Ethiopian Civil War
| date | 1974 to May 1991 |
|---|---|
| place | Ethiopia |
| Casus Belli | Military coup the Derg |
| output | Fall of the Derg , installation of the Ethiopian interim government |
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In the Ethiopian Civil War from 1974 to 1991, numerous rebel and liberation movements fought against the communist central government of Ethiopia . Some movements were Marxist-Leninist in orientation, most were separatist and ethnically oriented political parties.
Background and derg
In 1974, a bloody military coup took place in which the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie of the Abyssinian Empire was overthrown. The Derg revolutionary armed forces , which carried out the coup, abolished the monarchy in March 1974. Crown Prince Asfa Wossen moved to the British capital London , where numerous members of the imperial dynasty have found refuge. The members of the imperial family remaining in Ethiopia were imprisoned, including Amha Wossen's father, the emperor. The daughter from his first marriage, Princess Ijigayehu, his sister, Princess Tenagnework and many nephews, nieces, relatives and brothers-in-law were also imprisoned. In 1975 the Emperor Haile Selassie died. In 1977 his daughter Princess Ijigayehu died in captivity. The members of the imperial family remained imprisoned until 1988 (women) and 1989 (men).
Most of the industrial and private urban real estate holdings were nationalized by Derg in 1975. Under the Derg regime, Ethiopia became the closest ally of the socialist Eastern bloc in Africa. In 1977 Ethiopia waged a war against the communist-ruled Somalia , which tried to annex the eastern Somali populated areas. The Ethiopian army was able to defeat the Somali army, supported by the Western Somali Liberation Front , but only with military assistance from the Soviet Union and Cuba . The Ethiopian military became the best-equipped in the region, the country itself a regional power - as a result of massive military and economic support from the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), North Korea and Cuba.
Outbreak of conflict
The conflict was preceded by the announcement of repression measures against the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police and Territorial Army, or Derg Committee for short, founded in 1974 by army officers . This process was known as the Ethiopian White Terror against the Derg. The terror came from various opposition groups, above all from the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (IHAPA), which, like the Derg, was Marxist. In response, the Derg eliminated all political opponents between 1975 and 1977. Brutal tactics were used by both sides, including executions, assassinations, torture and kidnapping of tens of thousands of innocent people. Sometimes without judgment, many of them were innocent. Child soldiers were also increasingly used.
The Ethiopian terror was a chapter in the brutal war that the government waged against the guerrillas , on the one hand against the independence movements of the province of Eritrea ( Eritrean People's Liberation Front and Eritrean Liberation Front ) and the province of Tigray ( People's Liberation Front of Tigray ), on the other hand against conservative and pro-monarchist ones Movements like the Ethiopian Democratic Union and against left-wing extremist rebel groups like the All-Ethiopian Socialist Movement . The Tigray People's Liberation Front was seen as a small group that should not be taken seriously, which is why the Derg did not launch a major campaign against it until the Semiem Zemecha .
Fighting
During the same period, the Derg fulfilled his most important promise under the motto Land to the Farmer by redistributing the entire land that once belonged to the feudal rulers through land reform among the peasants. Mismanagement, corruption and general hostility to the violent rule of the Derg, however, were linked to the draining effects of constant warfare against the separatist guerrilla movements in Eritrea and Tigray , resulting in a drastic fall in the general productivity of food and cash crops . Hundreds of thousands fled from the economic misery, from conscription and political repression and began to leave the country for neighboring countries - or to the rich countries of the world. They formed the Ethiopian Diaspora for the first time .
In 1984, in the first year of the famine , the Derg introduced a Marxist unity party , the Ethiopian Workers' Party , to counter the rebel organizations. In 1987 the entire Ethiopian state was modernized again and the Derg Provisional Military Administrative Council was officially abolished. The administrative structure was also reorganized and the individual population groups were given a certain degree of autonomy in order to defuse the political conflict with the groups.
The Derg enforced his goal of ending the rebellions with military severity. Numerous campaigns were initiated to silence both the internal rebels and the secessionist organizations, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front and the Tigray People's Liberation Front . The most important operations were Operation Shiraro , Operation Lash , Operation Red Star and Operation Adwa , which led to their decisive victory in the Battle of Shire from January 15-19 , 1989.
output
In 1990, the head of state Mengistu announced that the Ethiopian Labor Party wanted to open itself to all social forces and renamed this party the Democratic Unity Party of Ethiopia . The liberation movements , which in the meantime brought large parts of the state under their control, were not affected by this and continued their struggle. The Ethiopian government under Mengistu Haile Mariam was ultimately overthrown by a coalition of three different rebel groups - the Revolutionary Democratic Front of the Ethiopian Peoples - and the state-owned functionaries. In May 1991 the Revolutionary Democratic Front successfully captured the capital Addis Ababa . There were fears that Mengistu would fight to the bitter end for the capital, but after diplomatic intervention by the United States , Mengistu fled and found asylum in Zimbabwe , where he resides to this day.
The Revolutionary Democratic Front immediately banned the Democratic Unity Party of Ethiopia and imprisoned almost all prominent Derg functionaries. In December 2006, 72 Derg officials were found guilty of genocide charges. 34 people were tried, 14 died in the process and 25, including Mengistu, were charged in absentia.
See also
Web links
- Website providing information on the Ethiopian Civil War at onwar.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ethiopia: Crackdown in East Punishes Civilians . Human Rights Watch, July 4, 2007
- ^ Dan Connell: Building a New Nation: Collected Articles on the Eritrean Revolution (1983-2002) . Red Sea Press, March 2005, ISBN 1-56902-199-6 .
- ^ Communism, African-Style . In: Time , July 4, 1983. Retrieved September 6, 2007.
- ↑ Ethiopia Red Star Over the Horn of Africa . In: Time , August 4, 1986. Retrieved September 6, 2007.
- ↑ Ethiopia a Forgotten War Rages On . In: Time , December 23, 1985. Retrieved September 6, 2007.
- ↑ a b In Eritrea . In: The New York Times , September 27, 1987. Retrieved August 14, 2009.
- ↑ Las guerras y los genocidios del siglo 20 1974-1991, Civil Guerra de Etiopía.
- ↑ a b Brockhaus Encyclopedia 2003, EIT-ISK, page 1210
- ^ A. Valentino, Benjamin. Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century , 2004. page 196.
- ↑ Is truth what the majority profess? ( Memento from May 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Berliner Zeitung online / blog; Retrieved June 14, 2010
- ↑ Fight for survival . In: Der Spiegel . No. 16 , 1990, pp. 206 ( online ).
- ↑ Ethiopia: Uncle Sam Steps In . In: Time May 27, 1991; Retrieved May 14, 2009
- ^ Benjamin A. Valentino: Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century . 2004, p. 196.