Lij Michael Imiru, Last Imperial Prime Minister (July 1974 - September 1974)

His Imperial Majesty being removed from the Jubilee Palace in Addis Ababa following his deposing by the Derg. He was taken away in this baby blue volkswaggen bug. An arrow indicates the Emperor as he walks towards the car. September 11th, 1974.

After months of the military co-ordinating committee (Dergue) placing members of the Aklilu Haptewold and Endalkatchew Makonnen governments in prison, along with the senior military officers, nobility and regional governors and officials, it became clear that the days of the Emperor on the throne were numbered. The press was full of vitriol and scathing attacks on the fallen governments, on the corruption and incompitence of the officials, and even on the character and the performance of the Emperor himself. The attacks on the Emperor ranged from critics that stated his reign had been too long, that he should have abdicated in favor of his son or one of his grandsons long ago, that he was too old and too senile to hold state responsibility, to outright attacks on his character labeling him a thief and a despot. The daily attacks eroded the Emperor's once vast popularity and laid the groundwork for the inevitable. On September 11th, 1974, Ethiopians celebrated their New Year, welcoming the year 1967 according to their version of the Julian Calandar. During the day, truckloads of soldeirs spread out from the baracks of the 4th division and took up strategic positions all over the capital. Tanks and armoured personnel carriers rolled down the streets of Addis Ababa and jeeps with mounted machine guns took up guard outside banks, ninistries, palaces and important junctions in the city. Soldiers wore stickers with the slogan "Ethiopia Tikdem" (Ethiopia before all) on their helmets. Rumors swept the city that Princess Tenagnework and several other members of the Emperor's immediate family had been placed under arrest. Nothing in the press indicated what exactly was going on. In fact, the Emperor's daughter Princess Tenagnework, his daughter-in-law Princess Sara Duchess of Harrar and all their children were placed under arrest in Addis Ababa. In Tigrai, the hereditary Prince Ras Mengesha Seyoum had already taken to the hills with a band of followers, but at Mekele's castle, his wife Princess Aida Desta (daughter of Princess Tenagnework) along with her daughter and the children of her sister Princess Seble were arrested and put on a plane back to Addis Ababa. The Imperial family was systematically being rounded up. Rumors swept the city, but nothing official was announced. Late in the day, as was traditional, the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Abune Theophilos gave his yearly New Year's Address on national television and radio. In his speech, the Patriarch likened Ethiopia to a ship in stormy seas, charting a new path into the future. At the end of the speech, for the first time ever, he failed to bless the Emperor and the Imperial family, and instead wished success to the mission of the co-ordinating committee. For the Emperor's loyalists it was a jarring and shocking development. In 1960, Abune Basilios had condemned any attempt to dethrone the man annointed by the Church and stood firm against the Imperial Guard coup attempt. That his successor should make a statement that seemed to abandon the Emperor to his fate was a shock. Then came the Coup-de-Grace on the reign of Haile Selassie I. Ethiopian Television, showed the Ethiopian public the BBC production of the Hidden Famine by Jonathan Dimbleby. The film showing the horrifying famine in Wollo with scenes of death and starvation was damaging enough on it's own, but the Dergue had re-edited the film to include footage of lavish palace banquets and ceremonies in honor of the Emperor's 80th birthday, the marriage of Prince Asrate Kassa's daughter, and other glittering court events. The Emperor was also shown feeding his pet leopards and dogs choice cuts of meat from silver platters held by liveried servants. People watching the film in public places were seen to weep. This time no mention was made of the Aklilu cabinet hiding the famine from the Emperor, or of the ogtagenerian Emperor being out of touch. The film was made to make him seem heartless and steeped in luxury while his people suffered untold misery. It was the final nail in the coffin of Haile Selassie's reign, and indeed in the coffin of the worlds oldest monarchy.

The following morning, September 12th, 1974 (Meskerem 2, 1967 Ethiopian calander) ten junior officers who were members of the Dergue arrived at the Jubilee Palace which was surrounded for the first time by tanks and machinegun mounted jeeps. A small mostly male crowd had gathered outside the gates suspiciously at the same time as the ten officers. The officers were led by Major Debela Dinsa. Their mission was to inform the King of Kings that his reign was over and to remove him from his palace. Concerned that he might not be cooperative, the Dergue had asked Ras Imiru Haile Selassie, the Emperor's cousin, life long companion, and socialist sympathizer, to come with them to convince him to step down peacefully. Ras Imiru was also the father of Lij Michael Imiru, the recently appointed Prime Minister. The officers were all armed with Uzzi sub-machineguns and revolvers, and some had grenades strapped to their belts. The senior prince and junior officers waited at the gates for a camera crew from Ethiopian Television to show up. Much to their irritation, the camera crew did not materialize, and when calls were made, it became apparent that Ethiopian Television had not been informed of the event so they scrambled to get a camera man to the palace at once. The small group then entered the palace and asked to see the Emperor. The palace no longer had throngs of courtiers and noblemen attending the Emperor's person, only the servants walked the halls. Debela Dinsa's account (refered to in Guenet Ayele's book "Ye Colonel Mengistu Tizitawoch" as "Dergue member 11" at a transparent attempt at annonimity) states that the encounter between the Emperor and the group of officers took place in the Grand Throne Room, but the film of the event indicates it took place either in the Palace library or the Emperor's study. The film is quite compelling. The armed soldiers stood in a line facing the Emperor, with Debela Dinsa standing at the center of the line. He stepped forward and saluted before producing from his pocket a speech which he read out loud to the Emperor. The letter was a decree of the Dergue removing Haile Selassie I from the Imperial throne and charging him with abuse of power, lack of compitence to continue to reign due to his advanced age, and the additional charge of embezzeling the money of the people. The Emperor listened to the speech in silence. Debela Dinsa's hands were visibly shaking throughout his reading of the speech, and his fellow soldiers, although armed to the teeth, seemed awed and nervous while the Emperor sat, regal in his bearing and completely silent. Once the speech was finished, the Emperor continued to sit completely silent looking at the soldiers. Debela Dinsa freely admits in his account of the event that he was awed and frightened in the Emperor's presence, and he completely understood the stories that even though the Emperor was such a small frail old man, there was something about him that compelled you to bow low before him. As the nervous tension increased in the room, Ras Imiru approached the Emperor and they spoke in low tones for an extended time. The Emperor then spoke. His statement was simple and moving. He stated that all through his life, he had tired endlessly for the benefit of his country and his people, and that ones individual desires could not come ahead of the needs of the nation. The Emperor's role was to lead in good times and bad, he said, and to serve his people always and without fail. If it was determined that this was for the greater good of Ethiopia, then he would accept the decision and do what was required of him. After another nervous extended silence, still refering to the Emperor as "Your Majesty", Debela Dinsa asked that the Emperor accompany him and his fellow officers to a place where he "would be safe and comfortable". The Emperor asked "Where are you taking me". Debela Dinsa replied that a place had been prepared for "your majesty" that would offer comfort and protection of his safety. The Emperor asked if he could bring some retainers. Debela Dinsa said that he would be allowed some retainers, but for the time being, the Emperor was to bring just one servant with him. The Emperor called out to his servant Merid who came quickly. The Emperor rose and started to walk out with the officers. Ras Imiru, visibly moved asked if he could come with the Emperor. The soldiers informed "His Higness" that he could not come with them, but that he could come see the Emperor later in the day. As the Emperor walked past Debela Dinsa, he asked him "Why are you holding your gun like that?" refering to the Uzzi in Debela Dinsa's hands. Debela Dinsa nervously replied that it was so he could carry the gun more comfortably. The Emperor smirked and said "I think not, I think it's so you can shoot it more easily." and swept by him. As the Emperor walked through the palace with his armed escort, liveried servants began to gather and follow. They all looked shocked and bewildered. When they arrived at the front portico, footmen, maids, Imperial guards, gardeners, and other staff both male and female had gathered on the steps and at the windows of the palace. Debela Dinsa said most of the men looked stunned and many were staring at their shoes or the ground. It was obvious to them all what was happening. Most were openly weeping. A small caravan of vehicles pulled up. The Emperor caught sight of the car which was to take him away from the Jubilee Palace for the last time. It was a small baby blue volkswagen beetle, a far cry from the Rolls Royce and Benz limosines that he was accustomed to. Members of the Dergue have since claimed that this car was chosen in order to take the Emperor away with maximum annonimity to protect him fromt he anger of the people, and not to humiliate him in anyway. This is belied by the fact that the small car was escorted in front and back by two jeeps with mounted machine guns, making it just about the most conspicuous car in the city. For years afterwards, the Dergue would often display this car in public as the final humiliating end of Haile Selassie's reign, so this statement is obvious in it's absurdity. As the Emperor was driven away, his servants began to wail and weep loudly, many beating their chests as if at a traditional funeral. Of all his former subjects, the staff of his palaces, people with little power and relatively small personal gain from his reign, have remained the most consistantly loyal to the Emperor's memory. Once outside the gates however the scene changed dramatically. The small crowd of men which had gathered opposite the palace gates began to scream "Thief! Thief! Thief!" at the Emperor as he passed. They followed the little group of cars as they drove slowly through the city, running after them screaming abuse at the man who had reigned over them till that very morning. Members of the Dergue have claimed that this was a spontaneous demonstration by people who were enraged at the Emperor following the previous night's broadcast of "The Hidden Famine". The Dergue leader and subsequent dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in an interview with a biographer Genet Ayele told her that he found the denunciations of the Emperor distasteful and hated the fickleness of these people who only weeks earlier would have bowed to the ground before him. This statement ofcourse should be taken with a grain of salt, as Mengistu spent his entire rule of Ethiopia trying to demolish the memory of Haile Selassie and his reign. However, others have stated that the group of young men, who suspiciously gathered at the gates just as the group of officers arrived to enter the palace that morning, was actually a group of soldiers ordered by the Dergue to appear in civilian dress in order to give the dethronement a look of civilian approval and perhaps also to humiliate Haile Selassie I. If this was the case, it was an unnecissary and cruel measure, for within minuites of Radio Ethiopia announcing that Haile Selassie I had been removed from the Imperial throne, students from the University that still bore his name ran through the streets with burning and torn portraits of the Emperor. The always radically leftist and ardently anti-monarchist students were jubilant and they quickly took up cries of "Taffari Thief" and sang songs sarcastically depicting the wailing of the aristocracy at the end of their days eating fine lamb and chicken. They tossed flowers at the soldiers guarding the city and sang the praises of the Dergue and the Ethiopian revolution. Around the world leaders and governments hailed the peaceful transfer of power in Ethiopia, commending the military for carrying out the coup in a civilized and bloodless manner. Cries of "Etyopia Tikdem" (Ethiopia before all) and the even more ambitious "Yaleminim Dem Etyopia Tikdem" (Without any bloodshed, Ethiopia before all) which was quickly incorporated into a popular song, were heard on the streets and on television and radio. Ethiopia was supposedly embarking on a bright and happy future, emerging from centuries of darkness and backwardness. It would be only a very short time later that the hollowness and falseness of these dreams would be dreadfully apparent. In the immediate aftermath of the dethronement, the Dergue issued a decree establishing itself as the Provisional Military Admimistrative Council (PMAC) and declared martial law. The constitution was suspended, the Imperial court disbanded and the Emperor's Chilot which was the Supreme Court of the land abolished, as was the Crown Council. Parliament was immediately disolved. The Dergue did not however formally abolish the monarchy at tht time. Instead, it was announced that Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen would be annointed "King" of Ethiopia (as opposed to Emperor) upon his return from medical care in Switzerland. In the following days, it was announced that the title of Conquering Lion of Judah was henceforth to be changed to Conquering Lion of Ethiopia, and that Prince Asfaw Wossen was to be a strictly titular monarch with no political power whatsoever. The brief period of freedom of the press was ended as part of the emergency measures of martial law and would never see the light of day again for 17 years. The Dergue, in an effort to gain support with more liberal elements announced that Lt. General Aman Michael Andom, would serve as it's new Chairman and acting Head-of-State and Head-of-Government. General Aman was an Eritrean born veteran in his youth of the war against Italy and a renowned Ethiopian patriot. Unlike most of the Ethiopian heirarchy he was not an Orthodox Christian, but born and raised a Protestant (Lutheran). He had attended Sandhurst on an Imperial scholarship and was generally regarded as one of the finest officers in the Ethiopian Army, and widely popular with the rank and file of the military as well as the general civilian population. General Aman had an impecable military record, and was refered to as the "Lion of the Ogaden" due to his heroic role in turning back the Somali invasion of the Ogaden in the early 1960's. However, his outspoken support for reform had alienated him from the Imperial government, and he had been retired from active military service. The Emperor, in an act he often carried out on public figures who were outspoken in their critisism of his regime, had appointed General Aman to the Imperial Senate. (It was the type of punishment that would soon be looked back with fondness by political dissidents in Ethiopia. It was noted the Emperor used to punish people with appointments to prestegious yet powerless positions or foriegn ambassadorships.) General Aman was popular, and the Dergue was confident that he would lend them added legitimacy. One of his first public acts was to announce that Ras Mengesha Seyoum was to henceforth be regarded as a traitor and an outlaw, and that he was not only stripped of his governorship of Tigrai, but that he was also stripped of his princely title. He also issued an immediate recall to Prince Makonnen (David) Makonnen, second son of the late Duke of Harrar, to immediately leave his military studies in the United States and return to Ethiopia at once. David Makonnen promptly went into hiding.

Following his dethronement, the Emperor was taken from his palace to the baracks of the 4th Division on Debre Zeit Road, near the rail line into the city, where most of the members of his government and his court were imprissoned. According to his doctor, noted surgeon Professor Asrat Woldeyes (later founder of the All Amhara Peoples Organization in the post Dergue era) who was brought to see him, he spent his first night there in large tent, with a machine gun set up facing the entrance from the outside. The next morning however he was moved into the vacant house of one of the senior officers on the grounds of the baracks. He was visited here by Ras Imiru and Dejazmatch Kebede Tessema, the only two Crown Councilors to escape arrest, as well as his doctor. He was waited on by members of the palace staff, and his meals were cooked at the palaces and brought to the 4th Division daily. The new government sent deligation after deligation to the Emperor to demand that he return the "Billions" that they charged he had stolen from the people of Ethiopia. Over the months the Emperor steadfastly denied that he had secreted money abroad for his own benefit or for his decendents or for the nation. Some sources say that he admitted that a modest sum had been sent to Switzerland to cover the medical costs of the Crown Prince and the living expenses of the Crown Princess and her daughters, but denied that any other money had been sent abroad, but even this claimed admission is not clearly documented. The Dergue even convinced Ras Imiru to plead with the Emperor to return any money he might have taken. What the Emperor must have felt at his own cousin and the one person who could claim to be a brother to him being co-opted into this effort can only be imagined as he has left no record of this. Ras Imiru who had long enjoyed a good reputation in all quarters of Ethiopian society would now earn a serious blemish on his record for his role in this matter. When a sarcastic Dergue officer (some say it was Mengistu himself) is said to have asked the Emperor "Surely Your Majesty must have had some savings put away for hard times, for your retirement." The Emperor is said to have haughtily replied "Retirement? The Emperor of Ethiopia has no retirement. His retirement is death. Therefore there was never any need to save for retirement." On another occasion, he was accused of having stolen the equivalent of U.S. $20 Billion. It is said he wearily stated, "How poorly we have failed in educating you in math." For a country that in the 1970's when it's economy was at it's most productive since the begining of his reign in the 1930's, had a Gross Domestic Product of U.S. $2billion, it was a truely ridiculous sum. The Dergue decided it would take on more of the formal trappings of government and assume the mantle of state by leaving it's erstwhile headquarters at the 4th Division Baracks and move into the Imperial Palace (Great Guibi) built by Emperor Menelik II as it's seat of power. All the prisoners were removed from the baracks and placed in the wine cellars of the palace. The Emperor himself was moved into Inqulal Bet (Egg House) on the grounds of the Imperial Palace. This house, built by Emperor Menelik was thus named for it's egg shaped dome on it's roof, and had previously been used by Empress Zewditu while she was still a Princess and helping to nurse her ill father Emperor Menelik II, and later as a guest house during her reign. The house had a small flower garden where the confined Emperor would take daily walks. However, when palace staff, and even the administrative staff of the Dergue as well as soldiers posted to guard him continued to bow and pay him customary homage, the Dergue ordered a tall fence of corrugated tin to be built around the garden to block him from view. His place of detention was right next to the Se'el Bet Kidane Meheret Church (Our Lady Covenant of Mercy) which is located on the grounds of the palace. Denied permission to attend services at the Church, he would instead stand at an open window overlooking the church and listen to the liturgy over the public address system of the church, making the responses as required. He continued to be attended by loyal servants, but he was repeatedly subject to visits by officials and "intermediaries" demanding bank account numbers and admissions of embezzelment which he steadfastly denied to the very end. The Emperor's signet ring, which bore the emblem of St. George slaying the Dragon, was taken from him and found to contain a spring mechanism that bore a key. The Dergue triumphantly proclaimed that it had found the key to a safty deposit box someowhere in Switzerland and demanded to know the location of the box. The Emperor's servants protested that the key was only used to open an attache case that the Emperor had, but the Dergue was only interested in furthering their search for money and distroying the Emperor's reputation. They ordered a comitteee of University Professors to study the ring and find any hidden codes or bank account numbers in the ring, going so far as removing the stones that surrounded the signet. Nothing was found, and the existence of a fortune stashed abroad for the Emperor and his family was never proven. (The author's father, as personal jeweler to the Emperor confirms that the key in the ring was indeed simply for an attache case that the Emperor used to keep personal documents.)

In the meantime, the Revolution had started to heat up. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church was disestablised as the state religion and Equality of Faith declaired. Even as students, intellectuals, and former politcal dissidents debated the future of the Ethiopian state and what form it should take, things were changing at the top. General Aman Andom was a forcefull leader and a man used to firm military dicipline. The antics of the Dergue with it's collection of low level officers acting in defiance of their supperior officers was not really to his tastes. The Dergue had wanted a figure-head in General Aman, but instead it got a dynamic leader with ideas of his own, and a suspicion of their motives, as well as a driving ambition to be the new power in the land. Soon, the Dergue and it's leaders Colonel (formerly Major) Mengistu Haile Mariam and Colonel Atnafu Abate were in a direct collision course with General Aman Michael Andom. The Dergue wanted to authorise a new major deployment of troops in Eritrea to put down the seccesionist rebellion there. General Aman argued that a chance should be given to negotiations with the rebles now that a new government had come to power in Ethiopia. Dergue members looked at his argument with suspicion since General Aman was of Eritrean background. They began to whisper that the General wanted to resurect the old Federation, and that his loyalty to a united Ethiopia was questionable. There was also the issue of the imprissoned ex-officials of the Imperial Government under arrest in the wine cellars of the Great Guibi. Although General Aman was the leader of the government that had put them there, these people were his former fellow officers, fellow senators, colleagues, and many he counted as personal friends. Their alleged misdeeds were being investigated by the "Investigating Committee" led by such figures as Professor Mesfin Wolde Mariam (later leader of Ethiopia's major human rights organization) Dr. Bereket Hapte Selassie (future author of the un-implemented constitution of Independent Eritrea) and Colonel Goshu Wolde (future Dergue foriegn minister turned political dissident and founder of the Medhin politcal party). Weary of their long winded investigations, the Dergue demanded results which didn't seem to be rapidly forthcoming. There was lobbying to simply summarily execute the major figures of the Imperial regime immediately. General Aman was said to have balked at this and refused to ever sign any extra-judicial decision to sentence anyone to imprisonment or execution. Matters quickly came to a head. The Dergue demanded that General Aman sign their collective decission to send new troops to Eritrea to crush the rebles militarily. General Aman refused, and in the heated exchange, Generla Aman announced his resignation as Chairman of the Dergue and left the meeting hall for his home next to the Princess Tsehai Hospital (known today as the Armed Forces General Hospital) in the Old Airport (Lideta) district of the capital along with several of his supporters. After he refused several personal and telephoned summonses to return to the Palace and meet with the Dergue, a meeting was called, chaired by Mengistu Haile Mariam, to decide what to do about this situation. In addition to the Dergue, Mengistu claims he also summoned the Neus Dergue, a rag tag crowd of soldiers and low ranking officers several hundred strong to attend the meeting as well along with the Dergue to participate in this particular decision and that this group subsequently forced his hand by going to extremes. Others say that Mengistu simply used this group to provide him and the smaller Dergue with political cover from future backlash to their fatefull decissions they were about to make. After a case was presented to the meeting for General Aman's percieved treasonous behavior, it was agreed that an armed unit should immediately be dispached to the General's home and he was to be escorted back to the palace at once. If he resisted then force would be used. The subject then turned to the issue of the prisoners in the wine cellars under the palace floors on which they were conducting their meeting. According to Mengistu it was the Neus Dergue who demanded that the matter of the prisoners be decided at once, and that he was a reluctant participant in what followed. However, it is more likely that the subsequent events were exactly what Mengistu wanted, and that all the events were carefully engineered to bring about the results he desired. One by one the names of prisoners were read out and cries of "Kill him" and "Let him live" decided the fates of the men who had governed the country for decades. Following this meeting, on the night of November 23rd,1974, soldiers surrounded the home of General Aman Michael Andom and demanded his surrender. When he refused they opened fire, and the General and a group of supporters fired back. After a fierce but brief firefight, a large explosion demolished the General's house and it's occupants were all killed. Some claim it was blown up by the General and his followers themselves in an act of Theodorean suicide. With this act completed, the armed unit returned to the palace in the heart of the night and awoke the prisoners. One by one, 58 prisoners of the prisoners were summoned by name and led out of the cellars. When they asked where they were being taken they were either not given answers or told they were being taken to the central prison. Some of them may have been pleased at being taken to the prison as that would allow their families to start visiting them again as they had done when they were imprissoned at the 4th Division. Others such as Ras Mesfin Sileshi are said to have almost immediatly commented "We are being taken to our deaths". The former governor to the Imperial Household, Blata Admassu Retta was removed from what his doctors were certain was his death bed at the Haile Selassie I Hospital in order that he be executed. The Eritrean born veteran of the war with Italy, the elderly General Isayas was also taken on a stretcher from the hospital to his execution. Prince Asrate Kassa is said to have been loaded into the back of an army truck in a wheelchair. The selected prisoners were driven in trucks and buses to the Akaki Prison (also known as Kerchele) to it's Alem Bekagn (which translates with Finished with the World) section. Under bright spot lights, they were machine-gunned to death and their bodies tossed into a freshly dug trench nearby, their remains promptly covered by buldozers. On the night of Friday November 23rd, 1974, the so-called "Bloodless Revolution" of the Dergue showed it's true face. The next day, the city awoke to the spreading rumor that General Aman had been toppled, and possibly killed, and that there had been a change of leadership overnight, but the population had no idea of the scale of the previous nights events. The author remembers peering at the remains of General Aman's house from the grounds of the Princess Tsehai hospital where his parents had gone to visit a doctor friend who lived there. Then as the people of the counry sat down to lunch on Saturday November 24th, Radio Ethiopia announced the names of the 58 ex-officials of the Imperial Government, complete with military, official and noble titles along with the names of Lt. General Aman Michael Andom and the two Dergue members who had died with him. As people waited to hear news of either additional charges, trial date or pardon, they instead heard the announcement that all of the mentioned had been executed for abuse of power and crimes against the people. Their "ceremony of burial" had been conducted and it would not be permitted for their family members to ask for their bodies. They had never had a chance to defend themselves in open court, as so many of them had been sure they would be allowed to do when they surrendered peacefully. Immediately a dark mood decended on the city as the horror of the day sank in. In a courageous act of defiance the widows and close relatives of the deceased opened their homes to mourners and their houses were thronged with weeping people. The wife of one of the Generals walked up and down the street in front of her house waving his ceremonial sword crying out to all who passed that her brave lion had been killed by "these girls..these cowards" who had to tie his hands because they were afraid to fight him. The women and children of the Imperial family are said to have learned of the execution of the ex-officials at the Duchess of Harrar's palace where they had been all confined on an upper floor together. One of Prince Asrate Kassa's younger sons had leaned out the window to listen to a radio being played by the soldier guards below when he heard the name of his father and other former officials, and then heard the news of their deaths. His hysterical screams brought the entire family running to hear him screaming "They killed them all! They killed them all!" As the women and children panicked and chaotic hysteria began to set in, the soldiers rushed in and ordered them to be quiet and told them the boy had misheard and that all that had been anounced was the trial of the prisoners, nothing esle. The next day however, a Dergue member arrived and informed them of the deaths of six people who the Dergue had determined were Imperial relatives. In fact, the Imperial family had lost 11 relatives of various degrees that day. Prince Asrate Kassa, the Emperor's cousin, and Prince Rear-Admiral Iskinder Desta, the Emperor's grandson, being the most prominent family members. When the women tearfully asked to be allowed to visit their graves with a priest, they were scolded and ordered never to ask such a question again. Their is no public record provided as of yet on what the Emperor's reaction was to the deaths, but it must have been profound.