An East German document outlining planned military aid for Ethiopia.
March 30, 1988
Letter, Egon Krenz to Mengistu Haile Mariam
This document was made possible with support from The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
[SED Central Committee]
[Office Egon Krenz]
Note:
After the information about the decision of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the SED and Chairman of the State Council of the GDR, Comrade Erich Honecker, Comrade Mengistu [Haile Mariam] will get informed that, according to his proposal, negotiations about the payment for these deliveries will take place at a later point.
[…]
Dear Comrade General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Ethiopian Workers Party and President of the People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia!
I have the great honor to bring you, Comrade Mengistu, the most cordial and fraternal fighting greetings of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the SED and Chairman of the State Council of the GDR, Comrade Erich Honecker.
Comrade Honecker has tasked me personally with assuring you again of the close alliance and solidarity of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and the entire people of the German Democratic Republic in the struggle for the defense of the successes and the achievement of the goals of the Ethiopian revolution.
Our close and wide-ranging collaboration on the basis of the treaty about friendship and cooperation has proven itself and will also be continued in the future.
I am having the mandate to inform you that the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the SED and Chairman of the State Council of the GDR, Comrade Erich Honecker, has decided in response to your request for short-term support to provide you weit the following deliveries:
Submachine gun AKM[1] | 35,860 units |
Ammunition M-43 | 31.8 million pieces |
Light machine gun RPD | 2,000 units |
Ammunition M-39 | 3.9 million pieces |
Anti-tank rocket launcher RPG-7[2] | 420 units |
Tank Grenades for RPG-7 | 10,200 pieces |
Anti-tank rocket launcher RPG-18[3] | 2,200 units |
Uniforms (for battle field and armed militias) | 22,000 pieces |
Trucks W 50 | 100 units |
With the special flight already landed, the following has arrived:
750 Submachine gun AKM
675,920 pieces of ammunition (19.5 tons)
The ongoing provision of the additional deliveries is currently in preparation. This does also include a sea transport with 100 trucks Type IFA[4] W 50.
Berlin, 30 March 1988
[1] A Soviet-made assault rifle designed by Michail Kalashnikov.
[2] The RPG-7 is a portable, reusable, unguided, shoulder-launched, anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade launcher designed by the Soviet Union.
[3] The RPG-18 is a Soviet short-range, disposable light anti-tank rocket launcher.
[4] A medium-duty truck built by the East German IFA conglomerate.
Egon Krenz writes to Mengistu Haile Mariam of Ethiopia with news of forthcoming East German military aid.
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SAPMO-BA, PDS IV 2/2.039/298. Translated by Bernd Schaefer.
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2011-11-20
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Letter
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Record ID
110010
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