ETHIOPIA & PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR
9157 OU17 - Ethiopia - The Minister of Defence
The morning after my ground-breaking dinner with the Minister, I was taken to the Ministry of Defence, the only time I ever went there. I was ushered in to the office of Seeye Abraha, the minister. I had expected him to talk about the training of his subordinates. In fact, I soon realised, he was actually talking about his own education.
The history of this was that he, and the other members of the administration, had been in university some couple of decades previously; when the dictator Mengistu had done the communist thing and sent all the students out to work on the land. Unfortunately, for Mengistu, this group had never come back - but had instead had setup a guerrilla operation. The guerrillas in Eritrea were already in operation at that stage, but this was a new group; for Ethiopia itself. It was never given credit in the West, since journalists were remarkably ignorant about events in Ethiopia; and only remembered Eritrea's part. The Ethiopian rebels, actually the rebels were from the Tigray province, then fought on for the 17 years. Seeye himself had been doing degree in medicine, so he found himself assigned to be a medical orderly. He said, with some feeling, that above all – for 17 years - he had fondly remembered drinking his last beer in a bar in Mogadishu before joining the army.
Once in the army, however, he found he was better with a rifle than with a stethoscope. Accordingly, he gradually rose up through the ranks of the military until he was the general in charge.
In truth, he was one of the great generals of the latter part of 20th-century. He was, however, an unsung hero. Literally nobody knew about the big battle which sealed the fate of the previous government.
In this battle, called Teodras after a previous King, they were not just guerrilla fighters operating in the way they did in Vietnam. In the case of Ethiopia, they were full-scale armies, of ½ million soldiers on each side, and the key battle even had something like 10,000 tanks facing each other. Although this was hidden from the outside world, it probably was – before the Gulf Wars - the biggest tank battle since the Second World War.
Anyway, there I was sitting opposite this person who became my hero; gradually realising that he was one of students we were going to teach. He then added, rather mysteriously, “There may also be some others of us”.
I then reported back to the ambassador at the embassy. When I quoted what Seeye had said to him he was very thoughtful and said "Surely he, didn't mean the Prime Minister and the President"; though, as it turned out, that's exactly what he did mean.
It was impressive enough visiting the embassy. The embassy was situated in several hundred acres of grounds going up to the top of Mount Entoto. It had its own stables and, more important, it had the only golf course in Ethiopia. These riches were bestowed by Haile Selassie, because the British put him back in power after the end of the war. It certainly was very impressive.
We were thoroughly searched on entering the gate, since security was still very high after the civil war. The Chancelry, where the ambassador had his offices, was even more secure. You had to be let through a series of bullet-proof screens before you got anywhere near his office. His office, though, was very modest, although large enough to hold a number of visitors.
In fact the main part of my first meeting was concerned with the secession of Eritrea. I repeated to him what Doctor Fassil, my contact - who I didn't realise until much later was a senior member of government - had told me to pass on to him. He was somewhat taken aback that the message came via me, but he soon got used to that and discussed with me what it meant. It was a major diplomatic move.
I had realised the previous night that I was out of my depth in terms of the level of diplomatic contact I was being thrown into. It was a strange experience, something I had never experienced before. When I was leaving university I had wanted to work for UNESCO or in the Third World, but never had been able to. Yet here I was handling diplomatic contacts, at the highest possible level, in terms of the secession of a whole country. It was magical, but somehow quite alarming.
Before I flew back, the head of the British Council arranged for his driver to take me to the top of Mount Entoto. Addis Abeba itself is at the height of 9,000 feet, on the plateau which covers most of Ethiopia, and Mount Entoto rises up above it to 12,000 feet. It was an impressive experience. Equally interesting, though, I was able to see some of the small farms there. They irresistibly reminded me of the Welsh farms of my youth.
One way down, we passed the women carrying wood back down to burn in their homes. As we went down I had my window open and, as we slowed down, this young girl - I guess she was eight or nine years old - looked into the window at me. She smiled and she was radiantly beautiful. In some respects it summed up how I was to feel about Ethiopia. It was the start of my love affair with that country.
Later I also wrote about Seeye in one of my U3A creative writing projects.
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