Ethiopian court convicts Mengistu Haile Mariam of genocide

Ethiopian court convicts Mengistu Haile Mariam of genocide - Africa & Middle East - International Herald Tribune: "An Ethiopian court convicted Mengistu Haile Mariam of genocide Tuesday, but the former dictator may never actually face punishment because he remains in exile in Zimbabwe.

It was a marathon case, beginning 12 years ago, and, along with Mengistu, more than 70 other high-ranking suspects were found guilty of genocide. The trial, held in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, was one of the rare instances of an African country trying its own former leader.

Mengistu, 69, ruled Ethiopia from 1977 to 1991, which included some of the darkest days of the country's history, when government soldiers rounded up tens of thousands of students and intellectuals and brutally killed them in a campaign called the "Red Terror."

Mengistu is thought to have killed many of the victims with his own hands, including Ethiopia's last emperor, Haile Selassie, who was strangled in bed.

He was also, in a way, responsible for the extended famine in 1984-85 that claimed one million lives and reinforced the image of Ethiopia as a poor and desperate country. He first denied the famine was even happening and flew in planeloads of whiskey while his people starved.

He was ousted by a guerrilla movement in 1991 and escaped to Zimbabwe, where he lives in a fancy — and heavily guarded — villa. The Zimbabwe government has indicated no intention of extraditing him.

Somalia is another distraction. In the past several months, Ethiopia has stepped up its military support of the weak transitional government of Somalia, which is being threatened by Islamist forces on all sides.

Islamist clerics took over Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, in June and have been steadily expanding their territory, which worries Ethiopian officials.

The two neighboring nations have been rivals for years, partly because of their religious differences, with Ethiopia having a strong Christian identity and Somalia being overwhelmingly Muslim.

On Tuesday, the Islamists forces in Somalia gave the Ethiopians an ultimatum, with the Islamist defense chief, Yusuf Mohamed Siad, saying in Mogadishu that "starting today, if they don't leave our land within seven days, we will attack them and force them to leave our country.""