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NEWS
The World
June 1, 1988
Ethiopian President Mengistu Haile Mariam denied that his Marxist government is using food as a weapon against secessionists in the north, where guerrilla war and a government drive have jeopardized Western-financed famine relief. Mengistu, at a six-hour press conference with foreign reporters, said the rebels are using the food deficit to elicit sympathy. He charged they are fighting a proxy war to consolidate Arab control of the Red Sea.
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CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
Chance for Peace in Ethiopia
May 23, 1991
Finally, some good news out of Ethiopia. The resignation of President Mengistu Haile Mariam provides an opportunity for relief after years of war, tyranny, drought and famine. Peace talks, sponsored by the United States, are scheduled on Monday in London, with representatives from the major rebel groups and the current government invited to attend. An accord could pave the way for some measure of peace in that poor East African nation.
NEWS
WORLD IN BRIEF : ETHIOPIA : Marxist Chief Now Calls for Capitalism
March 7, 1990 | From Times Staff and Wire Reports
The Marxist economic system imposed after the late Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown in 1974 is a failure, President Mengistu Haile Mariam said in a speech to the Central Committee of the ruling Marxist Workers' Party. Mengistu said he wants a return to capitalism. The Central Committee must approve Mengistu's recommendations for a drastic overhaul of the shattered economy.
NEWS
Ethiopian Leader Revamps Regime as Rebels Gain
April 27, 1991 | From Associated Press
President Mengistu Haile Mariam removed his vice president and chief military strategist Friday following a series of gains by rebels seeking his ouster. Mengistu also named a new prime minister and said Ethiopia will develop a new broad-based party to replace his ruling Marxists. Rebels have reportedly advanced to within 55 miles of Addis Ababa, the capital, and control Ethiopia's northern third.
NEWS
WORLD IN BRIEF : ETHIOPIA : Mandela Pays Visit, Returns to Tanzania
March 10, 1990 | From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Black nationalist Nelson R. Mandela pledged in Ethiopia that South African "freedom fighters" will struggle until they stop apartheid. Then he flew back to Tanzania to visit African National Congress military camps. Mandela spent only 24 hours in Ethiopia in a last-minute side trip during his 17-day tour, meeting President Mengistu Haile Mariam and addressing delegation chiefs from the Organization of African Unity.
NEWS
Ethiopian Leader Revamps Regime as Rebels Gain
April 27, 1991 | From Associated Press
President Mengistu Haile Mariam removed his vice president and chief military strategist Friday following a series of gains by rebels seeking his ouster. Mengistu also named a new prime minister and said Ethiopia will develop a new broad-based party to replace his ruling Marxists. Rebels have reportedly advanced to within 55 miles of Addis Ababa, the capital, and control Ethiopia's northern third.
NEWS
Mengistu Rule Seen Teetering on Brink
May 27, 1990 | From Associated Press
President Mengistu Haile Mariam, who built a Marxist regime on the ashes of a feudal empire he helped bring down in 1974, is a man with many problems and, some predict, a limited future. His army has suffered battlefield setbacks in recent months, particularly in the northernmost province of Eritrea, where rebels appear on the verge of winning a 29-year-old war for independence.
NEWS
WORLD IN BRIEF : ETHIOPIA : Mandela Pays Visit, Returns to Tanzania
March 10, 1990 | From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Black nationalist Nelson R. Mandela pledged in Ethiopia that South African "freedom fighters" will struggle until they stop apartheid. Then he flew back to Tanzania to visit African National Congress military camps. Mandela spent only 24 hours in Ethiopia in a last-minute side trip during his 17-day tour, meeting President Mengistu Haile Mariam and addressing delegation chiefs from the Organization of African Unity.
NEWS
WORLD IN BRIEF : ETHIOPIA : Marxist Chief Now Calls for Capitalism
March 7, 1990 | From Times Staff and Wire Reports
The Marxist economic system imposed after the late Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown in 1974 is a failure, President Mengistu Haile Mariam said in a speech to the Central Committee of the ruling Marxist Workers' Party. Mengistu said he wants a return to capitalism. The Central Committee must approve Mengistu's recommendations for a drastic overhaul of the shattered economy.
NEWS
U.S. to Send 165,000 Tons of Grain to Ethiopia to Help Avert Repeat of '84 Famine
December 13, 1989 | DON SHANNON, TIMES STAFF WRITER
The Agency for International Development said Tuesday that the United States has allocated more than 165,000 tons of grain to Ethiopia to help deal with a famine that it fears could be as severe as one in 1984 that caused an estimated 1 million deaths. Mark L. Edelman, acting administrator of the agency, said other industrialized nations are providing 110,000 tons of grain toward an overall target of 750,000 tons. Experts believe that this amount will be needed in Ethiopia until it harvests next year's crops.
NEWS
The World
September 1, 1989
Ethiopian President Mengistu Haile Mariam said that his government would soon open peace talks with rebels in northern Tigre province, but hours later he said the Tigre People's Liberation Front had launched a new offensive. "While we are talking about peace, the . . . guerrillas in Tigre . . . launched an unprovoked all-out offensive against government forces," said Mengistu, who interrupted a parliamentary session to make the announcement.
NEWS
Top Generals Reported Slain in Ethiopia
May 20, 1989 | From Associated Press
President Mengistu Haile Mariam appeared to regain control in Ethiopia on Friday as a four-day revolt by mutinous soldiers faded under the guns of loyalist troops. Nearly the entire high command of this Marxist government has been killed, a Western diplomat said, in an attempted coup led by generals humiliated in a string of recent defeats against rebels in northern Ethiopia. "If we move into a 'night of the long knives,' it (the high command) will be gutted even more," the diplomat said, "There'll be a certain amount of retribution."
NEWS
Mengistu Rule Seen Teetering on Brink
May 27, 1990 | From Associated Press
President Mengistu Haile Mariam, who built a Marxist regime on the ashes of a feudal empire he helped bring down in 1974, is a man with many problems and, some predict, a limited future. His army has suffered battlefield setbacks in recent months, particularly in the northernmost province of Eritrea, where rebels appear on the verge of winning a 29-year-old war for independence.
NEWS
U.S. to Send 165,000 Tons of Grain to Ethiopia to Help Avert Repeat of '84 Famine
December 13, 1989 | DON SHANNON, TIMES STAFF WRITER
The Agency for International Development said Tuesday that the United States has allocated more than 165,000 tons of grain to Ethiopia to help deal with a famine that it fears could be as severe as one in 1984 that caused an estimated 1 million deaths. Mark L. Edelman, acting administrator of the agency, said other industrialized nations are providing 110,000 tons of grain toward an overall target of 750,000 tons. Experts believe that this amount will be needed in Ethiopia until it harvests next year's crops.
NEWS
World IN BRIEF : ETHIOPIA : Jews Can Emigrate, Aide Says
November 8, 1989 | From Times staff and wire service reports
A key aide to Ethiopian President Mengistu Haile Mariam pledged to let his country's 16,000 Jews emigrate freely but refused to say whether Israel promised to provide military assistance in return. Israel and Ethiopia restored diplomatic relations last week. There are about 16,500 Ethiopian Jews in Israel.
NEWS
World IN BRIEF : ETHIOPIA : Rebels Threaten Mengistu Regime
March 27, 1991 | From Times Staff and Wire Reports
In less than a month, rebels have more than doubled the territory they had won in 16 years, and they now control the northern third of Ethiopia, Western analysts say. Although outnumbered by government troops, they seriously threaten the regime of President Mengistu Haile Mariam, whose army appears unwilling or unable to fight. Most embassies in Addis Ababa, the capital, have advised dependents and non-essential personnel to leave the country.
NEWS
World IN BRIEF : ETHIOPIA : Some Americans Advised to Leave
March 13, 1991 | From Times Staff and Wire Reports
The U.S. government suggested that American diplomatic dependents and non-essential staff leave Ethiopia after a string of victories by rebel forces, diplomats said. The advisory is strictly voluntary, but envoys in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, said they expect a "considerable number" of the approximately 40 U.S. dependents to leave. Since launching their latest offensive Feb.
NEWS
Italy Shelters Former Ethiopian Leader
June 1, 1991 | Times Wire Services
The Italian Embassy in Addis Ababa has granted refuge to the Ethiopian official who briefly led the country after President Mengistu Haile Mariam fled the country, the Foreign Ministry said Friday. The embassy refused demands by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) to turn over Tesfaye Gebre-Kidan, Ethiopia's former acting president, saying it would shelter him until it receives formal guarantees that he would receive a fair and public trial.
WORLD : Clash May Signal Ethiopia Coup Bid
May 16, 1989 | From Times staff and wire service reports and
Ethiopian soldiers and tanks surrounded the Ministry of Defense in Addis Ababa today while Marxist President Mengistu Haile Mariam was abroad, and there were reports of fighting in what might be a coup attempt. Sources in Addis Ababa said helicopter gunships and two MIG-21 fighters flew over the center of the capital and troop carriers were seen moving along the airport road. Ethiopian radio and television continued to broadcast normally, however, and shops and bars in the capital remained open, diplomats and relief workers said.
NEWS
Sudan to Let U.N. Give Aid to Refugees
June 17, 1991 | Associated Press
The government has approved a U.N. plan to airdrop relief supplies to tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees in the war-weary nation's south, a U.N. official said Sunday. The refugees were forced to return home from neighboring Ethiopia after the ouster of former President Mengistu Haile Mariam, who was the main supporter of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army. The rebels have been fighting in southern Sudan for autonomy since 1983. James Ingram, executive director of the U.N.
NEWS
WORLD : Ethiopia Executes 12 in '89 Coup
May 22, 1990 | From Times Wire Services
Ethiopia said today that it has executed 12 high-ranking military officers for involvement in a 1989 coup attempt against President Mengistu Haile Mariam. The Ethiopian news agency said the 12 had been found guilty of high treason and endangering the unity and territorial integrity of the nation. The 12 included the former head of the army ground forces, Maj. Gen. Hailu Gabre Michael, and former police chief Maj. Gen. Worku Zwede.
NEWS
Ethiopia Says It Will Allow U.N. to Extend Aid to Drought Areas
May 30, 1988 | United Press International
President Mengistu Haile Mariam will allow the United Nations to expand its emergency operations in drought-stricken northern Ethiopia, a U.N. spokesman said Sunday. U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, who was in Addis Ababa as a special guest of the Organization of African Unity, met with the Ethiopian leader Friday. There was no comment on the meeting until Sunday, shortly before Perez de Cuellar's departure. The U.N.
NEWS
Ethiopia Halts Exodus of Black Jews to Israel; Arms Aid Sought
March 14, 1991 | Reuters
Ethiopia has abruptly halted an exodus of black Jews to Israel to pressure the Jewish state into supplying military aid to help it fight a worsening civil war, community leaders said Wednesday. "The halt was very sudden, without any warning from the Ethiopian government," said Rahamim Elazar, secretary of Israel's Ethiopian organization. "The Ethiopian government wants Israel to provide it arms due to the increasing war in recent weeks," he said.
NEWS
Ex-Ethiopian Rebels Form Interim Regime
July 6, 1991 | From Associated Press
A transitional government made up of former rebel groups was formed Friday to prepare Ethiopia's first democratic elections, but secessionist Eritrean leaders refused to join the alliance. The government, which is dominated by guerrillas who toppled former President Mengistu Haile Mariam in late May, inherits an empty treasury, heavy debts and the problem of feeding as many as 7 million famine victims.
NEWS
Ethiopia's Turbulent History
May 22, 1991 | Times Wire Services
Key events in Ethiopia from the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie to President Mengistu Haile Mariam's flight into exile Tuesday: * 1974: Marxist military officers depose Emperor Haile Selassie after a severe famine and declare Ethiopia a socialist state. * 1977: Lt. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam takes over the government. Mengistu consolidates his position by arresting and executing suspected government opponents. About 10,000 are killed.
NEWS
Coup Smashed, Ethiopia's Leader Says
May 19, 1989 | From Times Wire Services
President Mengistu Haile Mariam, in his first public appearance since a coup attempt began two days earlier, said Thursday that loyal Ethiopian troops have crushed a bloody attempt to topple his government. In a live nationwide radio and television address, Mengistu branded as traitors the army units that tried to seize power while he was on a state visit to East Germany. "I feel proud and greatly honored to tell my countrymen that the 2nd Army Division based in Eritrea (province)
220 Ethiopian Jews Emigrate to Israel
March 23, 1991 | Reuters
About 220 Ethiopian Jews arrived in Israel on Friday after a three-week block on emigration to the Jewish state by the Addis Ababa government. Ethiopian community leaders in Israel said President Mengistu Haile Mariam abruptly cut the exodus of black Jews on March 1 to pressure Israel into supplying military aid to help him fight mounting civil war. Israel denied that Ethiopia was trying to barter Jews for arms and said the stoppage was due to technical problems.
Strategic Ethiopia Towns Captured, Tigrean Rebels Say
May 20, 1991 | From Associated Press
Tigrean rebels who have been making steady gains against the government claimed Sunday to have captured several strategic towns. There were reports of fierce fighting north and west of the capital. Western sources said the fighting has again closed off a vital road from Addis Ababa to the only major port still under government control, jeopardizing efforts to feed millions of drought victims in the Horn of Africa nation.
NEWS
New OAU Chief Tells Africans to End Economic Complacency
July 10, 1990 | From United Press International
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Monday was formally elected chairman of the 51-nation Organization of African Unity. He told national leaders that Africa must snap out of economic complacency if it wants to survive in today's economic climate.
NEWS
Hijacked Ethiopian Jetliner Lands in Rome
August 30, 1992 | KIM MURPHY, TIMES STAFF WRITER
An Ethiopian Airlines jet was hijacked Saturday shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa and began a fitful, daylong odyssey to Djibouti, Yemen and Egypt before landing early today in Rome. Exhausted Egyptian officials who boarded the plane before it left Cairo shortly after midnight said the flight carried only a nine-member crew and four or five hijackers--all believed to be Ethiopians--when it took off from a deserted runway at Cairo International Airport.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
Off the Sidelines and Discreetly Into the Fray : Ethiopia: U.S. diplomacy bolsters constructive tendencies in revolt.
May 29, 1991 | PAUL B. HENZE, Paul B. Henze, a RAND Corp. specialist, is the author of "The Horn of Africa, From War to Peace" (Macmillan, 1991). and
The citizens of Addis Ababa danced last week as a crane pulled down the giant statue of Lenin that overlooked Revolution Square. Students scrawled graffiti condemning Marxism, Leninism and socialism on the corpse as it was hauled away. President Mengistu Haile Mariam's long-overdue abdication was lamented by only a few of his cronies. The rest of Ethiopia rejoices and welcomes the beginning of a new era.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
The Disaster of Not Responding : New famine raises issue of compassion fatigue
June 26, 1991
The pictures are eerily familiar. African children are starving, again. Hungry mothers hold malnourished babies, again. Famine nurtured by civil wars has made the situation desperate in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Mozambique, Angola, Malawi and Liberia. The richer nations of the world are asked to come to the rescue--again. Hunger is not new in Africa.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
Hopeful Signs Emerging in Africa : Reforms are slow but steady on oft-ignored continent
May 27, 1991
Ethiopia's President Mengistu Haile Mariam, who resigned last week in the face of ouster by rebels, is the latest of a half-dozen autocratic African rulers to lose power within the last year, primarily through uprisings. It is as if the dramatic reform taking place in Eastern Europe has had some effect, however measured, in Africa. The ending of Cold War rivalries certainly facilitated the end of tyrannical regimes on the Horn of Africa.
NEWS
War Brings Ethiopia to Verge of Fall : Rebellion: In an impassioned speech, President Mengistu says the 'motherland is on the verge of collapse.'
June 23, 1990 | From Reuters
With rebel groups closing in, embattled Ethiopian President Mengistu Haile Mariam has admitted his country is on the verge of collapse. Urging the people in an impassioned speech to Parliament on Thursday to rally and save the nation, Mengistu for the first time confirmed rebel reports of fierce fighting north of the capital, Addis Ababa, and the Red Sea province of Eritrea. "Citizens must realize . . .
NEWS
Military Coup Foiled, Ethiopia Regime Says
May 17, 1989 | From Reuters
Ethiopia said Tuesday it has put down an attempted coup against Marxist President Mengistu Haile Mariam by soldiers who had surrounded the Defense Ministry with tanks and armored cars. State radio, broadcasting a statement by the State Council, said the government ended an attempt by a few officers to overthrow Lt. Col. Mengistu, who Tuesday began a visit to East Germany. Mengistu, who took part in the coup that overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974, has transformed this impoverished nation from a Christian monarchy into the Soviet Union's most faithful African ally.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
A 'Peace Dividend' With No Dollar or Ruble Price Tag : Third World: An agreement between the superpowers to allow safe passage of food and medicine through battle lines would cost nothing but could save millions of lives.
January 31, 1990 | TONY HALL, Rep. Tony P. Hall (D-Ohio) is chairman of the House Select Committee on Hunger. and
It would be a mistake to think of the "peace dividend" only in terms of ledger lines and cash flow. There is more to any peace dividend than cold currency. The very absence of an atmosphere of flammable tension is itself a dividend that could be put to use now, and in doing so we would save more than money. Without costing our Treasury a dime, the superpowers could spend a dividend of cooperation on the Third World and save lives.
NEWS
Ethiopian Airlift Pact Signals New Effort to End War : World hunger: U.S. officials say the Soviets want to disentangle themselves from a costly civil conflict.
June 4, 1990 | DOUGLAS JEHL, TIMES STAFF WRITER
The unexpected U.S.-Soviet pledge to begin a joint airlift of food aid to hungry Ethiopians is symbolic of a major new effort by the two countries to work together in ending one of Africa's longest running civil wars, Administration officials said Sunday.
NEWS
Nasty Weather and Rough Terrain Add to Difficulties of Searchers in Ethiopia
August 13, 1989 | MICHAEL A. HILTZIK, Times Staff Writer
His eyes rimmed in red, a kit bag dropped wearily at his feet, Air Force Capt. John E. Matwick was describing the rigors of searching for a twin-engine plane in some of the roughest territory and most contrary weather conditions in the world. "With the weather so bad, the hard thing is just keeping track of where you have searched," the 33-year-old Palos Verdes, Calif., native said at Addis Ababa airport after a 10-hour day spent searching fruitlessly for the missing plane carrying Rep.
NEWS
Combat Duty With Rebels in Ethiopia Encourages Equality : Women in War Break Traditions
May 14, 1989 | ERIC ONSTAD, Reuters
As a frightened 9-year-old, Alganesh Behre was forced into marriage with a man three times her age. "At age 14, I was divorced and started working as a housemaid," she recalls without emotion. Today, thanks partly to Alganesh, girls are protected from such early marriages in this rebel-held town where the Tigre People's Liberation Front has encouraged women to break out of their traditional roles. Women are serving as rebel soldiers or taking a more active part in community life.
NEWS
Mule Gridlock a Sign of Reforms at Work : Ethiopia: There are indications that change in this once rigidly communist country may have begun to improve both food production and transport.
January 20, 1991 | ROWENA WHELAN, REUTERS
It was a traffic jam, Ethiopian-style. A mule train brought movement to a standstill outside the central market last month as the animals, loaded with grain, vied for space with trucks bringing in corn and teff, a local cereal. It was a sign, perhaps, that agriculture reforms may finally be working in a country so prone to famine.
NEWS
Ethiopia Jews Look to Israel for New Life : Emigration: Addis Ababa government says it will resume processing passports after mysterious suspension blamed on 'technical problems.'
May 12, 1991 | JENNIFER PARMELEE, SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON POST
Manor Metaku Solomon, a shy, sweet-faced 8-year-old, is one of more than 20,000 Ethiopian Jews who last year abandoned the hinterlands their families have inhabited for thousands of years for a squalid life in this capital, where they wait in limbo for emigration to Israel. Manor is living up to his name. It means "wishing for a good life." Like most Ethiopian Jews, he tells a simple story: a cherished family dream of a biblical "return to the promised land."
NEWS
U.S. Will Send Emergency Food Aid to Ethiopia
September 26, 1987 | DOUGLAS JEHL, Times Staff Writer
In response to an urgent request from the government of Ethiopia, the United States agreed Friday to send 115,000 tons of emergency food aid to help stave off a famine that officials say threatens to be as severe as that which devastated the nation two years ago. The shipment, at a cost of $37.6 million, will supply one-eighth of the total food that Ethiopian and U.S. officials agree will be necessary next year to feed those threatened by a widespread drought.
NEWS
Few Traces of Haile Selassie Remain : Ethiopia's King of Kings Is Now Just a Memory
November 2, 1986 | United Press International
Menelik Palace on the panoramic Entoto hilltop nine miles north of the Ethiopian capital was once the splendid home of Ethiopia's greatest warrior king. It is now an off-limits army barracks and the site of a large radar installation overlooking a patchwork plain 5,000 feet below. Nearby, nestling in stands of pine and rolling hills, stands the church of Entoto Raguel--built 102 years ago as a personal place of worship by King Menelik II.
NEWS
Briefing Paper : Ethiopian Rebels Making Gains; Regime Fading
April 9, 1991 | MICHAEL A. HILTZIK, TIMES STAFF WRITER
The Crisis: Following a number of military victories, a coalition of Ethiopian rebel groups now has the largest swath of territory under its control since the Ethiopian revolution installed a Marxist regime 16 years ago. The advance by elements of the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front is the most significant string of gains since Eritrean rebels, operating separately, took the important Red Sea port of Massawa more than a year ago.
NEWS
Ethiopia Still Struggling to Crush Coup
May 18, 1989 | MICHAEL A. HILTZIK, Times Staff Writer
Gunfire broke out for a second day in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on Wednesday as government forces moved to quell a coup attempt against the 12-year-old regime of President Mengistu Haile Mariam. But the attempt may have given Eritrean rebels in the north of the country, who are fighting the government in Africa's oldest civil war, a dramatic victory as government troops appeared to have ceded control of Asmara. The city, Ethiopia's second largest, is the traditional capital of Eritrea and had been the site of the largest troop concentration in the country.