The Soviets consolidate their influence, but at a price
Ethiopia forms part of an arc, which now extends from Afghanistan through North Yemen to Angola, of Soviet influence in the Middle East and Africa. The country's Marxist rulers, who toppled the pro-U.S. government of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974, now only rarely open their doors to Western reporters. One of the few who has managed to catch a glimpse of how Marxism African-style works is TIME Nairobi Bureau Chief John Borrell. His report:
In the three-story rose stucco building that once housed Ethiopia's Parliament and now serves as headquarters for the country's embryonic Communist Party, a red hammer and sickle has been painted over the finely etched imperial crest on each of the green-backed chairs. Prominent red stars dominate the revolutionary posters on the walls, and a large red-lettered slogan in Amharic, Ethiopia's official language, reads FORWARD WITH THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE WORKING CLASS PARTY. Not far away, in a flag-bedecked square, a 16-ft.-high red billboard carries the unsmiling trinity of Marx, Engels and Lenin, the new patron saints of the revolution that extinguished a 2,000-year-old monarchy.
The hammer and sickle and red star are backed by a formidable and growing Soviet presence in Ethiopia. Some 4,000 Soviet advisers, roughly half of whom are attached to Ethiopia's 250,000-strong army, exert a strong influence in both military matters and the running of government ministries. Lieut. Colonel Mengistu Haile-Mariam, 41, the U.S.-trained officer who presides over the ruling Dergue, or council, holds frequent meetings in the old Imperial Palace with Soviet Ambassador Konstantin Fomichenko. Ethiopia buys virtually all its oil from the Soviet Union, and since 1977 the Soviets have supplied the country with arms and military hardware worth $2 billion. In return, the Soviet Union has a drydock and other naval facilities on the Ethiopian-controlled Dahlak Islands in the Red Sea.
Internally, too, the Soviet influence is growing. Throughout the country Mengistu has set up Kabeles, Soviet-style urban neighborhood associations that keep an eye on citizens and conduct regular political indoctrination sessions. The government has established state farms, nationalized industries and expropriated private property. A full-fledged Communist Party will be created next year.
The Soviet presence is more than matched by that of its surrogates. Some 11,000 Cuban troops, flown in initially in 1977 when neighboring Somalia invaded the disputed Ogaden region of Ethiopia, still guard the country's vulnerable eastern flank. East Germans are used to train Ethiopia's secret police. Several hundred more Soviet-bloc advisers are expected to be working in government departments and state-controlled industries by year's end. Says a Western diplomat in Addis Ababa: "Ethiopia represents Moscow's greatest success in Africa in more than a decade. It's a prize that the Soviets aren't going to let slip away."