Ethiopian opposition says dialogue initiated by mediators not PM
Oct 4, 2005 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ethiopian opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) says it retracts its statement made on October 3, 2005 which makes it seem that Prime Minister Meles Zenawi initiated the dialogue.
In a press statement issued today the CUD says, “we wish to clearly state our commitment to our Saturday, 1 October 2005 statement and retract the statement made on 3 October 2005 that the prime minister initiated the dialogue, rather it was initiated by the international community.”
The CUD would like to state that we stand by our joint statement of Saturday 1 October 2005. On the basis of that statement we have committed ourselves to peaceful and legal action and pursue our objectives through the democratic and parliamentary process, the statement signed by Birtukan Mideksa, first deputy chairman of the CUD says.
It says, we recognize that the statement of 1 October 2005 was a necessary undertaking by the CUD for the start of the dialogue.
To make clear that it accepted the dialogue with the ruling EPRDF party under international mediation, the CUD said it made the statement in the presence of US Charge d’Affaires Vicky Huddleston, and UK ambassador to Ethiopia Bob Dewar.
Meanwhile, after CUD made the above statement of deletion, the dialogue between the three parties, EPRDF [ruling coalition Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front], CUD and UEDF, has commenced on Tuesday.
The parties discussed on procedure of the dialogue, which went on in a constructive spirit, the parties affirmed.
The parties agreed to continue the dialogue on Wednesday 5 October to end a post-election crisis.
Opposition leaders will meet again with Meles on Wednesday to hold more detailed talks on reaching an agreement on opposition grievances about the results of troubled May parliamentary elections and arrests of their members.
The opposition claims the formation of a national unity government that would prepare the country for national elections after two years.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Ethiopia’s two main opposition parties agreed Sunday to continue talks that led the opposition to call off a three-day general strike protesting against Meles’ government.
Final results released by the National Electoral Board gave Meles’s Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front 327 seats in the 547-seat parliament, enough to form the next government. Opposition parties got 174 seats – a substantial improvement over the 12 that they won in the previous elections in 2000.
European Union observers and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter have expressed serious concerns about the elections, but also said that, overall, the experience would encourage democracy. It was the first Ethiopian election that foreign experts were allowed to observe.
(ENA/ST)