|
Ethiopia People's Protection Brigades
Soon after the overthrow of the imperial regime, the Derg
moved to consolidate the revolution at the grass-roots level
by promoting the creation of peasant associations and
kebeles (see
Peasant Associations;
Kebeles, ch. 4). These
associations had tribunals that permitted them to exercise
criminal and civil jurisdiction over legal matters (see
The
Legal System, this ch.). More important, the government also
legitimized local defense squads, granting them police
powers within designated areas. Defense squads also
protected public property and enforced land reform measures,
but their original function was the essentially political
one of rounding up--and often disposing of--suspected
government opponents. During the
Red
Terror (see Glossary)
campaign of 1977-78, the power of the kebeles was virtually
unrestricted, and the defense squads emerged as the regime's
chief instruments of coercion within the capital. However,
in reaction to the defense squads' excessive use of
violence, Mengistu curbed their powers in April 1978.
In 1978 the People's Protection Brigades were created from
an estimated 10,000 defense squad vigilantes. Their function
was to act as local law enforcement agencies within the
jurisdiction of each peasant association and kebele.
Although promoted as instruments of decentralization, the
brigades answered to the security chief of the Central
Committee of the Commission to Organize the Party of the
Workers of Ethiopia (COPWE; see
Toward Party Formation, ch.
4). Although the People's Protection Brigades retained a
political role, after 1980 these paramilitary units
concentrated on local police duties. Brigade members
received up to five months' training in police and military
tactics from East German instructors. Some brigade personnel
had served on active duty in Eritrea, Tigray, and the
Ogaden.
Data as of 1991
|
