Mengistu slips out

As human rights groups and diplomats stepped up the pressure on South Africa to try or extradite the former Ethiopian dictator, Mengistu Haile Mariam, it was announced on Wednesday that he had quietly slipped out of the country back to his home of exile in Zimbabwe. "All I can tell you is that he left the country last Friday before we received the Ethiopian request later that day for his extradition," presidential spokesman, Parks Mankahlana told IRIN. All week, however, the South African foreign ministry insisted it was reviewing what action should be taken on Mengistu who arrived for medical treatment last month from exile in Zimbabwe. The official statements implied that Mengistu was still in the country. The confusion was made no clearer by a foreign ministry spokesman on Wednesday who insisted the issue was still under consideration: "The matter of his extradition is still under review as far as we are concerned. He did not enter this country as an official guest, so we cannot comment on his movements. We are aware of the reports now saying he has left." But in an interview from Zimbabwe, Mengistu told the BBC that he had not been forced to flee South Africa in the wake of pressure on the South African government by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and local legal and human rights groups. "The present government in South Africa are my comrades-in-arms. There was no question of sending me back to Ethiopia," said Mengistu who has lived in Zimbabwe since 1991. His government, like many in Africa at the time, provided a second home to South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) during the fight against apartheid. The biggest ANC military camps were located in Ethiopia, Angola and Tanzania. Meanwhile, in the Zimbabwe capital, Harare, the country's leading human rights watchdog, Zimrights, said on Wednesday it was checking on Mengistu's whereabouts: "We have asked the Ethiopian government for a copy of the extradition request and if it contains charges on genocide or human rights violations, definitely this matter will have to be taken up," Zimrights director, Bidi Munyaradzi told IRIN. "Has he been going back and forth from South Africa? - we are researching all the facts and will draft a petition accordingly."