Read Mengistu Haile Mariam biography
I am a revolutionary; my life is dedicated to freeing the people.
Mengistu Haile MariamWhen we planned our country's economic development, we had the strategic objective of our Revolution in mind. It was not planned for economic development [to be] solely an end in itself. There are some who have forgotten that the sole basis of our revolutionary struggle was the ideology and politics which we follow...
Mengistu Haile MariamOne of the fundamental preconditions of successful socialist construction is to ensure the people's readiness to defend themselves from the ravages of probable regional or global wars on the basis of the balance of forces generating from the basic contradictions of our epoch.
Mengistu Haile MariamIn this country, some aristocratic families automatically categorize persons with dark skin, thick lips, and kinky hair as "Barias" [Amharic for slave]... let it be clear to everybody that I shall soon make these ignoramuses stoop and grind corn!
Mengistu Haile Mariam[Haile Selassie] was 80 years old and a very weak man. We tried our best to save him but we could not keep him.
Mengistu Haile Mariam[Haile Selassie] died a natural death, as far as I know. I can't deny that there were many of my men who would have been glad to kill him with their bare hands to avenge the fathers and brothers they had lost due to him. The doctor looking after him told me nothing about any deterioration in his health, so there was no way I could personally ascertain what happened.
Mengistu Haile MariamWhen [Nelson Mandela] was in prison I admired him for his moral strength...Of his period in power I can see few results. Apartheid no longer exists, at least to all appearances, but no one understands what the new government in South Africa is doing.
Mengistu Haile MariamI'm a military man, I did what I did only because my country had to be saved from tribalism and feudalism. If I failed, it was only because I was betrayed. The so-called genocide was nothing more than just a war in defence of the revolution and a system from which all have benefited.
Mengistu Haile MariamIf I had resigned on my own accord, to whom would I have transferred the reigns of power?
Mengistu Haile MariamWe did not even know his name.
Mengistu Haile MariamWe thought that the proletariat would eventually run the world. But it is the Americans who have assumed that position... The American people have changed.
Mengistu Haile MariamEthiopia did not have the same problem [of corruption]. African leaders looked at us with envy.
Mengistu Haile MariamMengistu seemed to symbolize the revolution. He was the baria, the slave who overthrew the master, the member of the conquered tribe who got even with the conquerors, the poorly educated son of a servant who rose against the intellectual elite.
Mengistu Haile MariamAfter Mengistu consolidated his power in 1978, his personality gradually began to change. His ability to listen and his patience faded away. We could now see these qualities were pretences only; he had been putting on his best behavior in his bid for support.
Mengistu Haile MariamEverything Mengistu has done since 1977 has been to place himself in a position of uncontestable power. Neither Haile Selassie nor any of the previous emperors had this insatiable thirst for power.
Mengistu Haile MariamMengistu does not understand the meaning of self-determination, either historically or in the abstract. He cannot conceive of a nation as anything but an absolute centralized authority, totalitarianism, for his rule is nothing less than that now.
Mengistu Haile MariamFrom now on you must pray for your people and yourself three times a day.
Mengistu Haile MariamWhen as an American emissary I met him in September 1977 in his office in the Menelik Palace, I was struck at how much darker he was than his portrait on the wall behind him. The fact that he was more Negroid than the average Ethiopian highlander gave him an inferiority complex.
Mengistu Haile MariamMengistu is a barbaric and cruel creature who becomes happy with the death of human beings.
Mengistu Haile MariamWe fought them when they sought to dismember the nation. Is this why I should seek exoneration?
Mengistu Haile Mariam