Russian
& East German Documents on Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, 1977-78
Soviet
Ambassador to Ethiopia A.P. Ratanov, Memorandum of Meeting with Mengistu,
10 September 1977
TOP
SECRET, Copy No. 2
From
the journal 29" September 1977
RATANOV,
A.P. Issue
No. 350
RECORD
OF CONVERSATION
with
the Chairman of the PMAC MENGISTU HAILE MARIAM
10
September 1977
On September 10, together with the heads of the
diplomatic missions of Bulgaria, Hungary, the GDR, PDRY, Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Romania, PDRK [People's Democratic Republic of Korea; North Korea], Cuba,
and Yugoslavia, I was invited to visit Mengistu Haile Mariam. From the
Ethiopian side, Atnafu Abate and Berhanu Bayeh, Deputy Chairman of the PMAC
and member of its Permanent Committee, respectively, took part in the meeting,
along with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Felleke Gedle-Giorgis.
Mengistu said that the goal of this meeting was
to inform the governments of the socialist countries and the PDRY, through
their representatives in Addis-Ababa, about the discovery by the PMAC of an
imperialist plot against the Ethiopian revolution, in which to some extent
or another are participating the USA (the initiator of the plot), Sudan, Saudi
Arabia, Egypt, Kenya, and Somalia.
According to the document, which fell into the
hands of the PMAC "from trusted sources," CIA official E. Kelly
from the USA Embassy in Nairobi has worked out a coordinated plan of action
of domestic Ethiopian counterrevolutionary forces and the countries which
support them, which envisages a range of acts at the end of September - beginning
of October of this year, which have as their goal the overthrow of the PMAC
and the creation of a pro-Western, reactionary government. Terrorist
acts in Addis-Ababa against members of the PMAC leadership and the organization
of a combined attack of military formations prepared on the territories of
Sudan and Kenya, and also a continuation of Somali aggression, are parts of
the plan.
In this regard Mengistu Haile Mariam said that
in the aforementioned document there are listed various types of military
sub-units and their specific tasks are set forth. The attack would begin
simultaneously from the north-west, west, and south in the direction of Addis-Ababa.
In fact, as far as Somalia is concerned, its forces which are located on the
territory of Ethiopia, on 10 September of this year again attacked Jijiga,
in the event of the capture of which they are planning an attack on the administrative
center of that region, Harar, and the great industrial center Diredawa. Battles
for Jijiga are continuing.
Among the number of parties and organizations which
are participating in the plot, Mengisu named the Eritrean separatist organization,
the Ethiopian Democratic Union, [and] the Movement for the Liberation of the
Afars (detachments of this movement would attack Assab).
In conclusion, having declared that the PMAC is
taking measures now to explode the schemes of the participants in the plot,
Mengistu expressed the hope that the socialist countries, whose assistance
is decisive for Ethiopia, will provide it at this critical moment the necessary
political and military support. In this regard he noted that one of the most
serious problems for Ethiopia may be the problem of fuel, since the Arab countries
intend to apply an embargo on deliveries of fuel to Ethiopa (which are realized
through the company Mobil).
The heads of the diplomatic missions promised to
bring the information which Mengistu had provided to the attention of their
governments.
AMBASSADOR
OF THE USSR
IN
SOCIALIST ETHIOPIA
/s/
A. RATANOV
[Source:
TsKhSD, f. 5, op. 73, d. 1636, ll. 139-40; translation by Mark H. Doctoroff.]
