Mengistu (left), Aman Andom (center) Teferi Benti (right)
The day we met the late General Aman Andom in Agordat (1974)
The video posted about General Negib of Egypt triggered memories about General Andom, an Eritrean who served in the Ethiopian army. As a General who was popular among the army, the Derg, appointed him as their Chairman; when they took power on September 12, 1974. This was just a move until they consolidated their power. When he took power, he was keen to solve the Eritrean problem peacefully, in his own way and on his own terms. He visited Eritrea a couple of times. During one of his visits he came to Agordat. At the procession of his reception, we shouted that we were Addis Ababa University students and we wanted to meet him. It was just a spontaneous reaction, we never planned it. We did not think that he had heard us.
The police, the army and the town officials started searching for us in town. Apparently, Aman had told them they should bring us to him by all means. We were very scared that we planned to leave the town for good. Then we decided to take the risk and meet him. He met us in private and with great respect and actually gave us more audience than the officials who were there. He told us that he was keen to solve the problem peacefully and he needed all support he could get. We told him about the atrocities committed by the army and he said he will look into it. He was killed in a shoot out with troops that came to arrest him. The Dege hastily executed 59 other officials to cover his death and his name was included with those executed on 24 November, 1974. You can say he was the first Eritrean who ruled Ethiopia. The meeting was one of the reasons that caused us to leave the country, shortly afterwards. Mahmoud Mohamed Nur and Ali Nur Saleh were the colleagues who met him with me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aman_Andom
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