Ethiopia did not have the same problem [of corruption]. African leaders looked at us with envy.

After Mengistu consolidated his power in 1978, his personality gradually began to change. His ability to listen and his patience faded away. We could now see these qualities were pretences only; he had been putting on his best behavior in his bid for support.

I'm a military man, I did what I did only because my country had to be saved from tribalism and feudalism. If I failed, it was only because I was betrayed. The so-called genocide was nothing more than just a war in defence of the revolution and a system from which all have benefited.

One of the fundamental preconditions of successful socialist construction is to ensure the people's readiness to defend themselves from the ravages of probable regional or global wars on the basis of the balance of forces generating from the basic contradictions of our epoch.

Ethiopia did not have the same problem [of corruption]. African leaders looked at us with envy.

I am a revolutionary; my life is dedicated to freeing the people.

We thought that the proletariat would eventually run the world. But it is the Americans who have assumed that position... The American people have changed.