I’m one of the members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and I have known Patriarch Theophelos personally; his execution by Mengistu Haile Mariam still haunts me, and as a human being, I will never forgive Mengistu Haile Mariam for raising his hands on God’s anointed Patriarch and servant of his holy Church. Mengistu couldn’t find the Patriarch carrying a gun but holding the holy Bible and praying to God to bring peace for Ethiopia and for the whole world. The Patriarch was not happy about Mengistu’s “Red Terror,” and he was openly denouncing the genocide that took place under Mengistu Hail Mariam’s reign of terror.

Please let the church express her feeling. Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church is a house of God, house of forgiveness. Jesus himself died for no reason and still forgive them. So why not us.
This is not about Mingestu or Meles If we don't stop blaming each other, we will never progress.

Having all these and swimming in a blood bath, they are trying to fool every one by prosecuting their 'likely colleges'-Mengistu and others. For the majority of Ethiopians there is no difference between Mengistu and Meles. Some think, perhaps, Mengistu was working to his capacity to the best of his country. But Meles works hard knowingly to demolish the land and the poeple.

From Killing children and Mothers to selling out a chunk of land. Haven is watching. So if one wants to see Justice, Both dictators need to stand before a 'fair' court.

But Woyane accusing durg can't be nothing more than a nice joke.

Zimbabwe’s Morgantsvanirai says Zimbabwe “would not be a haven for criminals” and “if Mengistu has not committed any crime anywhere,” he would not be sent to Ethiopia to face the death sentence. On the other hand, Robert Mugabe has been saying that Mengistu is a “gust,” and he remains in Zimbabwe as a guest; he will not go to Ethiopia to face the death penalty.

In the Old Testament, there were five cities designated for a person to choose to go to and live there if that person had unintentionally murdered another person, and he would not be killed by “the avenger of blood” before he was tried by the assembly of Israel. These five cities were Kedesh, Shechem, Hebron, Bezer, and Golan (Joshua 20:7-9). However, Harare is not one of these old cities of Joshua; Harare is the city of Robert Mugabe and Mr. Morgantsvanirai, not the city of Joshua; even though Harare is not one of those cities, Mengistu has lived in Harare for almost 17 years and has been sentenced to death because of his heinous crimes he committed while in power. Therefore, he must get out of Harare and face his death sentence, and no doubt Mengistu committed the crime intentionally by establishing the “Red Terror” that terrorized many innocent Ethiopians for many years.

Since Mengistu is sentenced to death in absentia, would that be enough for the opposing party to send Mengistu to Ethiopia and face justice? It may be true Mengistu may have murdered intentionally many innocent Ethiopians under his “Red Terror.” However, the question the Zimbabwe opposition party will ask is whether the murdering of many Ethiopians by Mengistu is ever justified or not. Are there eyewitnesses who saw Mengistu himself killing or ordering someone to kill many Ethiopians? And who are these eyewitnesses? Are they related to the Emperor who was ousted by Mengistu and later killed? This will be a monumental task to prove that Mengistu has really committed the genocide in his country.

Mengistu’s admirers may strongly defend him that he is innocent; he may have killed people who opposed his reform and who supported the breakaway of Eritrea from Ethiopia. Mengistu had kept the country together by defeating Somalia and crushing the Eritrean ambition for independence. During Mengistu’s time, Ethiopia had two seaports; now it is a land locked country like Chad. Mengistu never divided Ethiopia into different ethnicities and never sold a piece of Ethiopian land to a foreign government. Based on these and other facts, the Zimbabwe opposing party may allow Mengistu to live in Zimbabwe comfortably until he dies. This will be a great blow to Dictator Meles Zenawi, who has been waiting to earn some praises from some Ethiopian people by bringing Mengistu to Ethiopia and executing him publicly. At the end, Mugabe’s support for Mengistu will prevail, and the opposing party will cave in.

In fact, the opposing party, if it comes to power, will never raise the question about Mengistu’s status to stay or not to stay in Zimbabwe before it solves the huge unemployment problem Zimbabwe has been facing for many years. Its first priority would be to improve the economy of the country, to create with the West a close relationship that has been soured by Mugabe’s governance, and to let the white farmers reclaim their farmlands they had lost without being compensated by the Mugabe’s government.

After the dust has settled in Zimbabwe, then the Mengistu’s case may surface again; by then Mengistu will be about 80 years old because to bring the economy of Zimbabwe into normalcy will take at least more than 10 years, and after ten years, another government will claim Zimbabwe, and by then the case of the old man Mengistu will be forgotten in Zimbabwe as well as in Ethiopia.

When Mengistu dies, Ethiopia may claim his dead body to bring it home and burry it in the place “for the unknown soldiers” in the Holy Trinity Church of Addis Ababa, and Zimbabwe would allow Ethiopia to take the body of its leader to Ethiopia with Zimbabwe’s blessing and friendly cooperation.

Of course, Mengistu’s greatest error, if it is true, to me, is the killings of Emperor Haile Selassie and the second Patriarch of Ethiopia, Abune Theophelos. For such ruthless crime, the Ethiopian people, and especially members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, will never forgive him. He should have put them in jail somewhere in one of the islands of Ethiopia instead of murdering them in cold blood. It is a big shame for the country and for the whole world to let such a historical figure like Emperor Haile Selassie go die disgracefully. After all, he was an old man, and for such an old man, Mengistu Haile Mariam should have given him a chance until he ends his old age in his country for which he sacrificed almost the entire of his life. He could have gone to one of the Arab countries who had offered him political asylum, but he refused to accept it because he thought it would be a great honor to die in one’s own country rather than in someone’s country.

For King Haile Selassie, Ethiopia was special and precious, a country worth to die for, and that is why he turned down the invitations of many Arab countries during his worst nightmare in 1974. He thought he would defeat his enemies as he defeated his bodyguards then when they tried to oust him from power in his absence. He didn’t know this time his entire army had defected against him, and it was hard to convince the army even though he tried many times but failed.

I cannot say his friends betrayed him because at the end of his life, especially after his wife died and after the first Patriarch Abune Baslios passed away, he was friendless: his wife gone; Abune Baslios gone; Germamie Newai gone; Workineh Gebeyehu gone; Abebe Aregai gone; and many others of his friends gone, he is left alone. He wouldn’t trust any body around him; he wouldn’t even trust his own son, the Crown Prince, living in England. So he was alone in his empty place, and no one suggested to him that his servant would search for him a young girl, like Abishag, a Shunammite virgin damsel, to be brought to him so that “she can lie beside him” and he may “keep warm” (1Kings 1:1-4). So at the end of his life, the King lived alone, and he died alone in the hands of a criminal, Mengistu Haile Mariam, who is now wanted in Ethiopia for the genocide he had committed, using his Red Terror and trying to change his country to Communism, a failed ideology.

“Zimbabwe would not be a haven for criminals.”

Zimbabwe’s Morgantsvanirai says Zimbabwe “would not be a haven for criminals” and “if Mengistu has not committed any crime anywhere,” he would not be sent to Ethiopia to face the death sentence. On the other hand, Robert Mugabe has been saying that Mengistu is a “gust,” and he remains in Zimbabwe as a guest; he will not go to Ethiopia to face the death penalty.

In the Old Testament, there were five cities designated for a person to choose to go to and live there if that person had unintentionally murdered another person, and he would not be killed by “the avenger of blood” before he was tried by the assembly of Israel. These five cities were Kedesh, Shechem, Hebron, Bezer, and Golan (Joshua 20:7-9). However, Harare is not one of these old cities of Joshua; Harare is the city of Robert Mugabe and Mr. Morgantsvanirai, not the city of Joshua; even though Harare is not one of those cities, Mengistu has lived in Harare for almost 17 years and has been sentenced to death because of his heinous crimes he committed while in power. Therefore, he must get out of Harare and face his death sentence, and no doubt Mengistu committed the crime intentionally by establishing the “Red Terror” that terrorized many innocent Ethiopians for many years.

Since Mengistu is sentenced to death in absentia, would that be enough for the opposing party to send Mengistu to Ethiopia and face justice? It may be true Mengistu may have murdered intentionally many innocent Ethiopians under his “Red Terror.” However, the question the Zimbabwe opposition party will ask is whether the murdering of many Ethiopians by Mengistu is ever justified or not. Are there eyewitnesses who saw Mengistu himself killing or ordering someone to kill many Ethiopians? And who are these eyewitnesses? Are they related to the Emperor who was ousted by Mengistu and later killed? This will be a monumental task to prove that Mengistu has really committed the genocide in his country.

Mengistu’s admirers may strongly defend him that he is innocent; he may have killed people who opposed his reform and who supported the breakaway of Eritrea from Ethiopia. Mengistu had kept the country together by defeating Somalia and crushing the Eritrean ambition for independence. During Mengistu’s time, Ethiopia had two seaports; now it is a land locked country like Chad. Mengistu never divided Ethiopia into different ethnicities and never sold a piece of Ethiopian land to a foreign government. Based on these and other facts, the Zimbabwe opposing party may allow Mengistu to live in Zimbabwe comfortably until he dies. This will be a great blow to Dictator Meles Zenawi, who has been waiting to earn some praises from some Ethiopian people by bringing Mengistu to Ethiopia and executing him publicly. At the end, Mugabe’s support for Mengistu will prevail, and the opposing party will cave in.

In fact, the opposing party, if it comes to power, will never raise the question about Mengistu’s status to stay or not to stay in Zimbabwe before it solves the huge unemployment problem Zimbabwe has been facing for many years. Its first priority would be to improve the economy of the country, to create with the West a close relationship that has been soured by Mugabe’s governance, and to let the white farmers reclaim their farmlands they had lost without being compensated by the Mugabe’s government.

After the dust has settled in Zimbabwe, then the Mengistu’s case may surface again; by then Mengistu will be about 80 years old because to bring the economy of Zimbabwe into normalcy will take at least more than 10 years, and after ten years, another government will claim Zimbabwe, and by then the case of the old man Mengistu will be forgotten in Zimbabwe as well as in Ethiopia.

When Mengistu dies, Ethiopia may claim his dead body to bring it home and burry it in the place “for the unknown soldiers” in the Holy Trinity Church of Addis Ababa, and Zimbabwe would allow Ethiopia to take the body of its leader to Ethiopia with Zimbabwe’s blessing and friendly cooperation.

Of course, Mengistu’s greatest error, if it is true, to me, is the killings of Emperor Haile Selassie and the second Patriarch of Ethiopia, Abune Theophelos. For such ruthless crime, the Ethiopian people, and especially members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, will never forgive him. He should have put them in jail somewhere in one of the islands of Ethiopia instead of murdering them in cold blood. It is a big shame for the country and for the whole world to let such a historical figure like Emperor Haile Selassie go die disgracefully. After all, he was an old man, and for such an old man, Mengistu Haile Mariam should have given him a chance until he ends his old age in his country for which he sacrificed almost the entire of his life. He could have gone to one of the Arab countries who had offered him political asylum, but he refused to accept it because he thought it would be a great honor to die in one’s own country rather than in someone’s country.

For King Haile Selassie, Ethiopia was special and precious, a country worth to die for, and that is why he turned down the invitations of many Arab countries during his worst nightmare in 1974. He thought he would defeat his enemies as he defeated his bodyguards then when they tried to oust him from power in his absence. He didn’t know this time his entire army had defected against him, and it was hard to convince the army even though he tried many times but failed.

I cannot say his friends betrayed him because at the end of his life, especially after his wife died and after the first Patriarch Abune Baslios passed away, he was friendless: his wife gone; Abune Baslios gone; Germamie Newai gone; Workineh Gebeyehu gone; Abebe Aregai gone; and many others of his friends gone, he is left alone. He wouldn’t trust any body around him; he wouldn’t even trust his own son, the Crown Prince, living in England. So he was alone in his empty place, and no one suggested to him that his servant would search for him a young girl, like Abishag, a Shunammite virgin damsel, to be brought to him so that “she can lie beside him” and he may “keep warm” (1Kings 1:1-4). So at the end of his life, the King lived alone, and he died alone in the hands of a criminal, Mengistu Haile Mariam, who is now wanted in Ethiopia for the genocide he had committed, using his Red Terror and trying to change his country to Communism, a failed ideology.

Hial to Melese and to EPRDF/TPLF
EThiopia will prevail

People will very soon(God willing) render their verdict on him too.