A myriad of reports has time and again released by major international human rights organizations regarding the untold crimes committed by terrorist TPLF in Amhara and Afar regions. Already terrorist TPLF is getting ready to conduct more crimes in the two regions as the world has chosen to sit on the fence when millions are suffering in the regions.
Amnesty International came up with a new report on terrorist TPLF atrocities in Amhara region on the 16th of February highlighting, “New burial sites near St. Georges Church in Kobo” In a report that issued today, Amnesty International noted that “ Fighters affiliated with the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) deliberately killed dozens of people, gang-raped dozens of women and girls – some as young as 14 – and looted private and public property in two areas of northern Ethiopia’s Amhara region,” Amnesty International said in a new report released today.
According to Amnesty International, “The atrocities were perpetrated in and around Chenna and Kobo in late August and early September 2021; shortly after Tigrayan forces took control of the areas in July. The attacks were often characterized by additional acts of violence and brutality, death threats, and the use of ethnic slurs and derogatory remarks. In Kobo, Tigrayan forces were apparently lashing out at the civilian population in retaliation for increased resistance from local militias and armed residents.”
“Tigrayan forces have shown utter disregard for fundamental rules of international humanitarian law which all warring parties must follow. Evidence is mounting of a pattern of Tigrayan forces committing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity in areas under their control in the Amhara region from July 2021 onwards. This includes repeated incidents of widespread rape, summary killings and looting, including from hospitals,” said Sarah Jackson, Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes at Amnesty International.
“The TPLF leadership must put an immediate end to the atrocities we have documented and remove from its forces anyone suspected of involvement in such crimes.”
“Tigrayan forces have shown utter disregard for fundamental rules of international humanitarian law which all warring parties must follow. This includes repeated incidents of widespread rape, summary killings and looting, including from hospitals.” She added.
The report notes that “In Kobo, a town in the north-east of the Amhara region, Tigrayan fighters deliberately killed unarmed civilians, seemingly in revenge for losses among their ranks at the hands of Amhara militias and armed farmers. Amnesty International interviewed 27 witnesses and survivors, including some who helped to collect and bury the bodies.”
Ten Kobo residents reportedly told Amnesty International that in the afternoon of 9 September 2021, Tigrayan fighters summarily killed their relatives and neighbors outside their homes.
“First they shot my brother Taddese… He died on the spot. My other brother and my brother-in- law tried to move away and were both shot in the back and killed… they shot me in my left shoulder… I stayed down, pretending to be dead,” a survivor told Amnesty International.
Twelve other Kobo residents said that they found the bodies of local residents and laborers, who had been killed execution-style – shot in the head, chest or back, some with their hands tied behind their backs.
“The first dead bodies we saw were by the school fence. There were 20 bodies lying in their underwear and facing the fence and three more bodies in the school compound. Most were shot at the back of their heads and some in the back. Those who were shot at the back of their heads could not be recognized because their faces were partially blown off,” one male resident said.
The report continues noting that “Satellite imagery analysis by Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab shows evidence of new burial sites on the grounds of St. George’s Church and St. Michael’s Church, where residents said they had buried those killed on 9 September. Deliberate killings of civilians – or of captured, surrendered, or wounded fighters – constitute war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.”
The report also indicates that from July 2021 onwards, in and around Chenna, a village north of Bahir Dar, the capital of the Amhara region, Tigrayan forces raped dozens of women and girls as young as 14, often in the victims’ own homes after having forced them to provide food and cook for them.
The sexual violence was accompanied by shocking levels of brutality, including beatings, death threats, and ethnic slurs. Fourteen of the 30 survivors interviewed by Amnesty International said that they were gang-raped by multiple Tigrayan fighters, and some were raped in front of their children. Seven of the survivors were girls under the age of 18, the report notes.
The report adds that many of the survivors suffered severe and long-term physical and psychological damage, including 10 who remained hospitalized three months after they were raped. Doctors who provided medical care to rape survivors told Amnesty International that two rape survivors had to be treated for lacerations likely caused by having the bayonets of rifles inserted into their genitals.
Amnesty International has previously documented similar patterns of Tigrayan fighters raping Amhara women and girls in Nifas Mewcha, and has received credible reports of rape from other areas of the Amhara region. Such atrocities constitute war crimes and, potentially, crimes against humanity.
The report further noted that “In both Kobo and the Chenna area, residents told Amnesty International that Tigrayan fighters stole possessions from their homes and shops and looted and vandalized public properties, including medical clinics and schools.
The looting and damage to medical facilities made it impossible for rape survivors and other residents in need of medical care to obtain treatment locally, forcing them to wait until they could reach hospitals in Debark, Gondar and Bahir Dar weeks later. For rape survivors, this was far too late to receive crucial post-rape care, some of which needs to be administered within 72 hours.”
“These atrocities yet again drive home the need for swift action by the international community to investigate abuses by all sides, bring those responsible to account and ensure that survivors can realize their rights,” said Sarah Jackson.
The regional head of Amnesty International recommends “For too long, the international community has been failing victims and survivors of crimes under international law in Ethiopia.
The United Nations and African Union must deploy relevant investigation teams to the region. The international commission of human rights experts on Ethiopia, established by the UN Human Rights Council in December, must also be permitted to start its work and be granted access to the country as soon as possible.
Despite this chilling and horrific report, the international community and concerned UN systems are still reluctant to conduct extensive researches into the vandalistic crimes of terrorist TPLF, which is in fact now getting ready for the 3rd round of invasion against citizens in Amhara and has already started its invasion in Afar.
The UNHRC is particularly duty bound to conduct extensive investigation right on the spots where the crimes have been committed and bring justice for the victims who are so far neglected by the international community and the UN systems.
This report coincides with a massive preparation underway by terrorist TPLF, which is mobilizing the entire population in the region establishing new divisions of human wave army.
On the other hand, terrorist TPLF is coordinating with the Samri terrorist group which is hoping to invade Wolkayit from the west.
This shows that terrorist TPLF is in the last ditch of its attempts to retake territories from Amhara and take up a lockdown on Afar and the rest of Ethiopia. Although this is unlikely to happen at all, terrorist TPLF is using the situation for its empty propaganda to silence the people of Tigray.
It is now clear that TPLF takes so much care for few of its leaders who are busy detaching Tigray people with the rest of Ethiopia’s. TPLF has forced the regional Orthodox Church to detach itself from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church followed by similar action taken by the regional Muslim council.
All this is done by mobilizing weak and malnourished youth, child soldiers, mothers and their children so that they would perish in battle. The western powers and the entire western media have failed to prevent this crime that is being committed on the section of Ethiopian society that has nothing to do with politics or war. By keeping silent on this issue of crimes against humanity, the world is indirectly coming to the assistance of terrorist TPLF ignoring the sufferings of a section of mankind.
Terrorist TPLF is again being emboldened to commit any crime in any part of the world, because the western powers are nonchalant of the agony and sufferings of the people of Ethiopia but are talking about genocide in Tigray that has never been verified by facts and evidences that could be presented as a proof.
It is regrettable to observe that politics is over powering justice while terrorism is being allowed to go wild and unchecked. The crimes committed by terrorist TPLF go beyond a single report issued by Amnesty International justice must be restored for victims of terrorist TPLF savagery with no further delay.
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The
BY SOLOMON DIBABA
SUNDAY EDITION 27 FEBRUARY 2022
