DOES THIS ARTICLE HURT YOUR EYES!!!!


Clinton promotes activism
Intolerance imperils nascent democracy, she cautions
Jul. 4, 2010 12:00 AM
Associated Press
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KRAKOW, Poland - Intolerant governments across the globe are "slowly crushing" activist and advocacy groups that play an essential role in the development of democracy, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday.

She cited a broad range of countries where "the walls are closing in" on civic organizations such as unions, religious groups, rights advocates and other non-governmental organizations that press for social change and shine a light on governments' shortcomings.


Among those countries she named were Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Venezuela, China and Russia. (SHE LEFT OUT THE USA!!!)

"Some of the countries engaging in these behaviors still claim to be democracies," Clinton said at an international conference on the promotion of democracy and human rights. "Democracies don't fear their own people. They recognize that citizens must be free to come together, to advocate and agitate."

Before an audience of several hundred senior government officials, Clinton recalled Winston Churchill's warning 60 years ago at Fulton, Mo., that an iron curtain was descending across Europe. She noted that with the collapse of the Soviet Union, that curtain no longer remains.

"But we must be wary of the steel vise in which governments around the world are slowly crushing civil society and the human spirit," she said. Social activists, Clinton said, are being harassed, censored, cut off from funding, arrested, prosecuted or killed.

President Barack Obama, in a statement released in Washington, said the United States is particularly concerned about "the spread of restrictions on civil society, the growing use of law to curb rather than enhance freedom and widespread corruption that is undermining the faith of citizens in their governments." (We are concerned for our selves you idiot!!!!)

Clinton's speech came at the opening of a 10th-anniversary celebration of the founding of the Community of Democracies, which has 16 members and is meant to forge international consensus on ways to support and promote democracy.

Clinton recommended that the organization set up an independent means of monitoring repressive measures against social-advocacy groups, and that the U.N. Human Rights Council do more to protect civil society. She announced that the U.S. would contribute $2 million to support the work of embattled non-governmental groups.

Clinton also toured the World War II-era Schindler Factory Museum, which captures in stark images and artifacts the suffering of Jews at the hands of Nazi Germany. Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist, is credited with saving the lives of hundreds of Jews by bringing them to his factory in Krakow from the nearby Plaszow concentration camp.

Clinton said the Obama administration would seek congressional approval of a $15 million donation, over five years, to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation to help finance an endowment to preserve and safeguard the remains of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

Clinton later flew to Baku, Azerbaijan.

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