Word: ethiopian
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Until a few months ago, guerrilla activity in the northern Ethiopian province of Eritrea amounted to little more than an occasional attempt to hijack an airliner. The Ethiopian government scornfully referred to the predominantly Moslem members of the Eritrean Liberation Front as shifta (bandits), and Emperor Haile Selassie dismissed their activity as "insignificant...
...western Eritrea. At Debre Sila they killed 52 villagers and burned 200 houses. At Ademdem they ordered residents into their homes, set fire to the village and shot everyone who tried to escape. Both villages, significantly, were Christian. At about the same time, commandos ambushed and killed an Ethiopian general on a narrow canyon road. Last month they blew up two gasoline trucks only five miles from Asmara, the provincial capital, and ambushed and killed an American soldier from Kagnew Station, the giant U.S. military-communications base...
Arab Front. The seeds of the current revolt lie deep in Eritrea's history. A field of battle between Arabs and Ethiopians since the 8th century, it became an Italian colony in 1885 and remained one until 1941. After World War II, Eritrea was turned over to Ethiopia under a United Nations mandate. In 1962 the last shreds of autonomy were stripped away when it was integrated into the Ethiopian empire...
...cost to the American taxpayer of $159 million. Although the extent of U.S. arms assistance to Emperor Haile Selassie is still cloaked by security, State Department officials admit that U.S. bombs and ammunition have been used against insurgent rebels and that U.S. military advisers supervise the training of Ethiopian troops. In defense of this agreement, Assistant Secretary of State David Newsom told the subcommittee that disclosures about Ethiopia had not been made because of "the great sensitivity" of the Emperor. Presumably, in State Department thinking, the "sensitivity" of the American public and Congress to this major diplomatic undertaking...
...been urging Selassie to pay a reconciliatory visit, but he has always demurred. One reason for his hesitancy was an 83-ft. stone obelisk that now stands in front of the headquarters of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization. Italian troops stole the obelisk from the ancient Ethiopian capital at Aksum, and Mussolini had it set up in Rome. Ethiopians want it back, but the Italians have maintained that the shaft is too weak to be moved. Moreover, neo-Fascist extremists would probably raise a ruckus if Il Duce's trophy were taken away...