Press statement for the Birmingham Peace and Development Conference: Sunday 20/02/2011

Feb 22, 2011

Ambassador Abdirashid Dulane, the Ethiopian Deputy Head of Mission to the United Kingdom held a large and well-attended peace and development conference in Birmingham on Sunday 20th Feb with the Ethiopian Somali Diaspora communities from, Birmingham, London, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, and Liverpool.

Ambassador Abdirashid Dulane, thoroughly briefed 250-300 community representatives about the current peace and development efforts underway in the Somali Regional State, the Federal and Regional Governments' active engagement with Ethiopian Somali Diaspora in Europe and the USA and their intention to strengthen and intensify this important relationship.

Ambassador Abdirashid said the Federal Government has drafted a national five year Growth and Transformation plan, which plans to double the GDP and agricultural output and puts emphasis on national infrastructure such as roads, railways, power stations and telecommunication hubs, ensures capacity building at every level and strives to achieve MDGs, among other things.

Ambassador Abdirashid also spoken at length about the peace agreement signed between the Government and UWSLF and ONLF. He said the peace agreement has led the two organizations to engage themselves in development and rehabilitation activities and the previous combatants have now either become partners in the State's development or are undergoing rehabilitation and learning skills to meaningfully contribute to the society and themselves. He added that the minority ONLF Asmara Group, which is still bent on destruction and doesn't entertain any meaningful support within the state and in the Diaspora community, has now, along with all its futile exercises, hit a dead-end.

Finally, he said the regional state and the federal government recognize the important role of the Diaspora in boosting the country's and state's development efforts and called upon the participants of the conference and all members of the Ethiopian Somali Diaspora to actively participate and contribute in the realization of the GTP either through knowledge and technology transfer, trade and investment, and other priority areas of interst to them in an effective and organized manner.(ENDS)

ETHIOPIAN EMBASSY, LONDON

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Communiqués of Participants at the Birmingham Peace and Development Conference: Sunday, February 20, 2011
We the members of the Ethiopian Somali Diaspora communities in the UK convened in Birmingham to converse on the importance of the peace and the developments that have taken root in our region and our determination to contribute to their full and successful implementation.

We also express our support and willingness to contribute towards the five year national Growth and Transformation Plan, which devises plans to double the national GDP, agricultural output, and puts emphasis on the national infrastructure such as roads, railways, power and telecommunication hubs, education, health, among others.

Our peace and development conference today in Birmingham, attended by a cross section of the region’s Diaspora communities from London, Manchester, Bristol, Leeds, Leicester and Liverpool is a historic gathering, which bears witness to our unwavering support to the recently signed peace agreement between the Ethiopian government on one hand and UWSLF and ONLF on the other hand. We welcome whole heartedly the briefings given to us by Ambassador Abdirashid Dulane, Deputy Head of Mission of the Ethiopian Embassy, United kingdom, about the current peace and development efforts underway in the Somali Regional State, the Federal and Regional Governments' active engagement with Ethiopian Somali Diaspora in Europe and USA and their intention to strengthen and intensify this important relationship.

OUR MOTTO IS PEACE AND PROSPERITY FOR ALL AND A RENEWED COMMITMENT BY THE ETHIOPIAN SOMALI DIASPORA COMMUNITIES IN THE UK TO PEACE AND PROSPERITY IN THE REGION