Mnangagwa to protect Mengistu

President Emmerson Mnangagwa's administration ha no plans extradite former Ethiopian dictator, Mengistu Haile Mariam.

This is in spite of renewed pressure from the opposition and the civil society.

Mengistu, who has lived in exile in Zimbabwe since fleeing an armed rebellion that ended his rule in 1991, is wanted in Ethiopia.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia for leading a terror campaign that slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians between 1977 and 1991.

Harare, under Robert Mugabe's administration, had refused to send him back to Ethiopia to face justice. But critics have been quick to seize the opportunity presented by Mugabe's deposal last month to renew calls for Mengistu's extradition.

This week, the MDC-T said Mengistu must be sent back to his country.

Party spokesperson, Obert Gutu, insisted that Mengistu was a fugitive from justice and that the new government under Mnangagwa should not give sanctuary to despots and other international criminals who are wanted in their own countries.

"The bottom line is that Mengistu should be promptly extradited to Ethiopia to face justice," Gutu said.

But government spokesperson, George Charamba, told the Daily News yesterday that there were no such plans to extradite Mengistu.

Instead, Charamba took a swipe at civil society organisations and opposition parties for "meddling in issues they have no knowledge about".

"I thought that was not a domestic issue. Where are they coming in? The Ethiopian government has not said anything, who then are they to poke their noses when his own government has not said anything?" he asked.

"They do not even know how he came here. This issue is covered by an international protocol. It was seen to be necessary that he stayed here for the peace of Ethiopia. Those people (calling for his extradition) are looking for relevance. If they don't have jobs, let them come and we can give them the jobs. "We cannot be seen spending time and effort on that issue when there are pressing national issues to attend to.

Mnangagwa on the peaceful power transition and pleads: "Please remember the mothers of #Ethiopia who are still waiting for justice: extradite #Mengistu Hailemariam."

Another Twitter user under the name Deki Sawa went further, urging Zimbabweans: "If #Zimbabweans are the kind of justice-loving people they claim to be, it is time to pressure their government to transfer the #genocidal #Ethiopian #dictator #MengistuHaileMariam."

Among those who weighed in was Awol Kassim Allo, an assistant professor of law at the London School of Economics, who also asked what would happen to the former strongman.

"Mugabe will be gone soon but what happens to our own dictator Mengistu Hailemariam?"

In a campaign aimed at repressing political dissent that came to be known as the "Red Terror," Mengistu's administration was alleged to have killed an estimated half a million people, including the last emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie.

After the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front came to power, a court sentenced Mengistu to life in prison in absentia. Although the Ethiopian government requested his extradition in 2006, Mugabe refused to hand over the ex-leader, who was at the time his adviser on Ethiopia's security affairs.

As one of Africa's worst murderers, Mengistu fled Addis Ababa almost two decades ago after overseeing what has been described as one of the bloodiest terror campaigns to be inflicted on political opponents by a head of state. He killed opponents on a genocidal scale and last year a High court in Addis Ababa sentenced him to life imprisonment in absentia. He has been living in the Harare since.