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Kassa, 56, who is Haile Selassie's closest adviser. In meetings with Endalkachew and the
Emperor, the committee dictated terms that were hastily accepted. These include an
imprimatur over six key ministries, including Defense and Interior; amnesty for political
prisoners; plus a special session of Parliament to carry out constitutional reform.
Haile Selassie, who celebrates his 82nd birthday later this month, continued at his normal
pace last week in spite of the events around him. Precisely at nine each morning the
Emperor was driven in his red Mercedes one mile from Jubilee Palace to the Grand Palace
to put in what an aide described as "his customary day of work." Politically, however, the
Emperor has become "as toothless as those old lions that guard his palaces," as one Western
diplomat in Addis Ababa rudely put it.