Tadesse Birru

General Tadesse Birru
Tadesse Birru in 1962
Native name	Taadesee Biruu
Nickname(s)	Taadee
Born	1921 Selale, Ethiopia
Died	March 19, 1975 (aged 57–58) Addis Abeba, Ethiopia
Allegiance	Ethiopia
Service/branch	Army
Years of service	1935-1975
Rank	General
Unit	Fetno Derash (Special Forces)
Spouse(s)	Work-Abeba Medhin
Relations	Almaz Tadesse Birru, Tsehay Tadesse Birru, Belete Tadesse Birru, Kassa II Tadesse Birru, Muse Tadesse Birru, Martha Tadesse Birru

Tadesse Birru (circa 1920 – March 19, 1975) was a Colonel General of the Ethiopian Imperial Army and an Oromo nationalist. Initially a strong proponent of Ethiopian unity, Tadesse eventually became an activist for the empowerment of the Oromo people in the 1960s. His advocacy turned into repeated attempts to overthrow the government through a coup and later through a military rebellion. He was eventually captured and executed by the Derg regime. He is considered to be the father of modern Oromo nationalism.

Tadesse was born in Salele, in the Shewa province of the Ethiopian Empire during Emperor Haile Selassie's reign. His father, Birru, was killed by poison gas during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and his mother died of grief three months later.

Left without a family, Tadesse joined his uncle, Beka, as a member of the Arbegnoch, a guerilla army of Ethiopian patriots who fought Italian occupation. He was eventually captured and sentenced to life in prison with hard labor in Mogadishu, Somalia where he remained until the British captured Mogadishu in 1940. Tadesse was freed and given military training in Kenya and returned to Ethiopia in 1941. In 1942, Tadesse was promoted to the rank of the second lieutenant and enrolled into the national military academy at Holota, where he served for years as an instructor.

In 1954, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and he moved from the military to the police force and was in charge of modernizing it. He was made a commander of the "Fetno-Derash" (Rapid Force), the Ethiopian Special Forces, and was instrumental in crushing the attempted 1960 coup by proving the conspirators wrong through his loyalty to the Emperor. It was also as commander of the Fetno-Derash that he trained Nelson Mandela, the South African anti-apartheid activist, in guerilla warfare. It was him who gave Mandela his famous lost Liliesleaf pistol.

Tadesse Birru was promoted to Brigadier General in early 1953 by which time he was commander of the Fetno-Derash, the deputy commissioner of the National Police Force, the commander of the Territorial Army and the chairman of the National Literacy Campaign.