Derg
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Image:Derg-badge.jpgThe word derg means a committee or council in Ge'ez, an ancient Southwest Semitic language that is the ancestor to Amharic, Tigrinya and Gura. More specifically in Ethiopia the Derg was the short name of the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, a committee of military officers which ruled the country from 1974 until 1987.
The Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, or just the Derg (Committee), was formed in June 1974 by military officers following widespread mutiny in the armed forces of Ethiopia in early 1974. The number of committee members was originally about 120. No new members were ever admitted, and the number decreased, especially in the first few years, as some members were expelled or killed. The committee elected Major Mengistu Haile Mariam as its chairman and Major Atnafu Abate as its vice-chairman. The Derg was initially supposed to study the grievances of various military units, and investigate abuses by senior officers and staff, and to root out corruption in the military.
In the months following its founding, the power of the Derg steadily increased. In July the Derg obtained key concessions from the Emperor, Haile Selassie. This included the power to arrest not only military officers, but government officials at every level. Soon both former Prime Ministers Tsehafi Taezaz Aklilu Habte-Wold, and Endelkachew Makonnen, along with most of their cabinets, most regional governors, many senior military officers and officials of the Imperial court found themselves imprisoned. In August, after a proposed constitution creating a constitutional monarchy was presented to the Emperor, the Derg began a program of dismantling the imperial government in order to forestall any such development. The Derg deposed and imprisoned him on September 12, 1974. On September 15, the committee renamed itself the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC) and took control of the government. The Derg chose Lt. General Aman Andom to be its chairman, and acting head-of-state until the Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen could return from his medical treatment in Europe and assume the throne as a constitutional monarch. However, General Aman Andom quareled with the radical elements in the Derg over the issue of a new military offensive in Eritrea and the proposal to execute the high officials of the Emperor's former government. The Derg removed General Aman from power and executed him along with some supporters and 60 officials of the previous Imperial government on November 23, 1974. Brigadier General Tafari Benti became the new Chairman of the Derg, and head-of-state, whith Mengistu Haile Mariam and Atnafu Abate as his two vice-Chairman with the new ranks of Lt. Colonels. The monarchy was formally abolished in May, 1975, and Marxist-Leninism was proclaimed the ideology of the state. Emperor Haile Selassie died in captivity on August 22, 1975. It is now known that he was suffocated in his bed by his captors.
After internal conflicts, by November 1977 that resulted in the deaths of General Tafari Benti and several of his supporters, and the later elimination and execution of Colonel Atnafu Abate, Mengistu Haile Mariam gained undisputed leadership of the Derg. In 1987 the Derg was formally dissolved and the country became the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia under a new constitution. Many of the Derg members remained in key government posts, and remained as the members of the Central Committee and the Politbureau of the Workers' Party of Ethiopia (WPE), which became Ethiopia's civilian version of the Eastern bloc Communist parties. Mengistu Haile Mariam became Secretary General of the WPE, and President of the Peoples Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, as well as remaining Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces.
The reign of the Derg in Ethiopia is remembered for the Ethiopian Red Terror in which the government systematically eliminated its opponents between 1975 and 1977 with executions and imprisonments of tens of thousands without trial. It also fought a brutal war with guerillas fighting for Eritrean independence for its entire period in power, as well as with Tigrean rebels, and with other rebel groups ranging from the conservative Ethiopian Democratic Union (EDU) to the far leftist Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Party (EPRP). The Derg also fought a war against invading forces from Somalia in 1977. Ethiopia under the Derg became the Soviet Union's closest ally in Africa, and became among the best armed nations of the region. Most industries and all rural land and private urban real-estate holdings were nationalized by the Derg in 1975. Collective farms were set up, leading to a fall in food production. Although Ethiopia is prone to chronic droughts, no one was prepared for the scale of drought and famine that struck the country in the mid-1980s, in which up to seven million may have died. With a state-run, centrally-planned economy, Ethiopia descended into a long period of economic collapse. Hundreds of thousands fled economic misery and political repression, and went to live in neighboring counties and all over the Western world, creating an Ethiopian diaspora for the first time.
The Derg government was toppled by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition of rebel forces in 1991.
See also: History of Ethiopia
External links
- ETHIOPIA - A Country Study (at the Library of Congress)
- The Ethiopian Revolution, The Dergue, Civil War and Famine
Bibliography
- Paul B. Henze. "Evolution, War, and 'Socialism': The First Decade of the Derg" and "The End of the Derg: The Victory of the Northern Guerrilla Movements" in Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia. New York: Palgrave, 2000. ISBN 0312227191nl:Dergue