Editing Mengistu Haile Mariam (section)

== Leadership of Ethiopia ==
Mengistu did not emerge as the leader of the Derg until after the 3 February 1977 shootout, in which Chairman [[Tafari Benti]] was killed. The vice-chairman of the Derg, Atnafu Abate, clashed with Mengistu over the issue of how to handle the war in Eritrea and lost, leading to his execution with 40 other officers, clearing the way for Mengistu to assume control.<ref>Indian Ocean Newsletter publication, 1985 "Ethiopia: Political Power & the Military"</ref> He formally assumed power as head of state, and justified his execution of Abate (on 13 November of that year) by claiming that he had "placed the interests of Ethiopia above the interests of socialism" and undertaken other "counter-revolutionary" activities.<ref>Henze, ''Layers of Time'', p. 302.</ref> 

===Political conflicts===
{{main|Red Terror (Ethiopia)}}
Resistance against the Derg ensued, led primarily by the [[Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party]] (EPRP). Mengistu cracked down on the EPRP and other revolutionary student organizations in what would become called the "[[Red Terror (Ethiopia)|Red Terror]]".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Mengistu Haile Mariam {{!}} president of Ethiopia |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mengistu-Haile-Mariam#ref704010 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=3 June 2018}}</ref> The Derg subsequently turned against the socialist student movement [[All-Ethiopia Socialist Movement|MEISON]], a major supporter against the EPRP, in what would be called the "[[White Terror (Ethiopia)|White Terror]]".

The EPRP's efforts to discredit and undermine the Derg and its MEISON collaborators escalated in the fall of 1976. It targeted public buildings and other symbols of state authority for bombings and assassinated numerous Abyot Seded and MEISON members, as well as public officials at all levels. The Derg, which countered with its own counter-terrorism campaign, labeled the EPRP's tactics the White Terror. Mengistu asserted that all "progressives" were given "freedom of action" in helping root out the revolution's enemies, and his wrath was particularly directed toward the EPRP. Peasants, workers, public officials, and even students thought to be loyal to the Mengistu regime were provided with arms to accomplish this task.<ref name=LOC-web>[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/ettoc.html A Country Study: Ethiopia] (US Library of Congress)</ref>


In a public speech in April 1977, Mengistu shouted "Death to counterrevolutionaries! Death to the EPRP!" and then produced three bottles filled with a red liquid that symbolized the blood of the imperialists and the counterrevolutionaries and smashed them to the ground to show what the revolution would do to its enemies.<ref>{{cite book |last=Leonard |first=Thomas M. |title=Encyclopedia of the developing world |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=New York |year=2005 |page=739 |oclc=60705727 |isbn=1-57958-388-1}}</ref> Thousands of young men and women turned up dead in the streets of the capital and other cities in the following months. They were systematically murdered mainly by the militia attached to the [[kebele]]s, the neighborhood watch committees which served during Mengistu's reign as the lowest level local government and security surveillance units. Families had to pay the kebeles a tax known as "the wasted bullet" to obtain the bodies of their loved ones.<ref>[https://www.hrw.org/legacy/english/docs/1999/11/29/ethiop5495.htm Ethiopian Dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam] [[Human Rights Watch]], 1999</ref> In May 1977, the Swedish general secretary of the [[Save the Children|Save the Children Fund]] stated that "1,000&nbsp;children have been killed, and their bodies are left in the streets and are being eaten by wild [[spotted hyena|hyenas]]. You can see the heaped-up bodies of murdered children, most of them aged eleven to thirteen, lying in the gutter, as you drive out of Addis Ababa."<ref>[[Stephane Courtois]], et al. ''[[The Black Book of Communism]]: Crimes, Terror, Repression''. [[Harvard University Press]], 1999. pg. 691</ref> [[Amnesty International]] estimates that up to 500,000 people were killed during the Ethiopian Red Terror.<ref name="books.google.com">[https://books.google.com/books?id=4eSR1rHg5_YC&pg=PA457 ''The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World''] by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, pg 457</ref><ref name="US admits helping Mengistu escape">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/575405.stm US admits helping Mengistu escape] [[BBC]], 22 December 1999</ref><ref name="Devil pg 151">''Talk of the Devil: Encounters with Seven Dictators'' by Riccardo Orizio, pg 151</ref>[[File:Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam throws red bottle in emotional speech.jpg|thumb|Same Mengistu's speech. Moment during which he is throwing bottle with blood. |left]]Military gains made by the monarchist [[Ethiopian Democratic Union]] 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 [[Somali Democratic Republic]] [[Ethio-Somali War|invaded Ethiopia]], having overrun the [[Ogaden]] region, and was on the verge of capturing Harar and [[Dire Dawa]], when Somalia's erstwhile allies, the Soviets and the Cubans, launched an unprecedented arms and personnel airlift to come to rescue of Ethiopia. The Derg government turned back the Somali invasion and made deep strides against the [[Eritrean War of Independence|Eritrean secessionists]] and the [[Tigray People's Liberation Front]] (TPLF) as well. By the end of the seventies, Mengistu presided over the second-largest army in all of [[sub-Saharan Africa]], as well as a formidable [[Ethiopian Air Force|air force]] and navy.

===Embracing Marxism–Leninism===
{{Further|Soviet Union-Africa relations#Ethiopia}}
After coming to power, Mengistu embraced the philosophy of [[Marxism–Leninism]], which was increasingly popular among many nationalists and revolutionaries throughout Africa and much of the [[Third World]] at the time. In the mid-1970s, under Mengistu's leadership, the Derg regime radicalized and began an aggressive program of changing system of Ethiopia from a mixed feudal-capitalist emergent economy to an [[Eastern Bloc]]-style command economy. All rural land was [[Nationalization|nationalized]], stripping the Ethiopian Church, the Imperial family, and the nobility of all their sizable estates and the bulk of their wealth. During this same period, all foreign-owned and locally owned companies were nationalized without compensation in an effort to redistribute the country's wealth. All undeveloped urban property and all rental property were also nationalized. Private businesses such as banks and insurance companies, large retail businesses, etc. were also taken over by the government. All this nationalized property was brought under the administration of large bureaucracies set up to administer them. Farmers who had once worked on land owned by absentee landlords were now compelled to join collective farms. All agricultural products were no longer to be offered on the free market but were to be controlled and distributed by the government. Despite progressive agricultural reforms, under the Derg, agricultural output suffered due to [[Ethiopian Civil War|civil war]], [[Famines in Ethiopia|drought]] and misguided [[Economy of Ethiopia|economic policies]]. There was also a [[1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia|famine in 1984]], which was the 10th anniversary of the Derg.
[[File:Mengistu Haile Mariam propaganda poster.jpg|thumb|Propaganda poster, shows Mengistu.]]
The Soviets hailed Ethiopia for its supposed similar cultural and historical parallels to the USSR. Moscow said it proved that a backward society could become revolutionary by adopting a Leninist system. It was hailed as a model junior ally that Moscow was eager to support. In the 1980s Ethiopia plunged into greater turmoil and the Soviet system itself was collapsing by 1990. Russian commentators had turned scornful of the Ethiopian regime.<ref>Diana L. Ohlbaum, "Ethiopia and the Construction of Soviet Identity, 1974-1991". ''Northeast African Studies'' 1.1 (1994): 63-89. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41932036 online]</ref>

In early 1984, under Mengistu's direction, the Marxist–Leninist [[Workers' Party of Ethiopia]] (WPE) was founded as the country's ruling party, with Mengistu as general secretary. On 10 September 1987, a [[1987 Constitution of Ethiopia|new Soviet-style constitution]] was adopted, and the country was renamed the [[People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia]]. Mengistu became president, with sweeping executive and legislative powers. Due to the doctrine of [[democratic centralism]], he was effectively a dictator. He and the other surviving members of the Derg all retired from the military. However, even as civilians, they dominated the Politburo of the WPE. In the late 1980s, some Western critics of Mengistu, including Michael Johns of [[The Heritage Foundation]], charged that Mengistu's economic, military and political policies, along with the Soviet Union's support for Mengistu, were key contributing factors to the [[1983-1985 famine in Ethiopia|mid-1980s Ethiopian famine]], which ultimately took over 500,000 lives. Mengistu made seven visits to the Soviet Union between 1977 and 1984, as well as other visits to his political allies Cuba, East Germany, South Yemen, and Mozambique. From 1983 to 1984 Mengistu served as head of the [[Organization of African Unity]].

However, the government's military position gradually weakened. First came the [[Battle of Afabet]] in March 1988, a defeat at the hands of the [[Eritrean People's Liberation Front]], with 15,000 casualties and the loss of a great deal of equipment. This was followed up less than a year later by another crushing defeat at [[Battle of Shire (1989)|Shire]], with over 20,000 men either killed or captured and the loss of even more equipment. On 16 May 1989, while Mengistu was out of the country for a four-day state visit to [[East Germany]], senior military officials [[1989 Ethiopian coup d'état attempt|attempted a coup]], and the Minister of Defense, [[Haile Giyorgis Habte Mariam]], was killed; Mengistu returned within 24 hours and nine generals, including the air force commander and the army chief of staff, died as the coup was crushed.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071104002017/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,957825,00.html "Ethiopia Fizzled Coup"], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', 29 May 1989 (accessed 30 July 2009).</ref>