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Ethiopia The Establishment of the Derg
The government's failure to effect significant economic and
political reforms over the previous fourteen years--combined
with rising inflation, corruption, a famine that affected
several provinces (but especially Welo and Tigray) and that
was concealed from the outside world, and the growing
discontent of urban interest groups--provided the backdrop
against which the Ethiopian revolution began to unfold in
early 1974. Whereas elements of the urban-based, modernizing
elite previously had sought to establish a parliamentary
democracy, the initiation of the 1974 revolution was the
work of the military, acting essentially in its own
immediate interests. The unrest that began in January of
that year then spread to the civilian population in an
outburst of general discontent.
The Ethiopian military on the eve of the revolution was
riven by factionalism; the emperor promoted such division to
prevent any person or group from becoming too powerful.
Factions included the Imperial Bodyguard, which had been
rebuilt since the 1960 coup attempt; the Territorial Army
(Ethiopia's national ground force), which was broken into
many factions but which was dominated by a group of senior
officers called "The Exiles" because they had fled with
Haile Selassie in 1936 after the Italian invasion; and the
air force. The officer graduates of the Harer Military
Academy also formed a distinct group in opposition to the
Holeta Military Training Center graduates (see
Training, ch.
5).
Conditions throughout the army were frequently substandard,
with enlisted personnel often receiving low pay and
insufficient food and supplies. Enlisted personnel as well
as some of the Holeta graduates came from the peasantry,
which at the time was suffering from a prolonged drought and
resulting famine. The general perception was that the
central government was deliberately refusing to take special
measures for famine relief. Much popular discontent over
this issue, plus the generally perceived lack of civil
freedoms, had created widespread discontent among the middle
class, which had been built up and supported by the emperor
since World War II.
The revolution began with a mutiny of the Territorial
Army's Fourth Brigade at Negele in the southern province of
Sidamo on January 12, 1974. Soldiers protested poor food and
water conditions; led by their noncommissioned officers,
they rebelled and took their commanding officer hostage,
requesting redress from the emperor. Attempts at
reconciliation and a subsequent impasse promoted the spread
of the discontent to other units throughout the military,
including those stationed in Eritrea. There, the Second
Division at Asmera mutinied, imprisoned its commanders, and
announced its support for the Negele mutineers. The Signal
Corps, in sympathy with the uprising, broadcast information
about events to the rest of the military. Moreover, by that
time, general discontent had resulted in the rise of
resistance throughout Ethiopia. Opposition to increased fuel
prices and curriculum changes in the schools, as well as low
teachers' salaries and many other grievances, crystalized by
the end of February. Teachers, workers, and eventually
students--all demanding higher pay and better conditions of
work and education--also promoted other causes, such as land
reform and famine relief. Finally, the discontented groups
demanded a new political system. Riots in the capital and
the continued military mutiny eventually led to the
resignation of Prime Minister Aklilu. He was replaced on
February 28, 1974, by another Shewan aristocrat,
Endalkatchew Mekonnen, whose government would last only
until July 22.
On March 5, the government announced a revision of the 1955
constitution--the prime minister henceforth would be
responsible to parliament. The new government probably
reflected Haile Selassie's decision to minimize change; the
new cabinet, for instance, represented virtually all of
Ethiopia's aristocratic families. The conservative
constitutional committee appointed on March 21 included no
representatives of the groups pressing for change. The new
government introduced no substantial reforms (although it
granted the military several salary increases). It also
postponed unpopular changes in the education system and
instituted price rollbacks and controls to check inflation.
As a result, the general discontent subsided somewhat by
late March.
By this time, there were several factions within the
military that claimed to speak for all or part of the armed
forces. These included the Imperial Bodyguard under the old
high command, a group of "radical" junior officers, and a
larger number of moderate and radical army and police
officers grouped around Colonel Alem Zewd Tessema, commander
of an airborne brigade based in Addis Ababa. In late March,
Alem Zewd became head of an informal, inter-unit
coordinating committee that came to be called the Armed
Forces Coordinating Committee (AFCC). Acting with the
approval of the new prime minister, Alem Zewd arrested a
large number of disgruntled air force officers and in
general appeared to support the Endalkatchew government.
Such steps, however, did not please many of the junior
officers, who wished to pressure the regime into making
major political reforms. In early June, a dozen or more of
them broke away from the AFCC and requested that every
military and police unit send three representatives to Addis
Ababa to organize for further action. In late June, a body
of men that eventually totaled about 120, none above the
rank of major and almost all of whom remained anonymous,
organized themselves into a new body called the Coordinating
Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army
that soon came to be called the
Derg
(Amharic for
"committee" or "council," see Glossary). They elected Major
Mengistu Haile Mariam chairman and Major Atnafu Abate vice
chairman, both outspoken proponents of far-reaching change.
This group of men would remain at the forefront of
political and military affairs in Ethiopia for the next
thirteen years. The identity of the Derg never changed after
these initial meetings in 1974. Although its membership
declined drastically during the next few years as individual
officers were eliminated, no new members were admitted into
its ranks, and its deliberations and membership remained
almost entirely unknown. At first, the Derg's officers
exercised their influence behind the scenes; only later,
during the era of the Provisional Military Administrative
Council, did its leaders emerge from anonymity and become
both the official as well as the de facto governing
personnel.
Because its members in effect represented the entire
military establishment, the Derg could henceforth claim to
exercise real power and could mobilize troops on its own,
thereby depriving the emperor's government of the ultimate
means to govern. Although the Derg professed loyalty to the
emperor, it immediately began to arrest members of the
aristocracy, military, and government who were closely
associated with the emperor and the old order. Colonel Alem
Zewd, by now discredited in the eyes of the young radicals,
fled.
In July the Derg wrung five concessions from the emperor--
the release of all political prisoners, a guarantee of the
safe return of exiles, the promulgation and speedy
implementation of the new constitution, assurance that
parliament would be kept in session to complete the
aforementioned task, and assurance that the Derg would be
allowed to coordinate closely with the government at all
levels of operation. Hereafter, political power and
initiative lay with the Derg, which was increasingly
influenced by a wide-ranging public debate over the future
of the country. The demands made of the emperor were but the
first of a series of directives or actions that constituted
the "creeping coup" by which the imperial system of
government was slowly dismantled. Promoting an agenda for
lasting changes going far beyond those proposed since the
revolution began in January, the Derg proclaimed Ethiopia
Tikdem (Ethiopia First) as its guiding philosophy. It forced
out Prime Minister Endalkatchew and replaced him with Mikael
Imru, a Shewan aristocrat with a reputation as a liberal.
The Derg's agenda rapidly diverged from that of the
reformers of the late imperial period. In early August, the
revised constitution, which called for a constitutional
monarchy, was rejected when it was forwarded for approval.
Thereafter, the Derg worked to undermine the authority and
legitimacy of the emperor, a policy that enjoyed much public
support. The Derg arrested the commander of the Imperial
Bodyguard, disbanded the emperor's governing councils,
closed the private imperial exchequer, and nationalized the
imperial residence and the emperor's other landed and
business holdings. By late August, the emperor had been
directly accused of covering up the Welo and Tigray famine
of the early 1970s that allegedly had killed 100,000 to
200,000 people. After street demonstrations took place
urging the emperor's arrest, the Derg formally deposed Haile
Selassie on September 12 and imprisoned him. The emperor was
too old to resist, and it is doubtful whether he really
understood what was happening around him. Three days later,
the Armed Forces Coordinating Committee (i.e., the Derg)
transformed itself into the Provisional Military
Administrative Council (PMAC) under the chairmanship of
Lieutenant General Aman Mikael Andom and proclaimed itself
the nation's ruling body.
Data as of 1991
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