25/03/2008 ::
Veteran US diplomat, academician and author Paul Henze has given an interesting account of the last years of the Mengistu regime, based on his personal experiences as advisor to the US National Security Council. Through the two volumes he gives diary accounts of his meetings and extensive travel in Ethiopia during the last years of the Dergue. The accounts covers several meetings with Mengistu and his own first experiences with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (and Eritrea People's Liberation Front).
Henze describes interestingly the facilitation of his visits (experienced by many others) by top notch Mengistu-officials of travels and meetings which did not always have as purpose to paint a picture of the regime's achievements as officially described. He points to an obvious internal contradiction carried by many officials.
Henze's work gives a good analytical overview in the first section of the first volume, including interesting observations of Mengistu's late attempt to reform from the Soviet style repressive political and economic policies, as well as Israel's late attempt to save Mengistu. In the diary accounts he reflects well on the deteriorating situation and paints a broadly symphatetic picture of officials, many uncomfortable serving the regime.
Henze's early encounters with the TPLF (and EPLF) reflects the suspicion held at the time by many in the Western world of the movements, but Heinze describes how he quickly came to understand their politcal stand and national basis, which also gradually convinced organisations from around Western Europe, US and Australia to support the liberation fronts humanitarily (including Norwegian organisations which were in the forefront). He also describes how he tried to influence the movements towards sound democratic ideals and how he soon gathered idelogical differences between the TPLF and EPLF which underlined lack of democratic credentials in the EPLF. To the reader these reflections seems to be a bit overemphasizeed and based somewhat on hindsight and later reflections.
Overall, Henze's work is good reading for anyone interested in recent Ethiopian political history, and is published by Shama Books in Addis Abeba. Henze's statement at the end of volume two that he will reflect more on the issues in the year's to come, is promising .