Word: ababa
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Arriving somewhat belatedly on the scene last week, 50 foreign newsmen trooped past a pair of gazelles and a frolicsome antelope on the gracious lawns of bullet-pocked Jubilee Palace in Addis Ababa. Inside, they learned from Emperor Haile Selassie (the Elect of God, the Lion of Judah, etc.) the official story on the army revolt that had bloodied the capital city just a few days before. The attempted coup, said the Emperor, had been the work of a "small, isolated group of officers." According to Haile Selassie, the rebels' own proclamations demanding an end to oppression and poverty...
...duress") was scribbling his reply, loyalist tanks came charging through the palace gates. Richards scampered out a window in the nick of time-"it was the nearest available exit." Another U.S. official in a tight spot was Mrs. Oswald B. Lord of Minneapolis, who happened to be in Addis Ababa as the U.S. observer at a U.N.-sponsored seminar on "women in public life." As bullets whistled through the Ghion Hotel, Mrs. Lord recalls, "I sat on the floor of my room drinking bourbon, wrapping Christmas gifts and writing feverishly in my diary...
...plotters bided their time (and even put down one subplot to assassinate the Emperor last year). But Haile Selassie's trip to remote Brazil seemed ideal. One morning before dawn the Imperial Guard, led by rebel officers, seized strong points in Addis Ababa, including all communication centers. Asfa Wassan named Imru as Premier and went on the radio to explain that the purpose of the coup was to end "3,000 years of injustice . . . The Ethiopian people have waited patiently to be freed of oppression, poverty and ignorance." The Crown Prince promised to set up a true constitutional monarchy...
...popularity. Haile Selassie flew straight for the airstrip in Asmara in Ethiopia's Red Sea state of Eritrea, which was still under command of a loyal general. As his plane grew nearer, the plotters' fortunes began to wane. They could not even secure control of all Addis Ababa, and shells whistled into the center of town from loyalist army posts. In frustration, the rebels shot a few government officials they had captured and then fled into the mountains. Haile Selassie landed at Asmara to wild cheers and the usual earth-scraping bows...
...checked his crown in a bank vault. Four years later, as the British army mounted an offensive against the Italians, Haile Selassie flew to Alexandria, changed to his commander in chief's uniform in the men's room at the airport, and soon went on to Addis Ababa with the conquering army...