In May 1991, after hearing of
Mengistu Haile Mariam's
fall from power, he fled to the
Italian embassy in
Addis Ababa, along with Lieutenant General
Tesfaye Gebre Kidan,
Foreign Minister Berhanu Bayeh, and Chief of General Staff
Addis Tedla. He was succeeded by
Tesfaye Dinka. While the other three remained at the embassy for years, Hailu killed himself shortly after fleeing to the embassy in 1991. Following the death of General Tesfaye thirteen years later on 2 June 2004, rumors began to circulate caused by the embassy's lack of detail on the death of both General Tesfaye and Hailu's earlier suicide. The Ethiopian government demanded Italian records on the incidents during that month. ==References==