Early chairman of the Derg
In July 1975 he proposed a united front of 'all the forces that rejected the ancient regime, built from the base'; Mengistu and his supporters opposed this strategy.
An Ethiopian officer who became Derg chairman in late 1974. He served as head of state during nationalization of land and major industries but could not contain the internal military struggle. He was killed in February 1977, after which Mengistu consolidated predominance.
Career timeline
- 1941Joined the Ethiopian Army
- 1967Military attaché in Washington, D.C.
- 1974Brigadier general, 4th Division
- 1974–1977Chairman of the Derg (PMAC) and head of state
Consolidation of Derg rule
At a Derg meeting he vowed of the aristocrats who called dark-skinned, kinky-haired people slave "Barias": "I shall soon make these ignoramuses stoop and grind corn!"
A leader of Ethiopia’s Derg, the military committee emerging from the 1974 revolution. He consolidated predominance after the 1977 power struggle and led military and party-state institutions. Land reform and state-led development proceeded amid political repression and prolonged war.
Career timeline
- 1957Graduated Holetta Military Academy, commissioned second lieutenant
- 1974Derg member (Third Division representative)
- 1974–1977Deputy chairman of the Derg
- 1977–1987Chairman of the Derg, head of the military regime
- 1984–1991General Secretary, Workers' Party of Ethiopia
- 1987–1991President, People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
- 1991Fled into exile in Zimbabwe
