…I read on the statue outside the “Red Terror” Martyrs’ Memorial Monument museum in Meskel Square, Addis Ababa, when I visited recently.
The motto reflects Ethiopia’s determination never again to allow the terror that flourished under the Derg military junta in 1977-8 to be repeated. Under Mengistu Haile Mariam, who still lives in exile in Zimbabwe, a wave of seemingly indiscriminate torture and death was unleashed – claiming up to 500,000 lives, including those of over 1000 children.
Corpses lay rotting in the streets of the capital; women were repeatedly and systematically raped; and groups of people were immolated in churches.
The House of Terror in Budapest, where I previously worked as British Ambassador, is an excellent and moving record of the terror unleashed under the Communist regime in post-War Hungary.
But the Red Terror Museum in Addis Ababa is an even more stark and brutal testament to man’s inhumanity to man. Do visit if you come to Ethiopia, but expect to be shocked. If your timing is good, you may be shown around by the Director, himself a victim of torture under the Derg.
The museum is a salutary reminder of the importance of tolerance. It is badly in need of written material on the use of terror and genocide for the library: if you can help, please get in touch with the museum.
Dear Ambassador,
I would like to appreciate this piece of information. Indeed it is our motto to deny the reappearance of this kind of horrific act in our country. We have been struggling different situations which were impregnated by a high scale of calamity. Thanks to our people and our principled way of solving problems now they are behind. Not only a motto can deter such kind of problem. If it was like that we wouldn’t have experienced the horror after the disintegration of former Yugoslavia while we had the bad memories of the Holocaust still fresh in our minds. We have to act always! We have to work together for the betterment of human kind.
Best Regards,
Dear Ambassador, thank you very much for reminding us of all the past that we Ethiopians are yet to come to terms with. The attempt to heal those wounds has not even started because of our utter failure to embrace all the fundamentals of transitional justice elements. A case in point is our inability to even consider addressing the socio-economic damages that victims and their families have suffered. The criminal trials have ended which partially demonstrated that no government official could get away with impunity after committing those horrendous and inhumane acts.
Thanks again!