Political Violence in Ethiopia: Some Reflections on the Red Terror and its Legacies

Abstract

This paper attempts to explain the political violence and the violation of human rights in Ethiopia in the post-Imperial period. The interest of the article is to understand the contexts of the red terror resulting in the wanton human rights abuses in Ethiopia during the Derg regime by examining the different but interrelated factors. The task of the paper is threefold. First, it tries to identify the institutional and political underpinnings of the transfer of state power from the ancien regime to the military in Ethiopia in 1974. Second, it identifies and discusses the multi-dimensional forces and factors that led to the escalation of political violence/terror and human rights violation in the country under the military regime. Finally, by evaluating the socio-political impacts of the red terror, the paper tries to bring the discussion to its current relevance.