Mengistu Haile Mariam quotes

Mengistu Haile Mariam is a former Ethiopian military officer and head of state. As leader of the Derg, his regime oversaw radical political changes and sparked significant controversy due to widespread human rights abuses. He has lived in exile since fleeing Ethiopia following the collapse of his government. Here are 25 of his quotes:

When we planned our country's economic development, we had the strategic objective of our Revolution in mind. It was not planned for economic development [to be] solely an end in itself. There are some who have forgotten that the sole basis of our revolutionary struggle was the ideology and politics which we follow...

Mengistu Haile Mariam

In this country, some aristocratic families automatically categorize persons with dark skin, thick lips, and kinky hair as "Barias" [Amharic for slave]... let it be clear to everybody that I shall soon make these ignoramuses stoop and grind corn!

Mengistu Haile Mariam

One of the fundamental preconditions of successful socialist construction is to ensure the people's readiness to defend themselves from the ravages of probable regional or global wars on the basis of the balance of forces generating from the basic contradictions of our epoch.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

Ethiopia did not have the same problem [of corruption]. African leaders looked at us with envy.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

I am a revolutionary; my life is dedicated to freeing the people.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

We thought that the proletariat would eventually run the world. But it is the Americans who have assumed that position... The American people have changed.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

Mengistu does not understand the meaning of self-determination, either historically or in the abstract. He cannot conceive of a nation as anything but an absolute centralized authority, totalitarianism, for his rule is nothing less than that now.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

Mengistu seemed to symbolize the revolution. He was the baria, the slave who overthrew the master, the member of the conquered tribe who got even with the conquerors, the poorly educated son of a servant who rose against the intellectual elite.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

When [Nelson Mandela] was in prison I admired him for his moral strength... Of his period in power I can see few results. Apartheid no longer exists, at least to all appearances, but no one understands what the new government in South Africa is doing.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

[Haile Selassie] died a natural death, as far as I know. I can't deny that there were many of my men who would have been glad to kill him with their bare hands to avenge the fathers and brothers they had lost due to him. The doctor looking after him told me nothing about any deterioration in his health, so there was no way I could personally ascertain what happened.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

What is important to me as it is for the Ethiopian people, is the unity of the country, the sovereignty of the country and I'm not ready to compromise on that.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

If I had resigned on my own accord, to whom would I have transferred the reigns of power?

Mengistu Haile Mariam

Mugabe fought and liberated his country from colonists. But I am here as a guest of the Zimbabwe people. I am not a personal guest of Mugabe. And veterans of the liberation struggle are well aware of this fact.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

We fought them when they sought to dismember the nation. Is this why I should seek exoneration?

Mengistu Haile Mariam

[Haile Selassie] was 80 years old and a very weak man. We tried our best to save him but we could not keep him.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

We did not even know his name.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

After Mengistu consolidated his power in 1978, his personality gradually began to change. His ability to listen and his patience faded away. We could now see these qualities were pretences only; he had been putting on his best behavior in his bid for support.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

Everything Mengistu has done since 1977 has been to place himself in a position of uncontestable power. Neither Haile Selassie nor any of the previous emperors had this insatiable thirst for power.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

Mengistu is a barbaric and cruel creature who becomes happy with the death of human beings.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

All I can say is that living for 17 years without rest from fighting, dealing with problem after problem, war after war, and crisis after crisis, every day and every hour was very difficult.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

For me and for many others, Mengistu was the best choice [as chairman of the military council] for several reasons. He had come from a poor family background and was not an Amhara, the dominant ethnic group under Haile Selassie. As a person and as a junior officer he represented our rejection of past values. He would bring about a greater sense that all Ethiopians were equal, an end to class arrogance and racism. Many of us felt he would embody the spirit of the Revolution and symbolize the change we wanted to bring about.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

When as an American emissary I met him in September 1977 in his office in the Menelik Palace, I was struck at how much darker he was than his portrait on the wall behind him. The fact that he was more Negroid than the average Ethiopian highlander gave him an inferiority complex.

Mengistu Haile Mariam