“The Progressive Club” has to stand by Progressive, against Oppressive

Feb 12, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — A group of world leaders who are members of “The Progressive Club” met at a place called Hammanskraai, North of Johannesburg, South Africa’s capital on Saturday. This is a group of leaders who consider themselves to be somewhere in between the right group of strict market oriented ?pure’ capitalism and the
old hard left central/planned economy. Some call this group the center-left governments. Ideologically they resemble what was coined as the ?third way’ by the sociologist Anthony Giddens. They are believed to be reformist, modernist social democrats. In principle, this group is expected to firmly stand with people who strive for democracy and against oppressors. One of the major agendas for this year’s summit is Development in Africa. Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, one of the members, vowed to keep Africa at the top of the agenda.

Against all odds, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia was one of the
participants of the summit. Ethiopia, under the rule of EPRDF led by Meles
Zenawi, had never experienced democratic rule and respect for human rights.
This was even more galvanized following the may 15 2005 election when the
true face of the government was unfolded. This was witnessed by many
international Human Right Organizations, EU parliament, the Carter Center,
The Election Observation Mission of the European Union and others, but most
importantly by the People of Ethiopia who believed in democracy and went out
to vote overwhelmingly.

Ethiopians, have paid and are paying the price of believing in democracy.
Hundreds are killed; tens of thousands are arrested and have left home and
fled. The leaders of Kinijit, which is the major opposition party, have been
detained and kept behind bars only and only for being champions of the people
cause and their brevity against all kind of treats by the incumbent. The regime,
wrongly, thought it can put a cult to the movement of the people but quite to
the contrary, by the day, the peaceful struggle of Ethiopians is even more
being exacerbated. Like a Kenyan reporter once said, “there are no enough
prisons to jail everybody and there are no enough bullets to kill everybody”.

It is a shame and disgrace for all the other respected leaders of the world who
are members of the club to invite Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to such an
important meeting who has top in its agenda development issues of Africa. It
simply defeats the purpose when they sit down and have a discussion about
development and world order with people of the likes of Meles Zenawi who are
the very reasons for the absence of peace , stability and democracy hence
development. It gives a confusing message to those that are carefully observing
and awaiting the outcome of the meeting which potentially has a paramount
impact on the world politics.

The very least Ethiopians expect from these leaders of the world is not side
with a tyrant. At most we expect them to unequivocally make it clear to him
that there is no way he can keep with his atrocities, leave alone dine and wine
with them. Kinijit expresses its deepest regret to the member leaders and call
up on them to support the people’s strife for democracy.

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