Abroad

ADDIS ABABA Other Victims

World attention focusing on the famine in Ethiopia has uncovered the melancholy situation of ten members of the Ethiopian royal family who have been prisoners of the Marxist government for the last ten years, ever since the downfall of Emperor Haile Selassie. The royal prisoners comprise seven princesses and three princes, who range in age from 27 to 71. They are either direct descendants of Haile Selassie or relatives by marriage. The princes and princesses are being held in a former prison hospital ward said to be no bigger than 12 by 20 feet. There are no toilets or running water and not even beds. Food is brought once a day. Age and illness are affecting most of the prisoners. Four of the princesses—the emperor’s granddaughters, now in their fifties—were educated in Britain and lived there for ten years. British diplomats have led a movement to free them or at least alleviate their misery, but so far the government of Colonel Mengistu, now soliciting famine relief supplies from Western countries on humanitarian grounds, has refused to consider these requests.

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ADDIS ABABA Other Victims

World attention focusing on the famine in Ethiopia has uncovered the melancholy situation of ten members of the Ethiopian royal family who have been prisoners of the Marxist government for the last ten years, ever since the downfall of Emperor Haile Selassie. The royal prisoners comprise seven princesses and three princes, who range in age from 27 to 71. They are either direct descendants of Haile Selassie or relatives by marriage. The princes and princesses are being held in a former prison hospital ward said to be no bigger than 12 by 20 feet. There are no toilets or running water and not even beds. Food is brought once a day. Age and illness are affecting most of the prisoners. Four of the princesses—the emperor’s granddaughters, now in their fifties—were educated in Britain and lived there for ten years. British diplomats have led a movement to free them or at least alleviate their misery, but so far the government of Colonel Mengistu, now soliciting famine relief supplies from Western countries on humanitarian grounds, has refused to consider these requests.