article captivating and educational as usual for a person like me who was grade four, when TPLF took power.

    Abebech, your comment sounds like you have personal issue with Dr Fikre. In fact he is the most objective Ethiopian born writer when it comes to Ethiopian politics. in your comment you demonstrated that you are a great fan of Colonel Mengistu, who is accused of killing about 80,000 people across the country during red terror alone. don’t you think it is pragmatic to criticize him for the sufferings he inflicted on the mothers and fathers of his victims?indeed Dr Fikre applauded the colonel for his unflinching stand when it comes to Ethiopian unity even during his trying times, for his role in abolishing illiteracy and most importantly for his discipline and cleanliness regarding money unlike his successor who is robbing the country mercilessly.

  13. ASHEBIR DAWIT:

    It will be nave to think that The downfall of Impero Hailesilase was solely the work of M Hailemariam.It is not In 1973 the impetus that led to the downfall of the royal was the Wello hanger.It was obviouys the aging imperor was out of touch with the day to day affir of the country;It appears there was power struggle witheen the ruling elit-between Endalkachew led faction and Dj.Emeru’s factiion.Either way as the head line news,the nation was suddenly cought like a contagen.Teachers ,students and workers begin to to take the streets in opposition against the royal rule.Eventually this led to a form of spontaneous movement; by then the Pm.Akliluweems to be runing day to day affair of the nation.He begin to promise reforms to the demands of the professionals and students.Mean time the army was deployed in many areas to inforce peace. Soon, it was obvious that the army reached a point where it can’t remain neutral.
    If any thing Mengistu was the one who stole the show-if the popular grivainces had not lingerd the army may have not revolted,in the first place.The Ethiopian people insisted for a change,and deserve due credit,not Mengistu.

    One thing is sure Mengistu cares only for his own power.One by one G.Aman,G.Benti.C.Atnafu,Ca,Sisay,etc and EPRP members Mengistu Cold blooded murderd them all.He has no credblity to lecture Ethiopians abut his fascistic rule.Mengistu is cowerd!Emperor H.S fought along his country men against the Italians,and only after the the enmy advance he chose to live the nation.Mengistu is the first to leave Ethiopia-He is BUKE!
    He should be glad he is alive;a chance he denied Tens of thousends of Ethiopians.Men when the get older they talk much;he must have dimentia.Until then I leave him for his maker.

  14. Really I loved the analysis of Dr. Fikre, He saw in all horizon and mentioned the positive and negative sides of his criticism in general and summarized way by stating crucial points. Good reviewer would never give up for some feebly commented on him by some readers. Also it is wisdom to entertain wisely commented as well as feebly commented. Please keep on doing this type of observation.

  15. Dr. Tollosa, I don’t believe that you know anything about book reviews, let alone attempt to write one. If you wish, you can write a book about the-sorry-excuse-of-a-human-being called Megistu and include your opinions and emotions if anyone cares. Much of your writing is about the trivial matters of this fascist thug that would not matter in any way to explain his terror filled reign. You accuse Mr. Eskinder Nega (a dim wit journalist no amount of space could fill his ego) of unfairly criticizing the author of the book, but all you are doing is repeat his mistake in a bizarre way.

    You lost me totally when you start blubbering and feeling sorry for Atnafu Abate and how unfairly he was treated by the thug. In case you were not up to date on the info regarding Atnafu while you were sipping your late in a Paris café carelessly chit-chatting on what was happening back home, Atnafu was equally responsible in turning the country upside down and filling the streets with innocent Ethiopian blood. It is only a little more than three decades since the emergences of the derge, but you are quick with your pen to lie to us about what, some of us, have witnessed personally. The wounds inflicted on millions of Ethiopians have not yet dried, but you have the gall to lecture us about the innocence of the very person who was a part of one of the saddest chapters in our history. My personal recollection is no one shed a tear for the demise of Atnafu except some egotistical pseudo-intellectuals who did not have a clue on what was going in the nation. Mr. Tollosa, which part of the phrase you fail to understand to this day when everyone was living in fear of red-terror? The phrase “out of sight, out of mind” might ring true in your case, but most of us lived under that terror and one of the architects is the same fellow that you are shedding your tears for.

    In case you have forgotten because of old age, the popular demand of the people at the time was to do away with feudalism and the establishment of democratic form of government. And therefore, no was giving a damn a bout the regime that failed and all the people who were connected to it. Yes, you are right, summary execution of anyone is inhumane and unjust. Even though the feudal regime was unjust and unfair to its subjects, there was no any reason to follow in its footsteps and kill all those who served the king. But what was inhumane and brutal on the part of the derge was the elimination and suffering of untold number of innocent Ethiopian under its rule; and the travesty is you just mentioned that in passing preferring to critic the thug more on his unjustness towards the feudal lords. And unfortunately, that just shows how your priorities are screwed-up or you have a lot in common with the feudal lords.

    Mr. Tolossa, Hitler and Mussolini also developed their respective countries but that does not mitigate the fact that they are murderous thugs. Mengistu’s achievement in terms of economic development is next to nil because he was busy killing everyone left and right. Since there is very little to speak about Mengistu’s positive contribution, your opinion rather than the book review, should have focused on his brutal dictatorship rather than the unsubstantiated accolades you liberally bestowed on him. In fact, the more I think about the piece of crap you posted, the more I think it is a waste of time to tell you to mend your ways because you can not really teach an old dog a new trick or the right way. Good luck with your over-sized ego!

    asheber abegaz

  16. Dear Dr Tolossa,
    You told us you are reviewing the book, and then you forget where you started. Maybe this article should have two parts(I called it an article because it lost the meaning of a book review).
    The first part should be how the book was written, if it has any style or factual errors, and if the author has a neutral professional approach to the issue. After all this is a very important issue and future generations should learn from it.
    The second part should be your opinion. Although everyone is entitled to his/her opinion, and you have raised some interesting and valid points, in our culture of name calling and the personal attacks that could follow the revelations of someone’s background, your question might never be answered. Although we would like to be, we are not there yet. Please keep the rest of Ethiopia with you when you are trying to ask a question. You have lived in the western society, and you may want to have a psychological analysis, as the westerners do, do you think others would follow you in that journey? We all know the names he was given during his reign. Why even go there?
    You seems to know a bit of our history and there is always a question in my mind that i do not have an answer to, During Mengistu’s time there were many Ethiopians who live abroad, most of them were childrens of feudals or the Haile Sellasie regime bureaucrats, or maybe sons and daughters of rich businessmen, obviously the change Mengistu and the derg led was not comfortable for them. The status quo of the land ownership question was cruel and unsustainable. How much of this grievance was exploited by EPLF and TPLF to fight derg? How geniune was the student movement of the time that led people like Meles to power after maybe two deacdes of struggle? What is the feeling now in the members of that generation after derg was dismantled following the fall of communism and the break up of Russia? The CIAs interest to destroy derg and to abandon Ethiopia afterwards has led us to the unexpected shift of power and to the worst situation in our history. Could you write about this issues?

  17. Dr. Tolsa,
    What are you trying to prove here. The guy was a cold blooded murderer who brought Ethiopia to where it is now. He literally demolished the cream of the crop elites. The only thing that Mengistu deserves is life imprisonment. The damage he had incurred to the Ethiopian military is unprecedented. Unfortunately, he is still getting attention from some. Aside from the scholars and higher military officers he had killed as amany as 50 generals. Most of them were trained in prestigious schools such as West Point and Sanderhurst. Ethiopia was not endowed with bright leaders but for me, Mengistu was the curse.

  18. Dr. Fikre Tolossa,
    Thank you for your well written analysis. I read it with great interest with tears in my eyes for all the victims of Mengestu, and my motherland Ethiopia. Very sad indeed!
    With all due respect, I don’t think I will ever understand, how any woman, specially that believes in God, stays married to a man that is responsible for hundreds of thousands of innocent lives.

  19. Honestly, I was expecting for you to continue the book review as you have intended but, you made about face and an leashed a strong advice to the Colonel, what he should write in his biography and correcting his history advising him to the point what he should write. At this point of the time, I am not sure about the book review, or it contents briefly, his target audience.
    Sure. Politics are dynamics, changes occurred an expectedly, at that moment he did many hasty decisions, for the interest of the country. Let us think, and reflect back. If there were no reaction with EPRP, and Somalia front, how he would have react, that where we need an analysis’s. Would he have been a good leader with out a red ink on his record or the same brutal leader as the circumstance he was.
    ON the first book, he really blamed the EPRP as a roadblock for the progress on the country you did not mention it. Overall, I like the way you wrote, some might think you jumped to the conclusion.

  20. The typical book review:

    ‘Mein Kampf’: The Italian Edition

    By LILA AZAM ZANGANEH

    Published: November 7, 2004

    Were Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini ideological soul mates or uneasy allies? Did they share a vision of national and ethnic purity or was theirs a pact hardened in the crucible of political expedience? Although their formal partnership lasted only four years — from 1939 to 1943 — it has taken on an enduring afterlife, particularly among Italians, who have never quite settled the issue of just how ideologically This question is now the subject of fresh speculation, fomented by a provocative book, ”Il Contratto: Mussolini Editore di Hitler” (”The Contract: Mussolini, Publisher of Hitler”). Released by Dedalo in Italy this summer, it was written by Giorgio Fabre, a journalist at the well-respected newsweekly Panorama and the author of several books on Italian Fascism. To research ”Il Contratto,” Fabre burrowed deep into Italian Foreign Ministry archives and emerged with evidence documenting a previously unnoted literary partnership between Hitler and Mussolini. It dates from February 1933, less than a week after Hitler had become chancellor of Germany, when two of his confidants, one of them Rudolf Hess, secretly traveled to Rome and asked Mussolini to buy the rights to Hitler’s manifesto, ”Mein Kampf.”

    First published in 1925 by the Nazi publishing house, Franz Eher Verlag, the book became a best seller in Germany, helping Hitler, a fringe extremist best known for staging a failed putsch in Munich, gain political clout. By 1933, with Hitler in power and a player on the world stage, foreign publishers were suddenly interested. The British house Hurst & Blackett paid the German publisher an advance of 2,611 marks ($1,000). In the United States, Houghton Mifflin & Company paid an advance of $500 on a first printing of 7,000 copies.

    Mussolini, however, outspent them all. According to documents unearthed by Fabre and reproduced in the book, Il Duce ordered that 53,625 marks (about $20,000) be wired to Franz Eher Verlag, the highest fee paid for any foreign translation during those years in Italy. Why did Mussolini use the power of the state to buy ”Mein Kampf” and why did he spend so lavishly? Because, Fabre argues, the purchase was in fact a campaign contribution to the Nazi Party made ahead of the legislative elections of March 1933, which would complete Hitler’s ”legal revolution,” in the words of his biographer Joachim Fest.

    Both regimes kept the deal utterly secret. Mussolini, who had been in touch with Hitler for several years, insisted the money be transferred ”anonymously and in cash.” Hitler, wary of appearing beholden to Mussolini, eventually declined to touch the money during the campaign.

    It was only after the Nazis won the elections that the translation went forward. The Italian office of foreign affairs wrote up a contract, signed by the Germans on May 30, 1933, stipulating, among other things, that the Italian translator not be a Jew. The renowned publisher handling the project, Valentino Bompiani, was not told about this provision, and — in one of the great ironies of the era — hired Angelo Treves, a distinguished translator who happened to be Jewish. When the Germans objected, Bompiani allegedly removed Treves’s name from the book when it was first published in March 1934 as ”La Mia Battaglia,” with a new introduction by Hitler. The book quickly conquered the Italian market, going into a third printing within six months of its release.

    Had the episode ended there it would be merely a sordid footnote in the chronicle of a dark partnership. But in Fabre’s view, Mussolini’s involvement with the ”Mein Kampf” translation is part of a larger story. When I interviewed him in Rome, Fabre mapped out how the translation marked the beginning of a campaign of covert anti-Semitic measures within Italy, culminating in the racial laws of 1938, which effectively banned Jews from all public positions.connected the two dictators truly were.
    This remains a conspicuously shameful chapter in Italian history, but one whose complexities many in Italy have consistently played down. Mussolini, they say, was acting pragmatically and only doing Hitler’s bidding, while he himself steered clear of ideological anti-Semitism. The late Renzo De Felice, the pre-eminent Italian biographer of Mussolini, has written that Mussolini deemed ”Mein Kampf” ”illegible,” and thought its author was ”literally sick with racist and anti-Semitic ideologies.” Fabre disagrees. He says the archival material proves that while Mussolini — who knew German — may not have read ”Mein Kampf” cover to cover, he was shown a summary of its contents along with excerpts from the book’s chilling racial theories, which he underlined in his own hand in late 1933.

    Fabre argues that during his alliance with Germany, Mussolini was intent on fashioning his own brand of anti-Semitism, one more ”political” and less overtly brutal than Hitler’s.

    As early as 1934, Mussolini removed several Jews from highly visible positions in government, finance and academia. He also had his alleged former mistress, Margherita Sarfatti, who was Jewish, dismissed from Il Popolo d’Italia, the Fascist Party newspaper, and forbade the Fascist Jewish journalist Anita Levi Carpi from representing Italy on an official trip to Japan. ”One does not send a Jew around,” Mussolini jotted in an official document Fabre quotes in the book. (Before the 1938 racial laws, many Italian Jews in fact belonged to the Fascist Party.)

    Unsurprisingly, the Italian response to ”Il Contratto” has fallen along political lines. Writing in Corriere della Sera, Italy’s leading centrist daily, the well-known critic Dino Messina called Fabre’s book ”enthralling,” and its archival findings ”truly significant.” He said that, as a result, Italians would have to reassess their history. But more conservative publications, including Il Domenicale, the weekly cultural newspaper started by a close political associate of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, have been skeptical of Fabre’s conclusions, as have many scholars, politicians and journalists.

    When I interviewed him in his elegant Roman apartment, Giano Accame, a historian and a founding member of the Movimento Sociale Italiano, a postwar neo-Fascist party, characterized Fabre’s thesis as ”exaggerated.” ”Mussolini surely did not share Hitler’s opinions on the Jews,” he said, as we sat in his study, which was adorned with a bust and an autographed picture of Mussolini. ”But he realized that in striking an alliance with the Germans, he had made an enemy of Jews worldwide. At that point he made the contemptible decision to enact racial laws.” As for Mussolini’s decision to publish ”Mein Kampf,” it was ”a diplomatic gesture of friendship” with Hitler.

    Fabre, on the other hand, maintains that Mussolini was ”a failed Hitler” who regretted never writing his own ”Mein Kampf.” Either way, the two dictators’ collaboration set the stage for the 1938 racial laws. Five years later, Victor Emmanuel III, king of Italy, had Mussolini arrested and signed a hasty armistice with the Allies. Italy was soon occupied by the Nazis, who reinstated Mussolini at the helm of the puppet Republic of Salo. More than 8,000 Italian Jews were deported; 5,644 of them died at Auschwitz.

    Fabre’s work has doubtless shed new light on a sinister chapter of Italian history, one long distorted and dulled in the country’s collective memory. Alessandra Mussolini, the dictator’s granddaughter and a European parliament deputy from a far-right party, declined to comment on her grandfather’s legacy and Fabre’s book. ”I don’t want to say things that will get me in trouble later,” she told me. Others have been almost as cautious.

    Fabre is not surprised. ”Once you begin investigating, you face a tremendous problem,” he said. ”A part of the ruling class completely falsified the truth after the war and refuses to this day to acknowledge the facts of the partnership between Mussolini and Hitler.” ”Il Contratto” is thus more than a provocative book: it is an invitation to come to terms with the demons of patriotic self-deception.

    LILA AZAM ZANGANEH, a writer based in New York, is a contributor to Le Monde.

  21. Dr. Fikre Tolessa,
    Please keep it up. It’s uncommon for most of us to see a person gives positive and negative reviews together, which I think a nice approach. I agree with and appreciate your concern on finding the truth.

  22. I really want to know the true life history of Dr.Fikre Tolosa, not of Mengistu. Because this man is playing a big role in current ethiopian culture and politics.Let people know your true history Dr.Fikre. Mengistu is past.Isn’t it a crime to publicize ones identity hiding your own? You are more important now than Mengistu.
    I really want to know how did you get the name TOLOSA, the word which doesn’t exist in ethiopian languages.I will consider you a human being with pride if you come out and tell us how you or your family got this name ‘TOLOSA’
    Thank you ,so much!!!!!!

  23. Dear Dr. Fikre,

    I know you very well from your emotional student days when you were narrating poems about the Bandira. Forty years later and with a P.H.D, you have not changed much. What you have presented as a book review is not one in the strictest sense but a personal and emotional expose of how you view events. I can tell that you have personal contempt and hostility to Mengistu Hailemarian not because of his fascistic personality but because of what he looks like or what his alleged background is. By so doing, I think you are joining the camp of the aristocrats who are more worried about Mengistu’s look and background. Your main concern should be what he did as a leader during his dictatorial rule of seventeen years. You should not try to tell us he did what he did because he was advised to do accordingly. I don’t believe at all that the old Dejazmatch advised Mengistu to kill all his opponents.

    Please come back to your senses and try to be objective. If I were you, I would take all the time in the world and come up with a well researched paper instead of borrowing rumors and gossips from friends. I would also quote some sources if I had to instead of lamenting on your biases and projections.

    You started well but finished very poor as you went back to your immature and emotional past. I would like to see you growing before you retire.

  24. የሞት ዕኩልነት ዳግማዊ ዳዊት

    እግዜር በፈጠረው – ሰማይና ምድር

    ተራራ ሸንተረር – ውቅያኖስ ባህር

    ያገባኛል ብሎ – ሰው ባለቤት ሆኖ – ድንበር አበጅቶ

    የከርሰ-ምድር ሀብት – በስፋት አካብቶ

    አንተ ከዚያ ወዲህ – አንች ከዚህ ወዲያ – ብሎ ተከፋፍሎ

    አንዱን እጅግ ደልቶት – ሌላው ተበድሎ
    ይኖራል ይሞታል – የመኖር-ሕግ ሆኖ።

    አንዱ ባለፀጋ – የተትረፈረፈው

    ሌላው ምስኪን ደሃ – ይበላው ይጠጣው

    – ይለብሰው የሌለው

    የዓለም መልክ ሆነና – ሕይወት ዥንጉርጉሩ

    የሰው ልጅ ይኖራል – ገንዘብ ሆኖ ነውሩ

    ንብረት በለጠና – ከሰብዓዊ ክብሩ።

    ሠራዊት መንግሥታት – አቤት ብለውለት

    ሀብታሙ ይኖራል – ዓለም አድልታለት

    ከውሻ አንሶ ደሃው – ማጣቱ ወንጅሎት

    እሱም ኖረ ተብሏል – ዓለም አድማበት

    የሰው ልጅ ኅሊና – እንዲህ ተመሳቅሎ

    ፀጋን አመሥግኖ

    ድህነት ኮንኖ

    ለኃይል አቤት ብሎ

    ደካማውን ገድሎ

    ሕይወት ነው ይለናል – “መኖር” ስሙ ሆኖ።

    ልክ እንደ እግዜር ሆኖ – ሰው ቢሠራውማ – ሰማይና ምድሩ

    ደሃና ደካማ ባልኖሩበት ነበር – ገና ከጅምሩ

    ጉልበታም ለብቻው – ልክ እንደሂትለር

    ሞልቶ ከተረፈው – ከባለፀጋው ጋር

    እኛ ብቻ እንኑር – ብሎ ባለን ነበር

    ዳሩ አምላክ ሆነና – የዚህ ዓለም ንጉሥ

    ደሃውም ሀብታሙም – ደካማና ኃይለኛ እኩል ባይወደስ

    የሞት ቀን ሲመጣ – ሰው ሲመለስ ከአፈር

    ዕኩል መሆናቸው – ያኔ ነው የማይቀር።

    እናም ሂሳብ ሳስብ – አንድና አንድ ደምሬ

    ዕልፍ አዕላፍ ብደርስ – ከአሃዱ ጀምሬ

    አራት ነጥብ ሳደርግ – ስንኝ ቋጥሬ

    መደምደሚያው ሆነ – የድምር ውጤቱ

    ዕኩል የሚሆነው – ሰው በሰውነቱ

    ሲሞት ብቻ ሆኖ – አፈርኩ በስሌቱ

    በአንድዬ እምላለሁ – ቀፈፈኝ እውነቱ።

    Book Review – Winston Churchill: http://xrl.us/bhv5kg

  27. No matter what he said, he is responsbile for killing of our people. I will not be suprised if he is trying to form a political party in future. I could say: “Do not ever think about it”.

    I will never ever forget what he did to our country and people. I always tells my growing kids what he did. We will pass on the history to next generation.

    He is enjoying his life in Zimbabwe, but most Ethiopians are paying the price. Most are still bleeding in their mind for what he did.

    Mengistu: if you are reading this message, please listen to Mililik Wesenachew’s song “Ye Hagere Meret Anchi a Dem Godana …”. I always tear when I listen to it.

    Selam (peace) Le Ethiopia and Ethiopians but not for cruels like Mengistu and his poppies.

  28. Book Review?!! You must be joking. No doubt that Dr Fikre is a prolific poet and a man of pen. He is also a well versed Ethiopianist (I mean a knowledgable scholar in ancient history of Ethiopia). However, his extended essay here lacks both the very basic principles of “book review” as we know it. He didn’t even frame his views properly about the content of the book, leave alone to review it. He was just jumping from one unfinished set of business to the other uncharacterstically of his stature.

    I couldn’t figure out up to now why he drag the name Eskinder Nega (another genuis writer of this generation) to this book review.

    Dr Fikre, I have no doubt whatsoever, you could review a book of this kind (written in Amharic). Review it again and help us to read it. I know you can do it.

    With utmost respect for your scholarship in Ethiopia.

  29. First of all why did the author Woizero Genet Ayele title the book, Tizeta of …? “The word Tizeta in Ethiopia almost all the time implies good memory.
    ——————
    Re: Fikre Tolossa
    The “review” may not be as total as some of you expected, however, the questions he raised represents what millions of Ethiopians would have asked. Good biographers especially of highly known personalities do not necessarily always side with the person. They come in different variety: Some analyze much, others reflecting with some perspective, and the good ones give and leave society with accurately well researched account of the person along with a balanced perspective of much more that brings a deeper understanding. Well in this case, Dr. Fikre’s frustration reflects a detailed account, reasoning and questions. It may not be objective, but should not necessarily be. He reflects what the society felt and at this writing comes through as their voice as well.

    In fact, Dr. Fikre Tolossa himself (I don’t know him personally) except used to read some of his products on this web site) will make a good biographer of Col. Mengistu Hailemariam‘s history. In many instances, Megistu is dismissed as a mindless, insecure brutal killer who had no sense of justice. With the exception of an overly referred title as “Colonel” “Colonel” by Dr. Fikre, he had also brought to light to present him as a human being with family, who made contribution to his country although so many questions remains unanswered as to what drove him to such height of destruction. To some of the questions, Mengistu’s past responses according to this review exposes Mengistu’s consistent lies.

    He should be over 70 years old by now, alive with offspring grown and high achievers. Indeed as mentioned God works in mysterious ways. He had lived out his thousands of victims. He will be better understood if he is more forthcoming and if he works with a good, objective and experienced biographer. There could be so much the present and future Ethiopia/ns can learn from. He should take his time to read and answer every question here, ask his conscious, look deep in to him self and start writing it at least to him self. In time, he could hand it to historians.
    ———————————-
    Here are some of the interesting questions Fikre Tolossa asked.
    “…It delighted the EPLF leadership and enabled them to march into Ethiopia unhindered by your dwindling army a good number of which had surrendered to EPLF and TPLF, demoralized and confused by your vindictive actions. In other words, your own action backfired on you and caused your downfall.”

    “You have declared in this book and elsewhere that the interest of Ethiopia precedes that of individuals. Hence, it was okay for you to execute those that, in your opinion, violated the sovereignty of Ethiopia. Did this hold true for you too? Or did you have a double-standard? Were you the only one that safeguarded the interest of Ethiopia among the members of your government?”

    “You see what I mean? If you really loved Ethiopia more than yourself and your power, you would have relinquished your power for the welfare of Ethiopia when your leadership was beginning to cause the downfall of Ethiopia.

  30. Greetings to you, dear Medfu Tessema. You are an old friend. It is hard to meet old friends these days. My name is out there, yours is hidden. And yet, I know who you are. Isn’t that amazing! In any case, I am glad you are still alive, dear friend, after what you went through in the revolution. Believe me, I had wished to see you some time, because I missed you. You loved your country then and you were burning with revolutionary fervor.

    Any way, regarding the good Dejazmatch Kebede, I never said that he advised Mengistu to kill anybody. Please calm down and read the review again. I simply asked the Colonel whether he grew up in his house. By the way, I admire the Dejazmatch. He was a grat Ethiopian patriot. So, I wouldn’t say anything like that about him. I don’t imagine him advising the Colonel to kill all his opponents. Maybe he would give him a few good advices on how to handle things, since he was a wise man experienced in Ethiopian politics and affaris all the way from the time of Menelik to Haile Selassie.

    Dear friend, take it easy, and don’t be so emotional when you label me as such. I hope to see you someday. I really miss you, dear Aya…, and our old days when we were burning for the cause of our country with youthful fervors.

    Wish you all the best.

    Fike

  31. MENGISTU NEED TO BE HOLD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE CRIMS COMMITED

    When derg assumed power,by force, it announced the establishment of provisional military government to be care taker,until civilian elected govrnment takes offiice.The derg insisted that the military has no intention to stay in power,but will return to its barrack once the people’s government is put in charge-this turned out to be a hoax.Mengistu is fully responsible for failure to hand power to the people and for the ensuing civil war.

    The following are some of the highlights of the worst murder that took place under his regime.

    1-Mengistu and his associates excuted the entire former cabinet members with out trail.

    2-Mengistu orderd the arrest of Let.Ge. Aman Amdom .The general ,refusing arrest,fought ferociously at his residence in Addis and left his reputation intact.

    3-There is good reason to believe,surrounding the surcumstances of his death,Mengistu might have strangled the frail king.

    4-Miingistu orderd the excution of Cap.Sisai Habte and Maj.Gen. Getachew Nadew for their,apperent,favour of peacefull solution to the growing domestic political discontent.

    5-Mengistu orderd and personally participated in the murder plot of Big. Gen.Tafari Banti,Cap.Alemayhu and,Moges Weldemikael,allegidly,for for their insistance to transfeer of power to the public.

    6-Mengistu instituted the so called”Red Terror” and autorized the murder of tens of thousends of Ethiopians throughout the country.

    7- Mengistu removed his last contender withen the derg by excuting the indecisive COL.Atnafu Abate.

    8-Mengistu ,just before he flee the nation he liqudated the cream of Ethiopian Army and virtually paved the way to hand over power to weyane. Mengistu might have reacted to the surcumstances around him out of fear rather than strength.Controlled as he was ,with what appeared to be an all consuming fear,he can not help but relentlessly pursue unprovoked first strike principle against his opponents.Any good Mengistu might have done such as the removal of the monarch,distrubition of land for farmers and his stance upon united Ethiopia was soon to be forgotten in the savage murder and blood letting polices that comes to characterize the day.

    If the above crimes of Mengistu is not perplexing enough,the former chairman showed poor judgment at a critcal moment.Mengistu betrayed Ethiopia in her darkest hour.This is a fact where none of his sophistory can weaken this charge. The truth is the moment brought him to such climax,had he chose,he was previlaged to exit the scene of Ethiopian histry gracefully.Inreturn, Ethiopians could have been forgiving to his crime.His country men expected him to take firm stand against Shabia and weyane offensive some where outside Addis.He dared not to cross this line of call and was overcome by his cowardice.MENGISTU’S PISTOL IS ,ONLY, GOOD TO MURDER THE UNSUSPECTED ETHIOPIANS,and Mr.Ex.CHAIRMAN you aint not MEYESAW KASA.

    In 1976,EPRP urban squad come very colose to end his career;had it went as planed ,perhaps,the course of events could have been different.Not to mention the fact,Mengistu now long forgotten,he would have not been in a positon to write a book about what some believe to be his insider knowledge of Ethiopia.It is possible he wrote his book,not somuch convinced Ethiopians will forget and forgiv his cruelty,but out of necessity to suplement his dwindling income.If this idea make sense ,it proves that, he is a survival strategist.

  32. MEDFU TESEMA,do you really go by that name?I doubt it.
    “I can tell that you have personal contempt and hostility to Mengistu Hailemarian not because of his fascistic personality but because of what he looks like or what his alleged background is. By so doing, I think you are joining the camp of the aristocrats”

    What do you mean by the above statment?You are the one who appear to be giving anemotional expose and not the reviewer.

    Look you need to grow up,and dont cry aristocracy at avery turn.Some of your guys in the olf camp are incredibly outrageous.As far as I am conserned you have no right to charge this reviewer “I know you don’t like Mengistu for his look and background”.You gys are in the fring when you think You can influence some writers to reflect olf centerd world view.Geet over it you are the one that needs to grow up because you seem to me an intolerant bigot.

  33. Mengistu, Eritrea, Woeyane (via Assyria) and their opportunely tentacles – they are all the same, are they not?

    “You used to break bottles filled with red ink symbolizing blood (Egyptian Tinqola) at Abyot Adebabay (the former Meskel Square), screaming that you would fight until you were left with the last bullet….” – FT. Great question.

    The dignitaries of Egypt come… Aethiopia, disheartened by fear before Jahve, causes his hands to run to Elohim, i.e., hastens to stretch them out. – Exegesis on Psalm 68:31-33

    The reed is in itself an emblem of Egypt, and it is therefore either the crocodile, the usual emblem of Pharaoh and of the power of Egypt that is meant, or even the hippopotamus (Egyptian p-ehe-môut), which also symbolizes Egypt, and more appropriately than the crocodile Egypt appears here as the greatest and most dreaded worldly power. Elohim is to check the haughty ones who exalt themselves over Israel and Israel’s God. With the one emblem of Egypt is combined the idea of defiant self-confidence, and with the other the idea of comfortable security….

    Book Review – Young Joseph Stalin: http://xrl.us/bhv82n

  35. WE KNOW MANY THINGS ABOUT MENGSTU AFTER HE LEFT THE COUNTRY.

    THAT MEANS WE WILL READ MORE ABOUT MELES’S CRIME AFTER HIS DEATH OR PRISON OR LEAVING THE COUNTRY. THE SOONER THE BETTER.

    GOD BLESS ETHIOPIA!

  36. Dear Dr. Tolossa,

    I read your book review about Colonel Mengistu “Tizeta ” Vol.II. I thank you for your analysis regarding this book, and I personally have nointerest to read his book. My reason isColonel Mengistu will never tell the truth about his time and revolution againstthe Ethiopian people. He does not havethe gut to apologize the Ethiopian people. A liar is a liar, and it does notmatter how he tells his story. You said it well point by point about his timeas a leader of Ethiopia. He is fully responsible for all the action and murderthat happens during those 17 years. This man is a coward murderer, and I comparehim to Adolf Hitler, Stalin or Mussolini. He is the worst of the worst in EthiopianHistory. He will never tell us why he killed so many innocent for no reason. Ileft my country long time ago, because I lost many of my dear friends, family forthe red terror waged by this tyrant. Dr. Fikre, please do not waste your timeto find the truth from this Junta. He is a serial killer of our time. Let himlive his free life in Zimbabwe until he dies. As you said what comes aroundcomes around, and God will punish him for his action. Only time will tell this.He will pay price for the blood at his hand. History is always remembering him for his crueltyand murder. He doesn’t have to preach us writing a book. You need a brain towrite a book or you can tell the truth to someone to write you a book for you.I read many of your books and I admire you always. I wish he tells you thetruth instead of jumping here and there.

  37. I read your book review about Colonel Mengistu “Tizeta ” Vol.II. I thank you for your analysis regarding this book, and I personally have no interest to read his book. My reason is Colonel Mengistu will never tell the truth about his time and revolution against the Ethiopian people. He does not have the gut to apologize the Ethiopian people. A liar is a liar, and it does not matter how he tells his story. You said it well point by point about his time as a leader of Ethiopia. He is fully responsible for all the action and murder that happens during those 17 years. This man is a coward murderer, and I compare him to Adolf Hitler, Stalin or Mussolini. He is the worst of the worst in Ethiopian History. He will never tell us why he killed so many innocent for no reason. I left my country long time ago, because I lost many of my dear friends, family forth red terror waged by this tyrant. Dr. Fikre, please do not waste your time to find the truth from this Junta. He is a serial killer of our time. Let him live his free life in Zimbabwe until he dies. As you said what comes around comes around, and God will punish him for his action. Only time will tell this. He will pay price for the blood at his hand. History is always remembering him for his cruelty and murder. He doesn’t have to preach us writing a book. You need a brain to write a book or you can tell the truth to someone to write you a book for you. I read many of your books and I admire you always. I wish he tells you the truth instead of jumping here and there.

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