Addis Ababa

Washington. -- Pennsylvania-sized Eritrea, which calls itself Africa's last colony, is about to form a provisional government which will confirm its de facto independence from Ethiopia.Surprisingly little is known of the leadership of the victorious Eritrean People's Liberation Front. Its secretary general, Isaias Afwerki, who is expected to become either prime minister in a parliamentary system or executive president, is an elusive figure who has discouraged a personality cult.The front's literature mentions no other names and includes no pictures of any officials.

JERUSALEM -- Less than two weeks after the lightning airlift of Ethiopian Jews moved Israelis to national celebration, this country is grappling with a new twist in the debate that could determine the fate of several thousand Ethiopians left behind.The question: Are they real Jews?When the last Israeli aircraft in "Operation Solomon" took off from Addis Ababa as Ethiopian rebels converged on the capital, 169 Ethiopian Jews were left behind because they missed the plane. An additional 3,000 didn't make it because they were Christian converts who claim Jewish origin.

WASHINGTON -- The seeds of possible future conflict lay in the agreement reached last week in London that ended the long years of civil war in Ethiopia.The United States has been urging Eritrea, the rebellious province bordering the Red Sea, a former Italian colony, to consider uniting with Ethiopia in a federal system of government instead of seeking full independence. Such a course, U.S. officials believe, could discourage an eventual renewal of civil strife.But the Eritreans are bent on full sovereignty.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- International relief officials warned the new government yesterday that tens of thousands of people will die if food and medical delivery routes are not opened immediately.Several thousand children may already be past saving, relief agency representatives told leaders of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a rebel group that first occupied this capital city Tuesday."There are 50,000 people on the brink of starvation" in the Ogaden province of eastern Ethiopia, said Tom Lavin, field director for the private relief agency CONCERN.

LONDON -- Eritrean rebels announced yesterday that they would run their own province without declaring full independence from Ethiopia and promised to allow international aid to the starving to flow through the two major ports they control.In Addis Ababa, the Tigrean-led Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front began forming a government by clamping a round-the-clock curfew on the city and shooting anti-U.S. demonstrators, killing some and wounding others.A spokesman for the EPRDF, Alemsegeb Gamlak, confirmed that there had been dead and wounded among those protesting the takeover by the rebel front, but he declined to give figures.

WASHINGTON -- With tacit U.S. support, Addis Ababa has come under the control of a rebel group whose recent statements and actions point to pragmatism but whose past would indicate the opposite.The well-armed Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front took over the capital at U.S. urging yesterday after remnants of the existing government, facing looting and fires, told the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa that it could not maintain law and order and wanted the EPRDF to come in, a U.S. official here said.

The first order of business in the new Ethiopia is to reopen the lifelines to centers of famine. Outside relief agencies saw their transport routes severed by the politics of revolution and by the fighting and collapse of government. In one of the grim ironies of modern East Africa, people in danger of starvation include camp-loads of refugees from Somalia and Sudan who had fled into Ethiopia. Reopening these lifelines should be the first thing that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Herman J. Cohen requires of the country's putative new rulers in return for U.S. assistance.

JERUSALEM -- If he could not get arms from Israel, Ethiopian President Mengistu Haile Mariam wanted money to let thousands of Jews leave his country.The money was delivered eventually -- possibly as much as $35 million -- although the Ethiopian leader, described here as "a moron," apparently never got it. At the height of the extraordinary evacuation from Addis Ababa, it even took 50 cartons of American-made cigarettes to keep the operation going.Mr. Mengistu demanded cash either personally or through aides throughout the lengthy negotiations with Israel, according to Uri Lubrani, the chief Israeli negotiator.

LONDON -- Ethiopian rebels agreed yesterday to replace military dictatorship with democratic government and promised to ease the way for the immediate flow of international aid to starving millions in the violence- and drought-ridden country.The agreement, ending two days of U.S.-brokered peace talks, came hours after the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, the largest of three rebel movements, captured the capital, Addis Ababa.Faced with the prospect of total chaos in the capital, the United States asked the front Monday to take immediate "state responsibility" in the beleaguered capital.

LONDON -- Ethiopia's rebel factions agreed to a cease-fire yesterday at U.S.-sponsored peace talks, possibly clearing the way for formation of a provisional government and long-term moves toward democracy after decades of civil war.Immediately after the breakthrough, the chief U.S. negotiator, Herman Cohen, urged the largest rebel group surrounding Addis Ababa to take control of the Ethiopian capital "as soon as possible to help stabilize the situation."Shortly...