People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987–1991 | |||||||||
| Anthem: ኢትዮጵያ, ኢትዮጵያ, ኢትዮጵያ ቅደሚ Ītyoṗya, Ītyoṗya, Ītyoṗya, qidä mī (English:"Ethiopia, Ethiopia, Ethiopia be first") | |||||||||
 The People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in 1991. | |||||||||
| Capital and largest city | Addis Ababa | ||||||||
| Official languages | Amharic | ||||||||
| Religion | State atheism | ||||||||
| Government | Unitarycommunist state[1][2] under atotalitarian dictatorship[3][4] | ||||||||
| General Secretary | |||||||||
• 1987–1991 | Mengistu Haile Mariam | ||||||||
| President | |||||||||
• 1987–1991 | Mengistu Haile Mariam | ||||||||
• 1991 | Tesfaye Gebre Kidan | ||||||||
| Prime Minister | |||||||||
• 1987–1989 | Fikre Selassie Wogderess | ||||||||
• 1989–1991 | Hailu Yimenu | ||||||||
• 1991 | Tesfaye Dinka | ||||||||
| Legislature | National Shengo | ||||||||
| Historical era | Cold War | ||||||||
| 22 February 1987 | |||||||||
| 28 May 1991 | |||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
| 1987[5] | 1,221,900 km2 (471,800 sq mi) | ||||||||
| 1991[6] | 1,127,127 km2 (435,186 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1987[5] | 42,460,039 | ||||||||
• 1991[6] | 49,717,197 | ||||||||
| Currency | Ethiopian birr (ETB) | ||||||||
| Calling code | +251 | ||||||||
| ISO 3166 code | ET | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Eritrea Ethiopia | ||||||||
ThePeople's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE;Amharic:የኢትዮጵያ ሕዝባዊ ዲሞክራሲያዊ ሪፐብሊክ,romanized: Ye-Ītyōṗṗyā Həzbāwī Dīmōkrāsīyāwī Rīpeblīk) was asocialist state that existed inEthiopia and present-dayEritrea from 1987 to 1991.
The PDRE was established in February 1987 as aMarxist-Leninistone-party state upon the adoption of the1987 Constitution, three weeks after its approval inthe national referendum. TheDerg, themilitary junta that had ruled Ethiopia as aprovisional government since 1974, planned for transition to civilian rule and proclaimed asocialist republic in 1984 after five years of preparation. TheWorkers' Party of Ethiopia (WPE) was founded that same year as avanguard party led by Derg chairmanMengistu Haile Mariam. The Derg was dissolved with the proclamation of the PDRE, but continued to rulede facto until September when the new government took office, three months after theJune general election. It was dominated by surviving Derg members, with Mengistu as bothPresident of Ethiopia and General Secretary of the WPE.[7]
The PDRE's government was highlycentralized with ade facto power structure similar to other communist states. Thelegislature, theNational Shengo, was nominally thehighest organ of state power. A president served ashead of state andhead of government, with sweeping executive and legislative powers. The president served as chairman of theCouncil of State, which acted for the Shengo between sessions. In practice, the principles ofdemocratic centralism meant that the Shengo did little more thanrubber-stamp decisions already made by the WPE and itsPolitburo. As both president and party leader, Mengistu was a virtual dictator. He and the surviving members of the Derg dominated the WPE's Politburo. The constitution guaranteed all manner of personal freedoms, but the government paid almost no attention to them in practice, since the constitution gave citizens no recourse against abuse.
The PDRE inherited issues that ravaged Ethiopia during the Derg era including the1983–1985 famine, reliance onforeign aid, and thedecline of the world communist movement. TheSoviet Union ended support of the PDRE in 1990, and internal conflict brought on by theEthiopian Civil War andEritrean War of Independence saw the WPE's authority increasingly challenged by ethnic militias and anti-government groups. In May 1991, Mengistu fled into exile. The regime only lasted another week before theEthiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front enteredAddis Ababa,dissolving the PDRE and replacing it with theTransitional Government of Ethiopia.
Following the demise of imperial rule, the feudal socioeconomic structure was dismantled through a series of reforms which also affected educational development. By early 1975, the government had closedHaile Selassie I University and all senior secondary schools, then deployed the approximately 60,000 students and teachers to rural areas to promote the government's "Development Through Cooperation Campaign". The campaign's purposes were to promoteland reform and improveagricultural production,health, and local administration and to teach peasants about the new political and social order.[8]
Primary school enrollment increased from about 957,300 in 1974/75 to nearly 2,450,000 in 1985/86. There were still variations among regions in the number of students enrolled and a disparity in the enrollment of boys and girls. Nevertheless, while the enrollment of boys more than doubled, that of girls more than tripled. However, with most of the rebel controlled northern Ethiopia regions as well as parts of Somali and Oromo regions out of the government's control, most of its claims were not perceived to be comprehensive.[8]
The number of senior secondary schools almost doubled as well, with fourfold increases inArsi,Bale,Gojjam,Gondar, andWollo. The pre-revolutionary distribution of schools had shown a concentration in the urban areas of a few administrative regions. In 1974/75 about 55 percent of senior secondary schools were inEritrea andShewa, including Addis Ababa. In 1985/86 the figure was down to 40 percent. Although there were significantly fewer girls enrolled at the secondary level, the proportion of females in the school system at all levels and in all regions increased from about 32 percent in 1974/75 to 39 percent in 1985/86.[8]
Among the PDRE's successes was the nationalliteracy campaign. The literacy rate, under 10 percent during the imperial regime, increased to about 63 percent by 1984.[citation needed] In 1990/91 an adult literacy rate of just over 60 percent was still being reported in government as well as in some international reports. Officials originally conducted the literacy training in five languages:Amharic,Oromo,Tigrinya,Wolaytta, andSomali. The number of languages was later expanded to fifteen, which represented about 93 percent of the population.[8]
A number of countries were generous in helping the PDRE meet its health care needs.Cuba, theSoviet Union, and a number of East European countries provided medical assistance. In early 1980, nearly 300 Cuban medical technicians, including more than 100 physicians, supported local efforts to resolve public health problems. Western aid for long-term development of Ethiopia's health sector was modest, averaging about US$10 million annually, the lowest per capita assistance in sub-Saharan Africa. The main Western donors included Italy and Sweden. The UN system led byUNDP and including such agencies asFAO,UNESCO,UNICEF,UNIDO,UNFPA andWHO, continued to extend assistance as they had to the Emperor's regime. In the early 1980s, at least one UNDP representative, a former minister in a Caribbean country, had the credibility to get access to Mengistu, and may have moderated his excesses in some instances.[citation needed] The World Bank also continued to provide assistance during his rule doubtless recognising the surprisingly conservative and prudent fiscal discipline the regime tried to follow.[8]
Ethiopia had never recovered from the previous great famine of the early 1970s, which was the result of a drought that affected most of the countries of the AfricanSahel. The famine was also caused by an imbalance of population which was concentrated in the highland areas, which were free ofmalaria andtrypanosomiasis. Both the Emperor's and Mengistu's regimes had tried to resettle people in the lowlands, but the Mengistu regime came in for heavy international criticism on the grounds that the resettlements were forced.[9]
There has been an approximately decade long cycle of recurrent droughts in this part of east Africa since earlier in the 20th century and by the late 1970s signs of intensifying drought began to appear. By the early 1980s, large numbers of people in central Eritrea, Tigray, Welo, and parts of Begemder and Shewa were beginning to feel the effects ofrenewed famine.[8]
A drought that began in 1969 continued as dry weather brought disaster to the Sahel and swept eastward through theHorn of Africa. By 1973 the attendant famine had threatened the lives of hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian nomads, who had to leave their home grounds and struggle into Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya, and Sudan, seeking relief from starvation. By the end of 1973, famine had claimed the lives of about 300,000 peasants of Tigray and Welo, and thousands more had sought relief in Ethiopian towns and villages.[8]
The PDRE's limited ability to lead development and to respond to crises was dramatically demonstrated by the government's reliance on foreign famine relief between 1984 and 1989. By 1983 armed conflict between the government and opposition movements in the north had combined with drought to contribute to mass starvation in Eritrea, Tigray, and Welo. Meanwhile, drought alone was having a devastating impact on an additional nine regions. This natural disaster far exceeded the drought of 1973–74, which had contributed to the downfall of Emperor Haile Selassie. By early 1985, some 7.7 million people were suffering from drought and food shortages. Of that number, 2.5 million were at immediate risk of starving.[8]
As it had in the past, in the mid-1980s the international community responded generously to Ethiopia's tragedy once the dimensions of the crisis became understood, although the FAO had been warning of food security problems for several years before the famine hit. Bilateral, multilateral, and private donations of food and other relief supplies poured into the country by late 1984. In 1987 another drought threatened 5 million people in Eritrea and Tigray. This time, however, the international community was better prepared to get food to the affected areas in time to prevent starvation and massive population movements. According to library of Congress studies, "many supporters of the Ethiopian regime opposed its policy of withholding food shipments to rebel areas. The combined effects of famine and internal war had by then put the nation's economy into a state of collapse."[8] Also according toHuman Rights Watch's reports and research,[10] the counter-insurgency strategy of the PDRE caused the famine to strike one year earlier than would otherwise have been the case, and forced people to migrate to relief shelters and refugee camps. The economic war against the peasants caused the famine to spread to other areas of the country. If the famine had struck only in 1984/5, and only affected the "core" areas of Tigray and North Wollo (3.1 million affected people), and caused only one quarter of the number to migrate to camps, the death toll would have been 175,000 (on the optimistic assumptions) and 273,000 (on the pessimistic assumptions). Thus between 225,000 and 317,000 deaths—rather more than half of those caused by the famine—can be blamed on the government's human rights violations.
He was succeeded on an interim basis by Vice PresidentTesfaye Gebre Kidan. However, with the rebels closing in on Addis Ababa from all sides, the PDRE only survived another week. In late May, while peace talks were underway, Tesfaye notified American officials that he had lost the ability to maintain order, and could no longer command what remained of the army. Washington then cleared the way for the rebels to take over the capital on May 28.[11]
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