Ethiopia Still Struggling to Crush Coup

Gunfire broke out for a second day in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on Wednesday as government forces moved to quell a coup attempt against the 12-year-old regime of President Mengistu Haile Mariam.

But the attempt may have given Eritrean rebels in the north of the country, who are fighting the government in Africa’s oldest civil war, a dramatic victory as government troops appeared to have ceded control of Asmara. The city, Ethiopia’s second largest, is the traditional capital of Eritrea and had been the site of the largest troop concentration in the country.

Meanwhile, President Mengistu cut short a four-day state visit to East Germany to return to Addis Ababa. He arrived in the capital late Wednesday night.

2 Officers Killed

Government radio in Addis Ababa said two leaders of the coup attempt, army Chief of Staff Merid Negusie and the air force commander, Amha Desta, were killed Tuesday night by loyalist troops. There were unconfirmed reports that Defense Minister Hale Giorgis Habte Mariam, another plotter, was also killed.

Information from all over Ethiopia--which is the Soviet Union’s most important ally in sub-Saharan Africa--remained sketchy late Wednesday. Telephone and telex communications were sporadic, and the airport at Addis Ababa was closed to commercial traffic.

However, automatic rifle fire was still clearly audible in many quarters of the capital well after government radio announced Tuesday night that the coup had failed.

“It was very quiet this morning after the government radio told people to stay home and that government offices would be closed,” said one diplomat reached in Addis Ababa by telephone. “Then toward 9 a.m. there was sporadic weapon fire heard at many places in the city, and it’s continued off and on ever since. We don’t know whether that’s resistance or the government searching for people.”

Other sources said the government appears to have maintained control of the capital. “But the real question is what is the situation outside of Addis Ababa,” the diplomat said. “We really don’t know what’s happening.”

Rebels Take Radio

The government presence seemed particularly weak around Asmara, where rebels apparently took over a government radio and broadcast statements supporting the coup. The broadcasts suggested that many of the roughly 150,000 government troops garrisoned in the city were supporting the coup and the Eritrean rebels.

The coup attempt, which broke out Tuesday afternoon shortly after Mengistu left the country for his visit to East Germany, was the most concrete demonstration yet of the Ethiopian military’s dissatisfaction with Mengistu’s war policy and with deteriorating economic conditions throughout Ethiopia.

The country is one of the two or three poorest in the world, as measured by per capita income, but maintains the largest army in sub-Saharan Africa. Defense consumes 54% of the national budget, Mengistu revealed in public statements late last year.

Autonomy Resisted

That expenditure is largely devoted to fighting Africa’s oldest internal conflict, the 28-year war with Eritrean rebels intent on winning autonomy for their province bordering the Red Sea. The government has long resisted the autonomy demand because the loss of Eritrea would render Ethiopia a landlocked country. The government has also been fighting a long war with rebels in the neighboring province of Tigre.

The government has recently suffered a series of embarrassing defeats on both fronts; in February loyalist troops were forced out of Makale, the capital of Tigre, and may have suffered heavy losses in a losing battle for the provincial town of Inda Selassie. Those losses cut some supply lines to government forces in Eritrea.

Considering the size of the government garrison in Asmara, the loss of that city in the wake of the coup attempt would be a defeat at least as demoralizing.

Meanwhile, the Mengistu regime appears to be facing increasing pressure from the Soviets to wind down the costly war. Mengistu indicated as recently as Monday that the government might be amenable to a negotiated settlement of the Eritrean conflict. Government officials in Asmara, he told a press conference in Addis Ababa, had forced a peace committee to seek talks with the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front, the principal rebel group.