Executive Committee members of the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJ) have decided to take a 3-day retreat in Debre Zeit, a small town about 45 km south of Addis Ababa, from July 25-28.
According to ER sources, the retreat is for the executive committee members to attend a training course on organizing, managing and leading a political party.
Meanwhile, the Woyanne-controlled National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) told UDJ leaders that they are not allowed to use the name “Andinet.” The NEBE secretary said that since there are individuals who are named “Andinet”, it cannot be used for an organization. (Don’t laugh yet. There is more.)
The UDJ executive committee is now conducting emergency meetings to try to come up with another name that the NEBE will accept. One of the suggestions they have received from Addis Ababa residents is “Union of Dancers and Jokers” (UDJ).
Meanwhile, the UDJ executive committee has appointed a 6-person inquiry committee to investigate who leaked to the media the party top leadership’s recent secret retreat in Sodore.
Going back to Debre Zeit, some council members who have found out about the planned retreat are angry that only executive committee members are going… stay tuned for more.
37 thoughts on “UDJ leaders to take a 3-day retreat in Debre Zeit”
It is very obvious that weyane is not ready to give a space for UDJ leaders by any means possible, since weyane exactly knows that the leaders of UDJ are very significant can bring any public gain any time. Now, I would not still surprise if weyane provokes them from having their name under the so called election board, it is obvious that UDJ has been blocked not by the so called election board but it was the decision of Meles and other tplf officials. However, I still have a big respect for those strong UDJ leaders and their strong supporters in Ethiopia for their consistency to allow their goals using peaceful struggle.
But I urge everyone to come down, because UDJ leaders didn’t say anything to accept the weyane leadership as the others who were entered to the parliament three years ago. The leaders of UDJ are still saying lets keep fighting weyane using peaceful struggle and using all legal means that can allow them to achieve their goals. So lets not be emotional to their steps, since we all have to do our own part not in WORDS, but PRACTICALLY , even though it takes a while to achieve it. In addition to that the UDJ leaders are still in the process of acquiring their demands that the former kinijit 8 points required. So I say the UDJ leaders didn’t say they have accomplished their struggle while they are trying all means by sacrificing their daily life under the threat of weyane gangs, their time and other means of potentials including high emotions. Therefore, again I say lets come down, lets not see things according to what we see but we have to see according what they do to pass each and every little obstackele created by the non ready to give up power weyane.
We will going to have enough time to criticize UDJ if we have to when they accomplish their virtual goals either before or after the so called weyane officials election 2010.
Instead lets all say what I have done to fight weyane not in words but practically around my area. There are a lot to do practically every where to fight weyane. Lets not expect UDJ or G7 or other parties only liberate us from weayane, we all have to contribute our own part by the principle we believe in.
We have to know that weyane stays in power is due to the internal minor confilict among oppositions and our selves to tend to forget our common enemy which is weyane, and to tend to forget that we all have only to attack weyane nothing else. Lets not give another big time to the mouths of weyane( aiga forum) and to the mouths of confused opposition ( eprp eyasu anja group ethiolion, and debeteraw)
ER You are tops. I am sure the majority of the ppl will come to your thinking.
Like I said before, I respect those who are trying to establish a political party, but as long as the Adwa Mafia are in power, any political oppotition parties activity, will be controled by them. From the so called election board to the agazi force who will be there to eliminate any danger to the TPLF mad dogs.
As always i urge all ethiopians to provide financial support to any arm group you prefer as it is the only way out of this never ending nightmare.
Let us save our country before it is killed by the Mafia from Adwa.
If the last 17 years don’t teach us about the nature of thses agazies i don’t know what will.
God Save Ethiopia
ER
you are doing wel.Keep on exposing the play behind the curtain.
Though these News dont make sense in the present ; it will be applauded when Ginbot 7 gains its upperhand.
Take care elias
teshe
I applaud the critical, pro-democracy and investigative journalism of the Ethiopian Review. Its editor is making every effort to dig facts and present it to the public. Though, the editor seems to sympathise with the leaders of the UDJP, he has not been its blind supporter or admirer.
The TPLF have already enough escorting and loyal opposition parties. They do not need any more such parties in the form of UDJP since it will be difficult for the TPLF to manage and use them efficiently. Like any other group running for the petty benefits from the TPLF, the UDJP leaders do not seem to have any integrity and sense of shame. They will continue to covet TPLF`s crumbs and knock at its door. The TPLF is closing its doors and frowning at them if they understand.
What is the need to have another mini-party while there are plenty in the market like Lidetu’s, Merara’s, Beyene’s….
Why not join one of these parties and intensify the peaceful struggle one believes rather than creating so many mini-parties to create division among oppositions and strengthen the incumbent party whom they want to replace.
Hagos Araya:
UDJ’s leaders with the exception of few already joined the parliament and there is nothing to wait and see. The only thing the party’s leadership is adding is confusion as they have no clarity. If you believe in UDJ’s method of struggle you must respect all the other opposition parties who are in the same boat. You cannot have it both ways!
I am starting to get worried about Birtukan and her comrades. Where are they heading? How are they different from Lidetu now?
Folks
Try to see the flip side of the coin. Ask your self why woyane is so much worried to make UDJ a legal party? Everytime the UDJ’s movement is hindered by woyane and everytime its very existence is attacked, it is telling me that the path they are following is the right one. This by itself proves that kinijit/UDJ is the only nightmare of woyanes. Because if UDJ is like one of “loyal oppositions” it’d have been easy for them to legalize their party and move forward. I mean let’s rush to say this or that. Let’s take a time and ask the most important question – “WHY”.
It is really shamful for the Editor to criticise the UDJ for nothing. They are real Ethiopians. They are not like you who run out of Ethiopia and live ur comfortable life. U want change at the expense of Ethiopian poor. But let me tell u, the editor and other diasporas, UDJ is a combination of real Ethiopians who is struggling from inside with the people.
U the editor have no any moral to say those words about UDJ
I suggest UDJ – Union of Dazed Jerks.
They are dazed since knowingly or unknowingly they have been used by TPLF for its purpose of the donnar community that there is a relaxed situation for desent.
Jerks – since they are fool enough not to realize that other parties within the TPLF parliament didn’t attain anything for the last 18 years.
I know it is easier for us living in the west to critisise these brave ppl, you can only believe in peaceful strugle when the condition are right. Birtukan and co should know the safety of others who join the party (espacially those in villages and towns) is put to danger. I have heard news that recently after Birtukan visited a small village, after she left most of the ppl who attended the meeting were attacked by the agazi.
The fact she is getting closer to the American ebmassy is a big worry, because the yanks only know one thing SELF INTEREST. They have draged our poor country to war while our ppl are starving.
The Adwa Mafia know they can get away with anything like they have done for the last 17 years, they are not going to change for anything but arm strugle. They have said it many times before, when are we going to hear that message.
Let us unit to safe our ppl and the country. Support the arm struggle as it is the only way out. $$$$$£££££€€€
God Save Ethiopia
Up to now I’ven’t understood the purpose of the formation of petty political party that does not comprise a total of 2000 ppl. The participation of women is zero. Birtukan is a woman-chairman that have not embraced other woman in the party.
What’s new in this so called “UDJ”? A party without perspective? Why is Yamamoto running after Birtukan’s party?
Answer: He knows that they don’t have so much public support. He is doing in advance a promotion job in Woyanes favour. Furthermore he wants to draw the public into a false stream, so that many a people perhaps flood to her party.
What a blessing! – a blessing in disguise.
Hence to finally prepare a loyal opposition in case the Woyane gangs fail to achieve the necessary percentage to rule as before if and if an elecion to take place in the year 2010.
Since Woyane has declared war on Ethiopian people the response should be manifold struggle until victory. The UDJoke is a supplementary group to Beyenes, Meraras, etc,etc.
We should never rely on those splinter groups to liberate us from our sufferings.
Finally, we have to concentrate on the reliable political parties, civic orgs, armed resistance to oust the barbaric mercenary Woyane clique from power.
Take care
Elias
Do you expext them to go to Kality prison.
አቶ ኤልያስ:
በርታ አንተ ጎበዝ ጋዜጠኛ ነህ::
ምንም እንክዋን በአብዛኛው አመለካከትህ ካንተ ጋር ባልግባባም::
ያለህን ቁርጠኝነት እና ማንንም ያለመፍራት በሃሪህን አደንቃለሁ::
አሁን እደግፋቸዋለሁ የምትላቸውንም ክእነት መንገድ ወልገድ ሲሉ ትይዛቸዋለህ ብዬ ተስፋ አደርጋለሁ::
በል በርታ!
ሞት ለወያኔና ለባንዳ ሆዳም ሌቦች!
ቅንጅት አንድ ነው! ኢዮጵያም አንድ ናት!
ደምሰው ባንድነት::
I still can’t understand, what ER (Elias) is gonna gain from attacking UDJ.
As for me, it is very early to criticize UDJ and to strongly support G7. Let us give them time and make wise observation before throwing stones to UDJ and giving blind support to G7.
That will not benefit any of them. Let us be reasonable when we criticize.
God Bless Ethiopia
The news / the truth is coming out from Ethiopia in a bunch.
In all honesty – ER is vindicated. Shame on the Diaspora who are supporting the UDJ for throwing dirt on Elias for saying the truth. They want him to cover up for them. And he said no way – it is ethics and the truth or die. Now the Abugida Website and ECADF are on the defensive. Good job Elias.
Some memebers of the UDJ close to 40 people who are under the direct command of the notorious Temsgen Zewdie are already in parlamient. So UDJ is already in parlmient through a back door. Just wait this Temsgen guy and his group are going to be a headach and a liability for Birtukan and the group. Woyannie knows that Temsgen and his group are sitting in parlamient under the ticket of Kinijit. Now they are a memeber of a new party who is struggling to register while they are keeping their privelage as a parlamentarian. Just wait to see how the Woyannies will play the card.
Really the UDJ leaders are morons and they don’t know what they are doing. I don’t blame Birtukan as she is new to poltics but I blame the opportunist Oldies.
From what I heard Eng. Gizachew was against bringing the Temsgen group to UDJ but he was overuled by Prof. Mesfin W/M. The UDJ is fake.
ER please don`t be more brutal and cruel to them than woyane. We know woyane will not feel comfortable to such names like ANDINET. But, let us wait and see because that is the way they choose to go.Please don`t create problem out of problem.
You are against the establishment of that party and that is not a healthy move. I mean what ever wrong they are, what ever right you are, who are you after all to dictate others the way you like. Don`t be other EPRP. please, please.
Elias,
You shared with us about UDJ’s future and we said, you are “rushing”.
You advised UDJ to pack up and call it quits, and we said “don’t rush”.
You renamed “lady Birtukan” to “lady surrender” and we said you are “rushing”.
You said the Lidetu’s the Beyene’s…etc are better then UDJ and we said don’t “rush”.
Well, after all, you were not “rush” mode. We were in a slow mode and your assesments of UDJ was right on the money.
Weyane is not, even going to allow the lady to be a “loyal” opposition.
You have been exonerated of the rushing “crime”, you committed.
I feel so sorry for the UDJ members but I think, it is good news because, now, they can give up and follow the steps Muluneh Eyoel.
MORE INTERESING..AH!
I do not understand why the respected and loved lady birtukan and her collegues doing this. the ethiopian people still giving them the benefit of the doubt in case, if by some miracle can come out something from what they doing.but,this won’t last. i do not believe the us ambassader or the negotiator yishak will help them to convince woaynne to compete freely in the election they think they can win.
It is sad their wasting their time. it is not late to make the right decision. i hope they are not that dummy to do what woyanne says till the end. because,that might be the end of their political courier. they do not wanna be another woyanne’s fake party like the ones in the so called parliament.
God, i hope not,,please do not make me watch birtukan and her collegues sit down in the fake woyanne parliament and applauding meles for the next 5 years. i believe anything is possible, if they do that then that is it. they officially declared themselves as the agent of woyanne.
we will see. if they change their name from andinet to sth. else. that is not a good sign at all. that lead them to the full surrender to woaynne. that clears our doubt that they realy wanna work for woyanne.
please, birtukan, remember how much the people loved u. do not hurt us. it is not too late.i hope you and your collegues know the people fellings. if u just decided against the people and listen to woyanne,,,all of us will give up on you.
sooner is better than later. hope is good, but just hoping to get light from darkness is realy not silly but stupid.
Like woyanne’s medias propaganda it is not being extreme. why woyanne show us, sth a drop of evidence realy works for the ethiopian people. ever since woyanne occupied menelik palace,,there have never been a time to look like an ethiopian. From begging eritrea to take over assab to massacring innocent ethiopians in 2005..till today ceding land to sudan,,never slow down from destroying the country.
That is the question..how can u expect this kind of group of monsters…arrogant and greedy , their only objective is power and money will give up their luxury life. if there gonna be any election at all in 2010,,woaynne already planned it..and not gonna give u anything. may be u can get some seat if u agreed to give standing oviation for meles in the so called parliament for the next 5 years.
That is it. hope every one get together and fight like one family …if not woyanne keep dividing us to opress us and keep selling our land till ethiopia fully destoryed.
hope that won’t happen. God reveals us the truth and help us in fighting woyanne.
An unfree organization cannot stand to free others.
Gudu Kassa
Tolerance and respect for each other’s view is the only way a society can build a functioning and lasting party or association. ‘My way or the high way’ approach has proven again and again over to be very disasterous. Supporting or opposing a party does not mean you agree or disagree 100% with the party. As a supporter of a party, there are policies (including strategies) of the party I agree on and there might also be policies I do not agree on. Even if I do not agree, I have to refrain from smear campaignes against the party. It is one thing to critize it but an approach set out on destroying a party, the goal of which we share but differ only in the strategies and tactics, is at best counterproductive.
TG
Elias, please do not comment too much on opposition parties. As long they are against this regime, they can struggle in any way they believe. Our important enemies are Woyane and “HODAM” groups.So, focus your comments on those
Elias i am laughing even when i write this comment about
“Union of Dancers and Jokers” UDJ hehhehehe .i dont know when this leaders wake up and do the right thing every thing can be solved if they call for a big demonstration and the peopple will destroy woyanne from the face of Ethiopia but instade this “jokers” play game with their “joker master” (Meles) . Ayeeeeee i feel sorry for them
wake up UDJ time is runing and peopple is suffering !!!
I am intrigued that the news about the retreat of executive commitee members gave birth to cartoon like word picture of the newly formed party with the acronym UDJP to be translated as Union of Dancers and Jokers will take a foothold in the minds of the public, because they are no more than that, camoflaged in the name of Kinijit for peacefull struggle and doble talks and deceit as I noted with the talk of Professor Mesfin, lately. There motto is join them if you can not beat them, a kind of solicitation for freedom and democracy with “No change but durable democracy”. Yet they are having problem with NBE, keeping the name “Andinet” Union. They should rather restore the name Kestedamena from the nature of their constituency and advance from there.
What’s wrong with Birtukan? What is wrong with all those smart people around her? What they are doing currently is not making sense to me. Birtukan, please don’t be like another Ayele Chamiso.
Mood alew ” andnet ” is the name of a person
there are tousands of people in My region with the name
“Harnet” which is equivalent to Liberation and part of Tigray people Liberation front ” OMG what a foolish collection is this UDJ wedi zenawi is never give a space for peaceful struggle
You see our Gvt is concerned about individual names because it is too democrat
Gud ena Jirat
What is going on with the UDJ is American staged political theater at its best. Yamamoto is on schedule, he has the Woyanne party known as EPRDF and now add to that UDJ you have the makings of “multi party democracy” in Ethiopia, the personalities don’t matter at all to America’s foreign policy masters, what matters is they have their sham multi party democracy and some Ethiopians in the diaspora will say we made progress, wait until 2015. That is how the US imperial policy works. Once the mission of making Ethiopia look like a western multi party democracy then they can order Woyanne to wreck havoc in the horn of Africa as usual, only this time they will have their “multi party democracy Ethiopa” doing the “good work” on behalf of the US.
No matter how you look at it this is a sham, the good thing is the people inside Ethiopia are not fooled, they are flooding to the numerous armed opposition groups and fighting Woyanne’s mercenary army, it is only a matter of time before Woyanne is taken out of power by the force of arms because that is how they stayed in power all along and the only way to get them out is by the force of arms.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with udj members taking a break for good cause and reason.
ER’s critic is very amusing. The men and women who formed the UDJ did nothing wrong than organize a political party, which the have the right. ER, what is your motive to single out UDJ for merciless attacks? What in particular are they guilty of? How on earth having a meeting in Debre Zeit can be a wrong doing worthy of attack? I am just amused by ER’s recent behavior. Thanks God, the website is blocked in Ethiopia!!!!!!!!!
Could you please call the city you mentioned with its right name “Bishoftu”?
Show a little respect for those who deserve it!
Let us all pray together to save Birtukan .Professor Mesfin is working hard to turn her into lemon.Birtukan if you want to stay in the game join G7.
Birtukan ahuns abezachiw. Is this what she and her mentor mesfin w/mariam call peaceful struggle?
ER editor,
There is nothing that you gain from smearing brave leaders of UDJ. Let them follow their way of struggle, and don’t expect every one to join Ginbot 7. That is a foolish idea! There is no as such a single way of solving a complex poblem like what ER editor think. Plssss refrain from rushing for comment.
Who paid for prof.Mesfin trip and others?.Elias when did it started the slicing of the Pie?.If not why not?. Birtukan have said Kengit is spirit.It is about time to share the spirit among G7 and UDJ.You know what hapen last time the shalika gang.
Hopefully prof.Mefen will give us another joke of the week regarding the famous decision of NEB.may be this time he understand how TPLF looks them
what our people and our country need now is not a small parties to squabble among themsef what is needed is a strong and deciplined armed strugell before there is no more ethiopia.ethiopia is disapearing infront of our eyes.
TPLF and Yammoto are testing UDJs resolve thus the requirement to change name yet again. If they do so and come up with a new name, TPLF will take it as a sign of things it can get away with in future treatment of the party and the people who support it.
The eight points are infront of TPLF and it has not even acknowledged looking at them. UDJ should be fighting for these points including challenging the authority of the electioin board. Instead, they keep running to the small chase that it is putting infront of them. By doing so, they are affirming of its authority.
Is there any doubt of Prof. Mesfin’s involvement in this set of affairs?
A peaceful political pressure to remove Meles and his TPLF from power against their will and bring about change in Ethiopia?. I don’t think so, but then to respect others ideas.