Friction within the CUDPIndian Ocean Newsletter N° 1197 07/10/2006With the leaders of the CUDP still in prison in Addis Ababa, the executive in exile of this organisation is beginning to fall apart.
The executive in exile of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (CUDP, opposition) which had only just been designated last June (
ION 1187) has already plunged it into in-fighting that is paralysing it to the depth of its bowels.
Ethiopian Review, which supports the opposition, has just launched an open campaign on its web site for the resignation of Major Yosef Yazew, one of the two CUDP executives who represented the CUDP in the Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (AFD) constituted recently with the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). For its part, the pro-government web site
Aigaforum.com publishes a daily diary of the crisis within the CUDP in the Diaspora and the setbacks of its executives.
A meeting organised last week in Las Vegas by Berhanu Mewa, secretary general of the CUDP in Diaspora, almost turned to open combat after Major Yosef declared it illegal in a letter given out during the meeting. Since then, the CUDP support committee in Las Vegas has been divided into two rival sides. This cleavage harks back to differences inside the CUDP in Ethiopia itself. Hence, Berhanu Mewa is a supporter of Berhanu Nega (CUDP leader in prison in Addis Ababa) and opposes the supporters of Hailu Shawel (another imprisoned CUDP leader) including Major Yosef. Mewa is also close to Andargachew Tsige, the other CUDP representative on the AFD executive and to a group of the party’s hotheads in Washington. The latter are staunch opponents of the old guard composed, according to them, of Major Yosef, Solomon Bekele and Seyoum Solomon, all three of whom are supporters of Hailu Shawel.
The first effect of this division is to paralyse the activity of the CUDP in the Diaspora and to make it completely ineffective. Particularly as the internal problems have been deepened by differences over the constitution of the AFD and the debate over the alliance with the OLF. CUDP partisans in the Diaspora are therefore beginning to become bitter. One of them, London based Commander Assefa Seifu writing on the
ethiopiawinet.net web site, recently condemned the CUDP executive in exile, further adding to the confusion and distress of this opposition party’s supporters.
Oromo rebels on the front pageIndian Ocean Newsletter N° 1197 07/10/2006The Ethiopian Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) rebels recently got themselves a
report several pages long in the latest issue of the magazine Raid specialised in military issues and equipment. The photos were taken by Jonathan Alpeyrie, a war photographer for the Getty Images agency, and had already been published on the OLF web site. The accompanying article was by Alain Rodier, a former higher officer in the French intelligence services who now works as a consultant for Centre Français de Recherche sur le Renseignement (CF2R), a French private company headed by Eric Dénécé.
In the rush to harvest crops, some tanks were mistaken for combined harvesters.
Ethiopian security forces fatally shot, beat or strangled 193 people protesting election fraud last year, triple the official death toll, a senior judge appointed to investigate the violence said Wednesday.
"...I didn't have an afro comb until I was nine-years-old. My mother used to comb my hair with a metal comb that tore my head. When I was about nine, my parents took me to the doctor because they couldn't understand why my knees were grey."
A book by Deana Driver, Never Give Up: Ted Jaleta's Inspiring Story, will be released in early November and chronicles the life of an Olympic hopeful who's future is changed by the Red Terror, years in refugee camps and finally a new beginning in Canada.
The Airbus 380 is due to land at Bole airport in the next few days. Airbus spent $14 billion to develop the aircraft, which will be the world's largest airliner, seating more than 800 passengers across twin decks.
of the country with the powerful Eritrean army on its eastern border. The situation has become critical, its 240 thousand man army (TPLF) does not have the resources to be fighting everywhere at the same time, so it relies on poorly equipped, under trained militias to protect the frontiers.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Sometimes events need no explanation.
