Awesome. Good Call.

Mengistu formally assumed power as head of state and Derg chairman in 1977, although he had weilded behind the scenes power long before that. The transition of power resulted in the execution of two of Mengistu's predecessors as head of state. Under Mengistu, Ethiopia received aid from the Soviet Union, other members of the Warsaw Pact, and Cuba.

[edit] "Red Terror"

From 1977 through early 1978, a rebellion against the new government ensued and was suppressed, resulting in many casualties. In response to guerrilla attacks from the anti-Mengistu Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP), Mengistu declared that the EPRP had begun a campaign of "White Terror." Anti-Mengistu forces, however, accused Mengistu's Workers Party of waging a campaign of "Red Terror."

Mengistu's campaign against anti-government guerrillas was launched with a speech delivered in Revolution (formerly Maskal or "Holy Cross") Square in the heart of Addis Ababa. He included the Eritrean secessionists Shabia or Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), Jebha or the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF), the monarchist Ethiopian Democratic Union (EDU), the Woyane or Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) in this hunt along with the EPRP.

In response to guerrilla attacks from the EPRP, Mengistu gave counter-insurgency forces the authority to arrest, detain, and execute insurgents. From 1977-78, counter-insurgency forces pursued countless suspected insurgents. Military gains made by the monarchist EDU in Begemder were rolled back when that party split just as it was on the verge of capturing the old capital of Gondar. The army of the Republic of Somalia stepped in to aid the WSLF in the Ogaden region, and was on the verge of capturing Harrar and Dire Dawa, when Somalia's erstwhile allies, the Soviets and the Cubans, launched an unprecedented arms and personnel airlift to come to Ethiopia's rescue. The Derg regime turned back the Somali invasion, and made deep strides against the Eritrean secessionists and the TPLF as well. By the end of the seventies, Mengistu presided over the second largest army in all of Sub-Saharan Africa, and a formidable airforce and Navy as well.

After out-manuevering his rivals inside the Derg and his foes in the EPRP, Mengistu had a rift with the other major Marxist group that had originally supported him, the All-Ethiopia Socialist Movement (MEISON). He rightfully feared that its members had more loyalty to their party and to Marxist ideology than to the ruling Derg government and himself. By 1978, he had effectively eliminated all potential opposition from the EPRP and MEISON through three phases of bloody purges; the first targeting the EPRP, the second targeting MEISON, and the third eliminating remnants of both groups.

n May 1991, EPRDF forces advanced on Addis Ababa and Mengistu was forced to flee the ecountry with 50 family and Derg members. He was granted asylum in Zimbabwe, as an official "guest" of Robert Mugabe, the president of that country. He left behind almost the entire membership of the original Derg and the WPE leadership which was promptly arrested and put on trial upon the assumption of power by the EPRDF. Mengistu himself blames the collapse of his government on Mikhail Gorbachev for letting the Soviet Union collapse and hence cutting off its aid to Ethiopia.

Mengistu still resides in Zimbabwe, despite attempts by Ethiopia to extradite him to face trial by the current Ethiopian authorities. Several former members of the Derg have been sentenced to death in absentia by the new regime. The trial against him, started in 1994, is ongoing as of 2006.

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mengistu_Haile_Mariam