Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
in Ethiopia - and liable to burst into song and dance, and get you to do likewise, at the
drop of a hat.
MUSEUM
'Red Terror' Martyrs Memorial Museum
(Meskal Sq; admission by donation; 8.30am-6.30pm)
'As if I bore them all in one
night, They slew them in a single night.' These were the words spoken by the mother,
whose four teenage children were all killed on the same day by the Derg, who officially
opened the small but powerful 'Red Terror' Martyrs Memorial Museum in 2010. Over the
space of a couple of rooms the museum reveals the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie and the
horrors of life under Mengistu's Derg regime. The museum is well laid out and incredibly
moving. Nothing more so than the walls of photos and names of just some of the estim-
ated half a million killed under the Derg, or the display cabinets filled with human re-
mains dug out of mass graves. Some of the skulls and other bones are displayed alongside
a photo of the victim and personal artefacts they had on them when they died. The watch
hanging in one display case was given by the victim to his wife with the words 'Keep this
safe. One day you will need it', just as he was led away by the soldiers of the Derg. When
the museum opened she brought it here.
Excellent English-speaking guides are often available, although you may prefer to just
look on in silence.
The museum is funded by donations only.
MONUMENT
Yekatit 12 Monument
(Siddist Kilo)
Rising dramatically from the roundabout Siddist Kilo is this moving monu-
ment to the thousands of innocent Ethiopians killed by the Italians as retribution for the at-
tempt on Viceroy Graziani's life on 19 February 1937. 'Yekatit 12' is a date in the
Ethiopian calendar roughly equivalent to 19 February.
Derg Monument
(Churchill Ave)
Nothing in the capital is as poignant a reminder of the country's painful
communist rule as the towering Derg Monument. Topped by a massive red star and em-
blazoned with a golden hammer and sickle, the cement obelisklike structure climbs sky-
ward in front of Black Lion Hospital.
MONUMENT
