Ethnic Federalism in a Dominant Party State: The Ethiopian Experience 1991-2000 Lovise Aalen r 2002: 2

particularly connected to the land reforms during the two years after the coup,
and might be classified as revolutionary. But after 1976, when Mengistu
appeared as the unchallenged leader, the continuities from the imperial era
became more prevailing. As Haile Selassie had done, Mengistu saw his regime
as synonymous with the Ethiopian state and continued the pattern of extreme
centralisation and denial of regional opposition forces. He replaced the
monarchical absolutism with military Marxism as the ideology for building the
nation and concentrating the power in his hands. During the Derg regime,
ethnically based resistance movements definitely replaced the role of the
4
After the fall of the Mengistu regime, former Ethiopian government officials and others
involved in the Red Terror Campaign, more than 5000 altogether, where charged with
genocide and crimes against humanity in the so-called “Derg-trials”. 3000 of these have fled
the country and were tried in absentia, including Mengistu Haile Mariam, who is sheltered by
Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. The trials started in 1994 and are expected to be finalised in
2004 (Aadland and Rognlien 1996).
5
“What is unique to a social revolution is that basic changes in social structures and political
structure occur together in a mutually reinforcing manner” (Skocpol, Theda 1979).

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regional lords as centrifugal forces. Despite the Derg’s appeals to Marxism and
a non-ethnic policy, the ethnically based opposition defined Mengistu’s
government as an Amhara suppresser. The resistance movements represented
by the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF), Tigray People’s Liberation
Front (TPLF), and Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) were those who finally
brought down the military junta and established a civilian government in 1991.
The coming of the EPRDF and the transitional period
“Alas, how true it is that the more things change, the more they tend to remain
the same” (Teshale Tibetu 1995: 180)
By 1991, Ethiopia was back to its Menelikan borders. Eritrea became a de
facto independent state, the Abyssinians were yet again in power – through the
descendants of the Tigrayan Emperor Yohannes, and they were fighting to keep
Ogaden and Oromia within its borders. The national-question-comes-first-wing
of the student movement had won over those who claimed that class and
economy were the crucial issues to understand Ethiopia (Teshale Tibetu
1995:170), and “self-determination for the nationalities”, implying
federalisation along ethnic lines, was introduced.
Tigray, a part of the Abyssinian ruler complex since 1888, but a junior