Mengistu Haile Mariam

Mengistu Haile Mariam(born 1937) is the former Marxist leader of Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991. His regime, known as the Derg, was responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths by famine, forced resettlements and direct murder. Mengistu permitted thousands of Ethiopian Jews to resettle in Israel. Under his regime, at least 500,000 political opponents, intellectuals and other civilians were killed. In 1991, his regime was overthrown and he received asylum in Zimbabwe, where he remains to date. In 2006 Mengistu Haile Mariam was found guilty in absentia of genocide and was sentenced to death by the Ethiopian High Court, but the Robert Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe has refused to allow him to be extradited back to Ethiopia.