ELF-RC Leadership Conducts

 Meeting with Addis Ababa Branch

By

ELF-RC Office for Information and Culture

28.10.2007

ELF-RC leadership members who included the chairman on 28 October 2007 conducted an important meeting with members of the organization in Addis Ababa.

In this meeting that continued for four hours, ELF-RC Chairman, Mr. Woldeyesus Ammar, expressed his deep concern about the ever worsening general situation inside Eritrea, and mentioned the looming dangers in the society if the plight of the Eritrean youth is not contained on time.   He took note of the understandable absence of participation by youth in the current struggle for change in Eritrea and expounded the efforts being taken by ELF-RC to help the Eritrean youth embrace the struggle in the opposition camp as their top concern.  In this connection, the Chairman alluded to his delegation’s recent mission Northern Ethiopia and the highly successful meetings they conducted at many levels within the Regional State of Tigrai. He confirmed that concern about the plight of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia and in other places is one of ELF-RC’s top agenda item at this stage.

Furthermore, Mr. W.  Ammar explained in great detail efforts that are being made to increase the participation in the struggle for change of Eritreans in Ethiopia as well as in many other places; the hard work underway for party formation, and the well considered position of the ELF-RC in the restructuring of a national opposition alliance that can secure victory and become a democratic alternative in post-PFDJ Eritrea.  He underlined the importance of forging coalitions by organizations and parties that possess similar visions and political programmes.

Mr. Tesfai Woldemicahel (Degiga), the Vice-Chairman, in his part gave a detailed explanation about the future plans of ELF-RC and in particular its drive towards forming an all-inclusive mass party within a year from now. He stated that the party formation tasks so far undertaken have been highly satisfactory. The ELF-RC Vice-Chairman who is in charge of party formation tasks  within the Executive Committee acknowledged that there were no major organizations that accepted the proposal of jointly forming a mass party but he said a good number of individual Eritreans have accepted to join the party formation process. Mr. T. Degiga further explained that the process is in its second phase that was initialed by the formation of a Commission composed of ELF-RC and non-ELF-RC members, and stated that the final success will be scored by redoubled joint efforts of all persons that have committed to be party members.

Mr.  Mengisteab Amserom, head of the ELF-RC Office for Information and Culture, who is also the chairman of the provisional leadership of EDA-1,   provided full background on the experiences and shortcomings of the alliances in the opposition and pointed out that a viable umbrella for the opposition is a requirement.  He hoped that the two blocs of the Eritrean Democratic Alliance would continue a serious engagement that could give birth to an effective organ for struggle and victory. The ELF-RC, he said, will continue efforts towards realizing the people’s dream for a working alliance and not an alliance that brings them disappointments and repeated failures.

Mr. Jime Ahmed, head of ELF-RC Office for Social Affairs, on his part intervened to explain the current relations between the Eritrean regime and the Sudan.  He stated that the ELF-RC activities are continued in the region and that due attention is being given to the day-to-day demands and concerned Eritrean refugees who are flooding towards the Sudan to escape the suffocating situation inside PFDJ’s Eritrea.

The presentations by the Executive Committee members were followed by a question and answer session in which the branch members actively participated. Some of their questions and concerns include the following:

-         What should the young generation do to follow the struggle in the footsteps of the elder liberation struggle generation?

-         Why did the international community delay to draw its attention to the plight of Eritreans under the PFDJ dictatorship?

-         How prepared is the opposition camp to be a viable alternative in Eritrea?

The branch members also tabled their recommendations to the leadership before a sum up of the meeting was made by Mr. W. Ammar who made a strong appeal of each and every member of the organization to redouble his/her commitment in order to make ELF-RC measure up to the great expectations of many Eritreans for successful transition from dictatorship to democratic governance in Eritrea.  The interesting branch meeting  was closed with a minute of silence in memory of Eritrean martyrs.

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