ETHIOPIA: FUNERALS OF GOVERNMENT INFORMATION CHIEF AND TWO OTHERS KILLED BY ASSASSINS.

Record ID: 504869

  • Title: ETHIOPIA: FUNERALS OF GOVERNMENT INFORMATION CHIEF AND TWO OTHERS KILLED BY ASSASSINS.
  • Date: 6th November 1977
  • Summary: 1. LV 7 CU PAN Chanting and gesticulating mourners walking along with rifles and banners in Adis Abab, Ethiopia (3 shots) 0.32 3. SV Military band and alow-marching soldiers behind as the two hearses arrive at church. 1.18 2. SV Military guards presenting arms (2 shots) 0.46 4. SV Two hearses (2 shots) 1.33 5. SV Red flag with hammer and sickle at half mast 1.36 6. GV Cortege and mourners enters St. Joseph's church cementary (2 shots) 1.55 Initials BB/1710 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 21st November 1977 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA
  • Country: Ethiopia
  • Reuters ID: LVA6KTBSUB9V5VEZMV2342A2ELX3
  • Story Text: In Ethiopia a government information chief shot by assassins on November 2nd has been buried with full military honours. Thirty-five-year-old Lieutenant Gebeyaw Temesgen was a member of the 'Dergue', the ruling military council. A senior city councillor and a policeman killed in separate areas of Addis Ababa were buried at the same time on Thursday (3 November).

    SYNOPSIS: There was tight security for the funeral following the new wave of political violence in the capital. Addis Ababa radio said Lieutenant Temesgen and Councillor Gutta Sermessa were killed by hired assassins, and 29-year-old police private Mulugetta Yohannes was shot by counter revolutionaries. The murders occurred only hours after pro-government trade unionists had called for the creation of a special squad to seek out and destroy 'reactionaries and other counter revolutionaries'.

    Reuters news agency quoted foreign diplomats in Addis Ababa as saying that Lieutenant Temesgen was known to be high on the assassination list of the extreme left-wing Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party, which opposes the role of the military in the government. He had written many of the Dergue's proclamations and speeches delivered by members of the ruling council. He was walking alone and apparently unarmed near the City Hall at noon on November 2nd when he was shot. Councillor Sermessa was killed at about the same time as Lieutenant Temesgen but there were no other known links between them. Mr. Sermessa was a prominent city councillor and candidate for mayor.

    The body of Private Yohannes was not in the funeral cortege with those of the other two men but he was buried at the same time in the cementary of St. Joseph's church. Addis Ababa radio gave no details of his death.

    Among the officials at the funeral was Lieutenant-Colonel Atnafu Abate, vice-chairman of the ruling council. According to Reuters gun battles in Addis Ababa have brought violence to a level unequalled since last May when about 1,000 students were shot byu troops during a demonstration.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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