"The Red Terror"

  -A Socialist / Communist Atheist Movement in Ethiopia.
“One of the most systematic uses of mass murder, by the state, ever witnessed in Africa“
-Human Rights Watch

“Finally, (to maximize the pain) they started putting water on me - then after that when they hit you, your skin starts cracking, and the blood starts coming out”
(for days afterward, she couldn’t even walk to the toilet)
-Hirut Abebe-Jiri was in her early teens when Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown.

In 1974, Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam, aided by Fidel Castro and Cuba, overthrew Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and emerged as its newly installed ,
Communist Party leader.

Mengistu and a group of about 120 armed forces members known as the Dergue, meaning ‘the committee’, abolished the Parliament and suspended the Constitution.
The Communists had stated their principle commitment was equality for all.
They said they were the peoples party, reassuring everyone that no blood would be shed.
This was to be a bloodless takeover.

But, as with all Communists / Socialists:

This was a lie.
(again)

Obtaining and retaining power is all they were after.
This would be done using any means necessary.
Accordingly:
The Dergue began its rule by executing sixty senior officials before a firing squad.
(The Emperor himself was executed while on house arrest.)
As a Marxist / Socialist organization, the Dergue nationalized all land using the slogan: “Land to the tiller of the soil” .
They also created urban units called “kebeles”. They were to run all the nationalized land, collect taxes, and serve as surveillance units.

In 1976 Col. Mengistu gave a perfect picture of what was to come.
A campaign that he officially called:
The "Red Terror."
In front of a huge crowd in the capital city, Addis Ababa, bottles filled with a red blood like liquid, representing the blood of the "imperialists" and the "counter-revolutionaries," were angrily thrown and smashed all over the ground !
Giving everyone a true picture of what was coming.

The slaughter of the innocent !

The government officially announced; “Qey Shibir yi fafam”
-The “Red Terror will spread’.

Tens of thousands of young men and women turned up dead in the streets of the capital and other cities in the following two years.
In October 1977 alone , looking for "counter-revolutionaries," Red Terror officials conducted two major house to house searches that lasted for days. Those killed were placed on display in the streets with posters on their corpses stating they were enemies of the revolution. The security forces, "kebeles", dumped excess dead bodies along the side of the road and piled them on street corners.
They also required families to pay them the price of bullets, used to kill family members, in order to obtain their bodies for burial.
Some victims were even forced to dig their own graves before being murdered.

Children were also became the target of the “kebeles”
“Save the Children” stated that in early 1978 alone, 1,000 children, many under thirteen, whom the government labeled as ‘liaison agents of the counter revolutionaries’ were executed.

The campaigns unleashed by the Dergue deliberately targeted civilians and were filled with inhumane violence, torture and murder.

Hundreds of thousands died.

The official “Red Terror” campaign was from 1977-78.
But, the terror would continue for years!.
Here’s a video:
http://youtu.be/A-MJk9lSNsE

Mengistu fled to Zimbabwe in 1991.
In December 2006, Mengistu Haile Mariam was convicted, in absentia, of genocide for his role in the “Red Terror”.

On May 26th, 2008 he was sentenced to death.

Mengistu still resides in Zimbabwe today.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch estimates that over 500,000 people were killed during the Ethiopian Communist “Red Terror”.
Some estimates, are as high as 1.285 million dead.

This is just one more example, to go along with the numerous others, that shows the historical results of what ALWAYS happens with a Communist / Socialist form of government.
Same thing,
different day !
It Never changes.

“Know the History”