According to local witnesses, Semtsov was one of the organizers of the raider seizure of the church. During the conflict Semtsov snatched the cross from the priest and threw it on the ground, after this incident he suddenly suffered a stroke and died on spot.
❖❖❖[Acts 12:19-24]❖❖❖
„After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. Then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. He had been quarreling with the people of Tyre and Sidon; they now joined together and sought an audience with him. After securing the support of Blastus, a trusted personal servant of the king, they asked for peace, because they depended on the king’s country for their food supply. On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died. But the word of God continued to spread and flourish.”
❖ Justice is an important quest in this life. Rarely do we see tyrants die as dramatically as Herod, but we believe that there is justice at the heart of the universe. The reality of God’s judgment is seen at the cross. By faith we accept that we shall all be judged by God and that the extreme sins of tyrants are only a part of the general sinfulness of humankind. Rarely is our faith encouraged by a visible demonstration of temporal judgment as happens in today’s reading. Jesus gives us a warning about premature conclusions about how God’s judgment might fall on people (Luke 13:1-5), but he also tells us that we should repent of our sins or perish.
👉 This is what Zelenskyy is doing to Orthodox Christian Priests in the Ukraine
💭 The Nazi regime of Zelenskyy authorities have ordered the abbot of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra to stay away from the historic monastery.
A senior cleric in Ukraine’s most prominent Orthodox monastery, Metropolitan Pavel, has been placed under house arrest and barred from attending services for two months, amid an ongoing religious crackdown and attempts to evict hundreds of monks from the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.
At a pretrial detention hearing on Saturday, Metropolitan Pavel (secular name Pyotr Lebed), who is accused of harboring pro-Russian sentiment, was ordered to stay in a village 50km from the capital. The hearing was initially postponed after the 61-year-old cleric, who has served as abbot of the monastery since 1994, reported feeling unwell. However, he was brought to court again in the evening, and officially placed under house arrest for 60 days.
The authorities have placed a tracking device on his ankle, videos from the courtroom show. The judge denied Pavel’s plea to remain confined inside the monastery, but also refused the prosecutor’s request to ban him from sharing videos online.
👉 For the 2nd section, courtesy: TruNews
👉 Moscow Claims to Know Culprit Behind Religious Crackdown in Ukraine
Washington uses Kiev’s policies as a tool against Russia, the Foreign Ministry has said
The US is complicit in the ongoing religious crackdown in Ukraine, seeking to drive a wedge between the nation’s faithful as part of its anti-Russia foreign policy, Moscow’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
In a statement, the ministry commented on the recent decision of the authorities in Kiev to place the abbot of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra – Ukraine’s most prominent Orthodox monastery – Metropolitan Pavel (secular name Pyotr Lebed) under house arrest. The senior cleric is suspected of harboring pro-Russian sentiment and inciting inter-religious hatred, which he denies.
This latest development, the statement reads, shows that Ukraine’s campaign to seize the Lavra “has come to a head.”
However, the ministry claimed that “it is no secret that [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky’s regime is not independent in its anti-church policy.”
“A split in Orthodoxy, a blow to this sphere of life, is the goal proclaimed by Washington a long time ago,” the ministry stated, adding that the US has created a “perverted mechanism of direct and indirect influence on the confessional side of Kiev politics.”
Activities in this direction are supported by the US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom and the Commission on International Religious Freedom, it added.
The ongoing situation with the Lavra and other churches in Ukraine “is of completely man-made nature and is a man-made incitement of religious hatred,” the ministry claimed.
“Appointed by Washington… Ukraine’s incumbent fully understands his dependence on the US. He is pursuing an anti-Orthodox policy at the behest of the Americans who are solving anti-Russia tasks, once again using the Ukrainian administration as nothing more than a tool.”
The ministry added that Kiev’s religious policies affect not only the Orthodox faithful, pointing to reports of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in the country.
In recent weeks, the Ukrainian authorities have conducted a massive crackdown on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which is suspected by Kiev of covertly supporting Russia, despite the fact that the church proclaimed its independence from Moscow after the start of the conflict in February 2022.
Last month, as part of the campaign against the UOC, the authorities demanded that the Lavra monks vacate the monastery, citing an alleged violation of a 2013 agreement which allowed the entity to administer the religious site. The UOC refused to comply, dismissing the order as unlawful.
Ukraine has long experienced religious tensions, with several entities claiming to be the true Orthodox Church. The two main rivals are the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Kiev-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which is considered by the Russian Orthodox Church to be schismatic.
💭 Ukraine’s top security agency notified a top Orthodox priest Saturday that he was suspected of justifying Russia’s aggression, a criminal offense, amid a bitter dispute over a famed Orthodox monastery.
Metropolitan Pavel, the abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery, Ukraine’s most revered Orthodox site, has strongly resisted the authorities’ order to vacate the complex. Earlier in the week, he cursed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, threatening him with damnation.
During a court hearing in the Ukrainian capital, the metropolitan strongly rejected the claim by the Security Service of Ukraine, known as the SBU, that he condoned Russia’s invasion. Pavel described the accusations against him as politically driven.
SBU agents raided his residence and prosecutors asked the court to put him under house arrest pending the investigation. The hearing was adjourned until Monday after the metropolitan said he wasn’t feeling well.
The monks in the monastery belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has been accused of having links to Russia. The dispute surrounding the property, also known as Monastery of the Caves, is part of a wider religious conflict that has unfolded in parallel with the war.
The Ukrainian government has cracked down on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church over its historic ties to the Russian Orthodox Church, whose leader, Patriarch Kirill, has supported Russian President Vladimir Putin in the invasion of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has insisted that it’s loyal to Ukraine and has denounced the Russian invasion from the start. The church declared its independence from Moscow.
But Ukrainian security agencies have claimed that some in the UOC have maintained close ties with Moscow. They’ve raided numerous holy sites of the church and later posted photos of rubles, Russian passports and leaflets with messages from the Moscow patriarch as proof that some church officials have been loyal to Russia.
The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery is owned by the Ukrainian government, and the agency overseeing it notified the monks that it was terminating the lease and they had until Wednesday to leave the site.
Metropolitan Pavel told worshipers Wednesday that the monks would not leave pending the outcome of a lawsuit the UOC filed in a Kyiv court to stop the eviction.
The government claims that the monks violated their lease by making alterations to the historic site and other technical infractions. The monks rejected the claim as a pretext.
Many Orthodox communities in Ukraine have cut their ties with the UOC and transitioned to the rival Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which more than four years ago received recognition from the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
Bartholomew I is considered the first among equals among the leaders of the Eastern Orthodox churches. Patriarch Kirill and most other Orthodox patriarchs have refused to accept his decision authorizing the second Ukrainian church.
❖ The monks of the Kiev Caves Lavra refused to evacuate the monastery yesterday, despite the demand from state authorities. They were to leave yesterday, so that the official transfer of the property back to the usage of the state could begin today.
Recall that the Kiev Caves Lavra is legally owned and operated as a museum by the state, which previously leased its usage to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. However, as the war continues in Ukraine, the state has chosen to see the clergy and faithful of the UOC as state enemies.
Thousands of faithful filled the Lavra yesterday, unsure of what to expect. In the end, the state made no moves yesterday, but the faithful spent the night in one of the churches of the Lavra, in case of an attempted nighttime seizure, reports the Ukrainian outlet Strana.
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine celebrated the Presanctified Liturgy in the Holy Cross Church in the Lavra, which was overflowing with people.
The abbot, Metropolitan Pavel, called on all to stand up and come defend the Lavra against the attacks of the state. He said that they will not allow the members of the Museum commission onto the territory of the Lavra until there is a corresponding court order.
Meanwhile, a Kiev court opened proceedings yesterday on the Lavra’s claim against the Museum regarding the illegal termination of the Church’s lease.
However, members of the Museum’s Commission arrived at the Lavra this morning, but the faithful are blocking them from carrying out their “inspection” of the territory, according to videos posted by Strana.
👉 Back in 2015 the Canadian Crew was there not only for adventure, but somehow also to live and witness the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo faith, to discover the central element of Orthodox Christian belief and theology — The Love of Christ, The Love of Jesus Christ for humanity, The Love of Christians for Jesus Christ, and The Love of Christians for others. These aspects are distinct in Orthodox Christian teachings—the love for Christ is a reflection of his love for all. That’s what these Canadian Television crew members got climbing on a rope to reach the top of Mount Zion where this marvelous 6th century Debre Damo / St. Abuna Aregewai Monastery is located.
This made the devil mad. We know Satan hates love, and gets angry when good things happen – so a coalition Army of Satan consisting of the Gog/Magog armies of the Muslim-Protestant Oromo Abiy Ahmed Ali (ENDF), Eritrean Army (EDF), Amhara Militias, Somali Soldiers and army of drones from the United Arab Emirates decided to blow up this 6th-century Christian Monastery. We still don’t know regarding loss and damage. Until today, medias and teams who try to investigate the bombardment of the Monastery were denied entry. But, in this Jihad some Monks were killed and injured.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on June 1, 2021
Eritrean soldiers killed 19 civilians in a village at the foot of an internationally celebrated rock-hewn church in Tigray three weeks ago, witnesses, relatives and local residents have claimed, the latest alleged atrocity in the war-torn Ethiopian region.
Most of the victims in the alleged attack were women and young children.
The killings were perpetrated by Eritrean soldiers in a small rural settlement on steep slopes below the fifth-century stone church of Abuna Yemata on 8 May, according to multiple testimonies viewed by the Guardian.
Troops from Eritrea are fighting in Tigray on the side of Ethiopian government forces, in defiance of international calls for their withdrawal.
The soldiers were scouts from an Eritrean military unit whose task was to track down fighters loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the region’s former ruling party.
The reported massacre is the latest in a series of alleged atrocities since the Ethiopian prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, winner of the 2019 Nobel peace prize, launched a military offensive in November to “restore the rule of law” by ousting the TPLF, after a surprise attack on a federal army base.
Though he vowed the conflict would be brief, more than six months later fighting continues and reports of atrocities are proliferating, amid warnings of an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe.
Several thousand people are feared to have died in such killings, which have been accompanied by a wave of sexual violence and the displacement of up to 2 million people.
This new report of what appears to have been the cold-blooded killing of unarmed civilians, including young children, will add to international pressure on Ethiopian authorities for a ceasefire to stem such abuses and allow humanitarian aid into Tigray.
All actors in the conflict have been accused of human rights abuses but Eritrean troops appear to have been responsible for a high proportion.
The description of the behaviour of the Eritrean troops at Abuna Yemata seen by the Guardian fits with previous reports of other such incidents in Tigray.
The testimony comes primarily from three individuals but is difficult to confirm in all its aspects. One source heard details from a woman who survived some hours after the attack, while the others gathered accounts from close friends, including a man whose wife was killed.
According to the accounts, the casualties were from three families who had spent the night in their homes before setting out to hide with the men from the village during the day.
The scouts came at 8am to the small hamlet, which comprises only a handful of homesteads, and were suspicious of an unusually large store of edible crops, according to the testimony. The foodstuff was the produce of several households that had been gathered for safekeeping.
The soldiers accused the villagers of being supporters of the TPLF insurgents and gathered them together in a field near a small river. One shot the two men in the group, aged 45 and 78, then others opened fire on the remainder. There are different reports of the number of attackers.
A larger group of Eritrean soldiers who arrived after the shootings reprimanded the scouts responsible for the killings, according to one account.
When the male residents of the village returned after some hours in hiding, they found the dead and injured. An infant was among the dead and nine members of one family were killed, a list of the names suggests.
The testimony matches accounts given by relatives of two children, aged six and four, who were injured in the attack but survived. Both were transported to a hospital in Mekelle, a journey that took a week due to road closures and the remote location of the alleged massacre.
The testimony also refers to a series of fierce clashes between TPLF and Eritrean forces in the area of the alleged massacre. Independent observers consulted by the Guardian have confirmed that these occurred at the locations indicated. Civilians were killed in shelling in the town of Hawzen, less than 5km from the scene of the alleged massacre, a day before it occurred.
Eritrean and Ethiopian forces are thought to have suffered significant casualties in the clashes in and around Hawzen and villages near the Abuna Yemata church in early May, though exact totals are unknown. Atrocities have frequently been committed in the aftermath of fighting as troops seek to establish control over populations or strategic landmarks and seek revenge.
The worst perpetrators were Eritrean troops fighting alongside Ethiopian forces, though all armed actors are accused of committing atrocities.
Multiple witnesses, survivors of rape, officials and aid workers have said Eritrean soldiers have been seen throughout Tigray, sometimes clad in faded Ethiopian army fatigues.
Eritrean troops entered Tigray from its neighbouring state at the beginning of the offensive last year to reinforce the federal government’s forces. It is unclear whether they have remained with the consent of Addis Ababa.
“The magnitude and gravity of child rights violations taking place across Tigray show no sign of abating, nearly seven months since fighting broke out in northern Ethiopia,” the UN agency said.
“Armed parties continue to routinely prevent the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Aid which is delivered is often being taken from those in need to feed soldiers. Agricultural production is being targeted. Imports of vital communications equipment are being delayed. This is not a matter of interfering in sovereign internal affairs, but about observing the binding obligations on all states under international humanitarian law,” she said.
Gebrehiwet Gebreanenya and Abraha Gebreanenya are two married brothers who live in the house of their parents with their elderly father Gebreanenya Gebreegziabher, their wives and children. Gebrehiwet and his wife Tsegu Gebremichael had two children, Samrawit and Yordanos; and Abraha, his elder brother, and his wife Hiwet Birhane, had four children: Mahlet, Zufan, Rahel and a not-yet-christened baby. Both of them are farmers and everyday they move with their cattle to grazing lands and waters, only coming back to spend the night at home.
On Friday, May 7, 2021, a fighting took place between Eritrean and Tigrayan forces in the village of Abune Y’ma’eta Guh, at the foot of the famous rock-hewn church. The village residents all fled to the mountains and spent the day in caves. In the evening, when the fighting stopped, they came down to their village to spend the night in their homes. The next day, on Saturday, Gebrehiwet and Abraha discussed the plan for the day and as usual left with their cattle. The plan was for their wives, their children and their elderly father to join the other village residents and flee to the caves as they did the day before. Everyone was preparing food, water and other essentials for the day and early around 8 AM, just when they were about to leave the village, Eritrean troops unexpectedly came to the village, visited the houses, dragged the civilians out and massacred them in their farmlands. They shot 21 people in total and 19 of them died, two survived but in severely wounded condition. Seven of the killed are children under the age of 10, one of them a one-month-old baby. They killed everyone they found in the village.
The victims included 9 members of the Gebreaneneya family and 12 others. These are: Akebom Gebresilassie, Amit Abadi, Gidey Gebreqorqos , Awetash Tsadiq, Tsegu Gebreegzibher with her son, Tekle Gebrehiet, Alemtsehay Gidey (her son severely wounded). Birhan Abraha (with her two children). Alemtsehay’s father, Gidey, was killed by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers back in November.
When Gebrehiwet and Abraha came back in the evening, they found 8 members of the household massacred in a field some 20 minutes-walk away from their house. Their father Gebreanenya, Abraha’s wife and his four children including the not-yet-christened baby were all killed. Gebrehiwet’s wife Tsegu and his 2-year-old daughter Yordanos were also killed. His daughter Samrawit was wounded by bullets and machete, but she survived.
The troops first shot Samrawit on her right thigh and leg. When they knew she was not dead, they used machete to injure her right thigh and leg. Samrawit is four and half years old. Her father brought her to Ayder on foot through Agoza-Tsigereda route because the Megab – Abraha we Atsbeha route was occupied by the troops. Some other men from the village helped him carry her in an improvised stretcher. They started the journey on Thursday May 13 (05/09/2013 ዓ/ም) and arrived at Ayder Referral Hospital on Saturday May 15. They were lucky to find a car on the way from Tsigereda to Wukro, which brought them to Mekelle.
Land Dispute Drives New Exodus In Ethiopia’s Tigray
“They (Amhara forces) circulated a paper saying, ‘If you don’t leave the area within two days, you will lose your lives’,” said Birhane Tadele, a priest from the west Tigray village of Rewasa. “Then they took all the cattle and everything in the house.”
The dusty buses keep coming, dozens a day, mattresses, chairs and baskets piled on top. They stop at schools hurriedly turned into camps, disgorging families who describe fleeing from ethnic Amhara militia in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.
Four months after the Ethiopian government declared victory over the rebellious Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), tens of thousands of Tigrayans are again being driven from their homes.
This time, it is due not to the fighting, but to regional forces and militiamen from neighbouring Amhara seeking to settle a decades-old land dispute, according to witnesses, aid workers and members of Tigray’s new administration.
Amhara officials say the disputed lands, equal to about a quarter of Tigray, were taken during the nearly three decades that the TPLF dominated central government before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018.
“Obviously the land belongs to the Amhara region,” Gizachew Muluneh, spokesman for the Amhara regional administration, told Reuters.
Ababu Negash, 70, said she fled Adebay, a town in western Tigray, after Amhara officials summoned Tigrayans to meetings in February.
“They said you guys don’t belong here,” Ababu told Reuters in Shire, a town 160 km to the east, to where many from west Tigray are fleeing. “They said if we stay, they will kill us.”
This fresh exodus from the west of Tigray risks exacerbating a precarious humanitarian situation in the region, with hundreds of thousands of people already uprooted by fighting. The territorial dispute is also being carefully watched by other regions in Ethiopia’s fractious federation, some with their own simmering border disputes.
Fighters from Amhara entered western Tigray in support of federal forces after the TPLF, Tigray’s then-governing party, attacked military bases there in November. They have remained ever since, and Amhara officials say they have taken back a swathe of territory that was historically theirs.
Tigrayan officials say the area has long been home to both ethnic groups and that the region’s borders are set by the constitution. Now that fighting has subsided and roads have reopened, they say there is a concerted, illegal push to drive out Tigrayans.
Reuters interviewed 42 Tigrayans who described attacks, looting and threats by Amhara gunmen. Two bore scars they said were from shootings.
“The western Tigray zone is occupied by the Amhara militias and special forces, and they are forcing the people to leave their homes,” Mulu Nega, head of Tigray’s government-appointed administration, told Reuters in Tigray’s capital Mekelle.
He accused Amhara of exploiting Tigray’s weakness to annex territory. “Those who are committing this crime should be held accountable,” he said.
Asked about the accounts of violence and intimidation by Amhara fighters, Yabsira Eshetie, the administrator of the disputed zone, said nobody had been threatened and only criminals had been detained.
“No one was kicking them out, no one was destroying their houses even. Even the houses are still there. They can come back,” he said. “There is federal police here, there is Amhara special police here. It is lawful here.”
Reuters was unable to reach Amhara police, and federal police referred questions to regional authorities.
WHOSE LAND?
Gizachew said Amhara was now administering the contested territory, reorganising schools, police and militia, and providing food and shelter. Tigrayans were welcome to stay, he said, adding that Amhara has asked the federal government to rule on the dispute and expected a decision in coming months.
He did not respond to requests for comment on the accusations of violence and intimidation by Amhara fighters.
The prime minister’s office referred Reuters to regional authorities to answer questions about the land dispute and the displacement of Tigrayans, who make up around 5% of Ethiopia’s 110 million people. There was no response from a government task force on Tigray or the military spokesman.
In a speech to parliament on March 23, Abiy defended Amhara regional forces for their role in supporting the government against the TPLF. “Portraying this force as a looter and conqueror is very wrong,” he said.
The United Nations has warned of possible war crimes in Tigray. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this month there have been acts of ethnic cleansing and called for Amhara forces to withdraw from Tigray.
Ethiopia’s government strenuously denies that it has an ethnic agenda.
“Nothing during or after the end of the main law enforcement operation (against the TPLF) can be identified … as a targeted, intentional ethnic cleansing against anyone in the region,” the foreign ministry said in a statement following Blinken’s remarks.
Reuters could not determine how many people have fled west Tigray in recent weeks as families move frequently, many stay with relatives, and some have been displaced several times.
Local authorities and the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said about 1,000 were reaching Shire every day, with 45,000 coming since late February.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said between 140,000-185,000 came from west Tigray over a two-week period in March.
‘LEAVE OR LOSE LIFE’
Tewodros Aregai, interim head of Shire’s northwestern zone, said the town was hosting 270,000 displaced people even before the latest influx and did not have enough food or shelter.
Four centres set up to house new arrivals are near-full. Families cram into classrooms, halls and half-finished buildings. Others camp under tarpaulins or on open ground.
Ababu said she and her family reached Shire at the beginning of March. She fled her farm in November, when she said Amhara regional forces killed civilians in nearby Mai Kadra after taking the town with federal forces. She said she spent three months in Adebay but was forced to leave at the end of February.
Reuters could not independently verify her account. Communications in Tigray, a mountainous region of about 5 million people, have been patchy since the conflict began and the region was off-limits for most international media until this month.
Amhara officials in Mai Kadra deny that Tigrayans were attacked there, although dozens of displaced residents provided similar accounts.
People still living in Mai Kadra told Reuters that Tigrayan youths, backed by local security forces, stabbed and bludgeoned to death hundreds of Amhara civilians the night before government forces entered the town on Nov. 10. Ethiopia’s state-appointed human rights commission said two weeks later that an estimated 600 civilians had been killed.
The 42 Tigrayans interviewed by Reuters as they fled from the west said they were now being evicted en masse.
“They (Amhara forces) circulated a paper saying, ‘If you don’t leave the area within two days, you will lose your lives’,” said Birhane Tadele, a priest from the west Tigray village of Rewasa. “Then they took all the cattle and everything in the house.”
Birhane said he fled to Humera, a town in the disputed zone, but could not stay because Amhara gunmen were rounding up people with Tigrayan IDs and imprisoning them. He now lives in a school in Mekelle.
Two other Tigrayans also described such roundups in Humera, and three described similar circulars at other locations demanding they leave. Reuters could not independently verify their accounts.
A farmer from Mylomin, a small village in west Tigray, showed Reuters scars on the stomach and back of his five-year-old son Kibrom, whom he said was shot when the Ethiopian army arrived on Nov. 9 with its Amhara allies.
The farmer, who did not want his name published for fear of reprisals, said he took the boy to Gondor hospital in Amhara. When they returned, neighbours told him Amhara gunmen had stolen his 60 cattle and other belongings. He now lives with his family in a Mekelle schoolyard.
Reuters was unable to reach officials in Mylomin for comment on his account of the fighting. Officials at Gondor hospital said they received an influx of patients with injuries from violence in early November but did not give details on specific cases.
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