By Fikre Tolossa

Greetings to you, Dear Colonel Mengistu Hailemariam, Ex-President of Ethiopia.

After I put my pen to rest having reviewed and analyzed your reminiscence, I thought I was through with you. However, readers flooded me over with letters encouraging me to ask you more questions. I accepted their request reluctantly as I wanted to move on with my own life instead of dealing with you. Since you are history now, I didn’t see why I should spend more time on you. On the other hand, it crossed my mind that we can learn a lot from your history so that we can gauge our present leaders and the ones that will appear in the future, by setting a criteria for leadership, using you as a measurement. People asked tons of questions and held discussions provoked by my review and analysis. Obviously the embers of their wounds inflicted upon them were buried deep down the ashes of their memories, but not extinguished. They feel like having a therapy to heal their physical, mental and spiritual afflictions for good, at least by discussing their past trauma which lurks in the recesses of their being. As I said above, I am only responding to the request s of the reading public by posing to you more questions.

Personally, you didn’t inflict any wounds on me. Nor did you leave any scar on my heart. You didn’t rule me, luckily. I escaped in 1973 (European Calendar) shortly before the reign of terror broke loose in Ethiopia, and headed for Russia to pursue my studies. It was the Emperor’s Government that sent me there to study creative writing, as Russia had produced great writers like Pushkin, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. You see, it was not only your government that had a good relationship with the Soviet Union. The Emperor‘s too, had one. However, the wise leader chose the policy of neutrality. He was the first among African leaders who went to China in search of the best for his country. I am not out here to praise and defend his policy and regime. As a matter of fact, I am one of those who fought his regime in my student days thinking that the people of Ethiopia would live better if monarchy was replaced by a republic. Like I said, I hold no grudges against you though you attempted to take me and 12 of my fellow students from Russia back to Ethiopia to either execute us or let us languish in jail when some of your supporters who claimed to be Meison (All Ethiopia Socialist Party) members handed you over our names charging us of being against your Government while you were visiting the Soviet Union in 1977 (European Calendar). You requested the Russians to hand us over without questioning the charges, according to the Russian officials. My friends and I hindered your attempt, holding unexpected and illegal demonstration in Moscow. I contacted some BBC and VOA journalists and briefed them what was going to happen to us. They spread the news all over the world instantly. The Russians got scared of the scandal and allowed some of my friends to go on exile to Sweden and Germany. I was permitted to finish my studies. After I graduated a year later, I headed for West Germany and applied for a political asylum. The people you wanted to get then are now professional engineers, doctors and professors. Had they fallen in your hands, their future would have been uncertain. You might probably have forgotten about this incident as you had to deal with more serious problems that those of young students.

As I cannot question you about all those wonderful Ethiopians who perished under your regime, I will cite only a few cases. First and foremost, I will ask you about those in the military and then about civilian intellectuals. You are welcome to challenge me and refute my assertions, if I distort facts and said things wrongly. My intention is for you to respond on the cases and situations. Others who know the situation better than I do, could help us by serving as witnesses breaking out of their shells. Even though I was away from home during your reign of terror, I have followed the events in Ethiopia attentively reading every day Amharic, Russian and German papers, as well as listening to radios. I have recorded on a tape the utterances of many that had fled from Ethiopia surviving the so-called “Red Terror”, when the events and trauma were yet fresh in their minds. So, I feel that I am well-versed with what went on in Ethiopia despite my absence. Everything is fresh in my mind too. In fact, people who had lived through the revolution would forget some of the details when I talked to them about some remarkable phenomena after years had gone by, because they experienced wave after wave of rapid events which overwhelmed them, contrary to myself who had been following things from a distance without any physical involvement. Moreover, it seems that the real victims have chosen to be in a state of amnesia to forget deliberately those painful and agonizing moments.

Remember, Colonel, the issue is not about you per se. It is rather about the top place you occupied in the Ethiopian society. If you were not the head-of-state of Ethiopia once upon a time determining the fates of millions, who would bother themselves to think about you, let alone pose questions to you about your governance? For this reason, you have to assume now that you are at the court of the people facing a few of the questions that bother them. I am the presiding judge of the court of the people in this case, if you will. We will have a verdict in the end which will find you either innocent or guilty. Is this is okay with you, Colonel?

You have said time and again that the reason why you could not forgive the generals you had punished so severely was that you wouldn’t compromise your principle when it came to Ethiopian sovereignty and suzerainty. Applying your principle, I can’t refrain myself from asking you tough questions when it comes to Ethiopia, a nation I love so dearly.

Towards the end of this paper, I will list a criteria by which we should investigate the backgrounds of our future leaders. I will go ahead now and shoot a host of questions. My first question is about General Amand Andom. After that, I will ask you about Gneral Teferi Benti. My last questions in this thread will be about author Bealu Girma, Dr. Danagchew Yirgu, your Minster of Agriculture for a brief moment, Lij Kassa Woldemariam, the former President of Haile Selassie I University and Professor Getachew Haile, a noted scholar. I will ask you first and foremost about the two generals, because, if they were given an opportunity to materialize their initiations or proposals, Ethiopian history would have taken a different turn for the better.

Permit me to start with General Aman Andom. In one word, you charged General Aman with treason with regards to Eritrea. Consequently, you ordered your soldiers to have him arrested. He refused to surrender and committed suicide after a gun battle. By your own confession, you were the one who brought him to the Derg to lead it as a chairman. This you did because he was a popular hero and a national figure you devised to use as a front-man, since you and the rest of the Derg members were nobodies then. After his death, you sought and found another naïve front-man by the name of General Teferi Benti. I will bring up General Teferi Benti later on.

In his capacity as the Chairman of the Derg, General Aman Adndom toured all over Eritrea and convinced the people that, if their real reason why they desired to beak up with Ethiopia was the dismantling of the federation, he would see to it that it would be restored through negotiation. Once it is restored, however, all secessionists should stop fighting and join the people to live in a united Ethiopia under a genuine federation. If the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front or any secessionist forces continued to wage war against Ethiopia after that, the general explained, they would be dealt with severely once and for all. This impressed the people of Eritrea much. They trusted the integrity ofthe General. You, however, didn’t want to sit down and negotiate with a bunch of “ager gentayoch” or “agamido”. You decided to crush Shabia by force of arms. To this end, you convinced the Derg to send more tanks and troops to Eritrea. General Aman protested because this would have damaged his initiation to isolate the secessionists . His protest was perceived as being “treason” because he was of Eritrean origin. He got frustrated and embittered because the Derg he led as a Chairman wouldn’t consent to his noble proposal or initiation. He had no choice but to retreat to his home. Being scared that the popular general would break the news to the rank and file solders and fight you, you decided to silence him. So, you signed an order to arrest him immediately and confine him together with the senior officials of Emperor Haile Selassie. I have seen a copy of your order with your signature on it. But the brave General was not one to be dragged out of his house and arrested. He fought the troops and tanks you sent to his home, killed as many as he could, and committed suicide rather than be captured, in the tradition of Atse Theodros. Shocked by this, and to diminish the public reaction to the sudden death of the national hero, you and your Derg members hastily and nervously executed the rest of the Emperor’s officials that had never been brought to court, and buried them in a mass grave in Kerchele. Isn’t this true Colonel? If it is not, let us hear your version and let others witness.

If General Aman’s Eritrean initiation was implemented, Shabia would have been in a big mess. Surely, it would have collapsed eventually and Eritrea would probably not have separated from Ethiopia. Even the Tigray People’s Liberation Front would have found it hard to seize power. Thus a big chance was lost to stop Eritrea from seceding from Ethiopia.

Colonel, why didn’t you give General Aman Andom a chance to exercise his original approach and wisdom? You chose force over diplomacy. You unleashed force in Ethiopia for 17 years to resolve the Eritrean problem. Think of all the people who died because of the Eritrean war. How many people do you think lost their lives, perished and dislocated from both sides? A million? 500,000? 300.000? How about our financial and material loss? Billions? There is no doubt. How about the pain and sorrow? Incalculable!

Probably all this could have been averted if you patiently gave Aman a chance. Furthermore, you might probably be still in power in Ethiopia because, the restoration of the Eritrean federation would have made it impossible for the TPLF and EPLF to unite and attack your government successfully. True, believing he was the head-of-state since he was called the Chairman of the Derg, General Aman had attempted to exercise power without consulting the Derg on every issue or without reporting to it. That is why he could not understand when the Derg confronted him for acting independently. He didn’t want to play the role of a puppet. Therefore, in a state of confusion, he chose to go to his home threatening to resign. What else could he have done?

You suspected General Aman to be a traitor mainly for his refusal to send arms and troops to Eritrea since this would have jeopardized his design to isolate the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front from the populace by convincing it that there was a new government led by none other than himself. How would you suspect General Aman to be a traitor, colonel? If you say he was scheming to let Eritrea go, why didn’t he do so by joining the Eritrean liberation fronts way back during the reign of the Emperor? Why was he fighting as a common solder sleeping in the desert of Ogaden with the enlisted soldiers to preserve and protect the territorial integrity of Ethiopia? When Somalia was provoking Ethiopia endlessly didn’t General Aman fight ferociously marching inside Somalia? Didn’t the Emperor who was afraid that he would be accused of invading Somalia called him back to retreat and scold him for his act? Didn’t he even confine him in Addis as a member of his Crown Council which was a sort of house arrest, fearful of his increasing popularity? If this truly Ethiopian General didn’t champion the secession of Eritrea from Ethiopia during the reign of the Emperor, why would he do so when he believed himself to be the head-of-state of Ethiopia? Excuse me, Colonel, the track record of General Aman Andom was clean from treason. I am sure he would be tossing around in his grave endlessly for being treated as a traitor after having served his country so dedicatedly.

If he was not a genuine Ethiopian hero, why was he so popular? Even I used to hear about his love for Ethiopia and his bravery when I was growing up in Dire-Dawa. In your latest reminiscence you negate his heroism. If he was indeed not a hero, why did you choose and persuade him to lead you at a time when generals were being picked up and arrested by you? Was it not because of his good reputation as a brave soldier and a true Ethiopian patriot that you begged him to lead you leaving his life of “retirement” or call it “house arrest”, as a member of the Crown Council? Did he care to seize power then? Wasn’t he leading a quiet life of oblivion? I have heard that he was nice to you when you were serving under him in your youth in Harer. Was it not because you appreciated his patriotism, caliber, patriotism and charisma that you persuaded him to be the Chairman of the Drg, even though he had never contemplated to be in that dangerous position. Of course, you know deep down inside that General Aman Andom was not a traitor. He had a grand vision for Ethiopia. His vision was trampled over and it resulted in the destruction of Ethiopia. This is my personal opinion. As I said, if I am wrong, I am willing to be corrected. Let us hear your story.

Next on Geneal Teferi Benti. You replaced General Aman with this gentleman to use him as a front- man again. In your recent memoir and elsewhere, you have said that General Teferi Benti was like a father to you, giving you good advices when you needed it badly. According to you, he was misled or misguided by others who were either EPRP members or sympathizers. I was in Ethiopia on vacation in September 1976 (European Calendar) at Abyot Adebabai when General Teferi Benti was addressing the Ethiopian nation with a message of reconciliation. He stressed the importance of all revolutionary groups including the EPRP to work together for the well-being of Ethiopia leaving their differences aside. He was backed within the Derg with Captain Moges W.Michael, Capitain Tefera Deneke and Lieutenant Alemayehu Haile. These people were instrumental in restructuring the Derg and curbing your increasing power and influence, as you recall. These junior officers were reportedly either EPRP members or sympathizers. You and your party, Seded , however, were collaborating mainly with the members of the Woz League led by Dr. Senai Likke, and to a significant extent, the Meisone Party that had established for you theKebeles and the office of mass organization, besides providing you with valuable ideological advices. Did they urge you to take immediate action against General Teferi Benti and the rest or was it purely your plot and that of your friend, Colonel Daniel Asfaw , the Derg’s Chief of Security, that prompted you to eliminate General Teferi Benti and the rest? Now my question to you, Colonel, is this- Instead of worrying about losing your own power and influence in the Derg besides siding only with one or two groups of revolutionaries such as Woz League and the Meisone, why didn’t you take to heart General Teferi’s call for national reconciliation as a principle whether he sympathized with EPRP or not, for the sake of Ethiopia? In other words, why didn’t you embrace all the progressive groups of the country and resolve the conflict amicably and peacefully? Why didn’t you go for it when the idea of a provisional peoples’ government was floating around long before the EPRP had become aggressive? If your were less ambitious of seizing power yourself, and if you had attempted to champion the formation of a provisional popular government, the course of Ethiopian history would have taken a different turn, and all the bloodshed and destruction that followed could have been prevented. Don’t you think so, Colonel?

Imagine a scenario whereby EPRP, Meisone, Woz League, Seded, the Derg and any other progressive forces joined hands united under one government bearing one banner called “Ethiopia’s Well-being”, or even for that matter, your own initial motto, “Ethiopia Tikdem’’ (Ethiopia First) for there was nothing wrong if Ethiopia came first of all. In such a scenario, the EPRP would not have a reason to oppose the Derg and to make an attempt on your life and others. You too, would not have a reason to unleash the “Red Terror”. And if you wouldn’t unleash the Red Terror, EPRP wouldn’t retaliate. If EPRP wouldn’t retaliate, the Kebele cadres, Mesone members and some Derg officials wouldn’t die. The EPRP wouldn’t be divided into factions and annihilate each other. Tens of thousands of Ethiopians would not languish in prison and flee Ethiopia for their lives. The army would be strong and Eritrea would find it hard to secede. The founders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front would perhaps join the popular government rather than running to the bush. Human lives would be preserved. Democracy would flourish. Mind, energy and wealth would be invested on nation building. You see the picture I am trying to draw, Colonel? Instead, you chose the path you took and that made all the difference.

True, the Mesone and EPRP had their own differences. Non-the-less, since both professed socialism (and who didn’t profess socialism, ironically) as their ultimate goal or strategy, you, General Teferi and the rest of the Derg members could have persuaded them to resolve their differences and to rally around the strategy they shared in common, lest they were tossed out of the band wagon of the revolution. If they still refused to cooperate harmoniously for a common cause and end, history would have judged them and they would have gone down the drench of oblivion. Do I sound naive? Maybe. But some times, the naïve comes up with an idea that serves as a spark of hope.

If you permit me to continue to ask you, I have a question about author Be’alu Girma. This budding author believed in you or appeared to do so, for his own reasons. I understand that he had let you and Captain Fike-selassie Wogderess read his manuscript, Oromay, to get your approval before he published it. He praised you in this novel about the hopeless Eritrean war, calling you “Tikur Nebir” (black tiger) that had been emotional in the beginning, and got seasoned ultimately getting matured during the course of the Revolution. I read this book over 25 years ago. I am depending on my memory for this quote. A friend of mine who had befriended with Ato Be’alu told me then that the author had revealed to him that you and Captain Fikre-selassie had read the book and approved it prior to publication. The author trusted the two of you and depended especially on you for protection against the people he was criticizing harshly in the book. According to Ato Be’alu, when his would-be assassins bothered you too much for letting him circulate this book unhindered and unpunished, you called him and asked him afresh what the book was about, as if you didn’t know its content. Then you advised him not to go back to work. In other words, you fired him to appease his accusers who were bothering you too much. You knew they were capable of endangering him, particularly your Chief of Security, Col Tesfaye-woldeselassie. Be’alu Girma lost his life helplessly for writing a book. He would have composed many fine books had he lived a bit longer, and Ethiopia could have benefited from his skill. His wife would not have been widowed, and his children orphaned, if he was not murdered prematurely. Why didn’t you protect the very person who had believed in you and praised you in his book? If the pressure was indeed too much on you, why didn’t you get him an exit visa to find a safe haven outside Ethiopia? Or at least, why didn’t you provide some kind of assistance to his wife and children that were desperate to make ends meet when their bread-winner was gone? Furthermore, why didn’t you investigate his case and punish his killers, if you were uneasy and perturbed by his death? Or may we conclude that you were not that concerned about the death of a person who believed in your integrity and leadership quality, and got your approval for the publication of his book? If all this is not true, what is the truth then?

Countless are the intellectuals that perished as a result of the brutality of your regime. It is impossible to list their exact number. Let me ask you just about one who was not even politically involved. In fact, he was one of your cabinet ministers briefly on the merit of his profession as a superb agronomist. His name was Dr. Danagchew Yirgu . Does this name ring a bell in your ears? Indeed, Dr. Dangachew was a great scientist that researched on and revolutionized Ethiopian agriculture. When he graduated with honors from the University of Purdue in the US, the Americans offered him a teaching position. He turned it down telling them he wanted to go back home and teach and research. This he did at the then Alemaya, now Haromaya University. He inspired many students and enhanced agriculture. Applying genetic engineering he discovered means and ways of solving the problems of famine and drought. He was dragged into your Government to serve as minister of agriculture. He clashed head on with your agricultural policy (communal land allocation and farming that didn’t work in Russia) which he thought would cause further famine and drought. He suggested a better means of solving the recurring problem hunger. You and some of your cabinet members didn’t like his guts for daring to speak his mind when most people chose silence fearful of the consequence of speaking the truth. Now Dr. Danagchew was sent out of town on a dubious mission of no return where he was assassinated. When some of your officials were asked about his whereabouts, they answered mockingly, “jib belaw” (the hyena ate him up). Of course, the “jib” (hyena) were none other than your henchmen themselves. Shortly after that, they were seen in Addis Abeba driving his fancy vehicle. Did they kill him to confiscate his car? Please read a book about him by his school mate, Mr. Mezgebu G.Amlak, for details. Now Colonel, what is the circumstance of his death? Why was this great Ethiopian murdered just because he desired to alleviate the suffering of his people? Instead of condemning him to die, why didn’t you assign him to a different post or let him go back to academia? Seeing what happened to great scholars and intellectuals like Dr. Danagchew, numerous educated people whose training had cost Ethiopia a fortune, had to stay away overseas on political asylums or flee from that unfortunate land to serve other nations.

I have a question about one more intellectual, Lij Kassa Wolde-mariam, the ex-president of Addis Abeba University. Lij Kassa was serving as a governor of Wollega when he was picked up and arrested by the Derg. About two and half years after he was languishing in prison in 1976, he was taken out ofprison and murdered in cold blood. Why? He was not found guilty of anything except being the son of a nobleman and married to a royal. He was not a threat to your revolution because he was your captive and you had almost consolidated your power. There were many people who were executed like that long after you had stabilized and were in a tight control of Ethiopia. Why were people killed when they were not proven guilty and no longer a threat to your regime?

Speaking of intellectuals and scholars, what did Professor Getachew Haile do to deserve the gunfire set on him by your crude security agents that left him for dead in his house? Who do you think was responsible for gluing him to a wheel chair for the rest of his life, banning him into a life of exile, instead of serving his county? Who will pay for the suffering and pain he and his family went through? The cunning Colonel Tesfaye Wolde-selassie, your Security Chief? Wasn’t he reporting to you?

You critics contend that you showed no mercy when you were in power even to your closest allies including the Meison members. The Meison stuck around as much as they deemed it necessary and desired to leave your Government when they thought they could no longer bear it. You caught most of the leaders including Ato Haile Fidda, the brothers Daniel and Desta Tadesse, Dr. Negist Adane, the wife of Desta Tadesse, while trying to flee. Why did you not spare the lives of your old allies when they were at your mercy? They didn’t shoot at you, did they? They may have talked of going underground and waging armed struggle, but you knew that it was only a talk. Under which earth or ground would they have gone? Didn’t you catch them fleeing to cross Ethiopian borders? It was not in their nature to shoot bullets at you. They were calling those who were shooting bullets such as the EPRP “temenja nekash” (gun-bitters.) Surely, the Meison were as harmless as garden-snakes to you. If you waged war against the EPRP, the reason was obvious. They too were engaged in arms struggle against your government in the cities and countryside. Why was it then necessary to annihilate the members of the Meison that had served you well? Didn’t you ascend to power partly because of them? What did you benefit in condemning them to death except a feeling of vindication? What did Ethiopia gain from their going out of existence? Since most of them were well-educated, Ethiopia could have made some use of their education had you allowed them to exist.

To extend the above questions, of what good was the death of all those educated and uneducated individuals who perished during the Red Terror including the members of EPRP and those attacked by EPRP? You said that it was the EPRP that started the killing. The EPRP asserts that it was your agents that had shot the first bullets killing workers and suspected EPRP members as back as 1975 and 1976 (European Calendar).They cite Shaleka Getachew Shibeshi and Shaleka Birhanu, for example. They alleged that these two had shot to death striking workers at Akaki and Metehara areas. I heard some EPRP members whispering in 1976 when I was on vacation in Ethiopia that some Derg security agents were killing suspects with silencers. In any case, whoever had started the killing, it was on a small scale before you declared the so-called “Red Terror” on a mass level after EPRP attempted on your life. I have no clue how you understood the term “Red Terror”, which originated in the Russian Bolshevik Revolution, but its impact on Ethiopia was devastating.

Ethiopians have been devastated by the Red Terror. People hold grudges against you mainly because of the brutality unleashed and the atrocities committed during this tragic and horrible period of Ethiopian history. Colonel, please allow me to ask you a few questions regarding this period. Where were you when your Kebele cadres were torturing and killing EPRP suspect youngsters by pouring out boiling water and oil on them, by muffling their mouths with rags and were beating them mercilessly, by burning their bleeding bodies with matches, by raping young girls, by picking them from prison at random and shooting them in their drunken stupor, by deforming their bodies and mutilating them and by pulling out their nails? What were you doing Colonel when they were murdering pregnant women, laying the bodies of little boys at the front-yards of their parents’ houses with a label, “I am anarchist dog, etc.” and forcing their parents to sing songs of joy over them? Furthermore, Colonel, what were you doing when the parents of the dead were demanded to pay money for “wasted bullets” in exchange for having the bodies of their beloved, and when the streets of Ethiopian towns were littered with dead bodies? Weren’t you around when elderly parents were arrested, tortured and killed because of their rebellious children and because they didn’t know their whereabouts, and when your henchmen slaughtered husbands to get their wives and wealth? Was this your perception of the Red Terror when you launched it? Were you expecting less horrendous agony and nightmare?

Were you not in town when “Aremenew Girma” the butcher of Arat Kilo, was mowing down anybody that came to his view? Was it not after a list of people that he was about to annihilate including your brother was discovered in his pocket or office that you ordered his execution? Could you, being the head-of-state of Ethiopia then, be absolved completely from responsibility for the atrocities committed by your cadres after they carried out the Red Terror you sanctioned and launched officially?

It looked as if the Derg’s solution to every problem was to kill and kill. But killing and more killing did not alleviate the sufferings of the Ethiopian people. Nor did it improve their lives. None whatsoever. Ethiopia lost the cream of the crops. Ethiopia became bereft of her best children as a result. There is a humor about one of your Derg members. He was asked, “what did you guys do for Ethiopia during your 17 years of reign?” The Derg member answered proudly, “We wiped out the enemies of Ethiopia. We imprisoned a million of them and killed about five hundred thousand. Ethiopia is indebted to us for this great favor”. It seems that the notion of nation-building for you guys was killing and killing.

Colonel, you came to power accusing and condemning Emperor Haile Selassie and his officials for throwing a lavish party and enjoying themselves while the people of Welo were dying from hunger. Ironically enough, you and your officials repeated the same thing ten years after you seized power when millions of Ethiopians were affected by another famine and drought. Obviously, power numbs the powerful making them insensitive to the needs of their subjects in whose name they reign. This holds true even for those who are now in power after they replaced you. The great majority of the Ethiopian people are in no better shape economically than they were 36 years ago. I wonder why all the bloodshed, the torture, dislocation, exile and turmoil were necessary if the outcome is and was more torment and pain. The Ethiopian people have given up holding their hopes high on governments. Why did you repeat the same thing of which you had accused the Emperor? Or are you saying that the millions of Dollars you spent on whisky, food and other stuffs on the 10nth Anniversary of the formation of your party was not a lot of money? The Emperor would say the same about his party.

I cannot list all those brilliant and true sons and daughters of Ethiopia that lost their precious lives because of the murderous atmosphere created by the Derg that refused either to accommodate power sharing or allow the establishment of a civilian government. In the beginning, you and your Derg used to make a loud drumbeat that you were only a provisional military committee (Giziyawi Wotaderawi Derg) and that you would go back to your barracks as soon as a civilian government was established. You didn’t keep that promise. Instead, you yourselves evolved as a “civilian” government and you, Colonel Mengistu Haile-mariam, became the President of Ethiopia by taking off your uniforms after tons of havoc and a lot of carnage. If you really thought of the well-being of Ethiopia and not of your personal ascension to power, why didn’t you establish a civilian government which you were able to oversea as, for instance, did Lieutenant Jerry Rawllings of Ghana? Had you done that, not only you would have stopped all the subsequent tragedy that befell Ethiopia, but you would have gone into history as a great national hero. Instead, you and your Derg members chose to be a government violating the will of the armed forces that sent you to represent them in Addis Ababa. Didn’t you refuse to go back to your respective camps defying the very soldiers that had delegated you to represent them called you back emphasizing the fact that your mission was over? Moreover, you executed together with the officials of the Emperor sincere Ethiopian soldiers such as Yohanis Fitwi of the army aviation, Captain Demessie of the engineering division and Lieutenant Tesfaye Tekle of army aviation again, just to mention only the three, for calling for a civilian government. Lieutenant Tesfaye Tekle was a graduate of the Harer Military Academy with honors and the top of his class. You cut him off at a very young age! He could have served Ethiopia as a great soldier. Frankly, Colonel, did those poor soldiers like Tesfaye, Yohanis and Demessie have to die like that just because they called for a civilian government? They had nothing to do with the corruption of Haile Selassie’ Government, even like you had not. How do you feel when you look at in retrospect? After having posed these questions, I will now move on to the second part of this writing, namely, the criteria for leadership.

A I stated above, you are now history, and as such politically ineffective. However, we can draw a lesson from your story. The Ethiopian people never knew your psychological makeup as well as your social and political backgrounds. The barrel of the gun you were holding covered up all these factors. The people of Ethiopia don’t know much about the background of Ato Meles Zenawi either. Just like you, he seized power by force of arms and legalized it by means of “free and fair election”. Recently, he claimed to have “won” 96% of the votes. In your case you had no contenders even formally. You ran against yourself and “won” 100%. Since you ran against yourself, your 100% victory was not surprising. Ato Meles’ victory is phenomenal. Speaking of his victory, he is reported to have said, “We didn’t know that the people of Ethiopia favored us so much.” Nevertheless, the people of Ethiopia aspire to have leaders who appear on the political scene with fine minds and hearts instead of scary tanks and rockets. To this end, they should have every right to scrutinize their future leaders by investigating their backgrounds.

For example, I have read that you inspired immense fear when you got angry. I have no clue how many devastating actions you have taken in your state of rage and tantrum during the course of your stay in power affecting the lives of your subjects. I have also read that Ato Meles Zenawi loses his temper quickly. His good mother was worried about the fact that he used to scatter things he held in his hands whenever he was provoked to anger. If this is true, I wonder whether his rage has caused him to do things he wouldn’t do in his state of sobriety while he was in the bush and after he marched to Addis Abeba. Ideally, a leader should be more rational than emotional. Atse Tewodros committed untold atrocities after he was perturbed mentally towards the end of his life, such as throwing his subjects down a cliff and burning them alive behind closed doors. Despite his good intentions to unite the country, he had uncontrollable power over the destiny of his subjects. He too, came to power by the barrel of his gun and the sharpness of his sword. The people of Ethiopia then didn’t know about his background either. Our unfortunate people have never had a chance yet to put in power the leaders of their choice without being coerced to do so. From now on, they should know their leaders thoroughly ahead of time and they should set up criteria by which they could gage them before they let them climb the ladders of power.

You also used to get moody frequently. According to those who were associated with you, your face would turn furious whenever you lost tennis games. They had to wait until your bad mood subsided or until a joker made you smile, to ask a favor of you. They said that they would even lose a game or two to you deliberately, so that you wouldn’t get in a bad mood. Being constantly in a bad mood for petty matters is not the best trait of a leader. A good leader should be consistent with his moods, thoughts, emotions, feelings and actions.

Under a genuinely democratic form of government, people do examine the characters and other qualities of their would-be leaders. They have rights to “enthrone” and “dethrone” their leaders. In our case, in the future, the Ethiopian people are entitled to know ahead of election whether the candidates are free from corruption, addiction of drugs, crime, rage, mental disorder or psychopathic behavior , theft, nepotism, power mongering, fight-picking, lies, retribution, betrayal, cronyism , deceit, treason, inferiority or superiority complex and hatred of a particular ethnic group. The best candidates should be well-versed in Ethiopian politics, economy, geography, history, religions, sociology, anthropology, culture, literature and philosophy. Most of all, they should love Ethiopia and her heritage. If they don’t fulfill all or at least most of these criteria, the people of Ethiopia shouldn’t consider to vote for such candidates. A cunning wolf should not be allowed to lead a flock of 85 million innocent sheep. They need a good shepherd and not a wolf.

Colonel Mengistu Haile-mariam, former President of Ethiopia, you are not being charged with corruption, stealing, nepotism, treason, hatred for Ethiopia and denial and mockery of the rich and long history of Ethiopia. Congratulations! Your record is not tainted with these vices! You are only questioned why you seized absolute power by yourself, why you chose the use of force over negotiation, why you unleashed a reign of terror, why you didn’t democratize the county, and most of all, why you didn’t minimize human suffering and death.

During your tenure as a leader, you shone no rays of democracy, and your final years were marked by dictatorship with absolute power in your hand. You are held responsible further for misguided political decisions, unpractical agricultural policy that didn’t improve the lives of the farmers an iota, as well as wrong military administration that caused rifts and conflicts between lower-ranking, semi-literate, political commissars and highly-trained, senior military officers such as colonels and generals, resulting in the breaking of the chain of command and contributing to the defeat of the Ethiopian army.

To sum up, you made Ethiopia lose big time three times: first when you rejected Genal Aman’s plan for Eritrea and caused his untimely death, second when you turned down General Teferi Benti’s call for national reconciliation and you took his life whether he was affiliated with EPRP or not, and third, when you and your Derg refused to return to your camps when the very people who mandated you to go and represent them in Addis Abeba called you back so that a civilian government would be established. Had you done that, you would have stopped the tradition of seizing power by the barrel of the gun once and for all.

I admit that you can’t be blamed for everything that went wrong in Ethiopia. There were internal and external forces that influenced your actions. All these factors should be taken into consideration while assessing your tenure as a leader. And yet, in the final analysis, since you were the head-of-state, you can’t be discharged from responsibility for most of the things that took place during you reign. It waswrong in the first place to expect much from you. You were a soldier after all. Your job was to guard the territory of Ethiopia. When soldiers deviate from their training and duty, and try to lead a nation politically, the result is often catastrophic. It was because they understood this fact that Yohanis Fitwi and Lieutenant Tesfaye Tekele of Army Aviation and Captain Demessie of the army engineering division as well as other genuine soldiers demanded that you relinquish power to a civilian government and go back to your barrack. Instead of heeding to their good advice, you condemned them to die.

Dear Colonel Mengistu Haile-mariam, the people’s court represented by me just tried you. The verdict is here- without discounting your good heritage and some of your positive leadership qualities that I had mentioned in my recent review of the latest book on you, you are charged guilty on five major counts leaving the petty ones aside:

1. You approved and signed the death warranty of 55 of Atse Haile Selassie’s officials, as well as soldiers who demanded your return to the barracks, without their being proven guilty in a court of law. 2. You rejected General Aman’s plan for Eritrea and caused his untimely death contributing to the session of Eritrea. 3. You turned down General Teferi Benti’s call for national reconciliation, killed him and assumed absolute power by yourself resulting in your decree of The Red Terror which wiped out countless Ethiopians from all camps. 3. You refused to return to your barracks in an act of defiance with the desire to seize power illegally when the very soldiers that had mandated you to represent them called you back 4. You let hell loose on the people of Ethiopia when you allowed your henchmen to torture, imprison and kill your political opponents and even innocent individuals. 5.) You showed no mercy and clemency to spare the lives of the coup-makers that were under your custody. This demoralized the soldiers, caused desertions and the gradual defeat of the Ethiopian Army.

I could have gone into the details of a speech you made to your Party in which you spoke proudly how you bayoneted the butts of your generals, ripped off their “stars”, stripped off their ranks and humiliated them before the soldiers they commanded. It is too embarrassing to detail it here.

Colonel, it was your turn to be tried this time. Each leader will stand before the public and give an account of himself sooner or later. Verily, all leaders will be judged by people and history when their time for judgment comes. Tomorrow, it will be the turn of today’s leaders. Indeed, the people of Ethiopia shall judge today’s leaders tomorrow for what they have said and done in their name. I guess that is how history marches. On this occasion, I advice the current leaders not to undermine the people of Ethiopia however weak they may appear outwardly, and I urge them to shape up by drawing a lesson from your case.

Last and least, let me end your trial here. I am not a politician. Nor am I affiliated with any political organizations or groups. I consider myself an independent writer. I would like to think that I love Ethiopia. As a writer, I am duty-bound to expose despotism and falsehood wherever I detect them, and stand on the side of the truth and the people. Whatever I expressed to you was in my capacity as a concerned Ethiopian and a writer. As I said, nothing personal against you. I put on trial only the position you held as a head-of-state. And it was this fact that transpired all my undertaking. I hope this is my last writing to you and on you. If you care to address my concerns and defend yourself, you may do so for the public at large in any language you feel comfortable with. I bid you farewell with this, dear Colonel Mengistu Haile-mariam, First President of Ethiopia, Elect of Self, as opposed to Emperor Haileselassie, “Elect of God”. Or shall we say in both cases, “Elect Of The Barrel of The Gun”? And “elect” of what shall we say of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi now and when he was president? Don’t the two of you have something in common in conducting and winning elections as well as in possessing and controlling absolute power? Is there any possibility that you were his “mentor and role model” pertaining to these? I am just curious.

(Fikre Tolossa, PhD, is a poet-playwright, 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. 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 upholding the banner of Ethiopiansim high, finding common factors that united the peoples of Ethiopia at a time of identity crisis, historical confusion and denial. Dr. FikreTolossa has authored over forty published and unpublished articles and books in Amharic, German, English and Russian. He could be reached at: [email protected])

If Ethiopia’s second richest person (among the hodam class), Samuel Tafesse, has even a speck of pride, he would feel great shame Saturday night when over half of those he invited to his lavish party failed to show up.

Ethiopian Review has learned that out of the 400 people who were invited, less than half went to the Mandarin Oriental, a luxury hotel in Washington DC to wine and dine with Azeb Mesfin’s business partner.

Two individuals who had received invitations told EthiopianReview.com that they didn’t go to the party because they do not want their photos to show up on web sites.

On Friday, Etete Restaurant managers were telling callers that their customers are mostly Americans and that they don’t really care if Ethiopians boycott them.

Meanwhile, sources of Ethiopian Review Investigation Unit have reported that the disgraced chairman of EDP Lidetu Ayalew was forced to leave a wedding party in Addis Ababa a few days before he arrived in the U.S. this month.

According to the sources, every one at the wedding stopped eating the food until the hosts ask Lidetu and friends to leave. Lidetu had no choice but to leave in disgrace.

Lidetu’s partner-in-shame, Hailu Shawel is expanding his business in Ethiopia after bowing down to Meles Zenawi. His company is currently building (see the photo below) a multi-million-dollar entertainment center for Woyanne families, as well as Arab sheiks who are tuning  Addis Ababa into their favorite whorehouse. The facility has no use for most Ethiopians who are barely surviving.

Below, Hailu Shawel’s son, Shawel Hailu, poses for photo in front of the massive entertainment complex that his family’s company is building in Addis Ababa. This is one of the rewards Hailu Shawel Shewden has apparently received for betraying the people of Ethiopia.

Below is Hailu Shawel’s just completed night club, bowling and swimming facility in Addis Ababa to be used by famiiles of the ruling class, Woyannes and their children >>