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EDA Meeting: Nobody Wants To Be A Spoiler |
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By Gedab News -
Feb 26, 2005
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Three delegates to the Khartoum Conference who were contacted by Gedab News would provide no details of the deliberation because, according to one, nobody wants to be a spoiler to the delicate negotiations. Mr. Ahmed Nasser, who heads the foreign affairs office of the Eritrean Liberation Front-National Congress (ELF-NC) said, this meeting is different in a way that we are witnessing full co-operation, inclusive attitude and mutual respect. Also reached by telephone, Mr. Adhanom Gebremariam, the vice chair of the Eritrean Peoples Movement (EPM) added that the effort is to build a consensus on solidifying the agreement on major issues while shelving differences for further dialogues. Mr. Herui T Bairou, the chairman of the Eritrean National Alliance (ENA) expressed confidence because I am positive that I see a commitment from all participants to come out of the meeting with a solid agreement. With the principals close-mouthed, we were able to get only second hand information from sources who are usually reliable: - The Eritrean Democratic Party (EDP) introduced several motions for the delegates: reconsidering the draft of the charter that was adopted in the initial congress regarding the charters position on ethnic and religious advocacy groups; adopting an affirmative stand and acceptance of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) ruling; and accepting Eritreas 1997 Constitution as a transitional document to be adopted following the downfall of PFDJ. We have no information on which ones, if any, have been adopted by EDA but according to our source, the issues were resolved by consensus.
- EDA has begun discussing but not finalized the issue of representation. Several delegates are advocating proportional representation: the size of the delegation would be proportional to the size of the member organization. The issue is still being discussed.
- There has been no campagining to be elected and, although no obvious choice has emerged, everyone is being pragmatic.
- Regarding the issue of unifying the armed forces of the member organizations, we were told, it is far too early for that and it is not even on the agenda.
Asked to venture a guess on the outcome of the EDA meeting, another source, who had attended a musical concert that featured veteran artist Hussein Mohammed Ali told us, there were nearly six thousand attendants at this concert. If the opposition doesnt deliver, a crowd bigger than that is going to confront them! |
