Ethopia prepares to ring in Coptic millennium

Addis Ababa was bustling today with last-minute sprucing-up as Ethiopia prepared to ring in the new millennium with an all-night party, nearly seven years after the rest of the world.

Ethiopia follows the Coptic calendar, which is seven years behind the more common Gregorian. Among the celebrations is a concert by the US pop group Black Eyed Peas in a multi-million-pound hall built for the occasion. Officials were busy touching up paint and stringing colourful lights around the venue.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi described the holiday as an “Ethiopian renaissance,” but many there say the pricey parties, along with a tense political situation, have put a damper on the festivities.

The Black Eyed Peas concert alone costs £85 a seat – two months’ salary for an average Ethiopian.

“Life is expensive, it’s very expensive,” said Girma Bejega, 32, who returned to Ethiopia from his new home in Dallas, Texas, to celebrate the new year.

Addis Ababa resident Yoself Passew said he had no party plans, but hoped to find gainful employment in ’2000’.

“In the future I will have a job, that is my hope,” said Yoself, 25. “The future will be bright.”

Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin said the celebrations should focus on peace and democracy.

“We have a dream of a prosperous, vibrant, democratic and just Ethiopia in which poverty has been defeated, based on a spirit of tolerance and respect,” Seyoum said Monday.

Ethiopian officials have promised increased security in a country that is struggling with a rebellion in the remote Ogaden region and entanglement in Somalia’s war. Ethiopia’s border dispute with archenemy Eritrea also has raised concern; the countries’ soldiers are facing off as close as 230 feet from each other, Seyoum said.

“What we know is that security will be taken care of as a serious issue,” Tourism Minister Mohamoud Dirir said.

Meanwhile, Addis Ababa’s wide avenues have been cleaned up in anticipation of welcoming tourists from around the world. Campaigns to relocate homeless people to the countryside and poison stray dogs, however, had drawn swift criticism.

Organisers at the Millennium Secretariat pointed out that some celebrations would be free, notably several cultural events at a stadium in Addis Ababa and at a field just north-east of the city centre. The concert was to be broadcast live on television and on a big screen at the stadium, which holds more than 15,000 people.

As late as July, millennium organisers were touting a 10-hour, £600,000 concert that would be free to the public in Meskel Square, the city’s central landmark. That has instead been shifted to the exhibition hall, where Ethiopian acts would join the Black Eyed Peas.

Ethiopia is one of the world’s poorest nations. The country captured the word’s conscience in the 1980s, a time of civil war and famine, which took as many as 1 million lives.

Ethiopia still suffers chronic food shortages affecting as many as 5 million people annually.