People's Protection Brigades
Encyclopedia
The People's Protection Brigades were a type of law enforcement organization in Marxist Ethiopia
.
moved to consolidate the revolution at the grass-roots level by promoting the creation of peasant associations and kebeles. These associations had tribunals that permitted them to exercise criminal and civil jurisdiction over legal matters. More important, the government also legitimized local defense squads, granting them police powers within designated areas. Defense squads also protected public property and enforced land reform measures, but their original function was the essentially political one of rounding up--and often disposing of--suspected government opponents. During the Red Terror
campaign of 1977-78, the power of the kebeles was virtually unrestricted, and the defense squads emerged as the regime's chief instruments of coercion within the capital. However, in reaction to the defense squads' excessive use of violence, Mengistu curbed their powers in April 1978.
In 1978 the People's Protection Brigades were created from an estimated 10,000 defense squad vigilante
s. Their function was to act as local law enforcement agencies within the jurisdiction of each peasant association and kebele. Although promoted as instruments of decentralization, the brigades answered to the security chief of the Central Committee
of the Commission to Organize the Party of the Workers of Ethiopia. Although the People's Protection Brigades retained a political role, after 1980 these paramilitary units concentrated on local police duties. Brigade members received up to five months' training in police and military tactics from East German instructors. Some brigade personnel had served on active duty in Eritrea
, Tigray
, and the Ogaden
.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
.
History
Soon after the overthrow of the imperial regime, the DergDerg
The Derg or Dergue was a Communist military junta that came to power in Ethiopia following the ousting of Haile Selassie I. Derg, which means "committee" or "council" in Ge'ez, is the short name of the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, a committee of...
moved to consolidate the revolution at the grass-roots level by promoting the creation of peasant associations and kebeles. These associations had tribunals that permitted them to exercise criminal and civil jurisdiction over legal matters. More important, the government also legitimized local defense squads, granting them police powers within designated areas. Defense squads also protected public property and enforced land reform measures, but their original function was the essentially political one of rounding up--and often disposing of--suspected government opponents. During the Red Terror
Red Terror
The Red Terror in Soviet Russia was the campaign of mass arrests and executions conducted by the Bolshevik government. In Soviet historiography, the Red Terror is described as having been officially announced on September 2, 1918 by Yakov Sverdlov and ended about October 1918...
campaign of 1977-78, the power of the kebeles was virtually unrestricted, and the defense squads emerged as the regime's chief instruments of coercion within the capital. However, in reaction to the defense squads' excessive use of violence, Mengistu curbed their powers in April 1978.
In 1978 the People's Protection Brigades were created from an estimated 10,000 defense squad vigilante
Vigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
s. Their function was to act as local law enforcement agencies within the jurisdiction of each peasant association and kebele. Although promoted as instruments of decentralization, the brigades answered to the security chief of the Central Committee
Central Committee
Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
of the Commission to Organize the Party of the Workers of Ethiopia. Although the People's Protection Brigades retained a political role, after 1980 these paramilitary units concentrated on local police duties. Brigade members received up to five months' training in police and military tactics from East German instructors. Some brigade personnel had served on active duty in Eritrea
Eritrea
Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...
, Tigray
Tigray Region
Tigray Region is the northernmost of the nine ethnic regions of Ethiopia containing the homeland of the Tigray people. It was formerly known as Region 1...
, and the Ogaden
Ogaden
Ogaden is the name of a territory comprising the southeastern portion of the Somali Regional State in Ethiopia. The inhabitants are predominantly ethnic Somali and Muslim. The title "Somali Galbeed", which means "Western Somalia," is often preferred by Somali irredentists.The region, which is...
.
See also
- Law enforcement in EthiopiaLaw enforcement in EthiopiaLaw enforcement in Ethiopia has been since a reorganization in October 2000, the responsibility of the national police which is overseen by the Federal Police Commission. This commission reports to the Ministry of Federal Affairs, which in turn is responsible to the parliament; however, this...
- Central Revolutionary Investigation Department (CRID) - the Secret policeSecret policeSecret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
- Human rights in EthiopiaHuman rights in EthiopiaAccording to the U.S. Department of State's human rights report for 2004 and similar sources, the Ethiopian government's human rights "remained poor; although there were improvements, serious problems remained." The report listed numerous cases where police and security forces are said to have...
Further reading
- Dilip K. Das and Michael Palmiotto (eds.), World Police Encyclopedia, Taylor & Francis, 2004.
- World Encyclopedia of Police Forces and Correctional Systems, second edition, Gale, 2006
- Sullivan, Larry E. Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2005.