Provisional Military Government of Socialist Ethiopia
← 1974–1987 →
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Ethiopia
Capital	Addis Ababa
Government	Marxist–Leninist military junta
Chairman
- 1974	Aman Andom
- 1974-1977	Tafari Benti
- 1977-1987	Mengistu Haile Mariam
Historical era	Cold War
- Established	1974
- Constitution of 1987	1987
Today part of	Eritrea  Ethiopia

History of Ethiopia
This article is part of a series
Prehistory
Antiquity
Aksum (1st c. BC–10th c. AD)
Zagwe Dynasty (10th or 11th c.–1268)
First Solomonic period (1270–1527)
Invasion of Gragn (1527–1543)
Great Oromo migration (1543–17th c.)
Habesh (1557–17th c.)
Gondarine dynasty (1606–1755)
Zemene Mesafint (1755–1855)
Modernization (1855–1936)
Second Italo-Abyssinian War (1935–1936)
Italian East Africa (1936–1941)
East African Campaign (World War II) (1941)
Italian guerrilla war in Ethiopia (1941–1943)
Second Modernization (1941–1974)
Eritrean War of Independence (1961–1991)
Ethiopian Civil War (1974–1991)
Ogaden conflict (2007–2008)
Ethiopia Portal v t e

The Derg (Ge'ez: ደርግ) or Dergue was a military junta that ruled Ethiopia between 1974 to 1987, taking power following the ousting of Haile Selassie I. Derg, which means "committee" or "council" in Ge'ez, is the short name of the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army. The committee was formally renamed the Provisional Military Administrative Council later in 1974, but was still popularly known as the Derg. The Derg embraced Communism in 1975, and its regime eventually became formally known as the Provisional Military Government of Socialist Ethiopia.^[1]

Between 1975 and 1987, the Derg executed and imprisoned tens of thousands of its opponents without trial.^[2]

Formation and growth[link]

The Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, or the Derg (Ge'ez "Committee"), was officially announced 28 June 1974 by a group of military officers to maintain law and order due to the powerlessness of the civilian government following widespread mutiny in the armed forces of Ethiopia earlier that year. Its members were not directly involved in those mutinies (as far as anyone presently knows), nor was this the first military committee organized to support the administration of Prime Minister Endelkachew Makonnen: Alem Zewde Tessema had established the Armed Forces Coordinated Committee 23 March. However, over the following months radicals in the Ethiopian military came to believe he was acting on behalf of the hated aristocracy, and when a group of notables petitioned for the release of a number of government ministers and officials who were under arrest for corruption and other crimes, three days later the Derg was announced.^[3]

The Derg, which originally consisted of soldiers at the capital, broadened its membership by including representatives from the 40 units of the Ethiopian Army, Air Force, Navy, Kebur Zabagna (Imperial Guard), Territorial Army and Police: each unit was expected to send three representatives, who were supposed to be privates, NCOs and junior officers up to the rank of major. According to Bahru Zewde, "senior officers were deemed too compromised by close association to the regime."^[4] It is commonly stated that the Derg consisted of 120 soldiers,^[5] a statement which has gained wide acceptance due to the habitual secretiveness of the Derg in its early years; however Bahru Zewde notes that "in actual fact, their number was less than 110",^[4] and Aregawi Berhe mentions two different sources which record 109 persons as being members of the Derg.^[6] No new members were ever admitted, and the number decreased, especially in the first few years, as some members were expelled or killed.

The committee elected Major Mengistu Haile Mariam as its chairman and Major Atnafu Abate as its vice-chairman. The Derg was initially supposed to study the grievances of various military units, and investigate abuses by senior officers and staff, and to root out corruption in the military.

In the months following its founding, the power of the Derg steadily increased. In July the Derg obtained key concessions from the Emperor, Haile Selassie, which included the power to arrest not only military officers, but government officials at every level. Soon both former Prime Ministers Tsehafi Taezaz Aklilu Habte-Wold, and Endelkachew Makonnen, along with most of their cabinets, most regional governors, many senior military officers and officials of the Imperial court found themselves imprisoned. In August, after a proposed constitution creating a constitutional monarchy was presented to the Emperor, the Derg began a program of dismantling the imperial government in order to forestall further developments in that direction. The Derg deposed and imprisoned the Emperor on September 12, 1974.

On September 15, the committee renamed itself the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC) and took control of the government. The Derg chose Lieutenant General Aman Andom, a very popular military leader and a Sandhurst graduate,^[7] to be its chairman and acting head-of-state until the Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen could return from his medical treatment in Europe, and assume the throne as a constitutional monarch. However, General Aman Andom quarreled with the radical elements in the Derg over the issue of a new military offensive in Eritrea and the proposal to execute the high officials of the Emperor's former government. After eliminating units loyal to him—the Engineers, the Imperial Bodyguard and the Air Force—the Derg removed General Aman from power and executed him along with some supporters and 60 officials of the previous Imperial government on November 24, 1974.^[8] Brigadier General Tafari Benti became both the new Chairman of the Derg and head of state, with Mengistu and Atnafu Abate as his two vice-Chairmen with the new ranks of Lieutenant-Colonels. The monarchy was formally abolished in May, 1975, and Marxism-Leninism was proclaimed the ideology of the state. Emperor Haile Selassie died on August 22, 1975, while his personal physician was absent. It is commonly believed that Mengistu killed him, either ordering it done or by his own hand.^[9]

Mengistu's leadership[link]

After internal conflicts, that resulted in the deaths of General Tafari Benti and several of his supporters by November 1977, and the later elimination and execution of Colonel Atnafu Abate, Mengistu gained undisputed leadership of the Derg. In 1987 the Derg was formally dissolved and the country became the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE) under a new constitution. Many of the Derg members remained in key government posts, and remained as the members of the Central Committee and the Politburo of the Workers' Party of Ethiopia (WPE), which became Ethiopia's civilian version of the Eastern bloc Communist parties. Mengistu became Secretary General of the WPE, President of the PDRE, while remaining Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces.

Ethiopian Civil War[link]

Derg party badge, c. 1979.

The reign of the Derg in Ethiopia is remembered as giving rise to the Ethiopian Civil War. This conflict began as extralegal violence between 1975 and 1977, known as the Red Terror, when the Derg struggled for authority, first with various opposition groups, then with a variety of groups jockeying for the role of vanguard party. Though human rights violations were committed by both sides, the great majority of abuses against civilians, and actions leading to famine, were committed by the government.^[10]

Once the Derg had gained victory over these groups and successfully fought off an invasion from Somalia in 1977, it engaged in a brutal war between the government and armed groups which included guerrillas fighting for Eritrean independence, rebels based in Tigray (which included the nascent Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front), and other groups that ranged from the conservative and pro-monarchy Ethiopian Democratic Union to the far leftist Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party. Ethiopia under the Derg became the Soviet bloc's closest ally in Africa, and became among the best armed nations of the region as a result of massive military aid chiefly from the Soviet Union, East Germany, Cuba and North Korea.

During the same period, the Derg fulfilled its main slogan of "Land to the Tiller" by announcing on 4 March 1975 a system of land reform that "was unequivocally radical, even in Soviet and Chinese terms; it nationalized all rural land, abolished tenancy, and put peasants in charge of enforcing the whole scheme."^[11] Although the Derg had little respect during its rule, this one act resulted in a rare show of support for the junta, as the Ottaways describe: "During a massive demonstration in Addis Ababa immediately following the announcement, a group of students broke through police and army barriers, climbed the wall and escarpment around Menelik Palace, and embraced major Mengistu as the hero of the reform".^[12] Most industries and private urban real-estate holdings were nationalized by the Derg in 1975.

However, mismanagement, corruption, and general hostility to the Derg's violent rule, coupled with the draining effects of constant warfare with the separatist guerrilla movements in Eritrea and Tigray, led to a drastic fall in general productivity of food and cash crops. In October 1978, the Derg announced the National Revolutionary Development Campaign to mobilize human and material resources to transform the economy, which led to a Ten Year Plan (1984/85-1993/94) to expand agricultural and industrial output, forecasting a 6.5% growth in GDP and a 3.6% rise in per capita income; instead, per capita income declined 0.8% over this period.^[13] Famine scholar Alex de Waal observes that while the famine that struck the country in the mid-1980s is usually ascribed to drought, "closer investigation shows that widespread drought occurred only some months after the famine was already under way."^[14] Hundreds of thousands fled economic misery, conscription, and political repression, and went to live in neighboring countries and all over the Western world, creating an Ethiopian diaspora for the first time.

Aid and controversy[link]

The famine in the mid 1980s brought the situation in Ethiopia to the attention of the world, and inspired charitable drives in western nations, notably by Oxfam and the Live Aid concerts of July 1985. The money they raised was then distributed among NGOs in Ethiopia. A controversy arose when it was revealed that some of these NGOs were under Derg control or influence, and that some Oxfam and Live Aid money had been used to fund the Derg's enforced resettlement programmes, under which millions of people were displaced and between 50,000 and 100,000 killed.^[15] Accusations were made in a BBC investigation that rebels had also used millions of pounds of aid to buy arms; these were later fully retracted by the Corporation.^[16]

End of the Derg[link]

Tanks in the streets of Addis Ababa after rebels seized the capital

Although the Derg government officially came to an end 22 February 1987, three weeks after a referendum approved the constitution for the PDRE, it was not until that September the new government was fully in place and the Derg formally abolished.^[17] The surviving members of the Derg, however, remained in power as the leaders of the new civilian regime.

The geopolitical situations turned unfavorable in the late 1980s, with the Soviet Union retreating from the expansion of Communism under Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika, which marked a dramatic reduction in aid from Socialist bloc countries. This resulted in even more economic hardship, and more seriously, the collapse of the military in the face of determined onslaughts by guerrilla forces in the north. The Soviet Union stopped aiding the PDRE altogether in December 1990, and this along with the collapse of Communism in the Eastern Bloc in the Revolutions of 1989, proved to be serious blows to the PDRE.

Towards the end of January 1991, a coalition of rebel forces, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), launched Operation Tewodros, which led to their capture of Gondar, the ancient capital city, Bahar Dar and Dessie. Meanwhile, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front had gained control of all of Eritrea except for Asmara and Assab in the south. The Soviet Union, mired in its internal turmoil, could no longer prop up the Derg; it was clear that the end of the Derg was now a question of when, not if.^[18] In the words of the former US diplomat Paul B. Henze, "As his doom became imminent, Mengistu alternated between vowing resistance to the end and hinting that he might follow Emperor Tewodros's example and commit suicide." His actions were frantic: he convened the Shengo, the Ethiopian Parliament, for an emergency session and reorganized his cabinet, but as Henze concludes, "these shifts came too late to be effective."^[19] On 21 May, claiming that he was going to inspect troops at a base in southern Ethiopia, Mengistu slipped out of the country to Kenya, then flew with his immediate family to Zimbabwe, where he was granted asylum and as of 2010^[update] still resides. Upon entering Addis Ababa, the EPRDF immediately disbanded the WPE and arrested almost all of the prominent Derg officials shortly after.

In December 2006, 73 officials of the Derg were found guilty of genocide. 34 people were in court, 14 others had died during the lengthy process, and 25, including Mengistu, were tried in absentia.^[20] The trial ended 26 May 2008, and many of the officials were sentenced to death. In December, 2010, the Ethiopian government has commuted the death sentence of 23 Derg officials. On October 4, 2011, 16 of former Derg officials were freed, after twenty years of incarceration. The Ethiopian government paroled almost all of those Derg officials that have been jailed for 20 years.

PMAC Standing Committee (January 1985)[link]

See also[link]

• History of Ethiopia

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Bahru Zewde. 2001. A History of Modern Ethiopia (second edition). London: James Currey.
• Henze, Paul. 2000. Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia. New York: Palgrave. ISBN 0-312-22719-1)
• Ottway, Marina & David. 1978. Ethiopia: Empire in Revolution. New York: Africana
• de Waal, Alex (1991). Evil Days: Thirty Years of War and Famine in Ethiopia. New York & London: Human Rights Watch. ISBN 1-56432-038-3. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=RcVFXUwraxsC. 
• de Waal, Alex (2002) [1997]. Famine Crimes: Politics & the Disaster Relief Industry in Africa. Oxford: James Currey. ISBN 0-85255-810-4. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=IwZ1Xb-w45oC. 

External links[link]

• ETHIOPIA - A Country Study (at the Library of Congress)
• The Ethiopian Revolution, The Dergue, Civil War and Famine
• "Mengistu found guilty of genocide", BBC News.

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Ethiopian Civil War
Disabled T-62 tank in Addis Ababa, 1991
Date November 28, 1974 to May 21, 1991 Location Ethiopia Result Fall of the Communist Mengistu government, installation of TPLF-led transitional government, to become EPRDF government
Belligerents
EPRP TPLF MEISON (from 1977) EPDM EDU EPLF ELF OLF ONLF[1] WSLF ALF	Derg (1974-1987) People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (1987–1991) Cuba Supported by (1987-1990)  East Germany  Soviet Union [2][3]  North Korea Libya
Commanders and leaders
Meles Zenawi Isaias Afewerki	Mengistu Haile Mariam
Strength
	150,000 (1989) 17,000 (1977)[4]
Casualties and losses
230,000–1.4 million dead

The Ethiopian Civil War began on November 28, 1974 when the Marxist Derg staged a coup d'état against Emperor Haile Selassie, and lasted until the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition of rebel groups, overthrew the government in 1991.^[5] The war overlapped other Cold War conflicts in Africa, such as the Angolan Civil War (1975–2002). The war left between 230,000-1.4 million dead.

1970s[link]

The revolutionaries abolished the monarchy in March 1975 and Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen settled permanently in London, England where several other members of the Imperial family were already based. The other members of the Imperial family who were still in Ethiopia at the time of the revolution were imprisoned, including Amha Selassie's father the Emperor, his daughter by his first marriage, Princess Ijigayehu, his sister Princess Tenagnework and many of his nephews, nieces, relatives and in-laws. In 1975, first his father Emperor Haile Selassie then in 1977, his daughter Princess Ijigayehu died in detention. Members of the Imperial family remained imprisoned until 1988 (for the women) and 1989 (for the men).

The Derg eliminated its political opponents between 1975 and 1977 in response to the declaration and instigation of an Ethiopian White terror against the Derg by various opposition groups, primarily the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP) which like the Derg was Marxist. Brutal tactics were used by both sides, including executions, assassinations, torture and the imprisonment of tens of thousands without trial, most of whom were innocent. The Ethiopian Red/White terror was the "urban guerrilla" chapter of the brutal war the government fought with guerrillas fighting for Eritrean independence for its entire period in power, as well as with other rebel groups ranging from the conservative and pro-monarchy Ethiopian Democratic Union (EDU) to the far leftist EPRP. (The Tigrayan People's Liberation Front ((TPLF), who would become the eventual victor of this conflict, at this time was one of the smaller groups and the Derg did not bother to mount a serious campaign against them until the Semien Zemecha in 1978).

At the same time, the Derg faced an invasion from Somalia in 1977, which sought to annex the eastern parts of Ethiopia, which were predominantly inhabited by Somalis. The Ethiopian army was able to defeat the Somali army, supported by the Western Somali Liberation Front, only with massive military assistance from the Soviet Union and Cuba. Ethiopia under the Derg became the Warsaw Pact's closest ally in Africa, and became one of the best-armed nations of the region as a result of massive military aid chiefly from the Soviet Union, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, GDR, Cuba and North Korea. Most industries and private urban real-estate holdings were nationalized by the Derg in 1975.

During the same period, the Derg fulfilled its main slogan of "Land to the Tiller" by redistributing land once belonging to landlords to the peasant tilling the land. Mismanagement, corruption, and general hostility to the Derg's violent rule was coupled with the draining effects of constant warfare with the separatist guerrilla movements in Eritrea and Tigray resulting in a drastic fall in general productivity of food and cash crops. Although Ethiopia is prone to chronic droughts, no one was prepared for the scale of drought and famine that struck the country in the mid-1980s, in which up to seven million may have died. Hundreds of thousands fled economic misery, conscription, and political repression, and went to live in neighboring countries and all over the Western world, creating an Ethiopian diaspora for the first time.

1980s[link]

This section requires expansion.

In the beginning of 1980s, a series of famines hit Ethiopia that affected around 8 million people, leaving 1 million dead. Insurrections against Communist rule sprang up particularly in the northern regions of Tigray and Eritrea. Hundreds of thousands were killed as a result of the red terror, forced deportations, or from the use of hunger as a weapon under Mengistu's rule.^[6]

The Derg continued its attempts to end the rebellions with military force. They initiated several campaigns against both internal rebels and the Eritrean People's Liberation Front, the most important ones being Operation Shiraro, Operation Lash, Operation Red Star, and Operation Adwa which led to its decisive defeat in the Battle of Shire 15–19 February 1989.

1990s[link]

The Mengistu government was finally toppled by his own officials and a coalition of rebel forces, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), in 1991 after their bid for a push on the capital Addis Ababa became successful. There was some fear that Mengistu would fight to the bitter end for the capital, but after diplomatic intervention by the United States, Mengistu fled to asylum in Zimbabwe, where he still resides.^[7] The EPRDF immediately disbanded the Workers' Party of Ethiopia (the political arm of the Derg), and arrested almost all of the prominent Derg officials shortly after. In December 2006, 72 officials of the Derg were found guilty of genocide. Thirty-four people were in court, 14 others have died during the lengthy process and 25, including Mengistu, were tried in absentia.

See also[link]

	Ethiopia portal
	War portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ethiopian Civil War

• Red Terror (Ethiopia)
• Eritrean War of Independence

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ethiopian Civil War

v t e Armed conflicts involving Cuba External & international Ten Years' War · Cuban War of Independence · Spanish–American War · World War I · World War II · 1952 Cuban Coup · Cuban Revolution · Congo Crisis · Bay of Pigs Invasion · Cuban Missile Crisis · Vietnam War · Ñancahuazú Guerrilla · Eritrean War of Independence · South African Border War · Rhodesian Bush War · Yom Kippur War · Ethiopian Civil War · Angolan Civil War · Ogaden War · Nicaraguan Revolution · Salvadoran Civil War · Invasion of Grenada Related articles Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces · Cold War · Sphere of influence

Christopher Reshard Hudson (born October 6, 1971) is a former American college and professional football player who was a safety in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons during the 1990s and early 2000s. Hudson played college football for the University of Colorado, and earned All-American honors. A third-round pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 1995 NFL Draft, he also played professionally for the Chicago Bears and Atlanta Falcons of the NFL.

Early years[link]

Hudson was born in Houston, Texas.^[1] He attended Worthing High School in Houston,^[2] and played high school football for the Worthing Colts.

College career[link]

While attending the University of Colorado at Boulder, Hudson played for the Colorado Buffaloes football team from 1991 to 1994. He was a versatile defensive back who could play any position in the backfield and play it well.^[3] As senior in 1994, he was recognized as a consensus first-team All-American and won the Jim Thorpe Award awarded annually to the best college defensive in the nation.^[4][3] He finished his college career with the second-most interceptions in Buffaloes team history, and fifth on the team's all-time list for pass deflections.^[3]

Professional career[link]

The Jacksonville Jaguars selected Hudson in the third round (71st pick overall) of the 1995 NFL Draft]],^[5] and he played for the Jaguars from 1995 to 1998.^[1] He also was a member of the Chicago Bears in 1999, and after a year off in 2000, returned to the NFL in 2001 with the Atlanta Falcons.^[1] During his six his seasons in the NFL, he played in 77 regular season games, started in 63 of them, and compiled 11 interceptions.^[6]

References[link]