Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE SOCIALIST EXPERIMENT
On 20 December 1974 a socialist state was declared. Under the adage
Ityopya Tikdem
or
'Ethiopia First', banks, businesses and factories were nationalised as was the rural and urb-
an land. However, few of the projects launched by the Derg proved to be successful and ag-
ricultural output stagnated.
In the meantime, the external threats posed by Somalia and secessionist Eritrea were in-
creasing. The Derg responded to these threats with a wave of mass arrests and executions.
In July 1977 Somalia invaded Ethiopia. Thanks to the intervention of the Soviet Union,
which flooded socialist Ethiopia with Soviet state-of-the-art weaponry, Somalia was beaten
back. In Eritrea, however, the secessionists continued to thwart Ethiopian offensives.
Meanwhile internal political debate also degenerated into violence. The leadership of the
Derg split into two groups, with one, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP)
proclaiming that the Derg had 'betrayed the revolution'. Verbal violence between the two
groups quickly turned to physical violence and the then Vice-Chairman of the Derg, Men-
gistu, used the unstable political situation to justify a purge of the upper echelons of the
Derg. The result was the execution of a number of party leaders and the promotion of him-
self to undisputed leader of the Derg.
Red Terror
Shortly afterwards, in an effort to suppress all political opponents, Mengistu launched the
Red Terror campaign with an infamous speech in Addis Ababa that involved him smashing
three bottles filled with what appeared to be blood on the ground and proclaiming 'Death to
counter revolutionaries! Death to the EPRP!'. The Red Terror turned out to be a highly ap-
propriate name as, at a very conservative estimate, 100,000 people were killed (Amnesty
International estimates the number may have been as high as 500,000) and thousands more
fled the country.
FAMINE IN ETHIOPIA
If there's one word everyone associates with Ethiopia it's 'famine'. The country has regularly been plagued by
drought, food shortages and famine. The famine of 1972-74 in Wolo and other northern provinces, and the govern-
ments mishandling of it, added greatly to the general dissatisfaction with the government, and this contributed to
the fall of Selassie and the Imperial government.
