July 22, 2002

OPEN LETTER TO THEWORLD PEACE COUNCIL

The Pecde Award given by the World peace Council to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has done great disservice to the cause of peace, human rights and justice not only in Ethiopia but in the world at large. We fail to see what reasons did motivate the WPC to take such a decision that appears as a total disdain for the reality that the people of Ethiopia had to live in.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi cannot be credited for bringing peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea not only because he is responsible for the disastrous war that led to the loss of some 100,000 lives but also because the foundation for peace has not also been achieved yet. In Somalia, what we see is armed interference and a dubious politics that has contributed to the upheaval not only in that country but also in the region as a whole. If we take the reality in Ethiopia as a yardstick it is evident for any objective observer that Prime Minster Meles Zenawi and the group he leads have been responsible for several massacres (from Addis Abeba's Anwar mosque to the Adebabay Iyesus church in Gondar to mention only two), for ethnic conflicts and accompanying bloodshed, for the killing of peaceful demonstrators (the latest ones in Tepi, Wellega and Awassa), for disappearing scores of political prisoners, for running ghost prisons and labor camps like the ones in Zwai and Shoa Robit, for forcing thousands to flee into exile, etc...In short, Prime Minster Meles Zenawi as a person and as a leader of a group in power is an individual who should be treid for war crimes and for gross violations of the human rights of the Ethiopian people.

It is indeed a big insult to the Ethiopian people that their tormentor has been given a Peace Award by the WPC. SOCEPP joins the Ethiopian people in expressing its strong condemnation of this travesty on the part of the WPC.

SOCEPP