7. At the gates of hell

THE 11 PRINCESSES were driven in an army bus from the Duke of Harar's palace to Akaki Prison and were marched to an open field just beyond the building with the electric chair -- the field where Aida Desta's brother, Iskander Desta, had been executed nine months before.
For four hours, the princesses remained in the open field.
They had no suitcases, only the clothes they wore; they spread their cardigans on the ground so they could sit.
Meanwhile, British PM James Callaghan and the United Nations negotiated for their lives.
They were at the gates of hell.

Princess Rebecca: From time to time, male prisoners approached us. Some were quite sympathetic. The 11 of us were sitting on our cardigan sweaters in the dark, in an open field, waiting to be shot, and the prisoners were asking us if there was anything they could do. There were others who jeered at us from afar, but most of them came out of curiosity. We were like a bloody zoo. It seemed endless. Then,finally, at 10 o'clock, a car drove up, and a Derg member got out. 'Put them in with the women,'he told our guards. We thus had the distinction of being the first female prisoners under the Derg. What a mess it was. In those days, it was impossible to walk -- there were just stones and boulders and wet, slippery mud. I grabbed hold of Princess Yashasha Worq -- she must have been over 80, but she was feisty and would never tell her age -- and we stumbled along until we reached the gate. Then they searched us. You can't imagine what they wouldn't allow: cigarettes, my glasses, mirrors, chewing gum. They made us hand over our jeweltry. Princess Yashasha Worq flatly refused. I was terrified that they were going to shoot her. But she was determined, and she finally won.

Princess Yashasha Worq, who was the first to be released in 1979, died two months after leaving Akaki, due to lack of medical attention for skin cancer.