And Then There Were Sixty

The announcements crackling over Radio Ethiopia last week were terse --and chilling. A mid-morning Shootout had taken place at the columned palace, once the residence of Emperor Haile Selassie and since 1974 occupied by the Dergue, the committee of army officers that overthrew the legendary lion. The shooting was shortly followed by an announcement of the execution of Brigadier General Teferi Benti, 55, Ethiopia's chief of state, and eight of his supporters in the Dergue. Significantly, the broadcasts took pains to mention that the two most powerful members of the Dergue, Lieut. Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam and Lieut. Colonel Atnafu Abate, had survived the shooting "safe and sound." Here was a tip-off that the incident was not a coup against the military council itself but more of a power struggle within the Dergue between Mengistu and Atnafu and pro-Benti officers.

Methodical Ruthlessness. Later reports confirmed that suspicion. Radio Ethiopia broadcast a charge by the safe Mengistu that Benti and his aides had been killed because they were secret supporters of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party. The E.P.R.P. is a leftist underground group of students and businessmen trying to replace military rule with civilian government. Mengistu claimed he had discovered a 47-page master plan, belonging to Benti, that blueprinted the installation of the E.P.R.P. as a government to replace the "scientific socialism" of the military council.

If there is anything scientific about the masters of Ethiopia, it is apparent only in the methodical ruthlessness of their rule. The Dergue seized power brutally in Addis Ababa and other centers in the African nation of 28 million people, confiscating weapons and executing anyone who opposed it. Last year, 50 militants, mostly students who had been suspected of anti-council activity, were shoved against the wall of a suburban Addis Ababa shooting range and slain. Many more killings have taken place secretly. One woman was presented with her husband's bullet-riddled body along with an explanation of his death from natural causes.

The real conflict, however, is a power struggle within the Dergue that is slowly reducing its membership and possibly its entrenched position. There were 120 officers on the council when it ousted Haile Selassie; after last week's executions the group numbered only about 60. The previous chief of state, Lieut. General Aman Andom, was shot to death in November 1974 for "resisting arrest." Last July another internal fight led to the execution of Major Sisay Hapte, a high-ranking council member, and several other officials.

Last week's executions obviously have not solved the power struggle or its implication for Ethiopia, and the African nations that surround it are becoming increasingly edgy. Before long, onlookers predict, there is bound to be another Shootout in the fight for control of the Dergue. How many members will be left after that confrontation is anyone's guess.

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