On Tuesday 21, Dember 2021, Tigrayans and friends of Tigray rallied in front of the headquarter of NATO. The aim of the public protest was to call for the international community and institutions to stop the ongoing 13 months old genocidal war on Tigray war. An official letter was submitted by the Union of Tigrayans in Belgium who coordinated the demonstration.
The letter reads as follows:#
Call to end the all-round suffering in the war-torn Tigray region in Ethiopia
On November 4, 2020, a war began in Tigray, Ethiopia's northern region. Since then, civilians in Tigray have been the victims of deliberate and heinous crimes committed by armed forces. The following is a summary of the situation. Tigray was previously the most peaceful and orderly region in Ethiopia, providing a safe haven for nearly 100,000 Eritrean refugees. The Tigrayans maintained peace despite intense pressure from multiple directions for more than three years (ethnically targeted, main roads to and from Tigray blocked, foreign investments deliberately halted, exclusion from federal projects etc.). Tigrayans have become the targets of massive campaigns of hate speech, ethnic profiling, classification, symbolization, and dehumanization on both social and state-run media. They are referred to as "others," "daylight hyenas," "cancers," "evils," and "junta" in documentaries, daily conversations, and official writings by government officials, including the prime minister.
Since the start of the war, gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law have been committed. A brief summary of those crimes is provided below, followed by our demands.
- Indiscriminate drone attack: It should be recalled that when the war in Tigray erupted, drones arriving at Assab port wreaked havoc on the region, exposing civilians and destroying agricultural products. Once again, in the last two months, indiscriminate drone and airstrike attacks on Mekelle and other towns in Tigray have targeted civilians and civilian property. Only two days ago, on 17-18 December 2021, an airstrike on Alamata town killed nearly 40 civilians and injured 100 more6. If the international community and relevant institutions do not act immediately to put an end to these atrocities, tomorrow will be too late.
- Siege on Tigray: After the Ethiopian Military Forces and their foreign allies, primarily Eritrean forces, were driven out of the majority of Tigray during the TDF's (Tigrayan Defence Forces), Operation Alula, the Ethiopian authorities declared a unilateral ceasefire. Since then, they have maintained a strict siege on Tigray. They closed Tigray's borders, prohibited flights, disrupted communications, and barred international aid workers from entering. This siege follows the effective destruction of food and water systems by Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Amhara militia, as well as the devastation and looting of medical facilities. following the deeply alarming remarks made by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in a video statement to members of the Ethiopian press, released by his office on the 30th of June 2021, the ethnic-based targeting of Tigrayans living outside Tigray has intensified. In this statement, the Prime Minister declared his intention to abandon state responsibility in Tigray and put the region in state besiege cut from all legitimately expected basic public services such as telecommunication, transportation, medicine, electricity, and banking as retaliation for military losses the Ethiopian army incurred.
On June 10, 2021, Mark Lowcock, the UN's then-assistance chief, stated that "food is unquestionably being used as a weapon of war" in Tigray. Over 350,000 people are on the verge of starvation". Since then, the number of people living in famine conditions has risen to over 900,000, with another 1.5 million civilians on the verge of starvation, despite Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's assertion that 'There is no hunger in Tigray.' On May 20, 2021, USAID issued a warning to the world that their early warning system had detected a category 5 food emergency (the final phase, also known as Catastrophe), in which over 5.2 million people require emergency humanitarian assistance. Additionally, UNICEF issued a stark warning that over 33,000 children are at risk of death due to acute malnutrition5.
- Ongoing atrocities and ethnic cleansing: Tigrayans are ethnically cleansed in Western Tigray and other areas. Western remains largely occupied by Amhara militia and Eritrean soldiers. In these areas, horrifying atrocities against Tigrayans continue. According to a CNN investigation, ethnic Tigrayans in Western Tigray were discovered floating in the Tekeze river with their hands tied behind their backs and shot to death. While the genocidal intent is there in the whole region, the situation in western Tigray is severe. On March 16, 2021, CNN came out with warning news from Secretary Antonio Blinken “Blinken: Acts of 'ethnic cleansing' committed in Western Tigray”, that the Amhara forces are committing an act of ethnic cleansing4. Yet, after 10 months, Human Rights Watch came out with shocking news of “Ethiopia: New Wave of Atrocities in Western Tigray”5.
- Ethnic-based mass arrest:
On July 18, 2021, the prime minister made another statement in which he referred to the "junta," which has become a demonizing term for Tigrayans, like cancer that must be eradicated. As a result, mass arrests, business closures, and harassment of Tigrayans have reached an alarming level, necessitating immediate international intervention. Additionally, Tigrayans deported from Saudi Arabian prisons are arrested upon arrival in Addis Ababa. Later in the decade, such rhetoric reached a zenith, with government officials and journalists in other countries demanding the detention of ethnic Tigrayans in concentration camps. Thousands of Tigrayans are now languishing in concentration camps, with many reported dead7.
- Acts of genocide: Ethiopian authorities are adamant about carrying out their ill-intentioned plan to exterminate Tigrayans, which they boldly confirmed to European Union special envoy and Finnish foreign minister H.E. Pekka Haavisto. "When I met with Ethiopia's leadership in February, they used this type of language, claiming that they were going to destroy the Tigrayans, wipe them out for 100 years, and so forth." In practice, they exhibited all of the standard indicators of premeditated systemic depopulation or extermination efforts against the people of Tigray, including systematic cleansing of the Tigrayan bloodline, the deliberate dismantling of Tigrayan social fabrics, and deliberate destruction of Tigrayan historical and religious heritages in order to deprive Tigrayans of their collective identities. So far, over 230 systematic massacres have been documented. Women and girls are frequently mass raped, while men (primarily but not exclusively of productive age) are massacred.
Senator Leahy of Vermont stated the following about the situation in Tigray: "the terrible reality today is that famine, crimes against humanity, and genocide are occurring in Tigray, and they are occurring for one reason: the complicity of government officials in Addis and Asmara." Indeed, some reports suggest that the situation in Tigray may be worse than in Darfur."[1]Additionally, Michael McCaul, the lead Republican congressman on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, raised concerns over whether genocide is occurring in Ethiopia’s Tigray region[2]. Thus, it remains to be confirmed by relevant entities, however, the standard indicators of acts of genocide are visible in the war on Tigray.
In light of the aforementioned human rights violations and breach of humanitarian laws, we the undersigned associations urge you to:
- Condemn hate speech and genocidal call by Ethiopian authorities including PM Abiy Ahmed and his advisors against Tigrayans;
- Ensure the protection, the safety and security of Tigrayans in and outside of Tigray;
- Establish rapid, unconditional, unfettered, and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid and items essential to survival, that cannot be thwarted by a hostile government in Ethiopia by all means;
- Deploy UN-only monitoring, verification, and investigation Commission in Tigray that cannot be influenced by the pre-established narratives of the Ethiopian government;
- Ensure the verified removal of all Ethiopian, Eritrean and Amhara forces from the constitutionally recognized territories of Tigray;
- Ensure the removal of all Eritrean and Amhara forces from Tigray territory to facilitate the provision of humanitarian aid and protection and return of Tigrayan Internally Displaced Persons to their place of origins in South, Western and other parts of Tigray;
- Refer the situation in Tigray to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and other violations of international humanitarian law, along with statements such as this one made by the Prime Minister that establish an intention to war crimes and crimes against humanity; and
- Call for an immediate moratorium of hate rhetoric from officials on all sides toward a peaceful resolution to the civil wars in Ethiopia through an all-inclusive national dialogue.
Union of Tigrayans in Europe
21 December 2021
More information could be obtained using the following links about the war on Tigray #KnowMore:
[1] Statement On The Situation In Tigray, Ethiopia https://www.leahy.senate.gov/press/statement-on-the-situation-in-tigray-ethiopia
2 US congressman Michael McCaul raises the spectre of 'genocide' in Tigray https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/the-americas/us-congressman-michael-mccaul-raises-spectre-of-genocide-in-tigray-1.1242853
4 Blinken: Acts of 'ethnic cleansing' committed in Western Tigray: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/10/politics/blinken-tigray-ethnic-cleansing/index.html
5 Ethiopia: New Wave of Atrocities in Western Tigray: https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/12/16/ethiopia-new-wave-atrocities-western-tigray?fbclid=IwAR2SrISu0N2pGVn8Y1dsfC199wrvQaO5uutrusAtGZi2KS5UBiLKBhWP2mg
6 Breaking News: Six rounds of airstrike in a marketplace in Tigray’s Alamata kill 28, injure 78 Breaking News: Six rounds of airstrike in a marketplace in Tigray’s Alamata kill 28, injure 78 - Globe-News Net
7 Ethiopia: Ethnic Tigrayans Put Into 'Concentration Camps,' Reports Say (businessinsider.com)