Word: ethiopian
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...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...
...escalating Soviet presence puzzles Western experts in only one respect: whether it is born from a genuine Ethiopian desire to be close to Moscow or from sheer necessity. The likely answer: sheer necessity. The Dergue depends on Soviet arms in its smoldering border conflict with Somalia. Moscow has also sent helicopter gunships, artillery and military advisers to supplement Ethiopian troops fighting guerrillas who seek independence for the northern province of Eritrea. Mengistu also needs help against armed rebellions in several other provinces...
...army and air force, and conscription has been introduced to bolster recruitment for what is already the largest army in sub-Saharan Africa. When Mengistu visited Moscow last year, the Soviets asked for repayment of at least part of the $2 billion they had loaned for arms. The Ethiopian leader reportedly just shrugged his shoulders and told his hosts that his country could not pay. Indeed, it cannot. Ethiopia's export earnings in 1981, most of it from coffee, totaled a mere $398 million. Says a Western official: "The Soviets will have to accept the cost of underwriting...
...Soviet-Cuban intervention in Ethiopia was, he asserts, a disastrous turning point. The fault, he quickly adds, lay largely with Vance and others who were loath to exert power. If Brzezinski had had his way, the U.S. would have sternly warned the Kremlin about the effect of its Ethiopian gambit on arms-control talks. He would have perhaps even sent an aircraft carrier to show the flag off the Horn of Africa. Brzezinski's response might have been tougher than Vance's, but he does not demonstrate how such actions could have been more effective...
...Ethiopian Jews, called "Falashas" which means strangers in their language, claim descent from the ancient Jewish tribes. Although the Ethiopian Jews are forbidden to leave their villages, about 1400 Jews have managed to escape to Israel since 1977. Another 3000 Jews are estimated to have died trying...