2. End of the world

THERE IS a prison within Akaki Prison in Addis. It's a maze of catacombs and underground cages known as the End of the World.
In November 1974, 56 male members of Haile Selassie's court, including former Prime Minister Endalkatchew Makonnen, Lt. Gen. Abiye Abebe and Ras Asrate Kass, were slaughtered within its confines by the new rulers of Ethiopia -- the Derg.
When three young soldiers refused to join the firing squad, they were also killed.
Built by Mussolini's occupation forces in the 1930s, Akaki Prison was notorious for its sadistic disregard for human life and it was home for Aida Desta -- the Lioness of Ethiopia -- for almost 14 years.
The Derg claimed the princess and other members of the Imperial Court were thrown into prison for their own protection.

Stephen Mengesha (in a taped conversation in 1990): When the Emperor was killed in August 1975, and I say killed, because we don't trust the official explanation that he died of natural causes, he was visited three days before by my grandmother and my mother ... That's all we knew until August 27th when it was officially announced that he had been buried and then the family was put in prison. The government still insists in 1990 that they were ut there for their own protection. If they were there for protective custody for one year at the residence of the Duke of Harar, I see no reason why the government should just throw them in the most notorious prison, slam the doors shut and keep them there for 14 years, but that's what happened. It's called Allamgang. Allam means world, but Gang is the map of the world, it's the End of the World.