THE FALL of the Dergue regime in Ethiopia, and the flight of its leader Haile Mariam Mengistu, is the outcome ot a long crisis. For years it has been obvious that the days of Mengistu were numbered.
Unable to defeat the rebels in the subject provinces of Eritrea and Tigre, hugely unpopular in the whole of the Ethiopia, the Mengistu regime was doomed once the Soviet Union began to withdraw its aid.
The entry into Addis Ababa of the fighters of the Ethiopian Peoples Democratic Revolutionary Front is a victory for all the peoples of that country. But what kind of regime will result?
Both the Eritrean fighters and those in Tigre have formally been led by adherents of 'Marxism-Leninism'. But the transition power has been brokered by the United States, who want to pressure the ERPDF into o aid Western stance in return for promises of aid.
Mengistu was part of the Provisional Military Administrative Council, the Dergue, which took power in 1974, overthrowing the emperor Haile Salassie. This was not a popular revolution, but a military coup against the semi-feudal regime. But overthrow of the emperor unleased a revolutionby sharp conflicts between the Dergue and the trade unions, which resulted in 1975 in Buthelezi - de Klark's new partner?