EX-OFFICIAL SAYS ETHIOPIA MIRED IN 'NO-WIN' WAR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870007-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 2012
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: February 9, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870007-4
1 I I
A 119. WASHINGTON POST
9 February 1987
Ex-Offi~ial Says
Ethiopia Mired
.
In `NaWin' War
U.S. Advised to Avoid Conflict,
Focus on Protesting Repression
By Joanne Om i.
Wn mgton Post. raft Writer
The Marxist government of Ethiopia is in "a no-win
.relationship" with rebels trying to overthrow it and the
United States should stay clear of the conflict, accord-
1ng to a former Ethiopian foreign minister who fled into
!exile last year.
- Goshu Wolde, 45, in his first public statements since
resigning last October, said U.S. policy should instead
be one of vigorous protest against human-rights viola-
tions and the increasing repression of dissent by Lt.
Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam, who took power in a mil-
ary coup in 1974.
? Goshu, who now lives in Philadelphia, told Washing-
4on Post editors and reporters last week that any for-
eign intervention sparks a surge of nationalism that
-mites quarreling Ethiopians. This has already forced
Soviet advisers to maintain a low profile in Ethiopia and
2w prevented the Soviet Union from asking Ethiopia to
contribute troops for duty in Angola or Mozambique,
Cooshu said.
':Economic sanctions would only hurt desperately poor
$t.hiopian civilians, so the only acceptable U.S. course is
to await "a spontaneous corrective revolution" against
34engistu by the Ethiopian people, Goshu said. He said
'there is some resentment within the Ethiopian armed
forces against the Soviet presence, and eventually they
;could join a rebellion.
The Central Intelligence Agency was reported fast
s rip by sources close to the issue to have been pro-
about 500.000 a year for propaQan a efforts by
Ethiopian dissidents based in London. Reagan admin-
istration praise of Ethiopian "freedom fighters" in the
-northern Eritrea and Tigray provinces peaked last sum-
mer, when officials told one Ethiopian exile leader his
cause would receive attention after aid to the Ni-
? caraguan contras had been secured. That aid was ap-
proved last October.
A senior administration official this week agreed with
'Goshu that there is no sign of a military victory by ei-
ther side. "The situation can only be solved by negoti-
ation, [but] the government refuses," he said.
Ethiopia continues to be on the administration's list
of Soviet-dominated nations where resistance forces
receive at least rhetorical support from the United
States. No U.S. military or economic aid flows to the
government, and last year's $7.4 million in food aid-a
sharp reduction from the levels of grants during the
famine two years ago-is scheduled to be halved under
1988 budget requests.
Goshu, who attended Yale Law School and was re-
garded as one of Ethiopia's most capable officials, said
that the dozens of other Ethiopian public figures who
have fled their country in the last two years are a quar-
relsome and dispirited group who have yet to agree on
policy, much less on a leader.
"My contribution is to speak my mind," Goshu said. "I
don't think any of the [exile] groups has any strength at
the moment."
Armed rebel groups have been unable to cause se-
rious damage to,Mengistu's Army,' which in turn has
been unable to eradicate the uprisings, Goshu said. "A
military solution is not attainable," he said. "It is a no-
win relationship."
In fact, the rebels serve chiefly to force Mengistu to
seek Soviet military aid and accept a Soviet political line
that he otherwise might resist, Goshu said.
Goshu, describing himself as a social democrat, said
he continues to support the public-service goals of the
1974 revolution, and praised Mengistu for having
raised the population's political consciousness, ending
"feudal production relationships" and taking organiza-'
tional steps toward democracy.
However, Mengistu "wanted to make a public rela-
tions exercise" out of a new constitution, which names
him to so many jobs as to give him exclusive power,
Goshu said.
"The national assembly is only a rubber stamp ...
even party officials cannot speak their minds now," he
said. "This offended my core values .... I could not
continue as a partner in such a melodrama."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870007-4