Mengistu Haile Mariam - Claims of Genocide in Ethiopia

Claims of Genocide in Ethiopia

Mengistu was charged by the current Ethiopian government led by Meles Zenawi, in absentia, for the killing of nearly 2,000 people. Mengistu's charge sheet and evidence list was 8,000 pages long. The evidence against him included signed execution orders, videos of torture sessions and personal testimonies

The trial began in 1994 and ended in 2006. The court said Mengistu was guilty as charged on 12 December 2006, and imposed a life sentence on Mengistu in January 2007. In addition to the genocide conviction, the court claimed that he was guilty of imprisonment, illegal homicide and illegal confiscation of property.

Michael Clough, a US attorney and longtime observer of Ethiopia said in a statement that

“The biggest problem with prosecuting Mengistu for genocide is that his actions did not necessarily target a particular group. They were directed against anybody who was opposing his government, and they were generally much more political than based on any ethnic targeting. In contrast, the irony is the Ethiopian government itself has been accused of genocide based on atrocities committed in Gambella. I’m not sure that they qualify as genocide either. But in Gambella, the incidents, which were well documented in a human rights report of about 2 years ago, were clearly directed at a particular group, the tribal group, the Anuak.”

Some experts believe hundreds of thousands of university students, intellectuals and politicians (including Emperor Haile Selassie) were killed during Mengistu's rule. Amnesty International estimates that a total of half a million people were killed during the Red Terror of 1977 and 1978 Human Rights Watch describes the Red Terror as "one of the most systematic uses of mass murder by a state ever witnessed in Africa." During his reign it was not uncommon to see students, suspected government critics or rebel sympathisers hanging from lampposts each morning. Mengistu himself is alleged to have murdered opponents by garroting or shooting them, saying that he was leading by example.

106 Derg officials were accused of genocide during the trials, but only 36 of them were present in the court. Several former members of the Derg have been sentenced to death.

After Mengistu's conviction in December 2006, the Zimbabwean government said that he still enjoyed asylum and would not be extradited. A Zimbabwean government spokesman explained this by saying that "Mengistu and his government played a key and commendable role during our struggle for independence". According to the spokesman, Mengistu assisted his country's guerrillas during their liberation war by providing training and arms, and after the war he had provided training for Zimbabwean air force pilots; the spokesman said that "not many countries have shown such commitment to us".

Following an appeal on 26 May 2008, Mengistu was sentenced to death in absentia by Ethiopia's High Court, overturning his previous sentence of life imprisonment. Twenty-three of his most senior aides also received death sentences that were commuted on 1 June 2011. On October 4, 2011, 16 of former Mengistu officials have been released from prison in parole, due to their old age and good behavior, while they were incarcerated. However, Mengistu's sentence remains unchanged. It is not clear if a change in government in Zimbabwe will result in his extradition.