Lieutenant Colonel Asrat Desta (died 3 February 1977) was a member of the Derg

Derg

The Derg or Dergue was a Communist military junta that came to power in Ethiopia following the ousting of Haile Selassie I. Derg, which means "committee" or "council" in Ge'ez, is the short name of the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, a committee of...

, the military junta that ruled Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

 during the Ethiopian Revolution.

Following the Derg's assumption of power over Ethiopia in 1974, Asrat, who was a Major at the time, became the chairman of the Derg's information and public affairs committee. He was an avowed Marxist-Leninist, once stating, "We are doing what Lenin did. You cannot build socialism

Socialism

Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

 without Red Terror

Red Terror

The Red Terror in Soviet Russia was the campaign of mass arrests and executions conducted by the Bolshevik government. In Soviet historiography, the Red Terror is described as having been officially announced on September 2, 1918 by Yakov Sverdlov and ended about October 1918...

."

A member of the faction opposed to Lieutenant Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam

Mengistu Haile Mariam

Mengistu Haile Mariam is a politician who was formerly the most prominent officer of the Derg, the Communist military junta that governed Ethiopia from 1974 to 1987, and the President of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia from 1987 to 1991...

, at a February 1977 meeting between Mengistu and his opponents, who included not only Asrat but chairman General Tafari Benti

Tafari Benti

Brigadier General Tafari Benti was the Head of State of Ethiopia , and chairman of the Derg, the ruling junta. His official title was Chairman of the Provisional Military Administrative Council.- Life :...

 and a number of leading members of the Derg, gunfire erupted leaving both Asrat and General Tafari, as well as six other leaders of the Derg dead. Mengistu afterwards broadcast on Radio Ethiopia

Radio Ethiopia

Radio Ethiopia is an album by the Patti Smith Group, released in October 1976 on Arista Records.- History :Radio Ethiopia was the followup record to Smith's widely acclaimed debut Horses. In interviews surrounding the album's release, Smith explained that she chose producer Jack Douglas in hopes of...

 that Asrat and his dead compatriots had attempted a "fascist coup d'etat in the capital identical to what had taken place in Chile", and labeling them "fifth columnists" of the Ethiopian Democratic Union and Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party

Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party

Founded in April 1972, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party was a prominent Marxist-Leninist organization in Ethiopia during the 1970s. It is also known as "Ihapa" from the acronym in Amharic...

rebel groups.