When the oppressive Marxist-Leninst dictatorship of the Derg collapsed in 1991, there was hope that a new era might begin for a democratic Ethiopia. However, backed by the United States, the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Front established a government that would not share power. Instead of a transition to democracy, the EPRF denied opposition parties meaningful participation in elections, violated human rights, and intensified ethnic distrust among the people. According to critics, repressions of the government are on a scale equivalent to those of the world's worst dictatorships. Vestal exa.