Written: February 3, 1994
Published: February 6, 1994
Source: The Sunday Gazette (Harare, Zimbabwe), February 6, 1994, pp. 1-2, 10
Digitalisation: Judith Siepmann
Proof-reading: Vishnu Bachani
HTML: Vishnu Bachani
Regis Nyamakanga, Sunday Gazette Editor
The deposed Ethoipian despot, Mengistu Haile Mariam, who has been in hiding in Zimbabwe for about two and half years, this week broke his silence charging that he could no longer sit by while his country was going to the dogs.
Because of the grave political and military situation at home, I have received a call once again, from every sector of the Ethiopian society to contribute towards the realisation of peace, justice, freedom and democracy," said Mengistu in a statement released to The Sunday Gazette on Thursday.
"I have been challenged for the second time by people to rescue my country. Indeed, I shall rise to their expectations and help my country survive once again inspite of all political odds."
Mengistu said the incumbent Ethiopian government of Mr Meles Zenawi was unconstitutional and that it was fanning ethnic differences in the Horn of Africa.
He said the country's intellectuals, students, workers, peasants and industrial- ists were being falsely accused of being criminals of war and killed, imprisoned or forced to leave the country. Many of them were now refugees in foreign countries.
"This disgusting political situation has left Ethiopian people with no choice except to fight for their democratic rights using all means available to them."
He said the situation could lead to a far greater political tragedy than experienced in that part of the world.
Mengistu said although "the great and heroic people's army" had been scattered, it was alive in the bushes in temporal hibernation and that it would soon rise to its expectations.
The Ethiopian Salvation Movement is already under way," he said.
The Zimbabwean authorities could not immediately comment, saying they would do so only when the story about it was published. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Nathan Shamuyarira, said through his senior Deputy Secretary, Ambassador Goche, that although he had heard reports that Mengistu was issuing a statement, he would not comment immediately.
"The minister said he will definitely comment because we believe the same statement has also been issued to other foreign news agencies," Ambasador Goche said on Friday.
Some Western diplomats based in Harare said Mengistu's statement, if viewed to mean that he was planning to oust the Ethiopian government, could put Zimbabwe in a compromising position. The Ethiopian authorities have been pressing the Zimbabwean government to hand over Mengistu so that he can answer war "crimes" but Zimbabwe has poured a cold douche on the request.
Although officials have persistently denied it, the diplomatic relations of Zimbabwe and Ethiopia are believed to have soured over the extradition of Mengistu.
Elsewhere in this issue we carry a story about the former Ethiopian despot, Mengistu Haile Mariam's plans to despose the government of Meles Zenawi.
This is a clear abuse of Zimbabwe's hospitality. One is tempted to conclude that Mengistu is either fed up with staying in Zimbabwe or has secured political asylum elsewhere.
If Mengistu has not been granted political asylum elsewhere, then it is high time Zimbabwe showed him the way home because keeping him will put the country in a very compromising position.
This is typical of Mengistu's cavalier attitude. The 10th anniversary of his revolution in 1984 was celebrated with much extravagance, while at the same time the death rate in that country from famine was estimated at 16 000 to 17 000 a day.
Mengistu does not appear to care about such details. What else could one say when he carelessly makes statements which he knows full well will further strain the relationship between his country and Zimbabwe. Ethiopians have made it clear to the Zimbabwean government that they want him back so that he can be tried for the countless murders which occurred in Ethiopia during his rule.
President Mugabe, a personal friend of Mengistu, said when he granted the dictator asylum, he had done so on humanitarian grounds and to facilitate a peaceful transition in that country. He promised that Mengistu would not be allowed to perform any hostile activities against the Ethiopian government while in Zimbabwe.
Mengistu, if his statement is anything to go by, has started brewing trouble from Zimbabwe. He talks about the "great and heroic people's army" being alive in the bush and as being in temporary hibernation, and that it would soon rise to its expectations. "The Ethiopian Salvation Movement is already underway," Mengistu says.
Probably Mengistu has, since his arrival in Zimbabwe been planning how best to topple the government of President Zenawi, and now that his plans are at an advanced stage, he has decided to let the cat out of the bag.
If President Mugabe was serious when he said Mengistu would not be allowed to conspire against the Ethiopian government, then we should expect Mengistu to be given his marching orders soon. If the president does not do that, then the international community will know exactly where he stands.
Zimbabwe must not be a country where dictators and murderers are given political asylum.
The eviction of Mengistu would at least grant Zimbabwean taxpayers some relief, unless Mengistu is living on funds he siphoned from state coffers before he left Ethiopia.
From the first day of my exile up to now, I never uttered or said a word, particularly on political issues related to myself and my beloved country—Ethiopia in particular. My enemies who are in power in Ethiopia have been having a field day all these years. They have been attacking me publicly in the media and in private by telling lies about me and my previous government.
The regime in Addis Ababa has been engaged in hearsay, rumour-mongering. baseless and malicious propaganda and above all, by insulting and mud-slinging my personality and as if it was not enough. degraded my personality and character.
I strongly believe and I am confident that sooner or later, only history and the Ethiopian people have the right to judge me and my political leadership. In fact, my enemies have no stature nor the credibility to pass any judgement on me or my government.
However, the time has come now for me to tell the truth about the events that transpired leading to the grave situation of that unfortunate, helpless, occupied and divided motherland of mine—Ethiopia.
First of all, I did not come to power simply through the use of force of arms. I was not even a self-proclaimed president. The facts are that, it was a peoples revolution dictated by political principles and ideals. It was not the issue of being a dictator nor a power hungry person. It was principles dictated by the tragic political realities of feudal Ethiopia of the time. It was a people's revolution for justice, freedom, equality and democracy.
I was and still am a revolutionary democrat that strongly opposes political hegemony of both the indigenous and international dictators. I was not at all a Soviet satellite In Africa as my enemies boisterously articulate in the international media. I was not at any time obeying nor taking any orders from international powerful dictators nor being a subservient puppet of anybody. We believed in national independence with friendly relations with all the countries of the world whether powerful or weak or small or big. My absolute loyalty was to the people of a united Ethiopia and its constitution. No more, no less. As claimed by my enemies, I was not over-thrown by coup d'état, nor was I thrown out of power by the Ethiopian people. The truth is, there was an international conspiracy that was both an imperialist conspiracy as well as a reformist collaboration against myself, the Ethiopian people and our democratic revolution.
It is public knowledge that I was elected to lead a popular democratic revolution. Without dwelling much on the achievements of the revolution, it is true that the Ethiopian people have greatly achieved enormous economic and social gains.
For example, the Ethiopian people have been liberated from an archaic feudal rule that was in power for over three thousand years. Our revolution managed to implement successful programmes of rural and urban radical reforms. We carried out literacy campaigns targeting the 97 percent of our illiterate population.
We introduced widely free education and free health services for all the Ethiopians. New radical labour laws and social security measures were implemented and carried out effectively. Many citizens were able to find relevant jobs with guaranteed salaries. especial attention to social security and care for the elderly, the children, war veterans and the disabled were given adequate priority by the revolution. Justice and equality irrespective of sex, ethnicity, religion or race was also one of the pillars of our national programmes.
It is important to know that during my youth and manhood I had equally suffered in the battlefields fighting side by side with many comrades and I colleagues for about fifteen years. During this time I played my role as a responsible patriotic citizen and a professional soldier. This was in defence of my beloved country. Then, when I became the head of state for seventeen years, I was a leader of a country that I found engaged in a vicious civil war and a land which was a victim of international conspiracy and foreign aggression. As a young officer and a revolutionary democrat and at the helm of leadership at the time, Ethiopia was not flowing with milk and honey nor was it a sugar-candy mountain to quote George Orwell of Animal Farm. In spite of these difficult circumstances, I tried my best with the help of my colleagues and with the encouragement, support and stamina of the Ethiopian masses with the help of its vanguard, the revolutionary armed forces; we all combined our efforts to serve our country, to assure unity, territorial integrity, national security, justice, freedom and rapid social and economic progress for all our people. This was a duty as well as a commitment to the nation.
However, during my short tour of duty for a few hours in Nairobi, Kenya, it was when I received a message from my ambassador in Kenya informing me of my removal from power. This was done by my few top-ranking comrades. These colleagues and comrades were infiltrated to subvert the Ethiopian revolution. It was the "fifth column" in our revolutionary ranks. Some of the comrades were paid by the imperialist circles. It was no doubt to some of the comrades the virus of revolutionary fatigue and they tried to cure it with 10 pieces of silver. In addition to all these intrigues, there was clear collaboration between the imperialist and the so-called Soviet reformists, a political scenario that was nothing other than anarchy and betrayal with self-destruction and who loyally agreed to the colonialists' theme and ambition of destroying the young Ethiopian revolution. It was a real field day for international traitors of all kinds that had nothing in common other than to destroy Mengistu as head of revolutionary Ethiopia.
The message which was delivered to me by the Ethiopian ambassador in Kenya and together with their announcement in Addis Ababa to the Ethiopian nation as a whole was as follows: "Due to heavy problems and heavy pressure imposed on him, our first and beloved president, comrade Mengistu has left the country on his own free will for the sake of peace and has appointed his deputy Lt General Tesfaye as acting president."
This was indeed a great shock for the entire nation and so for me. When I contacted them through the telephone to know the exact situation, they responded by telling me that they have been obliged to reach this kind of decision because of the precondition imposed on them by a mediator country together with our opponents. According to the telephone conversation the precondition and promise is in fact, to abolish the government of the Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and to form a transitional government so that Eritrean bandits will not advance on Asmara and at the same time the Tigray bandits will not move on Addis Ababa. In this way, peace will be achieved. This was indeed a raw deal for my colleagues and comrades to believe it to be gospel truth from our enemies and the imperialists with reformists included.
This resulted in unexpected great shock to the nation as a whole. It was suddenly announced by my colleagues to the nation without ever contemplating what political repercussions could follow such a sudden change. They were indeed naive in their judgement.
In response to the announcement, the loyal revolutionary armed forces were not at all impressed with the announcers to the evil doom. Instead, the regular loyal forces marches to the capital city of Addis Ababa, thus abandoning their strategic military positions around the city.
During this very critical moment, the same comrades in confusion and with utter folly and stupidity reversed their first announced statement about my removal from power which they had announced a day earlier. Instead, they said that "President Mengistu left his responsibility as head of state without their prior knowledge." This resulted in further confusion and anarchy. As a result, the entire rebel armies walked into Addis Ababa and occupied the whole city without any resistance whatsoever. Of course, my comrades who were persuaded by the enemy to hand over the country to rebels believing that they might fulfil their own selfish ends and foolish motives. It was a real disaster for the culprints who betrayed the Ethiopian people's revolution. In fact, they were deceived, then later condemned by the rebels. The rest were imprisoned and are now languishing in jails in their thousands. All these innocent citizens are living under very bad human conditions and are exposed to worse conditions of human abuses.
Today Ethiopian people have no government nor even advocacy in the international arena. The so-called Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) who have succeeded to the separate Eritrea and the so-called Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) who are now occupying the rest of Ethiopia in the name of an interim government of (PRDF) i.e., Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front; both in fact, are one and the same rebel organisation. Both the TPLF and EPLF fought their own country Ethiopia for the last thirty years and are confusing the world by calling themselves with different names. The fact is, they are both one and single guerrilla organisation which emanates from one minority ethnic group—the Tigray tribe.
It would be worthwhile for the entire world to know this unique Ethiopian situation and its political dilemma "One Tigrayan ruling the so-called independent state of Eritrea while the other one is ruling Ethiopia as EPRDF and at the same time legalising international independence of Eritrea which is the northern province of Ethiopia". This is indeed political treachery at its height.
The present Eritrean government's capital budget, social and administrative costs, salaries and even political expenditures are all paid and financed by the so-called Ethiopian interim government and this is being done against the will of the Ethiopian people.
It is equally important to see the geographical, political and demographic realities of Ethiopia.
In the history of Ethiopia there is not a village, province or region inhabited by a single trible or ethnic group speaking one language known by the name of Eritrea. The word Eritrea was a name given for the northern part of the country by the Italians. This was during the time of their short period of occupation. It has always been Tigray and appropriately so and not the Italian-created colonial and imperialist strategy and political necessity.
After all our long struggle and suffering, all of my fellow Ethiopians included have lsot almost everything regarding our country. The great popular people's revolution has been reversed. This has been to due to designs and intrigues of both the imperialists and reformists particularly with the help of some of their collaborators who were planted in our midst. Our beloved motherland is occupied and divided. It is a sinister political reality but still can be corrected through determination. The great and heroic Ethiopian people's Army has been scattered. The first political party in Ethiopian history that was the vanguard of the Ethiopian people, its unity and its democratic principles and revolution have been disbanded. Yet it will rise to its expectations in not a distant future.
Most of the country's intellectuals, students, workers, professionals, peasants, industrialists and millions of patriotic citizens and the general public who have firmly and resolutely stood in defence of Ethiopian unity are all now falsely accused of being criminals of war and instead killed, imprisoned, retrenched or forced to leave the country. Many Ethiopians are now refugees and aliens in foreign countries. Is that the meaning of democracy? We were all told that "Democracy is government by the people, for the people and of the people." I thought that was what President Abraham Lincoln said.
The gallant soldiers of the 2nd Ethiopian army vigorously fought in the name of Ethiopian unity in the province of Eritrea and were ordered to lay down their arms in the name of peace and are now abandoned in their suffering in Eritrean jails. Nearly over one hundred thousand soldiers and officers have been massacred, imprisoned and many of them are in forced labour camps under inhuman conditions. Where are the human rights organisations? During our time we used to hear of Amnesty International, Africa Watch, Geneva Convention on the righs of the prisoners of war, etc. Why are these human rights organisations burying their heads in the sand not taking note of the human rights abuses in Ethiopia? This is just a brief mention of the agony and misery that the Ethiopian people are facing today in the year 1994. I have not even talked much about the painful disastrous economic and social situation in the country as a whole.
Fellow countrymen, as you are aware of our previous policies, Ethiopia was committed to preservation of world peace and the respect for human historical civilisations. Ethiopia from days immemorial has resolutely struggled for the continuity of its statehood and the preservation of its historical heritage. We have strived for the total liberation of African people and others in the third world.
Noting that Ethiopia has been a unitary state during its long history of independence, it has always remained a target of external aggression with the intention of our enemies to advance their evil intentions, using agents in the form of their offsprings brought about by the internal contradiction and developments. These internal hostile forces organised from within our revolution to destabilise the internal situation.
The external forces through destructive internal elements are busy night and day for the disintegration of Ethiopia and its peoples. They are forcing our people to break up into religions and ethnic lines. The country is being isolated and has been denied its access to the Red Sea. This has been achieved by the enemies of Ethiopia through the creation of the so-called independent state of Eritrea.
Fellow countrymen, comrades and friends, to avoid this undesirable and very dangerous political trend, I and my colleagues tried to rescue the country and the nation without leaving any stone unturned.
Before the Eritrean Separation and Tigray occupation, we had tried to solve the problem peacefully and constructively. We held genuine peace talks in the former East Berlin, Moscow, South Yemen, Sudan, Italy, United States of America, Nairobi and at last in the City of London. All these peace attempts were completely frustrated by the intransigence of the rebels and their international allies.
Recently in 1993 over forty political parties, representatives of all mass organisations, professional associations, several patriotic citizens, various ethnic and religious groups, held a nationwide political meetign and they appealed to the so-called interim government in order to give a positive response to the resolutions of the conference. On the contrary, the rebel government in Addis Ababa declined to give any positive political gestures to the conference. The regime was completely arrogant and negative, to say the least.
Similar peace conferences once in Paris and previously in Addis Ababa were suggesting the formation of a democratic transitional government which should be representative of the whole of plural Ethiopia. It has also recommended a democratic constitution drafting commission which was to comprise of all political forces and various ethnic groups. This would accommodate Ethiopian people's participation and help towards the realisation of just, fair, and democratic elections.
Unfortunately, this arrogant, anti-unity, anti-peace, anti-democracy guerrilla organisation, the EPRDF, openly declared its unwillingness to join the peace conference and the transitional democratic process. Instrad, the regime in Addis Ababa decided to pursue hostile policies leading to further destruction of our country. The regime in Addis Ababa which is dominated by a minority single Tigray ethnic group dreams to rule on its own in a country of fifty three million people which is a concoction of eighthy-eight ethnic groups. This is a democracy in reverse the EPRDF way.
This disgusting political sitation in Ethiopia today has left no choice for the people of Ethiopia except to fight for their democratic rights using all the means available in their hands. This will definitely lead Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa and far beyond in the region into a far greater political tragedy that the world had never witnessed in that part of Africa.
Because of this grave political and military situation at home, I have received a call once again from every sector of Ethiopian society to contribute towards the realisation of peace, justice, freedom and democracy. I have been challenged for the second time by the people to rescue my country. Indeed, I shall arise to their expectations and help my country survive once again in spite of all political odds.
First of all, the voice of the Ethiopian people has been internationally jammed media-wise. This explosive political situation with all the information regarding the political tragedy in our country has been completely denied to the outside world. The freedom of movement locally and externally has been restricted by the ruthless rulers of Addis Ababa. In some countries, Ethiopian refugees are being treated like prisoners.
This must indeed be a trying moment for all the patriots and democrats in our motherland "we shall overcome by all means". Throughout the history of Ethiopia, our people have always stood against forces of doom, slavery, apartheid, racism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, imperialism and exploitation of man by man. We are firm in our resolve and known for our long-standing principles on justice, equality and freedom to all making. Ethiopia has always been a pioneer in the helm of Pan Africanist sturggle. The Ethiopian people have always made their meagre finances and resources available for Pan African Movements.
[1] The Sunday Gazette editor Regis Nyamakanga introduces Mengistu's statement on the first page, and an anonymous editorial on the second page provides a critical commentary. Mengistu's statement itself is on the tenth page. All three items are transcribed here.
[2] Given that the original scan is available, minor typos have been corrected without using [sic].