Mengistu Haile Mariam

"The style of Mengistu's exercise of power is very much in the traditional imperial pattern. He really is a sort of second-rate Communist emperor. In March 1988 during my most recent visit to Ethiopia,…"

"From now on you must pray for your people and yourself three times a day."

"was 80 years old and a very weak man. We tried our best to save him but we could not keep him."

"Mengistu does not understand the meaning of self-determination, either historically or in the abstract. He cannot conceive of a nation as anything but an absolute centralized authority, totalitarianis…"

"Mengistu seemed to symbolize the revolution. He was the baria, the slave who overthrew the master, the member of the conquered tribe who got even with the conquerors, the poorly educated son of a serv…"

"For me and for many others, Mengistu was the best choice for several reasons. He had come from a poor family background and was not an Amhara, the dominant ethnic group under Haile Selassie. As a pers…"

"I'm a military man, I did what I did only because my country had to be saved from tribalism and feudalism. If I failed, it was only because I was betrayed. The so-called genocide was nothing more than…"

"We did not even know his name."