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Ethiopia Political Participation and Repression
The period immediately following the overthrow of Haile
Selassie was a time of open political debate. The new regime
did not have a clearly defined ideology, but it was swept
along by the growing radical discourse among members of the
civilian left. Initially, the Derg tried to win the support
of the Ethiopian left by declaring its socialist intentions
in its program statement, Ethiopia Tikdem (Ethiopia First).
The economic and social policies articulated in this
document were populist in tone and did little to co-opt the
civilian left.
Once it became clear that the Derg had assigned to itself
the vanguard role in the revolution, elements in the
civilian left began to criticize the new regime. Chief among
such critics was the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party
(EPRP). By 1976 the EPRP had become engaged in a systematic
campaign to undermine and discredit the Derg. The party was
successful in infiltrating the zemecha, the CELU, and even
the Provisional Office for Mass Organizational Affairs
(POMOA), the precursor to the Yekatit '66 Ideological
School. At the height of its activities, the EPRP included
students, intellectuals, teachers, merchants, and government
bureaucrats. It even had sympathizers within the military.
During the late 1970s, apart from the military, the Derg
relied for support on the All-Ethiopia Socialist Movement
(whose Amharic acronym was MEISON). Rather than challenge
the vanguard role of the military, MEISON entered into a
strategic alliance with the Derg, accepting its hegemony at
least for the short term. In the highly charged political
climate of the moment, MEISON engaged in vigorous debate
with the EPRP over the most appropriate strategy for
reconstructing Ethiopian society. The debate between the two
groups first took place in their organizations' newspapers
and in pamphlets but later moved to the streets in the form
of bloody assassination and counterassassination campaigns.
The differences between MEISON and the EPRP were
fundamental. The EPRP pressed uncompromisingly for a genuine
"people's democracy," whereas MEISON favored "controlled
democracy" and was prepared to give the Derg some time to
return to the barracks.
The friction between the two groups inspired the Derg to
become more radical in its ideology and public policies. The
regime determined that to survive it would have to alter its
program and co-opt or destroy its civilian opponents. It
pursued both goals simultaneously by setting up three
organizations: the PNDR, the Yekatit '66 Ideological School,
and a political advisory body called the Politburo (not to
be confused with the Political Bureau of the WPE).
The Derg seemed hesitant to permit free and open political
competition, although it attempted to create the impression
of openness by allowing political groups to operate in a
limited fashion. Organizations resembling political parties
were not allowed to organize on a mass basis, but they could
participate in politics through representation on the
Politburo; in fact, both the EPRP and MEISON were
represented on the Politburo. Also represented were Abyot
Seded (Revolutionary Flame), founded in 1976 by members of
the armed forces and led by Mengistu himself; the Waz
(Labor) League, which claimed a working-class base and
shared the EPRP's radical populist tendencies; and the
Revolutionary Struggle of the Ethiopian Masses (whose
Amharic acronym was ECHAAT), a largely Oromo political
organization. The Politburo provided a forum where the
differences among the various political groupings could be
clarified and where the Derg could monitor the tendencies of
its opponents.
By late 1976, MEISON had become the most influential
civilian group on the Politburo. However, the growing power
of Abyot Seded was also evident, as it challenged MEISON and
the EPRP within the Politburo and in grass-roots
institutions such as kebeles and peasant associations. To
counter this threat, the Derg began to prepare Abyot Seded
to assume the role of chief adviser on ideological,
political, and organizational matters. The aim seems to have
been the creation of a cadre of Abyot Seded members with
sufficient ideological sophistication to neutralize all
civilian opponents, including MEISON. Abyot Seded members
received ideological training in the Soviet Union, East
Germany, and Cuba. On their return, they were assigned the
task of politicizing the rank and file of the military.
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 Red Terror
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.
Mengistu's decision resulted in fratricidal chaos. Many
civilians he armed were EPRP sympathizers rather than
supporters of MEISON or the Derg. Between early 1977 and
late 1978, roughly 5,000 people were killed. In the process,
the Derg became estranged from civilian groups, including
MEISON. By early 1979, Abyot Seded stood alone as the only
officially recognized political organization; the others
were branded enemies of the revolution. Growing human rights
violations prompted the United States, Ethiopia's superpower
patron, to counsel moderation. However, the Derg continued
to use extreme measures against its real and perceived
opponents to ensure its survival.
When he assumed office in early 1977, United States
president Jimmy Carter curtailed arms sales to Ethiopia
because of its human rights abuses. In response, Mengistu
severely curtailed relations with the United States,
ordering all United States military personnel and most
embassy staff to leave the country. In search of an
alternate source of military aid, Mengistu eventually turned
to the Soviet Union. However, before the Soviet Union and
its allies could establish an effective presence in
Ethiopia, opposition groups stepped up their campaigns
against the Derg.
In addition to the urban guerrilla warfare being waged by
the EPRP, nationalist movements such as the EPLF, the OLF,
the TPLF, and the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF)
also stepped up their military campaigns in the countryside.
By the end of 1976, the Eritreans had made substantial gains
in rural areas, forcing Ethiopian troops into garrisons and
urban centers in Eritrea. Meanwhile, armed groups such as
the OLF and the TPLF were severely testing the regime, and
in 1977 the WSLF, with the assistance of Somali troops,
occupied most of the Ogaden. The Ethiopian government,
however, with aid from the Soviet Union, Cuba, and Eastern
Europe, reasserted its authority over contested areas by the
following spring (see
External and Internal Opponents, ch.
5).
Once it had reestablished control, the Derg resumed the
creation of institutions that would enhance its political
hegemony and legitimacy. After having almost met its demise,
the Derg decided to form a vanguard party. In June 1978, the
Derg announced that Abyot Seded would be joined with the
factional remnants of the Waz League and the MarxistLeninist Revolutionary Organization (whose Amharic acronym
was MALERED), a small splinter group of MEISON, in the allembracing Union of Ethiopian Marxist-Leninist Organizations
(whose Amharic acronym was EMALEDEH). The task of the front
was to identify strategies for the creation of a vanguard
party. The following year, Mengistu announced that he would
form a commission to develop a framework for the longawaited vanguard party.
By 1978 all civilian opposition groups had been destroyed
or forced underground. The EPRP had been driven out of the
cities and into the mountains of the central highlands,
where it tried unsuccessfully to develop the Ethiopian
People's Revolutionary Army (EPRA). The OLF had been driven
into refugee camps in Sudan and Somalia; the WSLF had sought
refuge in Somalia; the TPLF and the Ethiopian Democratic
Union (EDU), a group of former nobility and officials of the
Haile Selassie government, had been pushed into Sudan; and
the EPLF had been forced back into its strongholds along the
Sudanese border. The task then facing the Derg was to
establish its popular legitimacy among the various ethnic
communities opposed to its rule. The most vigorous
opposition came from the EPLF and the TPLF. The OLF, the
EPRP, and the Afar Liberation Front (ALF) were experiencing
revivals but had yet to become militarily effective.
Data as of 1991
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