Red Terror (Ethiopia)
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The Ethiopian Red Terror, or Qey Shibir (also Key Shibbir, etc., Amharic: ቀይ ሽብር ḳey šibbir; 1977–1978), was a violent political campaign in Ethiopia undertaken during the leadership of the Derg, a military junta. In December 2006, Mengistu Haile Mariam was convicted in absentia for his role in the Red Terror while leader of Ethiopia.
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[edit] Overview
From 1977 to early 1978, a rebellion against the ruling military junta ensued and was suppressed, resulting in many casualties. In response to guerrilla attacks from the anti-Mengistu Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP), Mengistu declared that the EPRP had begun a campaign of "White Terror." Anti-Mengistu forces, however, accused Mengistu's Workers' Party of waging a campaign of "Red Terror."
Mengistu's campaign of terror was launched with a speech delivered in Revolution (formerly and currently Mesqel or "Holy Cross") Square in the heart of Addis Ababa. He shouted "Death to counterrevolutionaries! Death to the EPRP!" and then produced two bottles of what appeared to be blood and smashed them to the ground to show what the revolution would do to its enemies.[1] He included the Eritrean secessionists Shabia or Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), Jebha or the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF), the monarchist Ethiopian Democratic Union (EDU), the Woyane or Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) in this hunt along with the EPRP. Thousands of men and women were rounded up and executed in the following two years.[1][2] Amnesty International estimates that the death toll could be as high as 500,000.[3][4] The Save the Children Fund reported that the victims of the Red Terror included not only adults, but 1,000 or more children, mostly aged between eleven and thirteen, whose corpses had been left lying in the streets of Addis Ababa.[3]
Another factor to the Red Terror were the famines that were kept secret from the international community. Millions of people died, especially in Wollo and Tigrai areas. In addition, there were frustrated peasant men and farmers who revolted against the government alongside the guerrilla fighters. In response, Mengistu designed the relocation project that caused one of the worst humanitarian crises of the decade. From 1975–1978, Mengistu was responsible for the seventh worst genocide in world history.[citation needed]
In response to guerrilla attacks from the EPRP, Mengistu gave counter-insurgency forces the authority to arrest, detain, and execute insurgents. From 1977–78, counter-insurgency forces pursued countless suspected insurgents. Military gains made by the monarchist EDU in Begemder were rolled back when that party split just as it was on the verge of capturing the old capital of Gondar. The army of the Republic of Somalia stepped in to aid the WSLF in the Ogaden region, and was on the verge of capturing Harrar and Dire Dawa, when Somalia's erstwhile allies, the Soviets and the Cubans, launched an unprecedented arms and personnel airlift to come to Ethiopia's rescue. The Derg regime turned back the Somali invasion, and made deep strides against the Eritrean secessionists and the TPLF as well. By the end of the seventies, Mengistu presided over the second largest army in all of sub-Saharan Africa, and a sizeable airforce and navy as well.[citation needed]
After out-maneuvering his rivals inside the Derg and his foes in the EPRP, Mengistu had a rift with the other major Marxist group that had originally supported him, the All-Ethiopia Socialist Movement (MEISON). He feared that its members had more loyalty to their party and to Marxist ideology than to the ruling Derg government and himself. By 1978, he had effectively eliminated all potential opposition from the EPRP and MEISON through three phases of bloody purges; the first targeting the EPRP, the second targeting MEISON, and the third eliminating remnants of both groups. Meanwhile, he was still fighting against various opposition groups all around the nation. In an attempt to destroy the will of northern oppositions, one of the famous and tragic attacks was unleashed on Hawzen in southern Tigray where thousands of people were killed. His fighter planes dropped cluster bombs on the whole town in broad daylight while most people—mostly civilians—were outside, especially in the marketplace.[5]
[edit] Aftermath
In 1984, Mengistu denied that famine was ravaging the north of the country. United Nations aid workers said Mengistu flew in planes filled with "loads of whisky" to celebrate the anniversary of his revolution. Meanwhile in Ethiopia, around one million more people died of starvation.[6] The killings continued throughout the decade and no one was spared from them as thousands of students, around 10,000 uneducated peasants and thousands of opposition group members (even inside Addis Ababa) were murdered until Mengistu's last days in Ethiopia.[5]
Mengistu was found guilty of genocide and was sentenced to life in prison in January 2007. After his conviction, Zimbabwe, where he received sanctuary due to friendship with Robert Mugabe, said it would not extradite him.[2] On 2008-05-26, the Ethiopian Supreme Court sentenced Mengistu in absentia to death. Eighteen associates of Mengistu, two of whom live in the Italian embassy in Addis Ababa and 16 in Ethiopian prisons, also are under a death sentence.[7]
In May 2008, Ethiopia's Supreme Court sentenced the former ruler Mengistu Haile Mariam - in absentia - to death.
It overturned on appeal last year's ruling by the High Court sentencing Mengistu and 18 of his most senior aides to life in prison.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Backgrounders: Ethiopian Dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam Human Rights Watch, 1999
- ^ a b Mengistu is handed life sentence BBC, January 11, 2007
- ^ a b Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin. The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World. Basic Books, 2005. ISBN 0465003117 p. 457
- ^ US admits helping Mengistu escape BBC, 22 December, 1999
- ^ a b Cluster bombs used on civilians in Tigray
- ^ One million people died in starvation kept secret
- ^ Court Sentences Mengistu to Death BBC, 26 May 2008.
