As Uganda is bracing itself for the meeting it hosts under a slogan "Ready for Chogm," Ethiopia, though, on an entirely different note, is also preparing for a big event.

Just like Chogm captures the imagination of Ugandans, Ethiopians too, cannot avoid talk of celebrations of the Ethiopian Millennium which is supposed to take place on September 12, 2007.

Ugandans who read newspapers regularly might have learnt by now about Ethiopia's unique calendar and the upcoming celebration from the press conference by one of the Ethiopian diplomats in Kampala.

Using the platform, the diplomat even tried to sell the idea of exporting electric power to Uganda by citing success stories with Sudan and Djibouti.

Of course, his failure to mention the rejection of a request for an additional loan by African Development Bank for Ethio-Djibouti power may not be a cause to deter Ugandan experts from asking why before embarking upon such a transaction. It has also been reported by a Ugandan paper that Ethiopia is readying for a big party.

However, knowing that Ethiopia follows a different calendar cannot answer as to what makes it adopt or stick to a different calendar. This writer had a vague idea that the Julian calendar Ethiopia uses has something to do with religion. Thanks to Professor Minga Negash of Witwatersrand University. He dispelled this notion, thus confirming the veracity of William Congreve's remark whereby he said: "I am always with the opinion of the learned, if they speak first."

In light of the fact that Ethiopia's Millennium is declared as an African one, it's useful to peruse Negash's treatise titled "The New Ethiopian Millennium;Kosher, haraam, renaissance or just a feel good time?" published on August 29, 2007 on www.ethiomedia.com.

Despite this,however,it's difficult to say there's cause for merry making in Ethiopia. Being secessionists, the present regime's cadres, from the Premier down to the rank and file, have belittled the ancient history of Ethiopia only as a creation of "Amhara" domination in the last 100 years.

They also fabricated a story for Eritrea as a former colony of Ethiopia. After hailing the secessionist war of the then Eritrean rebels as a struggle for liberation and after having ratified a provision that gives a right to secede in the so-called constitution of Ethiopia, the regime is violently suppressing other Ethiopians who ask the same such as ONLF and OLF.

When defeated in election held for the consumption of its western donors, it reneged in the most brutal way.Hence,the regime is not considered as a legitimate government by Ethiopians capable of creating a consensus even to celebrate a national holiday of this magnitude.

The writer is an Ethiopian lawyer and a refugee in Uganda