Two senior Derg officials who have sheltered in the Italian Embassy in Addis Ababa since 1991 may be about to finally rejoin their families, an Ethiopian newspaper reported.
Berhanu Bayeh and Addis Tedla sought safety after the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front army entered the capital on May 28, 1991. The 82-year-old Berhanu, who served as Foreign Minister from 1986 to 1989, and the 74-year-old Addis, Chief of General Staff from 1989 to 1991, are to be pardoned, Addis Admass said on June 16, quoting numerous sources. The Amharic-language newspaper said pardon requests are to be presented to parliament’s Law, Justice and Administrative Affairs Standing Committee this week and then to MPs for approval.
When military dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam fled Ethiopia in 1991 and the Derg regime fell, four ministers took refuge inside the Embassy. The other two, former acting Prime Minister Hailu Yimenu and Military Commander in Eritrea, Tesfaye Gebre Kidan, have died. Hailu is reported to have committed suicide in 1993 and Tesfaye is rumoured to have died after being hit over the head with a bottle in 2004.
Fifteen years into their stay, the surviving pair were sentenced to death in absentia for their role in killings committed under the Derg regime that ruled the country following the 1974 revolution that ousted Emperor Haile Selassie’s imperial government. In 2011, death sentences for 23 Derg officials were commuted to life imprisonment. Despite repeated requests from the Ethiopian government, Italian authorities refused to hand over the officials.
The pardons are the latest in a series of reforms that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration has pledged to undertake. During his Millennium Hall speech in May, Abiy talked about a culture of forgiveness that could even be extended to Berhanu and Addis.
(Main image:The Italian embassy in Addis Ababa (Photo: Italian Embassy website.)
Ethiopian “patriotic comrades” hiding from Tplf in Italian consulate.
Ethiopian-born world-class heart surgeon is jailed without evidence, his work interrupted; surgeon leaves the country, health minister signs a debt-ridden deal with a Dutch company for a heart surgery hospital!
Ethiopia-born “resistance leader” is kidnapped and thrown in jail, the British fight for his release!
Ethiopia-born journalist fights for freedom of expression, is jailed 8 times for a total of 7 years; the world community fights for his release as well as awards him for his democracy struggle!
The moral of the story? Ethiopians are backward(-looking) people and their own worst enemy.
Ethiopian “patriotic comrades” hiding from Tplf in Italian consulate? Really? These butchers, that killed hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians including Aklilu Habtewold that single-handedly united Eritrea and Gambela with Ethiopia. Except for killing Ethiopians, what have these uneducated bastards contributed for Ethiopia? Nothing! You calling them “patriotic comrades” leads me to believe that either you are related to these killers or was part of that system that destroyed a generation. Derg is responsible for the destruction of our nation, they are responsible for handing over Ethiopia to Weyane.
Dear Alemsged Kitaw,
Read again with the quotation marks; “patriotic comrades.” And read the comment to the end!
Why has Italy protected these communist mass murderers for so long? Why has the Ethiopian government put up with it? Why on earth should they be pardoned for their crimes against humanity?