Ethiopian, Eritrean Armies and Amhara Forces are worse than ISIS?

Daniel T. Fidino Melbourne

10-26-21

Of late, the slaughtering of war captives of Tigray Defense Force by Amhara forces has been making rounds on social media being slaughtered in a way reminiscent to the ISIS beheading of Eritreans and Ethiopians in Libya in April 2015. It is to be remembered then, in a matter of a day or two, Ethiopians gathered in Addis Abeba Meskel square and were asking themselves if the ISIS were real human beings and if ISIS had any religion or humanity. Now, time has come Ethiopia much cruel and worse than ISIS in the body of Ethiopian army, Eritrean and Amhara forces – one can look back on the horrors they have committed on Tigray civilians! One can ask that today, several and similar things happen in their own country Ethiopia and Ethiopians are still unmoved or worse, they are being part of it. For instance, the religious leaders of Ethiopia then praised their country and religious traditions claiming their country is holy one, their people adhere to principles of human dignity irrespective of religious, ethnic or political affiliation. How false that was and still is!

Today, most of the same religious leaders in Ethiopia support ethnic cleansing, man made starvation and dehumanization of Tigrayans. Killing, arresting, and profiling of Tigrayans in Ethiopia doesn’t provoke any religious value anymore. The Ethiopian religious leaders and most civil societies have generally been making public statements one after the other even in prior to 2018, before Abiy’s ascendency to power. However, when Tigray genocide is presided over by Ethiopian, Amhara and Eritrean axis, they were fine or at least tolerated it. The same is true while Gumuz, Quemant, Afar, Somali, Guji and Oromo or any ethnic groups are attacked. Only when Amhara civilians are killed or victimized in some parts, then some of them at least make some feeble noise using diaspora medias. Overall, however, these leaders do not advocate for any group from justice point of view – except when the government asks them to do so for its own political ends.

Tigrayan Prisoners of War or any person of Tigray descent in Amhara and other places in Ethiopia

The Tigrayan prisoners of war in case they are captured in the midst of war, they are extrajudicially executed, sources repeatedly indicate. The Eritrean and Ethiopian government forces and Amhara forces if they capture any TDF members they execute them and they show on their TV channels Tigrayan Saudi returnees as PoWs to fake that they are having some PoWs. At present, the video making rounds on social media showing execution of TDF members by means of slaughtering in the middle of the road is just one among many such incidents, one can safely assume. The Ethiopian and Eritrean military have been executing civilians in Axum, Mahberediego near Axum and all other parts of Tigray, leave alone combatant captives. Therefore, leave alone the PoWs from TDF, Tigray civilians have been executed in the most harrowing of ways in various parts of Ethiopia but mostly in Tigray by Amhara, Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers. In most cases, the bodies of the victims were either thrown into rivers, cliffs, or on the road sides – burial rites were denied – in gross contradiction with Eritrean and Ethiopian religious and cultural traditions. We have also seen similar killings being executed in Borana, Wolega and so forth. Thus, it is deeply seated element of hatred against Tigrayan and Oromo sentiment for self-rule and exercising of their rights.

The real view

This heinous act of slaughtering of Tigrayan prisoners of war (PoWs) and making it viral on social media should be read and understood within the overall intentions of the partners in this genocide on Tigray people. It should be understood in line with mass-starvation of Tigray people, blocking of medicine, humanitarian aid, damaging of Tigray economy at individual and people’s levels, in line with the Mahberediego, Axum, Irob, Dinglet, and western Tigray massacres among other countless cases in Tigray. Therefore, in the course of sophisticated and multipronged genocide context, such acts are part and parcel of these genocidal forces – as trend shows. The worst might be yet to come because the Amhara forces are now on a killing spree of innocent Tigrayans anywhere even if those Tigrayans lived among them for years and even if they are civilians. They just kill them and then create reasons later by claiming they had radio or communication equipment and more. Why didn’t they take them to court? Because there is not case worthy the court. The Amhara regional government in fact long put direction that there should not be any need of ‘wasting time’ to take suspects to the courts. However, such a sense less and uncivilized approach can only radicalize the victim side for further determination to liberate themselves from such deadly intentioned governments.