Court set to disturb Mengistu’s quiet refuge

HARARE — Former Ethiopian strongman Mengistu Haile Mariam, who lives in reclusive but comfortable exile in Zimbabwe, faces a key supreme court verdict tomorrow on charges related to his brutal 17-year rule.
Ethiopia’s supreme court, which has been trying him in absentia, is due to deliver its verdict tomorrow on charges he killed thousands of people during his rule, which began with the overthrow of emperor Haile Selassie in 1974.
He and other members of a notoriously brutal military junta are accused of killing of more than 1000 people in the so-called Red Terror purges, including former emperor Haile Selassie, who he ousted in 1974.
Ethiopia’s high court said it would also rule on the same day on genocide charges against about 100 of Mengistu’s followers. The co-accused include former prime minister Fikre Selassie Wogderesse, former vice-president Fissiha Desta and about 40 other top officials from the Mengistu era who have been in prison awaiting a verdict since 1992.
Mengistu, in exile for 15 years, is treated as an honoured guest by President Robert Mugabe’s government, which holds him up as one of the champions of the country’s 1970s liberation war.
Officially, Mengistu and his family stay in a government villa in Harare’s plush Gunhill district, behind a high security wall guarded round the clock by army and police units.
But foreign diplomatic sources believe the former Ethiopian ruler carries a gun and moves around between a number of safe houses, and has his own properties, including some farms.
“He is living a very, very comfortable life, a luxurious life. But the security makes it the luxury of a bunker,” one western diplomat said.
Little is known about Mengistu’s life behind the walls, including how many people live with him, how he spends his time, who his friends are and whether he gets visitors such as Zimbabwe’s president.
Security around Mengistu was increased in the mid-1990s after two Eritreans tried to assassinate him after ambushing him on an afternoon stroll near the villa. Mengistu has said he has no regrets about his rule. Reuters