Ethiopian Review
August 18, 2005

Members and leaders of the Coalition for Unity & Democracy (CUD) in Ethiopia are being harassed, tortured and killed by the Meles regime while struggling to liberate our country from tyranny and poverty. Ethiopians around the world are assisting the opposition parties’ struggle at home. Unfortunately, the people who have been assigned the task of coordinating support from Ethiopians in the Diaspora are undermining the struggle by failing to carry out their responsibilities. Instead of organizing fund raising events, lobbying and educating U.S. government officials about the dire political situation in Ethiopia, informing the public about CUD’s activities at home, recruiting new members, etc., members of the CUD committee in Washington DC spend most of their time arguing with each other, picking fights with other groups, trying to prove who’s more loyal to CUD, and debating on trivial matters. They turned the CUD DC committee into a debating society.

Many Ethiopians in the Washington DC area who wish to support CUD’s struggle for peace and democracy at home are frustrated with CUD DC’s lack of leadership. To make matters worse, the CUD DC committee goes out of its way to undermine the efforts of independent groups that have been created by concerned Ethiopians to fill the vacuum. One of these groups is Ene Le Hagere, whose members have succeeded in raising tens of thousands of dollars for CUD. Instead of appreciating the efforts of these people and encouraging to do more, the CUD DC committee is actively undermining their activities. One egregious example is that Ene Le Hagre had called a public meeting recently and invited CUD and UEDF officials to talk about their activities and plans. After the group announced the date of the public meeting, CUD DC called its own public meeting one week in advance without any preparation. The meeting turned out to be a debacle since it was organized hastily just to throw off Ene Le Hagere.

It’s unbelievably idiotic for the CUD DC committee to turn away concerned Ethiopians such as Ene Le Hagere and others who have come together to support CUD’s struggle inside the country. Successful political parties around the world actively seek the help of independent groups. CUD DC is doing it the other way–it actively pushes away those that wish to help, like an exclusive country club.

CUD members and leaders, both at home and in the Washington DC area, need to start asking questions. What is going on with the CUD DC committee? Because of the troubles the CUD DC is creating, tens of thousands of dollars that have been collected are tied up and kept in the bank. This money is desperately needed in Ethiopia.

CUD leadership in Addis Ababa needs to take action. ER recommends that CUD’s chairman send a well experienced organizer to Washington DC whose task will be to dissolve the CUD DC committee, fire its leaders who are currently sleeping at the wheel, develop a strong organizational structure, and allow members to democratically elect new leaders.

A person well suited to carry out such a task is Ato Andargachew Tsige, who played a major role in devising CUD’s organizational structure and campaign strategy.

If the CUD leadership in Addis Ababa fails to do this soon, the enormous potential of the Ethiopian community in the Washington DC area to support the struggle at home will stay unrealized.