Ethiopia: Ethiopia: The EHRC and Amnesty says the same thing [on the Axum massacre]

This piece is written because the Ethiopian government and others went out quickly to dismiss the evidence and the reporting of the Amnesty International Report, which was published in end of February 2021. While now, the same state actors are addressing and not questioning the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRC). This is very ironic and is the reason why I will show the similarities and differences.

Amnesty first reports:

Between 19 and 29 November 2020, Eritrean troops operating in the Ethiopian city of Axum, Tigray, committed a series of human rights and humanitarian law violations, including killing hundreds of civilians. Over an approximately 24-hour period on 28-29 November, Eritrean soldiers deliberately shot civilians on the street and carried out systematic house-to-house searches, extrajudicially executing men and boys. The massacre was carried out in retaliation for an earlier attack by a small number of local militiamen, joined by local residents armed with sticks and stones” (Amnesty, February 2021).

EHRC states:

Information collected during this preliminary investigation confirm that during the two days of November 28 and November 29, grave violations of human rights were committed and that in Aksum, over one hundred residents including visitors from other parts of the country who came to mark the annual Aksum Tsion celebration and internally displaced persons from other parts of Tigray, were killed by Eritrean soldiers” (EHRC, March 2021).

Just by these statements alone. We can see that Amnesty International wasn’t wrong or had the wrong witnesses. As the state own authority is saying the same thing. They are claiming the human rights violations by Eritrean soldiers in Axum during November 2020 last year. These two things are showing the ones speaking ill of Amnesty should reconsider stance. Especially, if they are accepting the Preliminary Report of EHRC.

About the November 28th November Amnesty wrote this:

From about 3 to 4 pm, lines of Eritrean trucks and tanks reportedly entered the city from the east. Their numbers bolstered by the new arrivals, Eritrean soldiers went on a rampage, shooting at civilian men and youths who were out on the streets attempting to flee in panic. The killing, which one witness said began around 4 pm, was carried out on a large scale and continued until the evening” (Amnesty, February 2021).

EHRC report says this:

On November 25, members of ENDF were seen to be leaving Aksum and on November 26, residents said they could not see any “soldiers moving around the city”. On November 27, however, “a large number of Eritrean soldiers began coming into Aksum”. “They took up posts in three different locations of the city: ‘Maye Kuho’; ‘Samuna Fabrika’ and ‘Tsele’a’. On November 28, 2020, we started hearing heavy gun fire all around the city.”” (EHRC, March 2021).

Here we see again that the reports are saying similar things. The stories are fitting together. So, the ones who dismissed the Amnesty report was insincere. As both the EHRC and Amnesty is saying the same thing went down.

We know the EHRC is working in favour of the state. The EHRC will downplay and also undermine the total damage done by the state authorities and its allies. However, the Amnesty has its interests too. Still, it is interesting how similar the stories are and how they can co-exist together.

When you read the two reports. The stories could be mended together and explain further what happened. Both reports are blaming Eritrean forces in Axum and they were using vile force on civilians. Therefore, they are the ones responsible for the massacre occurring there in November 2020.

The ones that went after Amnesty and called it “fake news”. Have to go out and held accountable. As the state authority EHRC is validating the same things. They are both claiming the same things and showing similar results. When that is happening. The Amnesty clearly didn’t make things up, but reported factual evidence on the ground. EHRC is doing the same, but are not as direct as Amnesty. As Amnesty is there to defend civilians and their rights. While the EHRC is there to do its duty and mandate in concern with orders of Addis Ababa. This is why the EHRC report isn’t as horrific and straightforward in comparison to Amnesty. However, that is because of their role and their mandate is vastly different.

We can clearly see that the massacre went down. That innocent lives was taken. The Eritrean forces violated the rules of war. The accounts mentioned in the reports is devastating and shows a sinister side. The war in Tigray is clearly more bloody than the authorities and the state wants out. They are clearly aiming at civilians and destroying society. That is the clear message in the reports and reflects the actions made by the ones in-charge of Law Enforcement Operation. They have to be held to account and answer for the injustice served in Tigray. Not only what happened on those days in Axum, but all across the State of Tigray. Peace.

Ethiopia: The Office of the United Nations High Commissiioner for Human Rights and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission to conduct a joint investigation with a view to a credible accountability process (25.03.2021)

Opinion: Abiy burned Asmara’s narrative in Tigray

Yesterday in the House of Federation or the Parliament in Addis Ababa, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali was addressing several of topics for the lawmakers. During this national address or speech. He spoke about the Tigray Region and others involvement, which he has not revealed before.

Clearly the Prime Minister have been pressured to say this or seen the need to speak about the involvement of Eritrean Defence Force (EDF) in the Operation Law Enforcement in Tigray. However, now there is an official explanation now for their entering there. Before, it has been dismissed and the authorities have claimed it not to be true. Though reports has stated otherwise.

Eritrea Letter:

The reason for the lack of evidence regarding the presence of Eritrean troops in Ethiopia is not for the lack of effort by media organisations like yours, but because of the simple fact that there are no Eritrean troops in the region” (Yared Tesfaye letter to Chief Executive of Channel4, Alex Mahon – Embassy of the State of Eritrea, United Kingdom – 22.03.2021).

As we saw two days ago, the Eritrean Authorities did like they normally did. They said there was no troops, no soldiers or any presence of Eritrean forces within Tigray or in Ethiopia in general. However, the fact that has been called “false” is now proven by the allies, the Ethiopian Prime Minister himself. He said it loud and clear yesterday.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali to the Parliament:

However, after the Eritrean army crossed the border and was operating in Ethiopia, any damage it did to our people was unacceptable” (…) “We don’t accept it because it is the Eritrean army, and we would not accept it if it were our soldiers. The military campaign was against our clearly targeted enemies, not against the people. We have discussed this four or five times with the Eritrean government” (…) “Eritrea told us it had national security issues and as a result had seized areas on the border” (…) “The Eritrean government has severely condemned alleged abuses and has said it will take measures against any of its soldiers accused of such” (Abiy, 23.03.2021).

If there ever was an ally. He would have at least played along or said the same. Now, Addis Ababa is giving another memo than Asmara.

President Isaias Afwerki should be alarmed by this. Now the whole downplaying and acting innocent cannot work anymore. That because the Ethiopian government are now throwing them under the bus. This after the Eritrean have fought the battles of the Ethiopians. Yes, the TPLF might be joint enemies. However, there is still much more at stake for Abiy than Afwerki.

Afwerki and Eritrea is already sanctioned and seen as a pariah-state. Abiy on the other hand was a Noble Peace Prize Winner and Reformer. He has so much more to loose and his already loosing it all. Because, he thought he could quickly win the battle of Tigray and be crowned supreme King. Nevertheless, the Ethiopian-Eritrean Operation has done more harm than good.

This is why yesterday really says a lot. When both parties have been willing to lie about this for months. What else are they willing to hide or not tell? When they are speaking with a double tongue for so long… what is the next revelation they will reveal?

Reports was saying this for so long, but until yesterday was it said by anyone in power. Abiy have now released the cat out of the bag. It is now official. The Prime Minister and President is co-operating and they should play with open cards. But… that we know will never happened. Because, they don’t want the world to know the truth. Peace.

Opinion: Eritrea is flawless

You wake up (Flawless)

Post up (Flawless)

Riding ’round in it (Flawless)

Flossin’ on that (Flawless)

This diamond (Flawless)

My diamond (Flawless)

This rock (Flawless)

My Roc (Flawless)” Beyonce – ‘Flawless’ (2013)

The Horn of Africa got an utopia nobody knows about. Some people calls it the ‘North Korea’ of Africa. It doesn’t matter if dissidents dies, people are fleeing forced subscriptions to the army and there is a non-existent civil space. No, Asmara and Eritrea is what the world should be.

There is nobody as great and a stable genius like Isaias Afwerki. The man who can live in transition since 1993. The man who never only needed a referendum to be liberated from Ethiopia. Since the parties of all parties have run supreme. The People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) is the motherland and the fatherland in one. There will be no party like that and nobody will ever be worthy of challenging Afwerki.

Afwerki is the sort of man that deserves to rule by presidential decrees. A man who can decide every little thing. He can make prison camps and appoint his allies to companies. Civilians is fine to to be tried in military courts and be tried without any evidence. The fleeing civilians from being kept as slaves for the party and high ranking officials. That is how you build a nation of patriotic men. You are supposed to serve your best years for pennies. That being between 18 years to 40 years old.

That is the system of Afwerki. A man with no flaws. He has so little flaws. That everyone who oppose him ceases to exist. They just vanish. Either they flee through horrific dangers across the continent in hope to reach Europe. If not they are lingering in detention camps or refugee camps in the countries with borders too it. That is the sort of greatness the PFDJ have given the world.

Afwerki who never needed elections is flawless. The man of all ages. His the natural leader and the visionary. The man who exposes man kind and that is evident since November 2020. That is why they are scapegoated and blamed for all the ills in Tigray region. These folks wouldn’t do people harm. Except for their own… which have gotten ill treatment every time they have tried to defy the Presidential Orders. Well, his the pure enlightenment of man-kind. So, everyone should bow down to the greatness of Afwerki and his PFDJ.

That is why all sanctions and resolutions against Eritrea is always baseless. If not is made by spineless men who report human rights violations like the scrupulous men Mahmud Sherifo, Petros Solomon and Haile Woldensae. Those who dared to criticise the government and the President. These men should have just been loyal to the President and his party. They know deep in their hearts that there is no greater man than Isias walking on planet earth.

That is why Eritrean government is never to be blamed. Their soldiers and forced conscription in the army. If not critics, journalists and other dissidents just have mysterious illnesses or dies in detentions. Not worry, that is because these folks are faint hearted and not because the state is repressive.

What is the lesson of today? Well, Asmara, PFDJ and Afwerki is flawless. They are perfect. No matter what the Eritrean Defence Force (EDF) does inside Ethiopia. Heck, it must be a spotless and definitely not bringing atrocities to a new area. No, they are just innocent angles blessing every town they come too.

Afwerki would never kill his enemies. Isaias would never silence his dissidents or deport foreigners questioning his reign. No, he would just be a puppy and grinning nicely. That is who he is and its weird that his not on the list to become a saint by the Vatican. Someone hasn’t done their job in Asmara and a civil servant should be warned.

The EDF is reported to be a vile force inside the Tigray Region. But when you know about the innocent and non-elected government of Asmara. You should know that a saint like Afwerki would never touch a soul. He would only send his blessings and wouldn’t offer a preposition they couldn’t refuse.

So, whatever the European Union or United States says about Eritrea. They are wrong and blinded by propaganda from detractors. They should listen to the choirs of Afwerki. These are the ones that knows and has the enlightenment, which the rest of world has never understood. His a supreme being and should be deemed as a demigod. Everyone else is lucky to breathe the same air as Isaias. His flawless and mind is beyond ordinary human reasoning. 

So, If you know, now you know. Peace.

Ethiopia: Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) – Final Notice from the Government to all allied with the TPLF Outlaws (19.03.2021)

Ethiopia: Salsay Weyane Tigray (SaWeT), National Congress of Great Tigray (Baytone) and Tigray Independence Party (TIP) Joint Letter to Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Commissioner of the African Union – The Involvement of the African Union in investigating genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, massacre and rape committed on the people of Tigray (18.03.2021)

Ethiopia: Oromo Political Prisoners Defence Team – Journalist Melese Diribsa Pleads Not Guilty at Federal High Court Hearing (15.03.2021)

March 15, 2021

His statement:

I am a journalist. I didn’t become journalist off the streets. I studied journalism and have over 10 years of experience. That’s why I do my job very well. Unfortunately, journalism doesn’t have respect in this country. The government silences those who criticize its actions and policies.

We thought there were some reforms in our country and decided to get to work.
Dr. Abiy’s administration silences anyone whose ideas don’t align with his, and for that reason he targets journalists. I am targeted because of my qualifications and because I do my job with the utmost professionalism. I am not guilty of the fabricated charges against me. I am being punished by the same government that continues to crack down on journalists and suppress media in this country.

Melese Diribsa was a journalist at Oromia Media Network before he was arrested on June 30, 2020.

Ethiopia: Oromo Political Prisoners Defence Team – Dejene Tafa, High Ranking OFC Official, Pleads Not Guilty at Federal High Court Hearing (15.03.2021)

March 15, 2021

Mr. Tafa’s statement:

The charges brought against me aren’t clear and are not sufficient to plead guilty. The Criminal Code provision I am being charged with states the use of a firearm was used to incite violence. Yet, the content of one of the charges brought against me is inciting violence by the use of stones and sticks. The charges against me and the Criminal Code provision I’m being charged with are unrelated. I was arrested one week after Hacaaluu Hundessa’s assassination. I was surrounded and arrested in my home, not on the way to the funeral home. The weapon charge has already been dismissed by this court. The prosecutor presented stones and sticks to charge Oromos with possession of weapons. We believe that the only nuclear weapon Oromos have is to use our farming products, including wheat and other crops, for peaceful struggle.

I am also being charged for saying “the government, particularly the House of Peoples Representatives, would lose its legitimacy on Sene 30th (July 7th, 2020).” It’s my right to say that and I will repeat it without hesitation: the current government has finished its term and there is no legitimate government in place currently. The incumbent, knowing very well that Dr. Abiy’s government term has expired, has interpreted the law to accommodate the expiring term.

The other thing I’m being charged with is for saying, “there needs to be a transitional government.” Yes, I still believe there needs to be a transitional government. For many years, the struggle of the people for freedom and democracy has been aborted by successive oppressive governments. Now, we don’t want another fake election, like the one Prosperity Party is currently preparing. We need an inclusive transitional government. The way things are going currently, it is inevitable that a transitional government will be established.

Thank you.

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF): Health facilities targeted in Ethiopia’s Tigray region (15.03.2021)

In some health facilities across Tigray, the looting of health facilities continues, according to MSF teams.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, March 15, 2021 – Health facilities across Ethiopia’s Tigray region have been looted, vandalised and destroyed in a deliberate and widespread attack on healthcare, according to teams from international medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Of 106 health facilities visited by MSF teams between mid-December and early March, nearly 70 per cent had been looted and more than 30 percent had been damaged; just 13 per cent were functioning normally.

In some health facilities across Tigray, the looting of health facilities continues, according to MSF teams. While some looting may have been opportunistic, health facilities in most areas appear to have been deliberately vandalised to make them non-functional.  In many health centers, such as in Debre Abay and May Kuhli in the North-West, teams found destroyed equipment, smashed doors and windows, and medicine and patient files scattered across floors.

In Adwa hospital in central Tigray, medical equipment, including ultrasound machines and monitors, had been deliberately smashed. In the same region, the health facility in Semema was reportedly looted twice by soldiers before being set on fire, while the health centre in Sebeya was hit by rockets, destroying the delivery room.

Hospitals occupied by soldiers

Every fifth health facility visited by MSF teams was occupied by soldiers. In some instances this was temporary, in others the armed occupation continues. In Mugulat in east Tigray, Eritrean soldiers are still using the health facility as their base. The hospital in Abiy Addi in central Tigray, which serves a population of half a million, was occupied by Ethiopian forces until early March.

“The army used Abiy Addi hospital as a military base and to stabilise their injured soldiers,” says MSF emergency coordinator Kate Nolan. “During that time it was not accessible to the general population. They had to go the town’s health centre, which was not equipped to provide secondary medical care – they can’t do blood transfusions, for example, or treat gunshot wounds.” 

Ambulances seized

Few health facilities in Tigray now have ambulances, as most have been seized by armed groups. In and around the city of Adigrat in east Tigray, for example, some 20 ambulances were taken from the hospital and nearby health centres. Later, MSF teams saw some of these vehicles being used by soldiers near the Eritrean border, to transport goods. As a result, the referral system in Tigray for transporting sick patients is almost non-existent. Patients travel long distances, sometimes walking for days, to reach essential health services.

Many health facilities have few – or no – remaining staff. Some have fled in fear; others no longer come to work because they have not been paid in months.

Devastating impact on population

“The attacks on Tigray’s health facilities are having a devastating impact on the population,” says MSF general director Oliver Behn. “Health facilities and health staff need to be protected during a conflict, in accordance with international humanitarian law. This is clearly not happening in Tigray.”

Before the conflict began in November 2020, Tigray had one of the best health systems in Ethiopia, with health posts in villages, health centres and hospitals in towns, and a functioning referral system with ambulances transporting sick patients to hospital. This health system has almost completely collapsed.

MSF staff conducting mobile clinics in rural areas of Tigray hear of women who have died in childbirth because they were unable to get to a hospital due to the lack of ambulances, rampant insecurity on the roads and a night-time curfew. Meanwhile many women are giving birth in unhygienic conditions in informal displacement camps.

In the past four months, few pregnant women have received antenatal or postnatal care, and children have gone unvaccinated, raising the risk of future outbreaks of infectious diseases. Patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and HIV, as well as psychiatric patients, are going without lifesaving drugs. Survivors of sexual violence are often unable to get medical and psychological care.

“The health system needs to be restored as soon as possible,” says Behn. “Health facilities need to be rehabilitated and receive more supplies and ambulances, and staff need to receive salaries and the opportunity to work in a safe environment. Most importantly, all armed groups in this conflict need to respect and protect health facilities and medical staff.”

Eritrea: Ministry of Foreign Affaris – EU’s Unwarranted Statement on Eritrea (14.03.2021)