The Creeping Coup

It was called the creeping coup.

Tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled through the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa last week, but despite a general curfew, few of the city's 725,000 residents seemed aware that anything unusual was happening.

No one was bothered except a select group of officials and aristocrats who were on a 200-name master list of wanted men. Soldiers stood guard at banks and at the airport--to prevent rich depositors from closing out accounts over $5,000 or fleeing the country. Radio and television stations were under military control, but no mention of the quiet takeover was broadcast. Aging Emperor Haile Selassie, who was crowned the nation's absolute ruler in 1930, made no effort to oppose the military.

The reason behind the creeping coup was distaste at the slow pace at which the Prune Minister, Endalkachew Makonnen, 47, has been carrying out reforms. The army has agitated for change since February, when soldiers protesting poor pay and the country's feudal political system forced the resignation of then Prime Minister Aklilu Habte Wold, 62. They accepted Endalkachew as his successor and gave the new government six months to reform a country that for decades has been systematically milked from the top.

Little change has been accomplished since then. Corruption has continued, including the imposition of exorbitant landing fees on planes bringing relief supplies for victims of a famine that has already killed an estimated 100,000 Ethiopians, and threatens 500,000 more (total pop. 26 million). The fees reportedly line government pockets.

No strongman has yet emerged. Negotiations with the government are handled by a ten-man committee that includes a sergeant and a private, as well as young majors and captains. The principal activists are apparently army officers assisted by the police, the navy and the imperial guard. The air force is being kept out of the action only because airmen are so dissatisfied that they want to overthrow the Emperor now.

Toothless Lion. The slow, low-keyed coup is working; by week's end the leaders were reaching their goals. They had arrested most of the people on their list, including former Foreign Minister Menassie Haile, 44, onetime ambassador to Washington, and Ras Asrata Kassa, 56, who is Haile Selassie's closest adviser. In meetings with Endalkachew and the Emperor, the committee dictated terms that were hastily accepted. These include an imprimatur over six key ministries, including Defense and Interior; amnesty for political prisoners; plus a special session of Parliament to carry out constitutional reform.

Haile Selassie, who celebrates his 82nd birthday later this month, continued at his normal pace last week in spite of the events around him. Precisely at nine each morning the Emperor was driven in his red Mercedes one mile from Jubilee Palace to the Grand Palace to put in what an aide described as "his customary day of work." Politically, however, the Emperor has become "as toothless as those old lions that guard his palaces," as one Western diplomat in Addis Ababa rudely put it.

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