NEWS I

Wolpe Memo

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Pazner said last week that
he was "unaware" of any
such meeting. But knowl-
edgeable sources in touch
with government officials af-
firmed that the meeting, in
fact, took place. The Ethio-
pian embassy in Tel Aviv
flatly denied the report.
Mengistu's 12-year-old
Marxist regime is widely
seen as on the verge of col-
lapse in the face of military
challenges from two major
rebel groups and a number
of smaller ones. In his effort
to regain- control, Mengistu
has ordered carpet bombings
of numerous areas under re-
bel control, resulting in
thousands of civilian
casualties. A famine has
meanwhile ravaged many
areas of the country.
According to the report on
Mengistu's meeting with
Shamir, in the Israeli daily
Yediot Ahranot, Mengistu
went on from Tel Aviv to
Rome, traveling in an Ethi-
opian Air Force Hercules jet
supplied to him by Israel. In
Rome, the paper said,
,Mengistu met with Italian
officials. U.S. officials also
met with Mengistu in both
cities, the report said.
Beatrice Russell, a press
official with the State
Department's Africa desk,
said she was unable to con-
firm or deny the reported
meetings with U.S. officials.
A press officer at the Italian
embassy said he had no offi-
cial response to the reports
on Mengistu's meetings with
Italian leaders.
Wolpe's memo was from
staff member Steve Mor-
rison following Morrison's
fact-finding trip to Ethiopia
in February.
The February memo states
that Israel provided Ethi-
opia with approximately 100
cluster bombs in 1989,
possibly through third party
"cutouts" in Chile and
Argentina.
The memo cited Defense
Department sources for
much of its information. In-
formed sources reported that
all of it came from discus-
sions with authoritative
administration officials in
Addis Ababa and Washing-
ton.
Morrison also wrote that
Mengistu "reportedly"
pressured Israel for an addi-
tional 1,000 cluster bombs.
But in the face of strong U.S.
warnings against such a
move, he said, "the Israelis
have likely backed off from
any additional deliveries."
The memo also said that
10 to 20 Israelis were in-

Larry Cohler is a Washington
Jewish Week staff writer.

volved in the training of
Mengistu's Palace Guard,
"an elite force of 2,000 to
3,000 which up to this point
has been trained by the Nor-
th Koreans." In addition, he
relates, "Israel may also
begin (or may already have
begun) providing instructors
for the training of elite
counterinsurgency com-
mando units . . . Precise
numbers are unknown."
The memo cites Israel's
ambassador to Ethiopia,

Howard Wolpe:
"Fragile situation."

Meir Joffe, as admitting
"the possibility of two to four
instructors" involved in the
counterinsurgency training.
But asked at another point
about the training of the
Palace Guard, Joffe is
quoted as denying Israeli in-
volvement "in this kind of
thing," since it would con-
stitute direct support of the
regime.
The memo also reports
that Israel is " 'probably'
providing sophisticated
technology" to the Ethiopian
Air Force, such as surveil-.
lance cameras and nose
cones for its MIGS. Morrison
does not specify who he was
quoting.
"Israeli night flights are
delivering Soviet spares,
light arms and ammunition"
to Debre Zeit, Ethiopia's
main air base south of Addis
Ababa, the country's capital,
the memo adds.
Wolpe, who confirmed the
document's authenticity,
called on all parties supply-
ing arms to the warring
sides in Ethiopia to desist.
He noted that the Soviet
Union has also been supply-
ing Mengistu while several
Arab countries have been
aiding the Eritrean People's
Liberation Front, one of the
rebel movements.
Referring specifically to
Israel and its reported supp-
ly of arms to Mengistu in
Continued on Page 22

