Mengistu Haile Mariam: The Profile of a Dictator
By Paulos Milkias, Ethiopian Review, February 1994
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In the eighties, Moscow had over 5,000 advisers, diplomats and spies in Ethiopia. In fact it was said that 90% of the individuals sent to Ethiopia during the Brezhnev era had some connection to the KGB. These Soviet security personnel literally turned Ethiopia’s Ministry of Information into their own propaganda machine. Some high level government officials, such as the veterinarian Politburo member, Alemu Abebe, were known KGB agents. The third person in command, Sergeant Legesse Asfaw, was Soviet planted official who always sang their praise. Furthermore, the Soviets utilized Ethiopian embassies abroad as an extension of their international spy network.
In many cases, when they tried to recruit Ethiopians for their own spy ring, and the individuals refused to cooperate, they reported to the Mengistu regime that the persons in question were CIA agents and thus got them eliminated. In order to please his friends — the Soviets — Mengistu liked to repeat the slogan “We shall smash American imperialism!” at party meetings. At one time, Anwar Sadat was asked if he was worried about Mengistu Haile Mariam’s threat against Egypt and Sadat replied with sarcasm:
No, we are not really afraid of his threats to Egypt; what we are afraid of is that he might do as some harm as he marches his army across Egypt to smash the Americans!
Mengistu had at times got himself embroiled in the war of tugs between the superpowers and almost got burnt for it. In one hushed up case, after being instigated by the Soviet Embassy, he directed an accusation against an American diplomat (the indictment being that the official aided anti-government elements to distribute pamphlets to incite people against the Mengistu regime) and put the diplomat under house arrest. Reagan’s Ad,omostratopm was incensed at this action which broached the traditional practice of diplomatic immunity. However, since it was during the campaign for the president’s second term, they did not want to publicize and let the media blow it out of proportion and thus harm his campaign. Nevertheless, they took a clandestine act. A team of specially trained USA marines were secretly dispatched to Rome and accosted the Ethiopian chief of security, Colonel Tesfaye Wolde Selassie, and politburo alternate member, Kassa Gebre, who were on a visit to Italy. The latter some how eluded his captors and escaped but the security chief could not. The American marines refused to leave him alone insisting on the release of the American diplomat in Addis Abeba.
Tesfaye was given the opportunity to call Mengistu and find a settlement and that otherwise he would continue to be their hostage. When contacted, Mengistu blinked and ordered the release of the American diplomat. To let Mengistu know that the United States Government will not tolerate such behavior again, Reagan’s special envoy flew to Asmera, delivered a strongly worded warning letter to Mengistu and flew back to the United States with the freed diplomat.
Presiding Over the Corpse of an Emperor
The mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1975 while he was detained in the palace was not fully disclosed until after the dictator’s flight and the fall of the Derg regime sixteen years later. The government of Mengistu Haile Mariam, hoping that the Ethiopian people and the world would ultimately forget the affair, went to great lengths to belittle the episode, and tried to hush up the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Haile Selassie’s death was front page news in all the major newspapers of the world. The New York Times, The London Times and Le Mond, among others, gave several pages of coverage to the rise and fall of Haile Selassie, particularly citing his historic military and diplomatic struggle against the Fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini. In the Derg controlled press, however, the news was buried deep inside the pages, calling attention to his illness, and his advanced age — Haile Selassie was then 84 years old. It simply reported that the Negus had died suddenly and was buried in a private ceremony attended by members of the royal family including the eldest daughter of Haile Sellassie, Princess Tenagne Worq, and the Emperor’s boyhood friend and confidant Ras Emeru Haile Selassie. The Derg newspapers also reported that during the night of his death, a doctor was not in attendance because the Emperors private physician could not be located in Addis Abeba.
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