Kelbessa Negewo - Life in Ethiopia

Life in Ethiopia

Kelbessa was born in western Ethiopia in 1950, where his family raised goats. Kelbessa claims he was awarded a scholarship to study in the United States, but a government official in Emperor Haile Selassie's regime had his own nephew sent instead in Kelbessa's place.

Kelbessa later married and had three children, later divorcing. When the emperor was overthrown and the Derg seized power, Kelbessa became part of a neighborhood council which was tasked with seeing to revolutionary changes in the country. He eventually progressed to the status of chairman of Higher Zone 9, one of Addis Ababa's 25 zones, where he oversaw multiple councils and was involved in recruiting members of armed "revolutionary defense squads". According to author Andrew Rice, writing in The New York Times Magazine, "A series of memos... reveal that he was tireless in begging his higher-ups for more guns, more ammunition and more press coverage."

According to Hirut Abebe-Jiri, an activist involved in preserving and documenting atrocities while Mengistu Haile Mariam ruled the country, and other women, Kelbessa directly oversaw their torture, and demanded to know whether they were members of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party, then fighting the government in the Ethiopian Civil War.