Timnit Gebru: The #TigrayGenocide With 500,000 People Dead Should Have Made Front-Page News

💭 ትምኒት ገብሩ፤ 500,000 ሰዎች የሞቱበት የትግራይ የዘር ማጥፋት ወንጀል ሰፊ ትኩረት አግኝቶ የፊት ገጽ ዜና መስራት ነበረበት

💭 Timnit Gebru Founder and Executive Director of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR) at UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day Global Conference 2022.

500,000 Tigrayan Christians were Massacred or Starved to death under 500 days by The Fascist Oromo Regime of Ethiopia – but, the world is still ignoring this devastating tragedy. The coverage of Ukraine has revealed a pretty radical disparity in how human Ukrainians look and feel to western and international – including African media compared to black Ethiopians Christians. 😠😠😠 😢😢😢

💭 Timnit Gebru, a widely respected leader in AI ethics research, is known for coauthoring a groundbreaking paper that showed facial recognition to be less accurate at identifying women and people of color, which means its use can end up discriminating against them. She also cofounded the Black in AI affinity group, and champions diversity in the tech industry. The team she helped build at Google is one of the most diverse in AI and includes many leading experts in their own right. Peers in the field envied it for producing critical work that often challenged mainstream AI practices.

A series of tweets, leaked emails, and media articles showed that Gebru’s exit was the culmination of a conflict over another paper she coauthored. Jeff Dean, the head of Google AI, told colleagues in an internal email (which he has since put online) that the paper “didn’t meet our bar for publication” and that Gebru had said she would resign unless Google met a number of conditions, which it was unwilling to meet. Gebru tweeted that she had asked to negotiate “a last date” for her employment after she got back from vacation. She was cut off from her corporate email account before her return.

Online, many other leaders in the field of AI ethics are arguing that the company pushed her out because of the inconvenient truths that she was uncovering about a core line of its research—and perhaps its bottom line. More than 1,400 Google staff members and 1,900 other supporters have also signed a letter of protest.

💭 Another Firing Among Google’s A.I. Brain Trust, and More Discord

The researchers are considered a key to the company’s future. But they have had a hard time shaking infighting and controversy over a variety of issues.

Less than two years after Google dismissed two researchers who criticized the biases built into artificial intelligence systems, the company has fired a researcher who questioned a paper it published on the abilities of a specialized type of artificial intelligence used in making computer chips.

Dr. Chatterjee’s dismissal was the latest example of discord in and around Google Brain, an A.I. research group considered to be a key to the company’s future. After spending billions of dollars to hire top researchers and create new kinds of computer automation, Google has struggled with a wide variety of complaints about how it builds, uses and portrays those technologies.

Tension among Google’s A.I. researchers reflects much larger struggles across the tech industry, which faces myriad questions over new A.I. technologies and the thorny social issues that have entangled these technologies and the people who build them.

But even as Google has promoted the technology’s potential, it has encountered resistance from employees about its application. In 2018, Google employees protested a contract with the Department of Defense, concerned that the company’s A.I. could end up killing people. Google eventually pulled out of the project.

In December 2020, Google fired one of the leaders of its Ethical A.I. team, Timnit Gebru, after she criticized the company’s approach to minority hiring and pushed to publish a research paper that pointed out flaws in a new type of A.I. system for learning languages.

Before she was fired, Dr. Gebru was seeking permission to publish a research paper about how A.I.-based language systems, including technology built by Google, may end up using the biased and hateful language they learn from text in books and on websites. Dr. Gebru said she had grown exasperated over Google’s response to such complaints, including its refusal to publish the paper.

A few months later, the company fired the other head of the team, Margaret Mitchell, who publicly denounced Google’s handling of the situation with Dr. Gebru. The company said Dr. Mitchell had violated its code of conduct.

The paper in Nature, published last June, promoted a technology called reinforcement learning, which the paper said could improve the design of computer chips. The technology was hailed as a breakthrough for artificial intelligence and a vast improvement to existing approaches to chip design. Google said it used this technique to develop its own chips for artificial intelligence computing.

Source: NYtimes

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Ethiopia War: Evidence of Mass Killing Being Burned – Witnesses

💭 በምዕራብ ትግራይ የጅምላ ግድያዎችን የሚያሳየውን ማስረጃ ቃኤላውያኑ በማቃጠል ላይ ናቸው

እግዚኦ! እንግዲህ ሰሞኑን በጎንደር ድራማ የሚሠሩት ለካስ በምዕራብ ትግራይ የፈጸሟቸውን ወንጀሎች ለመደበቅና የወንድሞቼንና እኅቶቼን እሬሳ የማቃጠያ ጊዜ ያገኙ ዘንድ ነው። እግዚኦ! እነዚህ እምነት-ቢስ አረመኔዎች፤ እንደው “እግዚአብሔር አያይም!” ብለው ነውን? ወይንስ እንደ ቃኤል፤ “አላውቅም፤ የወንድሜ ጠባቂው እኔ ነኝን?” ሊሉት? እስከ መቼ እንዲህ እያታለሉና እየተቅበዘበዙ ሊኖሩ? ልጆችና ዘመዶች የሏቸውምን?

ለካስ የከንቱዎቹ አማራ ሜዲያዎች (እነ ዘመድኩን በቀለን፣ አባይነህ ካሴን እና የኦሮሞው ኤርሚያስ ለገሰ ባሪያ ሃብታሙ አያሌውን ጨምሮ) ሰሞኑን ደጋግመው እየተቀባበሉ የሚከተለውን ሲለፍፉ የነበረው ለወንድሞቼና እኅቶቼ ሬሳ ማቃጠያ የሚጠቀሙትን ኬሚካል መሆኑ ነው። ከክርስቶስ ተቃዋሚ ቱርክ ያገኙትን!

እንዲህ ሲሉን ነበር ፤

“በቀናት በፊት አክራሪውና ፅንፈኛው ሀይል ጎንደር ከተማን ለማጥፋት እስከ 27 ኪ.ሜ ሬዲየስ ድረስ ማውደም የሚችል ተቀጣጣይ ኬሚካል ቦንብ ተራ አካባቢ ተቀምጦ መገኘቱን ቀድሞ ለሚያውቀው የፌደራልና የክልል ባለስልጣናት አሳውቀንንና ጎትጉተን መሳሪያው እጅ ከፍንጂ እንዲያዝ አስደርገናል። የሚመለከታቸው አካላት በጥምረት ባደረጉት ማጣራት ይህ አውዳሚ መሳሪያ በቱርክ ባለሙያዎች የተሰናዳ መሆኑን እና እስከ 500,000,000 የኢትዮጵያ ብር ግምት እንዳለው ገልፀዋል። ልብ በሉ ያኔ ያን ነገር ተረባርበን ባናስይዝ ኑሮ ዛሬ ጎንደር የምትባል ከተማ ጠፍታ ነበር።”

ዋይ! ዋይ! ዋይ!

አይ ቃኤል አማራ! እየጨፈጨፈህ ያለው አማሌቅ ኦሮሞ፣ አንተ ግን የኦሮሞ ገዳይህ አሻንጉሊት ሆነህ የምትገድለው ምንም ያላደረገኽን አክሱም ጽዮናዊ አቤል ወንድምህን። አይ አረመኔ ኦሮሞ፤ እግዚአብሔር እሳቱን ያውርድብህ!

❖[ኦሪት ዘፍጥረት ምዕራፍ ፬፥፰፡፲፩]

“ቃየልም ወንድሙን አቤልን። ና ወደ ሜዳ እንሂድ አለው። በሜዳም ሳሉ ቃየል በወንድሙ በአቤል ላይ ተነሣበት፥ ገደለውም። እግዚአብሔርም ቃየልን አለው። ወንድምህ አቤል ወዴት ነው? እርሱም አለ። አላውቅም፤ የወንድሜ ጠባቂው እኔ ነኝን? አለውም። ምን አደረግህ? የወንድምህ የደሙ ድምፅ ከምድር ወደ እኔ ይጮኻል። አሁንም የወንድምህን ደም ከእጅህ ለመቀበል አፍዋን በከፈተች በምድር ላይ አንተ የተረገምህ ነህ።”

💭 The remains of hundreds of people are being deliberately destroyed in an organised campaign to dispose of evidence of ethnic cleansing in the west of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, according to interviews with 15 eyewitnesses.

The allegations follow multiple reports of the targeting of the Tigrayan population during the civil war. They also come in advance of the possible deployment of a UN independent investigation team which will be led by former International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.

People belonging to security forces from the neighbouring Amhara region, which are occupying western Tigray, have been identified as digging up fresh mass graves, exhuming hundreds of bodies, burning them and then transporting what remains out of the region, the eyewitnesses said in telephone interviews.

The authorities have acknowledged that graves have been dug up but say that they show evidence that Tigrayan forces had been carrying out its own campaign of ethnically motivated killing in recent decades. Researchers from Gondar University have also been uncovering mass grave sites that they have linked to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

All sides in the on-going civil war have been accused of carrying out mass killings.

But in a recent report, rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch accused Amhara officials and security forces of being behind a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Tigrayans in the area.

Last December, the UN human rights council passed a resolution to establish an independent investigation into atrocities committed by all warring parties in the conflict.

The Ethiopian government objected to the resolution and vowed not to co-operate, saying the resolution was an “instrument of political pressure”.

In a vote in March, Ethiopia’s bid to block funding for the investigative panel failed. Russia and China had backed the Ethiopian government’s attempt to block funding.

Remains burned

Eyewitnesses have said that three days after the funding was approved, the campaign to destroy evidence of atrocities was launched in western Tigray.

“In the plot of land behind Hamele Hamushte school in Humera town, 200 bodies of ethnic Tigrayan civilians were buried in two mass graves. These were civilians massacred in the early months of the war,” said an eyewitness from the Welkyat ethinc group who lives in Humera.

Whereas Tigrayans either fled the area during the fighting or are in detention, members of the Welkyat ethnic group remained and have provided the eyewitness reports.

“On 4 April, the Amhara militias and the Fano [militia] youth group exhumed the remains. They gathered wood, sprayed something we never saw before and burned the remains they collected. The remains crumbled and turned into ash.”

This testimony was consistent with what other eyewitnesses said about the same incident .

Amhara militia and Fano youth destroyed the remains of bodies buried in another part of Humera, witnesses have said.

“The bodies belonged to civilians who were paraded from detention camps. There were around 100 bodies buried en masse behind the land of the public office of the Humera Agricultural Institute,” said another witness.

“They took the remains to the compound of the institute and turned them into ash using wood, fire, and chemicals that we don’t know. As they were doing that their faces were covered by masks and they wore gloves.”

Adebay is another town in western Tigray where eyewitnesses have described the disposal of evidence by moving human remains.

“On the morning of 10 April, the Amhara militias dug up the four mass graves in the St Abune Argawi church,” a resident of Adebay said.

“There were 150 bodies of civilians killed in the August wave of ethnic cleansing. They loaded the bodies into a lorry. We don’t know where they took the remains.”

Eyewitnesses said that on the same day another mass grave located behind the local government administrative office of Adebay was dug up. Thirty-nine civilians had allegedly been buried there in October 2021 after being rounded up in the town of Adi Goshu and then caught trying to flee.

According to the testimonies the remains were loaded onto a lorry and moved to an unknown place.

👉 Continue reading/ሙሉውን ለማንበብ

In another town, Beaker, which is located between Tirkan and Rawyan, other eyewitnesses described similar activity.

“The bodies belonged to 70 civilians who had been arrested in Beaker. They were massacred nine months ago,” a resident said.

“On 11 April the Amhara militia exhumed them and took them to Sanja, a town in the Amhara region.”

Witnesses said the campaign of the disposal of evidence started on 4 April and was supervised by experts from Gondar University, which is in Amhara region.

“It all started following the visit of experts from Gondar University. When they came, they came with trucks that were loaded with chemicals in white jerry cans. The experts were in the town for a few days giving training to the Amhara militia on how to dispose of the remains and then they returned,” an eyewitness said.

Three residents said that militia members had been publicly talking about the involvement of Gondar University and showing off about how the evidence of the killings would not be discovered.

The university has not responded to a request for comment on the allegations.

But last month, the state broadcaster reported that researchers from Gondar University had been working on 12 mass grave sites in the area and had found evidence that the TPLF had been involved in acts of genocide.

Experts have confirmed that it is possible to dispose of human remains using certain chemicals.

Andrea Sella, professor of inorganic chemistry at University College London, said cremation was possible as long as a high enough temperature was reached.

Gebrekidan Gebresilassie, a doctor in chemical engineering at the RWTH Aachen University in Germany, also said it was possible to destroy forensic evidence with the help of chemicals that are readily available.

“These chemicals destroy the forensic evidence… But from a chemical point of view even the ashes can show some evidence. It is difficult to destroy it all,” he said.

The prime minister’s office has not responded to a request for comment, however a senior Amhara official and the speaker of the federal parliament, Agegnehu Teshager, denied the accusations that evidence was being systematically destroyed.

He did say that exhumations were going on but that the bodies that were being removed were those of ethnic Amharas who had been killed over the past 40 years.

“It was not possible to exhume the mass graves and show it to the world until these days because the TPLF was ruling the country,” he said. The TPLF had been the dominant party in the coalition that governed Ethiopia from the 1990s until 2018, when Mr Abiy came to power.

Mr Agegnehu also rejected the reports of ethnic cleansing in western Tigray including those from Amnesty and Human Rights Watch. He described them as a lie.

“They are sensational reports which do not take into account the reality on the ground,” he said.

Source

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