http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?storyid=2006-12-
12T144241Z_01_L12865859_RTRUKOC_0_UK-ETHIOPIA-
MENGISTU.xml&type=worldNews&WTmodLoc=World-C3-More-8
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia's former ruler Mengistu Haile Mariam
was found guilty in absentia of genocide on Tuesday at the end of a
12-year trial over his bloody rule.
Mengistu, who now lives in Zimbabwe, was accused with top members of
his military government of killing thousands during a 17-year rule
which began with the toppling of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974 and
included war, purges and famine.
"Members of the Derg (Mengistu's junta) who are present in court
today and those who are being tried in absentia have conspired to
destroy a political group and kill people with impunity," presiding
Judge Medhen Kiros told the court.
The genocide verdict, which carries a death sentence, was passed by
two votes to one on the three-judge panel.
Mengistu was ousted by guerrillas led by now Prime Minister Meles
Zenawi and in 1991 fled to Zimbabwe, where he leads a luxurious
though reclusive life.
He was tried in absentia in Addis Ababa with 73 others, including
former Prime Minister Fikre Selassie Wogderesse and former Vice
President Fissiha Desta.
Some 40 officials are in jail while 27 were tried in absentia. A few
have died since proceedings began in 1992 and the trial formally
started in 1994.
In the 1977-78 "Red Terror" campaign, the most notorious purge,
suspected opponents were executed by garrotting or shooting. Their
bodies were then tossed into the streets.
Many Ethiopians hope the verdict, postponed from May, will close the
door on one of the country's darkest periods.
"Mengistu sought to right the wrongs made by his feudal predecessors
but in the end he committed far greater wrongs than they did,"
businessman Ephraim Zwede said.
STRANGLING THE EMPEROR
The most prominent victim Mengistu is accused of killing was Emperor
Haile Selassie, said to have been strangled in bed and secretly
buried under a latrine in his palace.
According to prosecution charges, the former officials also killed
more than 1,000 people, including the execution of 60 top officials,
ministers and royal family members by firing squad.
Witnesses have said family members who went to morgues to collect
bodies of loved ones were asked to pay for bullets that killed them.
Witness Gizaw Tefera said soldiers who killed his father cut his head
off and offered it for auction at a market.
"No one wanted to buy my father's head," he said in 2000.
An Argentine forensic expert said some remains exhumed from mass
graves showed victims were killed by garrotting.
"We found green nylon ropes knotted tight around their necks,"
forensic expert Mercedes Doreth said in 2002.
For months in 1984, Mengistu denied that famine was ravaging
Ethiopia's north and aid workers have recalled how he flew in
planeloads of whisky to celebrate the anniversary of his revolution.
One million people starved to death.
Mengistu and his former officials face sentencing later in the month.
They could be given the death penalty for genocide, which Ethiopian
law defines as intent to wipe out political and not just ethnic
groups.
Human rights groups expressed concern at the trial's length, but the
prosecution says the complex nature of evidence, including signed
execution orders, videos of torture sessions and personal
testimonies, was what delayed the verdict.
Analysts say Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is unlikely to hand
over Mengistu now he has been found guilty.
His army helped train Mugabe's guerrillas in their fight against
white minority rule.
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