Mengistu haile mariam net worth
Mengistu shows no signs of repentance |
He was a relatively obscure army officer when he took part in a successful but bloody coup against Ethiopia's Haile Selassie in September
The emperor had failed to come to grips with a poor harvest, and the situation escalated into a devastating famine.
The young officers formed the Dergue, which Mengistu took control of three years later, after a power struggle.
Mengistu showed a ruthless streak, shooting a fellow officer who wanted to make peace with the province of Eritrea, which was seeking independence.
The president's dream was to turn Ethiopia into a Soviet-style workers' state.
Mengistu haile mariam book pdf
Mengistu shows no signs of repentance Fifteen years later, he has been held responsible for the deaths or disappearances of tens of thousands of Ethiopians during the s - a period known as the Red Terror, when Mengistu ruled the country through his military committee, known as the Dergue. He was a relatively obscure army officer when he took part in a successful but bloody coup against Ethiopia's Haile Selassie in September The emperor had failed to come to grips with a poor harvest, and the situation escalated into a devastating famine. The young officers formed the Dergue, which Mengistu took control of three years later, after a power struggle. Mengistu showed a ruthless streak, shooting a fellow officer who wanted to make peace with the province of Eritrea, which was seeking independence.Thousands of intellectuals, professionals and other perceived opponents of socialism and the regime were killed during the "Red Terror" years.
Soviet alliance
At the time, the country was embroiled in a war with Somalia, which was armed and backed by the Soviet Union. Mengistu encouraged Moscow to switch sides.
An alliance was formed, which saw the Soviet Union pour more than $10bn of military aid into the country during the s.
For years, Mengistu relied on the Soviet Union for his economic thinking.
He saw himself as a Third World champion of communism.
Mengistu haile mariam family Haile Mariam Mengistu, a military and political figure in Ethiopia, was born on May 21, or in the small town of Walaita in the Harari province. Little is known about his early life, as his biography remains largely mysterious. He was raised in an aristocratic family in Addis Ababa. Despite completing only primary school, Mengistu was admitted to the Holleta Military Academy in , thanks to his uncle who was a minister. He graduated in as a second lieutenant and later received additional training in the United States.Alongside portraits of Lenin, Engels and Marx, he hung huge portraits of himself leading the masses to victory.
He spent much of his leisure time reading Marxist-Leninist tracts and wore Soviet-cut military jackets and caps.
Sent to the US
Mengistu was born in in Walayitta, Ethiopia.
He joined the army and graduated from military academy in
He was sent for advanced training to the United States.
Meles zenawi Haile Mariam Mengistu was a popular army officer who was installed as ruler of Ethiopia following the country's revolution. He remained in power for the next seventeen years, and his attempt to mold the country into a Soviet-style socialist paradise plunged it into a brutal reign of terror instead. Ethiopia's government-sanctioned campaign of political repression resulted in an estimated , deaths, and Mengistu became known as "the Butcher of Addis Ababa " for it. Fifteen years after his flight into exile, he was tried in absentia and found guilty of genocide. He remains in Zimbabwe, in a walled compound, but the legacy of his long and bloody rule was to destabilize the Horn of Africa and reshape the borders of its countries through the armed rebel groups that worked to unseat him.There, he became anti-American, sympathising with the American black nationalist movement. It was also in the US that his Stalinist philosophy took shape.
In , he returned to Ethiopia. Six years later, he was in charge of the country.
Initially, he made social and economic changes in the country, replacing the ancient feudal society with a socialist one-party state.
But his ruling Workers' Party became extremely unpopular for harsh social policies as well as the forced wholesale transfer of population.
The drought of brought the country to economic ruin and he was forced to reassess his Marxist rhetoric.
An estimated 1m people starved to death during the famine.
In , Moscow cut its military aid and Mengistu began abandoning his Marxist policies.
The Dergue was overthrown in , and Mengistu fled as the combined Eritrean and Tigrayan forces were on the outskirts of Addis Ababa.
He found a safe haven in Zimbabwe, with help from American officials who hoped his departure might stop the fighting.
He has lived a lavish but reclusive life in exile in Zimbabwe ever since. His only trip abroad was in when he visited South Africa for medical treatment. There was pressure on the government to extradite him - but he returned quickly to Zimbabwe.