Information about the Status of the Operation Ethiopia (1 April 1988, 14:00 Hours)

A. Schalck^[1]

Berlin, 1 April 1988

Member of the Politburo

and Secretary of the Central Committee of the SED

Comrade Egon K r e n z

__________________________________________________

Dear Comrade Krenz!

According to the mandate I received, I am sending you another information about the status of loading arms and ammunition for the People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.

Please take note.

With Communist greetings,

I.V. [illegiblename, but Schalck’s deputy]

Appendix

A. Schalck

Berlin, 1 April 1988

Information about the Status of the Operation Ethiopia

(1 April 1988, 14:00 Hours)

1. Air transportation

After the 19.8 tons of arms and ammunitions having departed with Interflug on 30 March 1989, the following cargo is planned:

- With a charter aircraft from Cargolux scheduled fort 2 April 1988 or 3 April 1988 additional 47.2 tons will be flown out.

- There is an announcement from the Ethiopian side that on 2 April 1988, 09:45 Hours, an aircraft from Ethiopian Airlines with flight number 9730 will land in Schönefeld. It has a loading volume of about 40 tons. There is plenty of material in Schönefeld, an immediate loading can be guaranteed.

- The further departures will be with aircraft from Interflug as soon as overflight clearances are obtained. Feedback from  the GDR Ambassadors in countries to be overflown do indicate that overflight clearances will be obtained probably from 8 April 1988.

- Through provision of an IL 62 from the government fleet, the request by the Ethiopian side to speed up deliveries can be met.

- Nevertheless, because of the low capacity of the aircraft, until about 20 April 1988 only about 281.2 tons can depart. Therefore it has to be decided to organize in addition a sea transportation route option.

2. Sea transport

- The Ministry of Transportation has provided the MS “Neuhaus”, which is ready for loading in Rostock from 4 April 1988, 06:00 Hours. This ship will be loaded with 60 trucks W 50 and 973 tons of arms, ammunition, uniforms, and shoes.

- Based on a departure on 6 April 1988, the arrival in the Ethiopian harbor of Assab is to be expected on 18 April 1988.

- The remaining 40 trucks will be loaded on MS “Blankensee”, departure from Rostock will be on 12 April 1988.

The coordination by the participating armed organs is guaranteeing the deliveries to Schönefeld and Rostock by the fastest date possible.

3. Provision of trucks

The vehicles produced by 31 March 1988 for the order “Iraq” were not available, because they are already on their way with Arab labels by railway transport to the harbor.

The NKW Conglomerate [GDR manufacturing side for commercial transport vehicles] will run extra shifts on 1 April 1988 and on 2 April 1988 to complete 30 trucks W 50 in addition to the plan.

These 30 vehicles will be transported by drivers from the NVA [National People’s Army] to Rostock beginning 3 April 1988 at 08:00 Hours.

Additional 15 vehicles will be transported to Rostock from current production by drivers from the MdI beginning 4 April 1988 at 15:00 Hours. An additional number of 15 vehicles will leave on Tuesday, 5 April 1988, at 08:00 Hours, also by drivers from the MdI.

Appendix

Transportation Concept

1 April 1988

Transportation Concept