By Simegnish Yekoye

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, September 7, 2007 – Of the four agendas Ethiopia is perusing for the millennium, national consensus among political parties has not been reached, said two opposition party leaders to SSI and expressed their disappointment for their exclusion in the organization of the celebration.

However the two parties, Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) and Ethiopian United Democratic Party (EUDP-Medhin) appreciated the effort of the millennium council towards protecting the environment through mobilization of people to plant trees.

“Environment protection is a big agenda and we believe a great work is done towards it,” said Lidetu Ayalew, leader of EUDP- Medhin.

CUD representative Mohammed Ali on his part also said the motto of ‘two trees for two thousand’ is one of the great work accomplished by the millennium council. “We condemn the expansion of desertification within the country and we support any fight against that”.

But, continued Mohammed, “as much as we like the holiday to be celebrated by every Ethiopians, that isn’t happening. We are elected by the people and we represent a substantial portion of the population but we aren’t included in the celebration. We are left aside to be spectators of the celebration and this decreases the spirit of the holiday.”

Ledetu on the other side says Ethiopian Millennium is a big event which should be celebrated in a way it has national meaning.

Unhappy with the cancellation of events in connection with national security, both oppositions says they are kept in the dark for any details. “We don’t have any evidence to say we are really in danger in terms of security,” Ledetu says “we know there are anti-peace groups targeting Ethiopia and we can’t say the canceling is the right or wrong thing to do.”

The government on one side says there is no security problem with in the country, says CUD representative, and at another side cancels events for security. “It is only the government that know the specific details of security issues and that is all what we can say.”

Wishing for democratic system and peace to flourish in the country, both political parties call for the government to make reaching on national consciousness in terms of politics its first priority for the millennium.

Source: The Sub-Saharan Informer