Red Terror (Ethiopia)

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Mengistu Haile Mariam, in December 2006 convicted of genocide in absentia for his role the Red Terror

The Ethiopian Red Terror (1977-1978) was a violent political campaign in Ethiopia undertaken during the leadership of the Derg, a socialist military junta. In December 2006, Mengistu Haile Mariam was convicted in absentia for his role in the Red Terror while leader of Ethiopia.

From 1977 through early 1978, a rebellion against the new government 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 against anti-government guerrillas was launched with a speech delivered in Revolution (formerly Maskal or  "Holy Cross") Square in the heart of Addis Ababa. 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.

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 along side the guerrilla fighters. In response, Mengistu designed the relocation project that caused one of the worst humaniatarian crisis of the decade. From 1975-1978, Mengistu was responsible for the 7th worst genocide in world history. Around 1,500,000 Ethiopians were the victims of the Derg genocide.^[1]

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 formidable airforce and  navy as well.

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 the Hawzen town of Tigray where thousands of people were killed. His fighter planes dropped cluster bombs on the whole town in broad daylight while most people & civilians were outside, especially in the market places.^[2]

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. ^[3] 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.^[2]

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