Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on September 28, 2021
💭 Your Words Not Mine: A Message to PM Abiy in His Own Words
This is a slightly modified version of the message sent by PM Abiy Ahmed in December 2018 to the people of Yemen, re-worded to address him and the people of Ethiopia amidst the ongoing war on Tigray.
To the people of the Land of Origins,
To the people of the Land of the thirteen months of sunshine
To the people who pioneered civilization and are the descendants of the architects of Axum and Lalibela
To the people of wisdom since the rule of the Queen of Sheba
To the people of a country like no other. A country that was mentioned over 40 times in the Bible and which is called the land of origins, the cradle of humanity, and the source of Blue Nile.
To you, the people of Happy Ethiopia, to whom the Prophet Muhammad once sent his earliest followers seeking refuge safe haven because he believed the Negashi of Ethiopia would not “wrong anyone”
To the owners of gentle and soft hearts, and the people endowed with wisdom.
To the people of faith. . The bloodshed between your people is haram and immoral.
Why do you drain your resources, and destroy your country, and the lives of each other?
Why do you destroy your civilization, your progress, and your glory?
Why abandon your families?
Why do you turn your own children into orphans, and deprive them of enjoying a calm and serene life in a country that has always been lauded as a happy one?
Everyone, I refer to all the parties fighting in political and on devastating battlefields, is a loser in war as war brings nothing but destruction, loss, devastation, hatred. and riots. War causes scourge and separation to spread. So how can this happen between the people of one land and one nation? War destroys your foundations, your relationships, and your kinship, causing nothing but destruction and ignorance.
What Ethiopia are you fighting for when you’ve destroyed every corner of your country? Why don’t you use reason, when you are the ones who were described as wise? Why do you teach the language of war and fighting rather than the language of dialogue, when you are the owners of eloquence? Why don’t you sit at a table and talk, negotiate, and discuss what is best?
You should agree and disagree without bloodshed, and without wars, as the people of one home.
Brought together with affection, familiarity, love, and the interest of one united nation. Offer yourselves and your children a future that is built on the foundation of science, knowledge, and development. Plan your growth and progress and keep up with the civilization that you were once at the forefront of.
You are all responsible and accountable for the state that your country is in; the county we care for and love and are concerned about its security and stability. You are the first to shake hands, so shake each other’s hand and meet each other with hearts full of love. Let your wisdom guide you.
Think about what your country has come to from separation, fighting, and killing. Think of the common good rather than personal interests, and renounce sectarianism and fragmentation.
Come to a common conclusion that you agree on, in the interest of your honorable people who have suffered so much from the scourge of this useless war; the war that will only leave behind destruction and ruin.
Pull all your differences on the proverbial table of dialogue, reason, wisdom, and equity.
Agree among each other as a family and as loved ones and then surrender to peace and enter it with all the forces you can muster as it is in the benefit of your country and the future of your civilization that flourishes like a garden as you enjoy the goodness of the land and the forgiveness of God.
With all love and pride, we look forward to the certainty that wisdom is rightful. And we are ready to do all that is needed to achieve reconciliation and stop the bloodshed and return to the peace and prosperity of your beloved country.
Satellite Images Support Survivors’ Accounts: Ethiopian Forces Held Thousands, Including Children, in Brutal Camps
In the Tigray region of Ethiopia, beginning in November 2020, children who should have been laughing with friends and studying in school were instead locked up, crying, starving and abused in concentration camps, according to multiple eyewitness reports that have been corroborated by satellite imagery and analysis, as well as cell phone video footage smuggled out by an escapee.
Ethiopian federal forces, abetted by special forces, paramilitary groups, militia and police acting under the authority of the Amharan regional government, locked up in multiple locations hundreds of children of all ages — and even pregnant women, infants and toddlers — along with thousands of Tigrayan adults and senior citizens. These people appear to have been held in harsh conditions, systematically starved and beaten because of their ethnicity and with no judicial process or valid legal pretext. That is the definition of a concentration camp. This is a previously unreported part of an ongoinggenocidal campaign led by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed — ironically enough, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate — against various ethnic groups, including Tigrayans, Kimant, Gumuz, Ogaden (Somalis), Agew, Irob, Afar and Sidama.
This report is based on eyewitness accounts by dozens of people from five ethnic groups, including 11 former prisoners who were interviewed in four different refugee camps in eastern Sudan. Doctors have recounted their treatment of another seven former prisoners, including young children. Satellite imagery from Maxar (a space technology company based in Westminster, Colorado) and Planet Labs (an Earth imaging company based in San Francisco) corroborates these eyewitness reports. So does video footage which one former prisoner shot on his cell phone before he escaped a previously unreported concentration camp in western Tigray, located in the notorious Abbadi warehouse compound in Mai Kadra.
The cell phone footage admittedly does not conform to classic notions of what a concentration camp looks like, as in World War II films.There are no bars, guard towers, German Shepherds, barracks, searchlights or coils of razor wire. In the videos, prisoners can be seen eating popcorn, drinking coffee, teasing each other and making jokes in Tigrigna, the language of the Tigray people.
“Young children who were imprisoned and abused”
“We are seeing a generation of Tigrayan refugee children, many of whom are growing up with a sense of hopelessness,” said Dr. Mebrahtom Yehdago, 37, from Humera. He is a Tigrayan doctor and refugee in Tenedba refugee camp in eastern Sudan. “As a doctor, I feel so disturbed, sad, and angry to see these kinds of situations. These children are innocent. These are young children who were imprisoned and abused. How can we get the world to pay attention and do more to help the children?”
Dr. Mebrahtom outlines the cases of former child prisoners in concentration camps whom he has treated: four boys, ages 2, 9, 13 and 15. The two-year-old was imprisoned with his mother in the Mai Kadra concentration camp – which satellite imagery shows is in the Abbadi warehouse compound, a bit north and across the street from the police station, just as eyewitnesses reported. They were imprisoned from Nov. 14 to Nov. 27, 2020, until the mother paid their captors — the Fanu, the Amhara militia and the Amharan Regional Police — a ransom of 50,000 Ethiopian birr (about USD $1,086) for their release.
The toddler presented with physical complications, Dr. Mebrahtom said, including recurrent diarrhea, dehydration, malnutrition and pneumonia, as well as psychological issues. For example, when the boy sees a large group of people, he starts shouting and crying. His mother says he is remembering their hardship in captivity.
Their captors provided no food or water. About twice a week, according to former prisoners who escaped, Doctors Without Borders (or MSF, its French acronym) workers from Abdelrafe would distribute packets of digestive biscuits and fill two large water tanks. MSF repaired one water tank and installed another, without which the prisoners would have had only a few sinks in the bathrooms, where toilets and floors were overflowing with feces. MSF also built a new bathroom. The prisoners in Mai Kadra, like those in other concentration camps in western Tigray, survived by pilfering and roasting sesame seeds stored in the warehouses where they were held captive. This meager sustenance came from bags of seeds that the Amharan forces had looted from Tigrayan farmers and hauled to the warehouses on trailers pulled by tractors. The tractors in Mai Kadra were stolen from the Abbadis, a wealthy Tigrayan family who had owned the warehouse compound.
Satellite imagery shows tractors hooked to trailers near the compound garage. Some prisoners who had Amharan relatives or friends, and who could get money brought to them, paid bribes to Amharan militia guards. In exchange, the guards would allow two or three small boys, around eight years old, to run to the market and return with a kind of flat bread called injera, which the prisoners would distribute.
“We are here to kill you”
Dr. Mebrahtom described the case of a 15-year-old boy, imprisoned in the same place in Mai Kadra. He is an insulin-dependent diabetic. When he asked for permission to buy insulin from a local pharmacy, his captors said, “We are not here to treat you; we are here to kill you. We are gathering the Tigrayan refugees here to kill them.” …..
Dr. Mebrahtom explains that the abuse of Tigrayan children in Mai Kadra was not unique. It was part of a pattern which the doctor has seen, and which other eyewitnesses confirmed in interviews, which also involved children locked up in various sites in the regional capital of western Tigray, Humera. For example, the doctor has treated a 9-year-old boy who had been imprisoned for four days in the old police station in Humera.
Eyewitnesses who had been incarcerated in the old police station, and who were subsequently transferred to the Yitbarak warehouse in Humera, from which they escaped, reported that the only food and water available in the station (administered by the Amhara Regional Police) was whatever the prisoners could buy and have brought in from outside. And in the Yitbarak warehouse (sometimes called the Tabarak warehouse), prisoners subsisted by pilfering sesame seeds from bags looted by the Amhara and stored in the warehouse. So this young child, like hundreds of other children and adults imprisoned in multiple locations, had to survive on handfuls of seeds and a little water, with an occasional supplement of a piece of injera or a few digestive biscuits. I asked the doctor who had arrested the 9-year-old boy, and why.
💭 Five paths to freedom
There were five paths to freedom from the Mai Kadra concentration camp:
the Amharan regional government released some who paid a ransom — an illegal act of extortion which confirms that there was no valid legal purpose for holding the prisoners;
they released some who claimed Amharan ancestry, which confirms that the Ethiopian government was arresting Tigrayans because of their ethnicity;
after several weeks, they released some old people, sick people, pregnant women and women with young children, although one witness among the released prisoners — a woman who returned to Mai Kadra — reported that the Amharans released these Tigrayans into a deadly ambush by Eritrean soldiers allied with Ethiopia’s federal government;
more than 150 Tigrayans escaped Mai Kadra over a four-day period; and
some died of starvation and disease due to lack of adequate nutrition or sufficient medical care in captivity.
Tigrayans Being Sent to Concentration Camps in Addis Ababa | ትግራዋዮች በአዲስ አበባ ወደ ማጎሪያ ካምፖች ሲወሰዱ
💭 My Note: They say, there is war in Oromia too – so, why don’t they do the same to the Oromos in Addis? The Answer is because it’s the Oromos who are the perpetrators. It’s all lies, there is no war in Oromia – there ain’t no such thing as “Eritrean soldiers in Oromia” – Evil Abiy Ahmed’s fascist regime is an Oromo one – and it’s the Oromos + the Amharas who are responsible for the #TigrayGenocide. Will the Addis Ababa residents now have a desire to show solidarity with Tigrayans against this sort of barbarity? No, they won’t! Unless the T.D.F advance towards Addis Ababa, I smell Auschwitz!
Thousands of Ethnic-Tigrayan Residents of Addis Ababa Being Marched to Mass Detention Centers.
Turning Point in Tigray | Bring This Uniquely Monstrous War Criminal to Justice
We, the undersigned organizations, write to urge you to demand publicly that the parties to the conflict in northern Ethiopia end ongoing violence and dismantle the blockade preventing relief assistance from reaching millions of people on the brink of starvation. We ask you to use your to respective platforms to focus on the crisis in Tigray at the United Nations Security Council, at the African Union, and at the upcoming session of the UN General Assembly, and to actively engage the parties to the conflict to prevent growing famine and suffering on a scale not seen in Ethiopia since the great famine of 1983-1985.
Since fighting erupted in November 2020, civilians have been trapped between the parties to the conflict, largely cut off from assistance and communications, and displaced to other parts of Tigray, other regions of Ethiopia, and into neighboring countries. The fighting has been marked by widespread human rights abuses including sexual violence, starvation as a weapon of war, and ill-treatment of the displaced. Investigations initiated into these violations of international human rights, humanitarian, and refugee law must be independent and credible and those responsible held to account. The UN Security Council, UN General Assembly, and African Union must put this growing threat to international peace and security at the top of agendas.
Our concerns about the worsening crisis in northern Ethiopia include:
Gross human rights violations
As the conflict expands and affects civilians in other areas of the country, ethnic demonization and hateful rhetoric reminiscent of crises in Rwanda, Burundi, and Darfur threaten to tear at the country’s fragile social fabric. For more than nine months the world has watched in horror as parties to the conflict commit unspeakable crimes, with millions of civilians facing grave human rights violations, forced displacement and loss of livelihoods, arbitrary arrest and detention, and widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure. This compelled the U.S. Government to launch an investigation into whether war crimes, crimes against humanity, and even genocide have occurred. As you know, this investigation is taking place in parallel with the ongoing joint UN Human Rights – Ethiopian Human Rights Commission investigation.
Denial of relief assistance
The blockade put in place by the government of Ethiopia on June 28 has caused the number suffering from extreme hunger to increase dramatically. Ethiopian troops withdrew from the region and banking facilities were closed, preventing access to money to purchase food. Communications were cut, denying people trapped inside Tigray the chance to report on their well-being to family members outside the region. And trade was denied, collapsing local markets for fuel or electricity. Primary and secondary road routes were blocked, forcing the aid operation on to a tertiary route via Afar. Between July 1 and August 31, fewer than 400 trucks of relief supplies were permitted entry to Tigray along a circuitous rural road, despite the UN declaring more than 6,100 trucks (or, 6 percent) were required to stem the tide of famine.
Growing humanitarian crisis
On August 9, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET), published its food security outlook for Tigray revealing that 5.2 million men, women, and children now face extreme food insecurity. That number includes people who are now experiencing starvation which results in severe malnutrition, starvation, disease, and high death rates. Violence that has spread into neighboring Afar and Amhara region has displaced some 400,000 people and potentially threatens lives and livelihoods of millions more.
Famine has already set in for hundreds of thousands in Tigray. But this does not need to be the fate of millions more at risk. The parties to this conflict can cease hostilities and save the lives of their own people. The blockade can be lifted for relief workers to reach those in need before a repeat of the tragedy of 1983-85 famine, which took the lives of as many as 2 million Ethiopians. The UN Security Council and African Union can put the crisis on their formal program of work and demand action to prevent further needless suffering and loss of life.
Recommendations
We call upon members of the UN Security Council and the UN Secretary-General to take concrete action to address the crisis in Tigray and to put its resolution at the top of the agenda during the UN General Assembly. In particular, here are four actions you can take to help the people of northern Ethiopia:
Call for a humanitarian cease-fire that includes a withdrawal of all forces from Tigray and surrounding regions;
Demand that the government of Ethiopia remove the humanitarian blockade and bureaucratic obstructions to the aid effort;
Press for the deployment of international monitors and independent investigations into allegations into war crimes and other abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law, and;
Encourage a national dialogue that includes opposition groups such as the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front.
UN leadership matters. We call on you to press for global action to curb this threat to international peace and security and prevent foreseeable mass suffering and the worst of outcomes for Ethiopia and its people.
Sincerely,
Access Books
Alliance for Peacebuilding
Association of Concerned Africa Scholars (ACAS-USA)
Bread for the World
Civil Society Action Committee
Disciples Refugee & Immigration Ministries
Educators’ Institute for Human Rights (EIHR)
Ethiopian Community Development Council
Faiths for Safe Water
Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ
HIAS
Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights
Jewish World Watch
Karuna Center for Peacebuilding
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies
NAVA / Niue Australian Vagahau Association
NGO Committee on Migration
PacificwinPacific
Partners Global
PAWA / Pacific Australian Womens Association
R-SEAT
Refugees International
San Felipe Humanitarian Alliance
Scalabrini International Migration Network (SIMN)
The Center for Victims of Torture
The Sentry
The United Methodist Church – General Board of Church and Society
U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI)
Joe Biden addresses the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly for the first time as US President, condemns the acts of persecution and discrimination against Tigrayans by the Oromo lead fascist regime of Abiy Ahmed Ali.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on September 21, 2021
This is a sad, but little told story. In 1943, at the request of the Oromo Emperor Haile Selassie, the Royal British Airforce bombed two towns – Mekelle and Corbetta.
The R.A.F squadron that carried out the raid may actually have been carried out by Canadians from number 8 Squadron.
This information is from a publication called Legation: Canada’s Military History Magazine.
“In this strange colonial world the Canadians experienced things never imagined when they enlisted…On Sept. 1, 1943, a request was received from the Emperor of Ethiopia for aircraft to drop leaflets in Macaille and eastern Tigre province prior to operations against rebellious tribes. No. 8 Sqdn., another Bisley unit and normally based in Aden, operated a three-plane detachment from Addis Ababa and spent several days bombing rebel concentrations and native hutments. One of the wireless air gunners was Flight Sergeant Joseph Leon Belley of Quebec City. This squadron was the destination for numerous Canadians. Indeed, as of December 1943 at least 19 members of the RCAF had been posted there.”
When in 1942–43 peasants in central and southern Tigray began to rebel out of desperation, they were met with a harsh response. Haile Selassie’s government in collaboration with the British Royal Air Force (R.A.F), after dropping warning leaflets addressed to ‘the Chiefs, Balabats — people of Tigre province’ on 6 October 1943, devastated the region including Mekelle, the capital of Tigray, throughout the rest of that month.
This quelled the Tigrayan peasant uprising, known as Woyane, meaning ‘revolt’.
Thousands of defenseless civilians lost their lives as a result of aerial bombardment. It is recorded that ‘on 14th October, 1943, 54 bombs dropped in Mekelle, 6th October 14 bombs followed by another 16 bombs on 9thOctober in Hintalo, 7th/9th October 32 bombs in Corbetta’.
An atrocious precedent set
The Mekelle market bombing and the fact that neither Emperor Haileselassie nor Great Britain were held responsible, and never expressed regret for the cold blooded murder of civilians set a precedent for repeating the act of atrocity during civil conflicts taking place in Tigray.
Two examples of that with stark similarity are, the Ethiopian military Dergue regime of the Oromo colonel Mengistu Hailemariam replicating aerial bombing of Tigrayans on June 22, 1988 in the town of Hawzen, Eastern Tigray, during a market day resulting in a senseless loss of 2,500 men, women and children as well as inflicting severe injuries, and this year, Ethiopian military Dergue regime of the Oromo colonel Abby Ahmed Ali massacred more than 80 Civilians, including babies and children in an air attack on a busy market in the town of Togoga Tigray, on 22 June 2021.
[Isaiah 26:10] “Though the wicked person is shown compassion, He does not learn righteousness; He deals unjustly in the land of uprightness, And does not perceive the majesty of the LORD.”
☆ Oromo Aerial Attacks on Tigray Civilians☆
❖ October 6, 1943 – Mekelle
❖ June 22, 1988 – Hawzen
❖ June 22, 2021- Togoga
The people of Tigray region were forced to pay large sums of money and their land was confiscated and distributed to loyal gentry as a punishment and as a deterrent to future revolt. A new taxation system was imposed that ‘cost the peasants five times more than they had paid under the Italians’.
In the name of centralization, Haile Selassie took away regional power from hereditary leaders and gave it to loyal Showan administrators.
This predicament again raised the level of collective resentment, taking the form of ethno-nationalist sentiment against the Oromara Showan ruling class at the centre. As Gilkes rightly observed, ‘independence from Shoan (sic) rule was raised as a rallying cry and proved popular’.
The punitive measures of the central government, and especially the memory of the R.A.F bombardment of Mekelle on behalf of Haile Selassie’s government, became grievances rooted in popular memory.
The devastating impact
1. Men, women and children (including infants held or carried by their mothers) were instantly killed.
2. Others became severely injured, and sentenced to a life of disability.
3. Children were exposed to being half-orphaned or, in some cases, fully orphaned.
4. Due to the fact that there was no a functioning government; as international organizations, such as the Red Cross weren’t around, and as health facilities were not available, some victims lost their lives were lost for lack of basic medical aid.
5. Due to the severe injury to the bodies, some corpses couldn’t be identified. Also, as many merchants and buyers came from outskirts of Mekelle and other towns, their loved ones couldn’t be traced. As a result, many victims were buried in mass graves without proper burial their respective religions required.
6. The psychological scar lasted for many years whereby a plane over the sky was feared to be an air bomber, and people had to run for a cover.
7. Many people asked “What have we done to Great Britain to deserve this?”
An atrocious precedent set
The Mekelle market bombing and the fact that neither Emperor Haileselassie nor Great Britain were held responsible, and never expressed regret for the cold blooded murder of civilians set a precedent for repeating the act of atrocity during civil conflicts taking place in Tigray.
Two examples of that with stark similarity are, the Ethiopian military Dergue regime of the Oromo colonel Mengistu Hailemariam replicating aerial bombing of Tigrayans on June 22, 1988 in the town of Hawzen, Eastern Tigray, during a market day resulting in a senseless loss of 2,500 men, women and children as well as inflicting severe injuries, and this year, Ethiopian military Dergue regime of the Oromo colonel Abby Ahmed Ali massacred more than 80 Civilians, including babies and children in an air attack on a busy market in the town of Togoga Tigray, on 22 June 2021.
💭 Tigray deserves apology for Great Britain’s aerial bombardment of Civilians In Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia.
💭 #TogogaMassacre | Abiy Ahmed Repeated What His Oromo Father Mengistu Did on the Very day of June 22
#TigrayGenocide | A Tale Familiar to Three Generations of Tigrayans
💭 My Note: History repeats itself:
🔥 Amhara & Oromos bombing Tigray, Using Rape, Hunger & forced resettlement (Mengistu did it back then, Ahmed will do the same now) as a Weapon against People in Tigray for the past 130 years:-
😈 Menelik ll: Half Oromo + Half Amhara = Oromo (Crypto-Muslim / Man of the flesh)
😈 Haile Selassie: Half Oromo + Half Amhara = Oromo (Crypto-Muslim / Man of the flesh)
😈 Mengistu Hailemariam: Half Oromo + Half Amhara = Oromo (Crypto-Muslim / Man of the flesh)
😈 Abiy Ahmed Ali ´= Half Oromo + Half Amhara = Oromo (Crypto-Muslim / Man of the flesh)
☆በራሳቸው አንደበት ሲመሰክሩልን ☆
[Galatians 5:19-21]
“Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
💭 “The fight for Tigray is a horrific déjà vu… For older Tigrayans, all of this seems like a horrific déjà-vu.”
This statement captures the reality that almost all facets of the ongoing war on Tigray trigger memories of the horrors of the past for Tigrayans.
The most recent parallel the man-made famine in Tigray in the 1980s captured and shared to dramatic effect by photographers, such as Stan Grossfeld, is recognizable even to outsiders who recognize the terrible similarity with what is happening now. It is awareness of this historical context that enabled Senator Leahy, president pro tempore of the US Senate, to be one of the first amongst the international community to clearly identify what is happening in Tigray as a genocide.
This genocidal war continues to fuel an ever-worsening humanitarian and human rights crisis characterized by gross human rights violations, war crimes, and crimes against humanity including genocidal rape and the weaponization of starvation. Worst of all, the recalcitrance of the Ethiopian and Eritrean regimes in spite of considerable international pressure for a ceasefire and unfettered humanitarian access, reveals that unless direct action is taken there is little chance that these atrocities will stop.
In this context, the striking parallels between the current War on Tigray and past tactics employed by previous Ethiopian regimes – most notably Haile Selassie (1930-1974) and the Derg regime (1974-1987) led by Mengistu Hailemariam – in attempts to subjugate Tigrayans, deserve a much closer look to highlight the long-standing intentions and motivations fueling the current emergency.
Emperor Haile Selassie
Emperor Haile Selassie, best known for the history and songs that have romanticized him as an African statesman, is also responsible for the deaths of millions across the country. In Tigray, his imperial regime committed indiscriminate air bombings of civilians, annexed Tigrayan territory, and deliberately hid famine even as the Emperor hosted luxurious parties and fed his pet dogs delicacies.
Air bombing Mekelle (capital of Tigray)
During Emperor Haile Selassie’s reign, Tigray remained marginalized from the country with no significant political or economic representation. This gave rise to the first “Woyane” movement that carried out armed resistance against the monarchical rule of the Emperor. Instead of attending to the people’s demand for democracy and equality, the Emperor resorted to bombing market sites in Mekelle and surrounding areas with the help of the British Royal Air Force. This resulted in the death of thousands of innocent Tigrayans in 1943. These attacks targeted the civilian population as a possible deterrent for anyone seeking to join the Woyane armed struggle against the central monarchy.
Annexation of Tigrayan Territories
Following the defeat of the first uprising, the Emperor systematically incorporated southern territories from Tigray to Wollo province (currently part of the Amhara region) to weaken the region and hinder potential recruitments for possible future revolts. It is to be remembered that Emperor Menelik, who ruled Ethiopia before Haile Selassie from 1889 to 1913, also utilized the same tactics. Under his rule, he had incorporated parts of Tigray’s western provinces to be included under the Gondar province. The motive under both administrations was to deprive Tigray of its rich socio-economic resource to sustain resistance against the oppressive rule of the Emperors that continued to undermine the rights of different ethnic groups.
Hiding Famine
During the 1958 Tigray famine, Emperor Haile Selassie was unwilling to send emergency food aid to the starving population. An estimated 100,000 Tigrayans perished as a result. His decision was in line with the increases in farmland taxation for Tigrayans and other economic restrictions that left Tigray in a state of poverty for decades to come. In 1973 the Emperor once again hid a famine that devastated areas of Tigray and Wollo. The famine in 1973 killed an estimated 200,000 people. Once the news about the massive famine broke out to the rest of the world, the government officials quietly asked for aid that was inadequate to alleviate the famine. This was done to hush the news so that the Emperor’s image is not tarnished. Despite their denial and active efforts to spread propaganda regarding the 1954 and 1973 famines, the Emperor and his administration are without question responsible for the thousands of lives lost.
Mengistu Hailemariam
Mengistu, leader of the Communist military junta known colloquially as the Derg, used the slogan “drain the sea to catch the fish” in his attempt to subjugate Tigray. More than a slogan this aim was widely implemented in widespread campaigns of extrajudicial killings to deter people from joining the armed struggle, weaponizing hunger and forcibly removing Tigrayans from Tigray.
Weaponized Hunger
The 1984 famine, which has become associated with Ethiopia in the popular imagination of the rest of the world, was devastating due to government policies that blocked access to foreign bodies like the United Nations preventing them from providing aid. In order to hide the severity of the famine, international actors were denied access to the affected community. The famine ended up taking the lives of more than one million Tigrayans in what was one of the most horrific humanitarian disasters in recent history.
Sexual Violence, Indiscriminate Shelling and Chemical Attack
The Derg also committed weaponized sexual violence, indiscriminate shelling, and chemical attack on civilians and their residential areas. Victims of sexual violence include children as young as 13 years old. Indiscriminate shelling also targeted schools, markets, and residences all occupied by civilians. In addition, civilians bore the brunt of the horrific use of chemical weaponry.
Forced Resettlement
The terrible conditions of the 1984 famine were later used as an excuse by the military junta to forcefully resettle thousands of Tigrayans to areas outside of Tigray that were less affected by the famine. The resettlement program, which was non-voluntary and executed with poor planning and coordination failed to take into account needs for basic humanitarian services to relocated populations and as a result, took the lives of 50,000 Tigrayans while leaving many more displaced from their homeland. This resettlement program referred to at the time as a “vast human tragedy of historical proportions” was of course an act of demographic engineering intended to quash the resistance to the brutal regime by depopulating Tigray.
“Members of the Derg who are present in court today and those who are being tried in absentia have conspired to destroy a political group and kill people with impunity.”
Blocking Passage for Refugees
One final point that bears mentioning here, considering that Eritrean forces are actively engaged in the current Tigrayan crisis is the role played by Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) – which later became the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) the party ruling Eritrea today under much of the same leadership – in exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Tigray in the 80s. More specifically, in 1985, following a political disagreement between Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and EPLF officials led to the latter blocking the road connecting Sudan with Tigray. Refugees were forced to take a “long and dangerous route” on top of suffering from starvation. This cost thousands of lives as they reached Sudan through tougher terrains.
History repeats itself in Tigray
At the start of the current conflict, those that lived through the previous campaigns against Tigray and resultant famines recalled the horrors of the past and feared a repetition was likely. As feared, those that fled to Sudan in the previous famines are now again in tears remembering what they went through decades ago and how much worse the current circumstances are.
All the crimes that were committed in the past, forceful annexation, weaponized starvation and rape, banned chemical attacks, forced resettlement, blockage of passage for refugees, massacres, and indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas are being committed on Tigray since the declaration of the offensive by Abiy Ahmed Ali on the 4th of November 2020. Although this analysis focuses on the events post the start of the war, it should also be noted that roads from Amhara to Tigray were blocked since 2018 preventing the transportation of grains portending the tactics being used to weaponize hunger now.
Today the reality on the ground is very dire. The United Nations (UN) has reported 350,000 people are experiencing famine in Tigray and 30,000 children are at risk of dying from starvation. Aid is available but restricted by Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Amhara regional forces. All the while, Ethiopian diplomats are engaged in telling the world access has been granted and that aid is being delivered. The population of Tigray has more than doubled since the time of President Mengistu Hailemariam. Food supply to more than 7 million Tigrayans has been deliberately looted, destroyed and farmers are prevented from farming. Meanwhile, unfettered access to aid agencies has yet to be granted. The UN revealed that 99% (130 out of 131 documented incidents) of the humanitarian aid blockage is happening by the Ethiopian troops and its allies. Multiple testimonies from the Tigrayan families reveal that famine is occurring on a large scale. The only thing standing in the way of the international community from knowing the full scale is the unavailability of data. Alex De Waal said, “no data, no famine” which has been effectively concealed using both communication blackout and blockage of roads connecting many parts of rural Tigray by invading forces.
The same crimes that got Mengistu Hailemariam convicted of genocide are being committed by Abiy. It is also critical to note that the retired officials of the Derg regime have been assigned key positions within the military leadership of the current Ethiopian defense force. Thus, not only do the atrocities reported so far indicate the genocidal intent of this war, but most importantly the involvement of the military officials that were part of the Derg regime found guilty of genocide must also be used as evidence to show this genocidal intent. Once the crimes are categorized, the international community will have the responsibility to intervene and stop the atrocities in Tigray before the only conceivable future is one with another “Never Again” campaign in it.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on September 20, 2021
Who has stood trial, or will stand trial, for the appalling abuses committed against the Uyghurs in China, the Rohingya in Myanmar, the Yazidi in Iraq, or the people of Tigray in Ethiopia? How many mass murderers are walking free in Rwanda, or Syria?
As the 75th anniversary of the Nuremberg trials approaches, Ilse Cohn’s grandson calls for international law to ensure those committing atrocities today face retribution.
The man who ordered the murder of my grandmother never stood trial for the crime. Nor did he stand trial for any of the other 137,000 murders he ordered during five short months in 1941.
I know who he was. His name was Karl Jäger, and he was the commander of a Nazi execution squad in Lithuania, where my 44-year-old grandmother had been deported from her home town in Germany. He is just one of several hundred thousand men and women who were never brought to justice for the part they played in the Nazi holocaust. It’s estimated that up to a million people were directly or indirectly involved in holocaust atrocities, yet only a tiny fraction – perhaps no more than 1% – were ever prosecuted.
Next month marks the 75th anniversary of the end of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal at which 24 of the most senior Nazi leaders stood trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. It was the first such trial in history, described at the time as “a shining light for justice”.
A dozen other trials followed – of bankers, lawyers, doctors and others – but according to Mary Fulbrook, professor of German history at University College London, once the Nuremberg process was over, the West Germans prosecuted only 6,000 people for their part in Nazi crimes, of whom some 4,000 were convicted.
Most holocaust perpetrators, such as Jäger, a music-loving SS colonel who ordered the murder of my grandmother and so many others, simply melted back into their community. Jäger, for example, led a quiet, inconspicuous life as a farmer in the German town of Waldkirch, not far from the borders with France and Switzerland, until he was finally arrested in 1959. He hanged himself in his prison cell with a length of electric cable before he could be brought to trial.
So why was Nuremberg, and the handful of other war crimes trials that followed, the exception rather than the rule?
First, because by 1945, large parts of Germany were a smouldering ruin. Millions of people were homeless, so the emphasis was primarily on reconstruction. And who was available to take charge in the “new Germany” if not the very same officials (supposedly de-Nazified) who had served under the Nazis?
Second, because with the start of the cold war and fears of Soviet domination in Europe, both the US and Britain believed that confronting the Soviet threat was more important than hunting down thousands of Nazis. Justice would have to take a back seat.
None of which excuses why, even today, so few perpetrators of the most egregious crimes against humanity are pursued and convicted. It’s true that Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić are both serving long prison sentences for their role in the atrocities of the war in Bosnia. The former Liberian president Charles Taylor is incarcerated after being convicted of what the judge at his trial in The Hague called ‘some of the most heinous and brutal crimes in recorded human history’, and the former president of Chad, Hissène Habré, died of Covid-19 last month while serving a life sentence for human rights abuses.
But, like Nuremberg, they are the exceptions. Who has stood trial, or will stand trial, for the appalling abuses committed against the Uyghurs in China, the Rohingya in Myanmar, the Yazidi in Iraq, or the people of Tigray in Ethiopia? How many mass murderers are walking free in Rwanda, or Syria?
The anniversary of the Nuremberg verdicts offers an opportunity to revisit the debate over war crimes prosecutions, both past and future. It also marks the October release of a major new documentary film called Getting Away With Murder(s) which shines a spotlight on some of the thousands of unpunished Nazi war criminals who escaped after 1945 and lived the rest of their lives undisturbed, some of them in Britain.
Full disclosure: after the film’s director, David Wilkinson, read an article I wrote in the Observer three years ago, he invited me to appear in the film, visiting the site of my grandmother’s death.)
Seventy-five years after Nuremberg, at a time when war crimes are still being committed with shameful alacrity, it is more important than ever to re-emphasise the need to collect evidence when such crimes are committed, and to reaffirm the principle that they should never go unpunished.
History matters. We can learn from past mistakes, which is why in Germany, under the doctrine of “universal jurisdiction”, a Syrian doctor is now on trial charged with crimes against humanity for torturing people in military hospitals. In the Netherlands, another Syrian was sentenced last July to 20 years in prison, accused of being a member of the al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaida affiliate. In Sweden, a former Iranian deputy public prosecutor is currently on trial over the mass execution and torture of prisoners in the 1980s.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on September 13, 2021
✞✞✞[Psalm 94:1]✞✞✞
O Lord, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth!
✞✞✞[መዝሙረ ዳዊት ምዕራፍ ፺፬፥፩]✞✞✞
እግዚአብሔር የበቀል አምላክ ነው። የበቀል አምላክ ተገለጠ።
An estimated 2.2 million people have been forced from their homes and thousands have been killed in the civil war that broke out in Ethiopia last November when government troops entered Mekelle, capital of the Tigray region. Witnessed by photographer Sergio Ramazzotti, the city was retaken by the Tigray Defence Forces in June, but peace in the region seems a long way off.
The market at Togoga (or Togogwa), a small town of 1,000 people 20 miles (35km) from Mekelle, was hit on 22 June in an airstrike by the Ethiopian air force. The attack left at least 64 dead and wounded almost 200. The Ethiopian army finally allowed ambulances to get to the casualties 29 hours after the attack
The village of Melazat bears the signs of the Ethiopian army’s sudden retreat from Mekelle, 15 miles to the east, on 28 June, as Tigrayan forces were fighting their way into the regional capital.
People collect cereals and cooking oil at a food aid distribution centre in Mekelle. The conflict has isolated the region of Tigray and food supplies are becoming scarce. Humanitarian convoys struggle to bring aid to the thousands of people at risk of starving, with electricity and communications infrastructure badly damaged.
About 8,500 people of the millions displaced by the war have sought shelter in Hadnet secondary school in Mekelle. Food and water are in short supply, and there are countless reports of women and children having been raped by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers.
On 23 June the Ayder hospital in Mekelle, one of the three still operational in Tigray, was suddenly flooded with wounded civilians after the Ethiopian airstrike on Togoga.
Casualties from the Ethiopian airstrike on Togoga were finally allowed out of the town to be treated by medics in Mekelle.
Staff at Mekelle’s Ayder hospital look on as the casualties arrive from the Togoga airstrike.
Casualties are assessed at Ayder hospital. In the background, doctors treat Genet Tsegay, 12, who had her right arm severely damaged by shrapnel, while her mother, Tsigabu Gebreterisae, 45, is overcome with emotion. Genet’s arm eventually had to be amputated.
Genet Tsegay with her mother, Tsigabu Gebreterisae, in the recovery unit of Ayder hospital. Genet’s brother was killed and she lost her right arm in the Ethiopian forces’ airstrike on Togoga.
On 29 June, and during the following days, Ayder hospital was flooded with wounded Tigrayan militiamen, who had entered the city that morning.
Residents of Mekelle welcome Tigrayan fighters on 29 June, the day after the Ethiopian army suddenly evacuated the regional capital.
People gather on the streets of Mekelle to celebrate the arrival of Tigrayan soldiers. Having approached the city during the night, the Tigray Defence Forces entered the city early on 29 June, a day after the Ethiopian army suddenly left.
Exhausted Tigrayan soldiers in the centre of Mekelle watch a local woman appearing to give thanks for divine intervention.
Local youths celebrate in Mekelle to welcome the liberating Tigray Defence Forces.
More than 6,000 Ethiopian prisoners of war, captured during the last days of the struggle for Mekelle, are marched to the prison between lines of local residents on 2 July.
Captured Ethiopian soldiers are taken through the city to prison by lorry, under the watchful eye of armed guards.
The Ethiopian PoWs are marched past jeering crowds on their way to prison in Mekelle.
On Mekelle’s outskirts, Tigrayan militiamen, many of whom are underage boys and girls, prepare to be deployed on active service.
Two young women with assault rifles and civilian clothes await their orders for deployment to the frontline.
On the outskirts of the city, Tigrayan militias assemble as they await orders.
Hagush Gebremedhin, 50, is one of the nurses at a Ayder hospital clinic for victims of sexual violence. There are many reports of women and children having been raped, sometimes for days, by Ethiopian or Eritrean soldiers.
Desta Gebremedhin, 32, a journalist of Tigrayan origin, was working in Nairobi, Kenya, for the BBC when the conflict broke out. He returned to Ethiopia to join the Tigray Defence Forces
#TogogaMassacre | Abiy Ahmed Repeated What His Oromo Father Mengistu Did on the Very day of June 22
💭 My Note: History repeats itself:
During the past 130 years Oromo armies of four anti-North unEthiopian regimes deployed rape and famine in their genocidal wars in Tigray and Wello regions. Now both these regions are on the brink of famine, again. No coincidence! While there is an exponential growth of the Oromo population, Tigray and Wello have permanently suffered a drastic decrease in their population due to Oromo-lead genocidal wars against them.
🔥 Amhara & Oromos bombing Tigray, Using Rape, Hunger & forced resettlement (Mengistu did it back then, Ahmed will do the same now) as a Weapon against People in Tigray for the past 130 years:-
😈 Menelik ll: Half Oromo + Half Amhara = Oromo (Crypto-Muslim / Man of the flesh)
😈 Haile Selassie: Half Oromo + Half Amhara = Oromo (Crypto-Muslim / Man of the flesh)
😈 Mengistu Hailemariam: Half Oromo + Half Amhara = Oromo (Crypto-Muslim / Man of the flesh)
😈 Abiy Ahmed Ali ´= Half Oromo + Half Amhara = Oromo (Crypto-Muslim / Man of the flesh)
[Galatians 5:19-21]
“Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
🔥 Amhara & Oromos bombing Tigray, Using Rape, Hunger & Forced Resettlement (Mengistu did it back then, Abiy Ahmed is doing the same now) as a Weapon against People in Tigray for the past 130 years:-
The great famine is estimated to have caused 3.5 million deaths. During Emperor Menelik’s Reign, Tigray was split into two regions, one of which he sold to the Italians who later named it Eritrea. Only two months after the death of Emperor Yohaness lV , Menelik signed the Wuchale treaty of 2 May 1889 conceding Eritrea to the Italians. It was not only Eritrea that Menelik gave away, he also had a hand in letting Djibouti be part of the French protectorate when he agreed the border demarcation with the French in 1887. Some huge parts of Tigray were put under Gonder. The Southern part, places like present day Alamata, Kobo etc were put under Wello Amhara administration.
👉 2. Haile Selassie (1892 – 1975)
In 1943, at the request of the Emperor Haile Selassie, the Royal British Airforce bombed two towns – Mekelle and Corbetta. Thousands of defenseless civilians lost their lives as a result of aerial bombardment. It is recorded that ‘on 14th October [1943] 54 bombs dropped in Mekelle, 6th October 14 bombs followed by another 16 bombs on 9thOctober in Hintalo, 7th/9th October 32 bombs in Corbetta’.
Between 2 and 5 million’ people died between 1958 and 1977 as a cumulative result. Haile Selassie, who was emperor at the time, refused to send any significant basic emergency food aid to the province of Tigray,
👉 3. Mengistu Hailemariam (1937 – )
1979 – 1985 + 1987
Due to organized government policies that deliberately multiplied the effects of the famine, around 1.2 million people died from this famine. Mengistu & his Children still alive & ‘well’ while Tigrayans starving again.
👉 4. Abiy Ahmed Ali (1976 – )
2018 – Until today: probably up to 500.000 already dead. 😠😠😠 😢😢😢 Unlike the past famine there is no natural or man-made drought, rather, Abiy simply uses war and hunger as a weapon. Abiy Ahmed sent his kids to America for safety, while bombing & starving Tigrayan kids!
