Derg Officials Sheltering in Italian Embassy May be Pardoned

Two senior Derg officials who have sheltered in the Italian Embassy in Addis Ababa since 1991 may be about to finally rejoin their families, an Ethiopian newspaper reported.

Berhanu Bayeh and Addis Tedla sought safety after the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front army entered the capital on May 28, 1991. The 82-year-old Berhanu, who served as Foreign Minister from 1986 to 1989, and the 74-year-old Addis, Chief of General Staff from 1989 to 1991, are to be pardoned, Addis Admass said on June 16, quoting numerous sources. The Amharic-language newspaper said pardon requests are to be presented to parliament’s Law, Justice and Administrative Affairs Standing Committee this week and then to MPs for approval.

When military dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam fled Ethiopia in 1991 and the Derg regime fell, four ministers took refuge inside the Embassy. The other two, former acting Prime Minister Hailu Yimenu and Military Commander in Eritrea, Tesfaye Gebre Kidan, have died.  Hailu is reported to have committed suicide in 1993 and Tesfaye is rumoured to have died after being hit over the head with a bottle in 2004.

Fifteen years into their stay, the surviving pair were sentenced to death in absentia for their role in killings committed under the Derg regime that ruled the country following the 1974 revolution that ousted Emperor Haile Selassie’s imperial government. In 2011, death sentences for 23 Derg officials were commuted to life imprisonment. Despite repeated requests from the Ethiopian government, Italian authorities refused to hand over the officials.

The pardons are the latest in a series of reforms that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration has pledged to undertake. During his Millennium Hall speech in May, Abiy talked about a culture of forgiveness that could even be extended to Berhanu and Addis.