- 13 hours ago
Copyright Disclaimer under Section 107 of the copyright act 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Marxist army chief of staff, and until now one of the world's more camera-shy presidents.
00:06He first achieved notoriety in 1974, when, as a major in the army, he played a leading
00:12role in the coup that overthrew the 800-year-old dynasty of Emperor Haile Selassie.
00:21Three years later, Mengistu took control of the army and the instruments of government.
00:26Observers say many of his political opponents were jailed or murdered, as he embraced a
00:30form of Marxism that made him friends and brought him much-needed foreign aid, principally
00:35from the Soviet Union.
00:44With the new ideology in place, and the army in control, Mengistu courted support from other
00:50revolutionaries.
00:51He found allies in the likes of Fidel Castro, and played host to Libya's Colonel Gaddafi.
01:00But he needed more than just revolutionary solidarity.
01:03With amounting foreign debt, Mengistu turned to the Soviets for help.
01:07In 1978, he signed a treaty of friendship with Leonid Brezhnev, which guaranteed Ethiopia financial
01:12and military aid.
01:20But with President Gorbachev, everything has changed.
01:23He has said he will cut military aid by the end of this year.
01:27Mengistu has declared his support for capitalism and democracy.
01:32Socialism is being killed off.
01:43But a change in political direction has done nothing to bring about peace in the 30-year-old
01:47civil war.
01:49Money which could be spent on feeding the 4 million Ethiopians on the brink of starvation
01:53is going to the war.
01:55The second poorest country in the world spends 65% of its budget on its army.
02:01Even greater sacrifices are now being called for.
02:04The war is at a turning point, and the country's main backer is about to pull out.
02:09Since the beginning of this year, the Eritrean separatists in the north have been scoring major
02:13victories over Mengistu.
02:15But has the high casualty rate and the crippling cost had any effect on him?
02:21How long are you willing to send young Ethiopians, the future of this country, to the war in
02:27the north to be killed or named?
02:33In the first place, it is not our wish to send even a single individual to the north.
02:40And we don't want the war either.
02:43We did not start it.
02:45We have inherited the very noble value from our forefathers, and that is the national identity
02:51of the country.
02:53So if there is a challenge against this supreme value, we have no alternative but to defend
02:58ourselves.
03:02The province of Eritrea stretches along the entire Red Sea coast, and without it, Ethiopia
03:07would be landlocked.
03:09The key port of Massawa was taken by the rebels in February, a major loss that also marked the
03:14end of a nine-month ceasefire.
03:16In the fighting that followed, thousands died.
03:19The Ethiopian army says 3,000 were killed.
03:22The rebels claim ten times that number.
03:26Mengistu says he is not prepared to make any concessions on Ethiopian unity, whatever the
03:31price.
03:34There is no authority in Ethiopia, no leadership, most certainly, which has the mandate to allow
03:40the emergence of an independent state carved off from Ethiopia.
03:47Whatever their sacrifice, we are ready to pay.
03:50Even if it means another 30 years of war.
03:54Even if it continues for a hundred years, are we to sign away the fate of our country?
04:02It's this generation which is fully committed to the establishment of a just, democratic and
04:08united Ethiopia to sit over the disintegration of a country whose existence has been defended
04:16for millennia against all kinds of regional expansionists and European colonialists.
04:28supposing these rebels manage to capture the city of Asmara and declare independence, well,
04:34that does not mean that the war has come to an end.
04:38Never.
04:39It will never come to an end.
04:42If they have this illusion, they are fighting for the unending and interminable extermination
04:48of the people.
04:59I travel to Asmara, the Eritrean capital, a garrison town still in government control, but surrounded
05:06by enemy troops.
05:10120,000 government troops, almost the entire Second Army, are stationed here.
05:17The field hospital at Asmara bears testimony to the human cost of a war which Mengistu has
05:22never allowed television cameras to film.
05:28The hospital has 2,000 beds.
05:30Most of these troops have gunshot wounds.
05:33More serious cases go to another hospital five miles away.
05:38I was shown around by the army's senior surgeon, Brigadier General Gaga Oljo.
05:43He's been on the front line for the past seven years.
05:47He heads a team of eight doctors and 30 nurses, dealing with 200 casualties a day.
05:57This man is typical of the patients here.
06:00He was wounded 17 days ago during an offensive to retake Masawa.
06:08Like all the men here, he will be sent straight back to the front line when he's recovered.
06:12In his case, it will be within three weeks.
06:29President Mengistu's Second Revolutionary Army is one of the largest in Africa.
06:34It's led by Major General Wubshit Desai.
06:37From the day the fighting started, we lost 3,000 dead.
06:46You plan to retake Masawa?
06:48Oh yes, it's our mission because there is no choice.
06:53Without Masawa, it's very difficult even to sustain the unity of the country.
07:03The loss of Masawa cut off the vital supply line which brought food aid to the starving in Eritrea and
07:09Tigray.
07:09Now it's having to be brought in through the much smaller port of Assab.
07:13The distances are greater and the journey time has trebled.
07:22Tons of food piles up on the docks because there aren't enough lorries to move it.
07:26The food corridor through Assab was opened just two months ago and the port is working around the clock to
07:32keep supplies flowing.
07:36Thanks to good luck more than anything else, it seems that a major famine has been averted this year.
07:41Although the rains fell late and the crops failed, food from the west is getting through to famine-hit areas.
07:54I travel to Desi in the heart of Ethiopia to watch the food being distributed through both rebel and government
08:00-held territory.
08:02It takes more than five days for the food to get to Desi by road.
08:22Once the food reaches Desi, it's loaded onto trucks run by the Joint Relief Partnership.
08:30The partnership is an Ethiopian church group which has been assured safe passage through the war zone.
08:35The men sing Be Strong, Work Hard as they load this grain from Britain, part of 200 tons a day
08:42donated to Ethiopia by the west.
09:01It will be another six days before this truck arrives at its final destination.
09:07Abandoned by the Soviets, Mengistu seeks new friends. Top of his list, the Israelis.
09:12Both have a common enemy. They believe Arab states are backing the Eritrean rebels.
09:17At issue is control of the strategically vital Red Sea.
09:24Our relation with Israel is not with the hope that Israel will replace the Soviet Union as an ally of
09:30Ethiopia.
09:34I do not expect that a treaty of friendship and cooperation between us and the Soviet Union would come to
09:41an end.
09:42And I do not believe that the government of the Soviet Union will do this.
09:47Is Israel helping in the development of your arms industry?
09:53Our relation with Israel is not a military relationship.
09:58And let's not forget, this technology is not exclusive to the Soviet Union and Israel.
10:03I mean, you can buy the technology from anywhere as long as you have the money.
10:09So where are you buying them from?
10:13From the east or the west.
10:16We buy the technology from whoever is ready to sell it, because it is for defence purposes.
10:27These men from the 44 and 46 Brigade are Mengistu's crack troops.
10:32The final showdown in the war, which has claimed half a million lives, may be just days away.
10:46The rebels are boasting they will soon control Asmara.
10:50The government forces must retake Massawa to take the upper hand.
10:53And as the fighting escalates, new supplies will be vital.
10:58Most of the equipment that we have seen here today is made in the Soviet Union.
11:03They have said that this year they will end their agreement to send military and financial aid to Ethiopia.
11:12How is that going to affect you?
11:15Well, for the present we have equipment, enough to fight.
11:21For the future, well, probably this is not my status to answer.
11:28But it will be a severe blow.
11:31We're not lying.
11:33If it continues, yeah, it's very, very difficult.
11:44Back in Addis Ababa, Mengistu is fighting a war on another front, to convince the West that his newfound love
11:50for capitalism is genuine.
11:53Africa's biggest street market is a test bed for capitalism Mengistu style.
11:58Three months ago, the prices of produce from the deeply unpopular collective farms were fixed by the government.
12:04Today, government price controls have gone.
12:10President Mengistu has promised there will also be major political reforms.
12:16Will you allow parties with opposing views to yours to operate freely within the country?
12:26We're a party, the Ethiopian People's Democratic Unity Party.
12:30And as such, we cannot decide, have no mandate on the making of other parties in our country.
12:37If it is in the interest of the unity of the people, there is no reason why other parties should
12:43not come to existence in this country.
12:46We decide on our future order as a party.
12:48And it is not our intention to retain the monopoly of power, to be the only party.
12:55But it is the people, through the national parliament, Schengel, who will decide whether or not there will be other
13:02parties in Ethiopia.
13:04But as far as we are concerned, we will be willing to work with other parties here.
13:11So perhaps within two years, we could see a multi-party democracy with candidates with opposing views to yours standing
13:20for election?
13:22Yes, it is quite possible, so long as the national Schengel decides yes.
13:33Twelve months ago, opposition to Mengistu was in the form of a military coup.
13:38Eleven generals tried to unseat him.
13:41Now they're standing trial for their lives.
13:43These are the first pictures of their court-martial.
13:46Their open and fair trial helps make Mengistu's case to the world that the rule of law, and not the
13:52gun, now reigns in Ethiopia.
13:55It's alleged that you killed 12,000 people to gain power and retain power. Is that true?
14:04Of course, this is absurd. I mean, in the first place, it is not in my nature to kill even
14:11an insect or a small living thing, let alone human beings.
14:17If anyone perished during the implanting of the revolution, it was certainly not on my orders.
14:23I did not single out any individual to be killed.
14:28This outrages my sense of humanity.
14:31How is it imaginable that I ordered the annihilation of 12,000 people?
14:37You have very kindly offered to show us the conditions in which political prisoners are kept.
14:43Would you extend that invitation to representatives of Amnesty International?
14:50We have invited them in the past.
14:55They have come and visited our prison system.
14:58And I renew this invitation any time.
15:01We have nothing to hide.
15:06The country's most famous political prisoners now live modestly on the outskirts of Addis Ababa.
15:12These 11 members of Haile Selassie's royal dynasty have served a total of 152 years in Mengistu's jails.
15:19They've been released over the past 24 months, but are still not allowed to travel abroad.
15:25Could each of you just tell me how long you've been in prison?
15:2915 years.
15:3114 years.
15:3214 years.
15:3414 years.
15:3614 years.
15:3715 years.
15:38For 14 years.
15:4014 years.
15:41For 9 years.
15:43For 15 years.
15:4414 years.
15:4815 years.
15:4878-year-old Princess Tananawarg is Haile Selassie's daughter.
15:55We were taken from our house and taken to another house in the name of Itzebentutgam.
16:02We were put under house arrest.
16:05You spent 14 years in prison.
16:09Were you ever brought before a court?
16:12No.
16:15No.
16:18No, during that time.
16:19We were never brought before a court.
16:22Where did you spend those 14 years?
16:28Perfect, but I'm disturbed.
16:30At the beginning we were under house arrest and then we were taken to the central prison.
16:3633-year-old Prince Bedi Makone has been in jail since he was 18.
16:41Were you treated well?
16:44Well, in a way, yeah.
16:48Were you with any other prisoners apart from your family?
16:53Yeah, there were prisoners in Alambaka.
16:57And were you able to associate with them?
16:59Yeah.
17:00They were sympathetic.
17:03Were they treated well, do you know?
17:07Well.
17:08Were you ever fearful for your life?
17:11Well, initially, yes.
17:16You thought you were going to die?
17:17Yeah.
17:18I cannot deny that.
17:21That was unfortunate.
17:24During the revolution, without knowledge, has happened many things, which are not really
17:36many things that can make us happy.
17:40This is not peculiar for all Ethiopia.
17:43This happened through centuries in many countries.
17:47I can mention many, but it's a one-time phenomenon.
17:56I invite everyone to come and see the true nature of this country and what's going on around.
18:08That can be the only instrument to know about us or to trust us.
18:18The problem is not the leadership or our brutality.
18:25The problem is lack of peace.
18:30The all-important test for Mengistu should be his willingness to open negotiations to end
18:35the civil war.
18:36Without such a move, Mengistu's appeal to the West for help is likely to fall on deaf ears.
18:44The ending of the Cold War has raised the hope that local conflicts can be resolved.
18:49But in the Horn of Africa, the Soviet withdrawal has done nothing to dampen its vicious indigenous
18:54struggles.
18:55Catastrophic wars are tearing apart Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia.
18:59There are more than two million refugees in the region, and in Ethiopia, some four million
19:04people are on the brink of famine once again.
19:06An urgent international conference in Cairo was convened this week behind closed doors
19:11to discuss the crisis in the Horn.
19:14Richard Dowden, Africa editor of the Independent newspaper, was among the delegates.
19:19He reports now for The World This Week from Cairo and Addis Ababa.
19:27The capital of Ethiopia hardly looks like the heart of a country mutilated by war and famine.
19:37Addis Ababa carries on as if the whole country were peaceful and prosperous.
19:42Ethiopians are used to keeping going in the worst of times.
19:46The government maintains this illusion of normality.
19:49It tells the people nothing about the famine which this year again threatens millions with
19:54starvation, and not much more about the civil war, which has already cost hundreds of thousands
20:00of lives.
20:02But now the front line is less than a hundred miles away, and further north in Eritrea,
20:07the final battle in the war for independence is about to be fought.
20:13The Eritrean People's Liberation Front has driven the Ethiopian army out of the whole province,
20:18except for a small enclave around Asmara, the regional capital.
20:23In February, the rebels seized the port of Massawa, cutting off Asmara.
20:29Unless President Mengistu can mount a rescue operation soon, Asmara will fall, and the rebels
20:35will have the whole province in their hands.
20:38Ethiopia could be about to break up.
20:42In Cairo this week, an international conference met to discuss the crisis in the Horn of Africa,
20:47and in particular the catastrophe in Ethiopia.
20:50The Director of our African Department.
20:55Organised by Britain's International Institute for Strategic Studies and its Egyptian counterpart,
21:00the conference brought together diplomats, scholars, and experts to discuss what can be done
21:05about the wars which are tearing the region apart.
21:11Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you.
21:15Representatives from the United States, the Soviet Union, France, and Britain
21:18sat down with Egyptians, Somalis, Sudanese, and Ethiopians to ask why,
21:24despite superpower detente, these wars have erupted so dramatically.
21:28Retired from the Egyptian army in 1986, was involved in the 67, 56, 67, and 73 wars.
21:37As Egyptian, and this is my own view, we are looking forward for our national security.
21:44One of the important issues in our national security is the security of the Red Sea.
21:50And this is why we are looking forward to solve the problem in the area peacefully.
21:56We don't want to be involved in war.
22:02For the past 16 years, President Mengistu Haile Mariam has ruled Ethiopia with the backing of the Soviet Union.
22:11The Americans say the Russians have pumped over $5 billion worth of arms into Ethiopia.
22:19One of the puzzles certainly is that they've got rid of people like Ceausescu and Honecker and Zhivkov.
22:23Why do they put up with Mengistu? But there's no substitute for Mengistu.
22:27If Mengistu is out, the whole system falls apart.
22:30Both superpowers sought allies in the region to give them military bases to back up their operations in the Middle
22:36East and in the Indian Ocean.
22:38To match Soviet bases on the Dalek Islands off Ethiopia,
22:42the United States supported President Syed Baray in Somalia to obtain facilities at Berbera on Somalia's northern coast.
22:50In exchange for the bases, Ethiopia took both guns and ideology from the Soviet Union.
22:56And its government adopted the Soviet model to try and develop the country.
23:06When the Russians began to abandon Ethiopia, the Ethiopians immediately abandoned Marxism.
23:13In March this year, President Mengistu announced the ending of the one-party socialist state and a return to the
23:20free market economy.
23:22In Addis Ababa, a statue of Karl Marx had paint thrown over it, until recently a sacrilege, but now no
23:30one has even bothered to clean it.
23:33Red stars and slogans proclaiming proletarian internationalism have been painted over by the government.
23:40Only Lenin survives, but they say here he's striding away from Ethiopia.
23:47As the Russians pulled out, a new ally moved in.
23:51In January this year, Israel re-established its embassy in Addis Ababa after a break of 17 years.
24:05The relationship between Ethiopia and Israel goes back a long way.
24:09In Ethiopia, the story goes that the Queen of Sheba came from Ethiopia and traveled to Israel to meet King
24:16Solomon.
24:20She became pregnant by him and their son was the first in the dynasty of monarchs, which was to last
24:26until the Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed in 1974.
24:31Whatever the truth behind this myth, there are a group of Ethiopians who still follow Judaism, known in Ethiopia as
24:38the Falashas.
24:39The Israelis are offering to give them a home in Israel, and recently thousands of them have turned up at
24:45the Israeli embassy to seek a passage to their new homeland.
24:49Under the new alliance between Ethiopia and Israel, they're allowed to emigrate.
24:53Many people have said that one of the objectives in the re-establishment of relations is to send the blood
25:04of Falashas to Israel.
25:07I can assure you this is not our policy.
25:09But this new relationship is not merely the sentimental renewal of a 3,000-year-old love affair.
25:16Both Ethiopia and Israel feel surrounded by the same enemies, the Muslim states.
25:23Recently, President Mengistu described Ethiopia as an island of Christianity surrounded by Muslims.
25:30And according to the Ethiopians, the Arab Muslim states are supporting the Eritrean rebels in their bid to split away
25:38from Ethiopia.
25:39We have evidence that a number of Arab countries are supplying very sophisticated equipment to the rebels.
25:48Are you prepared to name them?
25:51Well, I think we're trying to, as I told you before, we're trying to tell them that this is wrong.
25:58We're trying to create good neighborly relations with them.
26:01And they know who they are, and I can assure you we know some of them, so let us look
26:06at that.
26:08I think that the main backers are financially the Libyans and selling the hardware, military hardware, especially the Iraqis.
26:16And this is coming through port Sudan in Sudan and through Sudan into Eritrea.
26:23The Israelis accuse the Arab states, in particular Libya and Iraq, of supplying guns to the rebel movements in Eritrea
26:30and Tigray.
26:32The Arab states accuse the Israelis of taking over the Dalak Island bases from the Russians and sending advisers and
26:40weapons, including cluster bombs, to Ethiopia.
26:43We know that the Israelis are giving help in military field to Ethiopians to counter the revolution parts in Eritrea.
26:52And this is why they are making sure to be in the Red Sea.
26:57Because if Eritrea, as I said, have their independence, the Israelis will not be in the Red Sea.
27:02What sort of military assistance are they giving?
27:05I think arms and these bombs which they gave the license to do.
27:10Cluster bombs.
27:12We haven't been supplying cluster bombs to Ethiopia.
27:16If they have any cluster bombs, we think that they can bite on the world market from countries which are
27:24producing such bombs.
27:26What about other sorts of weapons?
27:28Well, we have been supplying a small quantity of light weapons and that's all.
27:33What about the suggestion that Arab states are providing help for the Eritreans? Do you think that's true?
27:39Not a lot of them are giving help.
27:42And if they are giving help, it will not be compared by the help given by the Israelis to Ethiopia
27:48or by the Soviet Union or by the United States to Ethiopia itself.
27:51It will not be compared like that.
27:53We don't have any Israeli advisor, military advisors or otherwise in Ethiopia.
27:58We don't have any military bases in Ethiopia.
28:02We've been following with great interest what the Arab propaganda machine or machinery has been trying to impress on Arab
28:10countries, other Arab countries or even the world.
28:13As if there was some kind of a deal which was struck between Ethiopia and Israel.
28:17And that's why they tried to explain why Ethiopia renewed relations.
28:22The Israeli would come and help them militarily because of difficult military situation.
28:27And the Ethiopians would sell, as the Arabs put it, the Ethiopian Jews, the Falashos.
28:32Completely unfounded, completely untrue.
28:34But the Israelis are not just helping out a natural ally against a common Arab enemy.
28:40At stake for them is the Red Sea coast.
28:43If Eritrea becomes independent, Ethiopia will lose control of its ports, Assab and Massawa.
28:51The Eritreans are divided about half and half between Muslim and Christian.
28:55But Israel fears that an independent Eritrea could be dominated by its Arab backers.
29:00In Israeli eyes, the whole of the Red Sea coast would then be controlled by the Arabs.
29:06And Israel's only outlet to the eastern seas, at Eilat, could be blocked.
29:12We would be, I think, upset if this coast would come under some kind of Arab control.
29:18Which might be the case if Eritrea should be independent.
29:22And then we think that the Arabs who are supplying and helping the Eritrea Liberation Front would come and ask
29:31for the political price.
29:32Meaning that this part of Ethiopia would be independent and be part of the Arab and Muslim world.
29:38But to help Ethiopia remain united, the Israelis have to support President Mengistu, one of the most ruthless rulers in
29:45Africa.
29:46And now, one of the most unpopular.
29:49The best way I can explain what the Israelis have done in Ethiopia is adventurism.
29:53I think adventurous or adventure-seeking elements in the Israeli government have been responsible for this caper in Ethiopia.
30:06I think they miscalculated very seriously.
30:08There's nothing sillier than to rush to support a leader who's practically fallen of his own ineptitude.
30:16And the Israelis have probably postponed the fall of Mengistu by six months, but I think that's about all they
30:20could possibly do.
30:22Have the Israelis backed a tyrant who's about to be overthrown?
30:26If all the military resources at the Russians' disposal could not win Mengistu's struggle to hold Ethiopia together, what hope
30:34have the Israelis?
30:36If Asmara falls, so will Mengistu.
30:39But no one in Ethiopia, apart from the Eritreans, wants an independent Eritrea.
30:45Neither do either of the superpowers.
30:47Mengistu may be unpopular, but he has been so absolute in his suppression of dissent that there is no alternative
30:55ruler who could hold the country together.
30:58After Mengistu, Ethiopia may implode into anarchy.
31:03That report from Richard Dowden.
31:06The civil war looks to be reaching a climax as rebel forces lay siege to the last government-held city
31:13in Eritrea.
31:20The EPLF knows the war has reached a critical point.
31:24Right now they are preparing for what they believe will be the last great battle, the capture of the capital,
31:29Asmara.
31:30The city is already surrounded, almost under siege.
31:38It will be a massive battle, with very high stakes for the civilian population.
31:44The people of Asmara are not prepared for the war.
31:47They haven't been touched directly by the fighting.
31:51And for a city the size of Asmara, if it suffers the same fate as Massawa, it would be a
31:58huge massacre.
32:04And I don't think the central government can handle it anymore, unless and otherwise they start negotiation very soon.
32:12Peacefully if they want to settle it.
32:14Do you think there's a will for that?
32:17I think they have no other alternative now.
32:20The war is almost being over now.
32:23What I think is in Asmara, I don't think that they can last even another 2-3 months.
32:31I think.
32:32Because how could they get the supply?
32:36Supply from the air.
32:38They cannot, even a big army like US, you know, they cannot afford.
32:42So I think, it's almost on the verge of collapsing.
32:49On an Ethiopian military base, we saw a solitary tree.
32:53As we approach, we discover several ammunition boxes under the tree.
33:00And in those boxes, there were hundreds of skulls and bones.
33:07We could tell by the boots that they must have been Ethiopian soldiers.
33:12And it was so strange in the middle of this drought area,
33:17under this tree, which normally is a symbol of life,
33:20to find all this death, all this culture of death.
33:29It was so strange.
33:35It was so strange.
33:356.30, and dusk is falling.
33:38The planes will not return until daybreak.
33:51After another day of waiting, Masawa comes to life.
34:01At night, the city truly belongs to the Eritreans.
34:07city council.
34:07And then the city was, man,
34:09the city is coming.
34:13The city is coming.
34:20The city will come, right?
34:24The city of Manu will take advantage,
34:25the city will go to Chilipoent for a place.
34:27The city is coming, as a home is a new building for a red spline.
34:28At night, the city is coming.
34:31Oh, that's a new building for us.
34:49the Eritreans are remarkably resilient I guess they have been hardened by 28 years of war
34:56at night in Massawa life goes on markets open people move around go to work
35:03and you would almost believe that it is a normal life except that they are forced to make their
35:08night their day
35:39almost everyone now in Massawa depends on food aid so distribution is being organized but it
35:47is a very fragile lifeline you can depend on food aid forever and the Eritreans don't want to be
35:54beggars they want to recover from the famine they want to develop their country and I'm afraid they
36:01won't be able to do it if the war goes on
36:31they want you to let go of the war
36:41I'm sorry
36:42I am sorry
36:46I don't want to have a strong
36:49I don't want to go
36:50I know
36:50I've been talking about it
36:51I know
36:53I have a strong
36:54I know
36:54I know
36:56I know
37:10I just want to tell Ethiopian government to stop the war as soon as possible and let the delivery
37:17of this for the poor, the donation should reach in time because four million people are suffering
37:24just for nothing. This has to be taken immediate action and I think there should be pressure from
37:29those powers from outside, having great powers like the United States, the Soviet Union and other
37:37parts they should press the Ethiopian government so that there should be peace because we are just
37:42suffering for nothing. 20-80 years they are fighting for this miserable life and we don't know the
37:49reason and I don't know the reason why I was fighting.
38:12They are skeptical and fear for the future.
38:27I'm afraid even worse things will happen.
38:43The liberation of Massawa is a major victory. But at the same time when you see the destruction of the
38:53town, you have this mixed feeling that the
39:00liberty is so expensive that you have to pay so much to get it. I think the idea of being
39:09free
39:10is more expensive than anything else. So with the present...
39:16...
39:16...
39:16...
39:16...