1960 Coup
With the support of the Police Commissioner Brigadier General Tsege Dibu and the Chief of Security Colonel Warqenah Gabayahu, on the evening of 13 December 1960, the plotters managed to take hostage several ministers and other important figures present at Genetta Leul palace in Addis Ababa while the Emperor was out of the country. The next day, units of the Imperial Bodyguard surrounded the principal military bases in the capital and took control of the radio station. The Emperor was proclaimed deposed and his son Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen was appointed in his place. However, the rest of the military and the Ethiopian Church rallied to support the Emperor, and by 19 December the coup was crushed, although 15 of the 21 notables taken hostage were killed, including Mulugeta Buli. The hostages were machine gunned in the Green Salon just before the coup leaders retreated from the Palace compound. Among the important personages massacred by the Neway brothers were Ras Abebe Aregai, the leading anti-fascist resistance leader against the Italian occupation; Ras Seyoum Mangasha Prince of Tigrai, Abba Hanna Jimma, the Emperor's confessor, almoner, and administrator of his personal household; Dejazmatch Letyibelu, a prominent resistance leader during the Italian occupation and nobleman with close ties to the Emperor; and several others.
General Tsege was killed in the fighting; Colonel Warqenah committed suicide. Mengistu and Germame evaded capture until 24 December 1960 when they were surrounded by the army near Mojo. Rather than face capture, Germame committed suicide; Mengistu surrendered. He was put on trial which cause a sensation as he appeared in open court completely unrepentant. Accused of slaughtering the Emperor's loyal servants, General Mengistu is said to have replied "I did not kill His Majesty's friends, I only wiped the dirt from his eyes". It is said the Emperor was inclined to commute his death sentence to life in prison, but the powerful families of the victims of the Green Salon massacre were outraged at the idea, and the Emperor allowed the death penalty to be carried out. General Mengistu was hanged a few months later.
His second wife and widow, Woizero (Lady) Kefey Taffere, died in April 1999 having subsequently remarried. Woizero Kefey was a descendant of the old Zagwe Dynasty and a member of the upper levels of the Ethiopian aristocracy. He is survived by his two sons, Neway Mengistu and Germame Mengistu.
Read more about this topic: Mengistu Neway