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Mengistu Convicted of Genocide

Financial Gazette (Harare)
NEWS
December 13, 2006
Posted to the web December 14, 2006

By Zhean Gwaze
Harare
ZIMBABWE will not hand over exiled Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam
despite his conviction on Tuesday on genocide charges in an Addis Ababa court,
acting Information Minister Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana says.
Mangwana told The Financial Gazette yesterday that although Zimbabwe respected
the judicial processes of other countries, Mengistu, who fled to Zimbabwe in
1991 and has been on trial in absentia for the past 12 years for massacring
thousands of his people, would continue to be Harare's "special guest".
"We granted him asylum after considering his personal and other issues. The
Ethiopian government is aware of our position. We respect the court process
that took place in Ethiopia but this will not affect us," Mangwana said.
The Ethiopian embassy in Zimbabwe had no immediate comment on Zimbabwe's stance
yesterday. An official at the mission said Ambassador Adbi Dalal Mohammed was
out of the country.
The genocide verdict, which carries the death penalty, was passed by two votes
to one by a three-judge panel. Mengistu has until December 28 to file a motion
seeking a lesser sentence.
Mengistu, once labelled the "Butcher of Addis", was tried together with 73
others for the massacre of thousands of people during his 17-year rule, which
began with the ouster of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974. Mengistu's Derg
movement was accused of later murdering Selassie and secretly burying his body
in a latrine.
Zimbabwe has resisted numerous approaches by the Ethiopian government to have
Mengistu extradited to his homeland. The government argues that the dictator
was granted political asylum in accordance with the United Nations Convention
on Refugees. It has granted him Zimbabwean identity documents.
"The Convention stipulates that any refugee is entitled to a travel document,
e.g. a laissez-passer issued by the United Nations or a travel document issued
by the host government. This is done to ensure protection of the refugee," a
foreign affairs spokesperson said recently.
Knowing 'our guest'
TEASED in childhood about his dark features, Mengistu declared on seizing power
in 1974: "In this country, some aristocratic families automatically categorise
persons with dark skin, thick lips, and kinky hair as "Barias" (slave); let it
be clear to everybody that I shall soon make these ignoramuses stoop and grind
corn."
By the time Mengistu fled his homeland in 1991, 15 000 peasants, thousands more
students and opposition activists, had been massacred. He had even killed 80 of
the 120 original leaders of his own party.
Here's how he justified all the killings: "The revolution needed to be fed by
the blood of traitors."
And in 1999, Mengistu told The Star: "We had to organise people into urban
defence units and rural defence committees and peasants' associations to defend
the country. The so-called genocide was this war in defence of the revolution."
By 1978, Mengistu's three-phased purge had eliminated all opposition. To break
remnant opposition in the north, Mengistu dropped cluster bombs on towns,
targeting crowded market places.
In 1984, Mengistu denied Ethiopians were starving. United Nations aid workers
said Mengistu flew in "planeloads of whisky" to celebrate the anniversary of
his revolution, while his countrymen starved. One million people died of
hunger.
Mengistu also seized all foreign-owned companies without compensation.
But in May 1991, under threat from advancing opposition forces, Mengistu fled
to Zimbabwe, where he has the lofty status of "official guest" of President
Mugabe.
In 1995, he survived an assassination attempt when Eritreans Solomon Ghebre
Haile Michael and Abraham Goletom Joseph laid an ambush outside his Gunhill
mansion. The pair were arrested and jailed for 10 and five years each but their
sentences were reduced to two years each on appeal after they successfully
argued that they and their families had been tortured by Mengistu. Since that
close shave, the former dictator carries a gun.
In 1999, he flew to South Africa for emergency medical treatment. Ethiopia
tried to get him repatriated, but he hurriedly returned to Harare.
At any time, up to six luxury cars are parked at his mansion. These include a
Mercedes Benz, a Toyota Prado, a Toyota Avensis, and a BMW 730i.
As "our guest", Mengistu enjoys 24-hour state security, a generous fuel
facility from the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) for his personal
use and for the two farms he was recently given. His vehicles are serviced for
free by the CMED. Two of his sons are doctors working in Zimbabwe.


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