While heavily guarded in military detention, the enigmatic and aged Emperor still exuded the kingly dignity and poise for which he was so well known, and insisted on being allowed to pray for one hour everyday in the confines of his minuscule private chapel. It was on one of these occasions, around mid-August of 1975, on the third day precisely, after he was allowed to enter the cell like windowless chapel while guards remained outside.., that he never came back out... nor was he ever to be found anywhere.
His physical disappearance from out of the very hands of his captors had plunged the criminal regime of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam into a veritable crisis, as it could not be explained how this seemingly impossible occurrence took place.
Mengitu's first expediency was to have the small contingent that was responsible for guarding the Emperor, transported to a remote military base where they were swiftly executed, and the incident was blanketed by an almost complete secrecy, while the usurper figured out what had really taken place.
Eventually the ruling Derg decided to announce to the world that the deposed Emperor Haile Selassie I, had died of natural causes while in military detention, and also, that his body was interred at an undisclosed secret location. Thereafter, an elaborate set of circumstantial events were orchestrated to support the 'official' version, such as the preparation of several - up to six - burial graves, including one on the grounds of the Jubilee Palace itself.
Nevertheless, reports from credible sources emanating from Ethiopia, disclose that even up to 1986, some eleven years after the alleged demise of the Emperor, periodic military curfews and extensive search of large urban and rural areas were still taking place, ostensibly in quest of the 'deceased' king, about whom sporadic intelligence claimed, was 'seen' at various locations.
It has been over two decades since that announcement was made by the now deposed Mengistu regime, and, although several sets of human remains have been produced purporting to be those of the Emperor, none have been found to correspond to him. And,whereas the phenomena of bodily translation belongs to the era of biblical and mystical happenings of a supernatural kind, the possibility that this may have taken place with a person so uniquely marked by divine providence and by manifest destiny, cannot be entirely ruled out.
The sacred Davidic bloodlines continue to be manifested in the persons of the Imperial Princes, the grandsons and great grandsons of the illustrious Lion of the Tribe of Judah, all of whom are still living in exile along with other members of the Imperial family. The Crown Council of Ethiopia, a historic advisory body to Ethiopian Monarchs,functioning as the official custodian of the Ethiopian Crown, is also in exile. Yet, although there is a clear line of uninterrupted succession to the throne, those who recognize in Haile Selassie I the fulfillment of the Messianic Biblical promises, assert that no other king will be anointed and crowned in Ethiopia, for he is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the immutable seal of the Dynasty of the Blessed Seed.
NEGUS
Majestic Tradition of Ethiopia
Miguel F Brooks
