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INTRODUCTION The Peace and Development Center [PDC] is a non-for-profit and non-governmental organization registered in Ethiopia, governed by its mission, values, goals and objectives to institute a civic leadership. This commitment is embodied in both collective and comprehensive policies that value the importance of peaceful dialogue, purposeful management, and resolutions using collective and inclusive participation of its leadership. This includes, but is not limited to, institutionalization of mediation steered by “elders” rooted in grassroots leadership deeply concerned about its role as concerned citizens of traditional and contemporary Ethiopia. These concepts are honored practices that represent Ethiopia, an independent sovereign nation. PDC is recognized as the first contemporary Ethiopian civic organization initiated by vested “elder groups” with roots in the body politics, cultural, social, economic, secular and faith-based ethos of Ethiopia. Today, PDC marks and celebrates a solemn occasion of its 25th Silver Jubilee since its inception in 1989 in Diaspora. There are several traditional elder-based institutions and practices throughout Ethiopian history. Many of which can be described as sui generis, bringing the traditional Ethiopian ethos and spirit of reconciliation, community solidarity congenial for dialogue, harmony, tolerance and coexistence. PDC’s founders are concerned citizens and leaders who responded to the call for “Peace, Stability and Sustainable Development” in Ethiopia. In so doing, PDC has evolved from special experience and expertise in assembling and establishing civic coalitions and grassroots organizations made of multidisciplinary, multicultural and interfaith-based membership inside and outside Ethiopia. It has remained faithful to its indigenous and international contacts and strategy to enhance peaceful resolutions and mediation. Much of this faith is embodied in the remarkably short period of transformation from the devastating civil conflicts of two decades that led to the demise of the “Derg” military regime, to present day peaceful, civic and sustainable socio-economic role models in contemporary Ethiopia and in Africa as a whole. The Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) at the outset played a significant role in its quick penetration from regional based operations to control the country as far as Addis Ababa, the nation’s capital city, in May 1991. The coalition of armed forces necessitated the sudden flight of Mengistu Haile Mariam to Zimbabwe, thereby leaving the country in shambles ruled by some remnants of his former ruling party without authority and leadership to negotiate a peaceful transition to a viable government. Given the disarray of the “Derg” at that time, the various liberation forces cooperated to form a de facto coalition. With the exception of EPLF, which participated in the Conference for Peaceful and Democratic Transition in Ethiopia as observer, the remaining coalition groups assembled in Addis Ababa formed the first transitional government of Ethiopia in July 1-5, 1991 with PDC participating as an observer delegation. 1 The coalition of PDC’s founding members has been comprised of elder leadership since its inception in 1989. Since then, it has tried to institutionalize forums for rational, viable and alternative means for conflict management, dialogue and resolution. Its methods of operation depended on the selection and participation of groups engaged in a wide range of issues about peace, civic societies, and nation building, governed by the rule of law and the Constitution of Ethiopia. PDC leadership’s focus has remained faithful to comprehensive strategies, driven by political, cultural, interfaith and secular forces to end conflicts and the consequences of one of the longest civil wars of the twentieth century in Ethiopia. This document represents the story of the ongoing lessons learned throughout the past twenty-five years of accomplishments as nurtured by the ideas and ideals of the founders of PDC to enshrine a peace culture to be emulated by the succeeding generation of young leadership of Ethiopia. In conclusion, PDC’s legacy has been to create an unlimited opportunity for creative and modern traditional elders. This has involved creating a wide range of peace culture and traditions that cultivate transparency and responsibility to address the roots of conflict and to alter the status quo of “no peace, no development” that disregards the quality of life, the will and spirit of unity-in-diversity and the legacy of tolerance, resilience and coexistence among all Ethiopians and her neighbors in Africa as a whole. The following progress report constitutes the emerging consensus on the importance of the celebration of the historical and timely landmarks of the 25th Silver Jubilee as a legacy of the history of dialogue and effective new approach to conflict resolution in the “real world.” The goal is to ensure a place where the elders and young leadership can debate and ultimately agree to build democratic, civic societies and sustainable quality of life and human development in Ethiopia. This special progress report highlights the mission and legacies of PDC. The approach acknowledges many previous attempts where parties have depended solely on selective interventions by ad-hoc international conflict resolution committees and peacekeeping observers without sustainable grassroots presence, in contrast to the case of PDC in Ethiopia. The lessons learned has been that those externally driven initiatives have limited and temporary outcomes. Yet the history of PDC reminds us of the need for ongoing progress embedded in rational dialogues, peace and sustainable development inside and outside Ethiopian civic societies. These virtues lie in the ability of the homegrown stakeholders of elders and young actors in the real world to believe and practice peace culture as a national legacy. This legacy evolved from the opportunity to create the essential space for all to share diversity as embodied in humanistic, spiritual, cultural and political traditions rooted in the ethos of tolerance-coexistence of the grassroots stakeholders. 2 CHAPTER ONE BACKGROUND AND FOUNDATION OF PDC 1.1. Historical Background The process that led to the establishment of PDC began during a critical period of Ethiopian history when the Military Regime (1974-1991), the Derg, was engaged in a vicious campaign to defeat the opposition forces in the protracted civil wars throughout the country. A high U.S. Government official compared it to the First World War in microcosm. The conflict resulted in close to a million dead, wounded, and disabled, and millions of displaced refugees. Economic Development was impeded. Worse still, farmers were displaced and crops could not be harvested; this resulted in the terrible mid-eighties crisis of a bleak famine. The toll on lives, mainly women and children, and the destruction the war inflicted on Ethiopia, was to say the least beyond imagination, unparalleled in the country’s history. At the beginning of the civil war, the combatants were incapable of immediate victory but were unwilling to compromise. Many saw the only solution as a face-saving intervention that would end the tragedy sooner with a win-win situation. The only way this could be done seemed to be through acceptable third-party mediators or neutral elders capable of breaking the cycle of vengeance and violence. The conflicting parties and the rest of the nation sought an indigenous mechanism for consolidating various peace initiatives and resolving the conflict. The mechanism they sought was to promote negotiation of peace and reconciliation. Traumatized by the terrible news from home, prompted by a strong love of the suffering of their peoples, and sensing the critical need to find a speedy resolution of the conflicts, the ad hoc Peace Committee (AHPC) was formally founded in 1989. It was in the face of these seemingly insurmountable challenges that the banner for peace was taken up by this group, formed by a neutral group of elders and mediators who came from diverse Ethio-Eritrean ethnic and religious backgrounds. To serve as Elders, the members had to be neutral, peace-loving individuals, committed to the mission of the AHPC group to resolve once for all the raging conflicts through friendly and respectful dialogue and traditional method of reconciliation. They had to enjoy a broad-based constituency, able to exert moral influence to bring the warring factions to the table. The selection of the members, who came to be known as the founders, was established through direct but cross consultation with the leadership of the conflicting parties and factions. (Two of the founding elders were already engaged in organizing a series of important bi-lateral covert meetings among the conflicting parties). 3 The founders of thead hoc Peace Committee are Professor Ephraim Isaac (Chair), Dr. Tilahun Beyene, Dr. Haile Selassie Belay, Dr. Ahmed Moen, Ato Kassahun Besrat, Prof. Abaineh Workie, Ato Fisseha-Sion Tekie, Dr. Mulugeta Eteffa, Dr. Yacob Hailemariam, and Prof. Astair G. Mengesha. Our international partners were the Life and Peace Institute of Uppsala, Sweden, led by Rev. Sture Normark and Mrs. Susannah Lunden who also recruited the Norwegian Church and Government aid and two Mennonite Church partners, John Paul Lederach and Menno Wieb, as facilitators. AHPC had two main contact centers. One was in Princeton, NJ and the other in Uppsala, Sweden. Locally, contacts were