EPRDF loses its land suit in Jerusalem

Indian Ocean Newsletter N° 1201

A court in Jerusalem (Israel) issued its verdict at the end of September on an old dispute over the ownership of a villa in this city which the Ethiopian government had tried to claim. This affair goes back to 1999 and pits the government of Addis Ababa against the family of Emperor Haile Selassie and empress Mennen. The Ethiopian government had recently obtained an injunction preventing members of the former royal family from using this property in Jerusalem. But this decision was overturned by the Jerusalem court, which has just found that the house does indeed belong to the emperor’s descendants. The latter were represented by the lawyer Tzvi Shamir while the Ethiopian government had taken on the services of his colleague Itzhak Hennig.

Call for national reconciliation
Indian Ocean Newsletter N° 1201

A group of a dozen partisans of the Coalition for United and Democracy Party (CUDP) has issued a call for a government of national unity.

The Citizens’ Charter Group formed by a dozen or so members of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (CUDP, opposition) issued a call on 27 October to create a government of national unity in Ethiopia. These militants (the group includes Abate Kassa, Berhanu Abegaz, Elias Wondimu, Fekadu Fullas and Mammo Muchie) have drawn up a Charter for a Democratic Ethiopia based on the respect of three basic principles: representative democracy, cultural pluralism and economic deregulation. This charter calls the political parties and civil associations, whether pro-government or opposition, to put an end to sectarianism and adopt a common platform in order to prepare for a transition period before instigating a government of national unity. A variety of opposition organisations have been invited to accept the principles of this charter. The United Ethiopian Democratic Force (UEDF) and the leaders of the CUDP in North America have responded positively to this idea but without endorsing the charter. The Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (AFD) has not yet given a formal response.