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Eritrean guerrillas. Ethiopia charges
"Sudanese aggression" against its
territory. Moreover, Presiden! Ni–
mery has accused the Marxist ruJers
of Ethiopia, in league with Libya's
mercurial Col. Moammar Khadafy,
of plotting against the Sudan. "The
little tyrants in Addis Ababa and
the pygmies of Libya are conspiring
against the Sudan, its people, and
territory," he charged earlier this
year.
Egypt's Presiden! Anwar Sadat,
now one of Nimery's closest allies,
has echoed the Sudan's accusations,
speaking frequently of the Krem–
lin's "sinister plots" in Africa and
charging a Soviet-backed Ethiopian
threat to the government in Khar–
toum. Sadat threw the Soviet mili–
tary out of his country in 1972 and
scrapped his nation's friendship
treaty with the Soviet Union in 1976
(Piain Truth,
June 1976). Nimery, in
May, expelled the 90 remaining So–
viet military advisers and sorne So–
viet embassy personnel from his
nation.
For the moment, any major mili–
tary threat against the Sudan is
viewed as unlikely, as Ethiopia is
bogged down with armed insur–
rections at home as well as the pros–
pect of a war with Somalia. Instead,
Ethiopia and Libya may try to co–
vertly stir up internal unrest to force
political change in the Sudan. Many
observers feel that if Nimery fell
from power, he would be replaced
by radicals friendly to Ethiopia and
Libya. In that event, Egypt would
find herself surrounded by Soviet–
backed enemies, which explains Sa–
dat's nervousness.
ShiHing Patterns
Events under way in the volatile
Horn of Africa are being followed
with great interest and concern by
governments throughout the world.
Whether the Soviets will be able to
realize their objectives in the region,
or will be thwarted by the pro-West–
ern Saudi Arabians, will determine
the future control of the vital oil
lanes to Western Europe and the
United States. In the shifting pat–
terns
of
the region's diplomatic ge–
ography, this is the central issue in
the minds of strategists on both
sides of the east African struggle for
power.
o
12
GETACHEW MEKASHA
''Alandof
Gloom"
Here is an inside look at
Ethiopia from a former high
official in the Ethiopian gov–
ernment. Getachew Mekasha
was Ethiopla's ambassador
to Egypt unt/1 his resignatlon
in March. He was previously
ambassador to Kenya and In–
dia. Now a professor of pollt–
ical sclence and history at
Ambassador College in Pas–
adena, California, he ls
presently writing a book
which w/11 detall the late Em–
peror Halle Selassie's rule of
over flfty years.
P
LAIN TRUTH: You have sald
that the mllltary leaders now
runnlng Eth lopla make
Uganda's ldl Amln " look llke a nlce
guy." What have they been dolng?
AMBASSADOR MEKASHA:
Hardly
a week passes without news of
sorne sort of a larming excesses and
a trocities committed by the brutal
military regime now
in
power in
Ethiopia. There are today over
30,000 polí tica! prisoners in the
country and over 5,000 persons
have been executed without tria!.
Because of the reign of terror tha t
has gr ipped the nation, Ethiopia
tod ay is a Jand of gloom where
human rights a re trampled upon
and human life counts for nothing.
In spite of the many restrictions
o n pass ports a nd d oc ume n ts
needed fo r leaving the country,
hundreds have left because of the
terror unleashed by the military.
Sorne even have fted on foot
th rough forests, deserts and other
natural barriers to escape to for–
eign lands.
r
know comparisons are odious
generally, but the crimes of the
mili tary junta in Ethiopia and that
of ldi Amín in Uganda are so
heinous and revolting as to defy
any verbal description. Africa and
the human race generally can only
bow their heads in shame in the
face of such evil deeds-wantonly
infticted on the conscience of the
civilized world.
a:
lniUally there appeared lo be
widesp read popu lar support
among Ethioplans for the revolu–
tion which began in 1974 wlth the
unseating of Emperor Halle Se–
lassie. How do you account for the
radical change in direction of the
revolutlon?
k
What is going on in Ethiopia at
the present time has nothing to do
with the revolutionary ideas and
concepts which motivated the gen–
eral upris ing against the late Em–
peror Haile Selassie.
The revolutionary demands of
the students, teachers, workers and
the intell igentsia generally during
the time of the late emperor were
threefold: 1) land reform; 2) politi–
cal and democratic rights, meaning
freedom of speech and expression,
and freedom to form poli tical par–
ties; 3) economic rights and equal–
ity of opportunity for all citizens.
Today we find the mil itary
which took over the administration
of the cou ntry in the name of !hose
who advocated these fundamental
rights of the people busi ly engaged
in killing, torturing and liquida ting
the very same people: namely,
those who helped them to assume
power in the first place.
The
PLAIN TRUTH August-September 1977