Declaration against the TPLF tyranny

May 25th, 2011 |  |  4 Comments

GLOBAL CIVIC MOVEMENT FOR CHANGE IN ETHIOPIA
A Call for Unity of Action and Purpose
RECOGNIZING the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all Ethiopians, indeed all people, regardless of ethnicity, faith, political opinion, age, gender, race or financial status, is the foundation for democracy, freedom, justice, peace and unity in Ethiopia;
NOTING with dismay that the TPLF/EPRDF government has implemented apartheid type divide and rule political programs over the past twenty years, and hence not only revoked the civil and political rights of 80 million people, but has turned the age old country into one of the sixteen failed states in the world;
NOTING with dismay that Ethiopia is at the bottom of world good governance standards, as evidenced by the World Bank, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the African Peer Review Mechanism and other similar ratings;
CONCERNED that the TPLF/EPRDF continues to administer sham elections; where in May 2005 it killed 193 unarmed protestors, wounded 800 innocent civilians and kept close to 50,000 pro-democracy activists in concentration camps; and in May 2010 it unashamedly claimed to have won 99.6% of the seats of the House of Peoples Representatives;
NOTING that Ethiopia is ranked lower than all but 4 nations in Africa in human development, access to clean water, press freedom, internet use and pervasive corruption in spite of the deceptive propaganda of double digit real economic growth reported by TPLF/EPRDF;
CONCERNED that the misguided economic policy that was implemented over the last twenty years, that was characterized by crony capitalism, opaque privatization, discrimination, an unprecedented land eviction, corruption, monopolization of the economy by party owned companies; has led to employment discrimination, hyperinflation, abject rural and urban poverty and forced migration;
CONCERNED that access to higher education and employment in public enterprises and government departments are restricted to TPLF/EPRDF members, and hence violating one of the cornerstones of civil and political rights of citizens;
CONCERNED that the education system implemented during the last ten years has not been able to prepare the youth for decent higher education, innovation, self employment and entrepreneurship, thus making the future of the youth more uncertain;
ALARMED that the perpetrators of various crimes against humanity, including but not limited to the massacres of 2005, are living with impunity, and Meles Zenawi continues to protect suspects that should most certainly face national and international justice;
DEEPLY CONCERNED that the TPLF/EPRDF continues to deny the existence of armed conflicts and clandestine political organizations, hence the absence of national dialogue and reconciliation is exacerbating the further disintegration of the country;
CONVINCED that ethno nationalist movements are increasingly becoming significant political and military forces in Ethiopia and time has vividly shown that TPLF’s bankrupt policy has not resolved the root causes of these movements, indicating that the reality on the ground requires a new vision for Ethiopia;
NOTING WITH INTEREST the ethno-nationalist movements’ recent effort to break the ethnic wall, we encourage members and supporters of ethno nationalist movements and all political and social forces to welcome the overture, and urge all to join a process that leads to building a critical mass and the required leadership that aims at the eventual replacement of the minority dictatorship with a transitional government;Continued