Mengistu Haile Mariam | |
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Chairman of the Derg and Head of State of Ethiopia | |
In office 3 February 1977 – 10 September 1987 | |
Preceded by | Tafari Benti |
Succeeded by | Position abolished |
President of Ethiopia | |
In office 10 September 1987 – 21 May 1991 | |
Prime Minister | Fikre Selassie Wogderess Hailu Yimenu Tesfaye Dinka |
Vice President | Tesfaye Gebre Kidan |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Tesfaye Gebre Kidan |
Personal details | |
Born | Walayita, Ethiopia | 21 May 1937
Political party | Workers Party of Ethiopia |
Mengistu Haile Mariam (born 21 May 1937) is an Ethiopian politician. He was an important officer in the Communist military junta that governed Ethiopia from 1974 to 1987. He was President of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia from 1987 to 1991.
Mariam was a dictator. It is estimated that he was responsible for 500,000 to over 2,000,000 deaths. In May 1991 Mariam left the country for Zimbabwe.[1] The Ethiopian Civil War ended when he left.
In 2010, Mengistu announced the publication of its memoirs. In early 2012, a manuscript of the memoir, titled Tiglachin ("Our Struggle" in Amharic), was leaked on the Internet. A few months later, the first volume leaked was published in the United States and in 2016, the second volume followed. This time it was published in Ethiopia. Mengistu accused the ERP remains of having published the first volume to sabotage its publication.