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Modern Diplomacy
By Agenagn Kebede
The 1970s Ethiopian popular revolution instigated the end of the longest monarchy in the world and heralded in the dictatorship. While the revolution was initiated by university students, peasants, labor unions, urban dwellers, and intelligentsia, who had questions concerning self-rule, administration, democracy, and human rights, at the end, it was the military wing that controlled the power (Levine, 2008). In the middle of 1974, this military wing planted the dictatorial political structure against the long-monarchical form of government. In the same year, Mengistu-Hailemariam was assigned as chairman of the armed forces.
With higher officials of the armed forces, Mengistu coordinated a committee of revolutionary soldiers to strengthen his military government. Mengistu and his friends formed an executive organ of government that could supervise and mentor the administration. This council was summoned as the Provisional Military Administration Council (PMAC). Mengistu became chairman of the council and the cult of the dictator after assassinating the former chairmen: Lieutenant General Aman Adom, Brigadier General Tefari, and Lieutenant Colonel Atnafu Abate (Merega, 2017).
Following this, the hope of solving questions of self-rule, administration, democratic rights, and human rights through the doctorial formula of Stalin (Marxism and Socialism) was emptied by the centralized rule of the dictatorial communist party (Derg).
Mengistu’s administration was a pure dictatorship and ruled the country for more than 13 years without a constitution or constitutionalism until his team drafted the 1987 People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia’s (PDRE) constitution. It also ruled the country for 17 years as a war monger and war maker with irredentist, nationalist, secessionist, and anti-military regime groups to sustain its dictatorial legitimacy by coining its actions as holy for keeping Ethiopiansim.
From 1975-1991, it battled with the guerrilla alliance of the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Eritrean People Liberation Front (EPLF) that were aiming to forge Tigray and Eritrea as a sovereign entities in the Horn of Africa(Tronvoll, 2009). Mengistu’s administration claimed that it battled with TPLF and EPLF to prevent Ethiopia from disintegration. When doing this, it tried to approach Amhara elites on its side, even though, by narrating political characterization, it targeted and killed innocent Amharas, who had Ethiopian and unity thesis in their political thinking. With all efforts, around 1991, Mengistu’s administration was unable to defeat the TPLF and EPLF, which were backed by the Capitalists Block.
Mengistu’s administration also fought with the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) (Kidane, 2011). Even though OLF and ONLF could not create an alliance because of differences in goals, strategies, and ideologies, they fought back with Derg based on political, economic, and social factors; ONLF wanted to integrate Ethiopian Somalia with the Islamic State of Great Somalia, and OLF was interested in creating the great sovereign state of Oromia (Asnake, 2015).
Concerning the above, Mengistu’s administration approached war as an Amhara-affiliated political group, which latter endangers the livelihood of Amhara who have been living in Oromia National Regional State and Ethio-Somali National Regional State.
In addition to this, Mengistu’s administration was at war with the 1970 intelligentsia, which had complained about the undemocratic administration of the Derg. Relating to this, by forming a strong political party, members of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party’s (EPRP) Force were in guerrilla fighting and city war with Derg from 1972–1990, halting the dictatorship and authoritarian political journey of Mengistu (Yibeltal, n.d.). However, EPRP’s inability to reconcile its citizenship political culture with existing vibrant ethnic political thinking and poor logistic and information support created an opportunity for Mengistu’s administration to gain political control over EPRP. But on the other side, the conflict with the EPLF and TPLF continued until 1991.
Within this condition, Mengistu and the PMAC exploited invaluable military forces to secure the political position and made the military operation unproportional, unethical, and targeted the innocent. Even though Mengistu still denied the archived and documented facts, he and his administration employed the “Red Terror Campaign” (1976–1978) to crush opponents (Merega, 2017). They did a full military operation with all guerrilla fighters, but in this operation, innocents were also targeted. Millions of innocent youths in Tigray and Amhara were murdered in extrajudicial ways for preventing youths’ intentions and interests from joining rebel groups.
Thereby, Mengistu and his administration stayed in power until the end of the 1990s with little desire to engage in conversation to resolve conflicts or to listen to the concerns of political parties or rebel groups. Instead, they continued to hold political power, killed millions of people, and caused thousands of people to leave their country by claiming that their military action was the only means of preserving Ethiopia and resolving Ethiopian issues.
At the end of the 17-year communist era, in the name of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the TPLF came to power after it defeated a self-proclaimed Marxist military junta in May 1991. The EPRDF, the dominant TPLF political group, had been ruling Ethiopia for three decades with the adoption of the ethnic-based 1995 Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) constitution as a response to the 1960s Eritrean, Tigray, and Oromo elites’ requests for self-administration and self-rule. However, the political vacuum of Mengistu’s administration is still observed in the political apparatus of Ethiopia (Yienebeb, 2018).
To sum up, Ethiopian governments need to take lessons from Mengistu’s leadership. Mengistu established the Worker Party of Ethiopia (WPE) as the only political party, imposed dictatorial Marxist revolutions on Ethiopian peoples, and launched war in several regions of the country with the aim of pave his way to absolute power. While he reported that he undertook all of his military missions to save his country, his main concern was his political power. Mengistu was raised in Ethiopian politics with the intention of using military measures rather than democratic methods to address issues of governance and rights demand. This resulted in the public’s disapproval of his administration, more political and economic crises for the country, and millions of deaths.