Amnesty International Report on Terrorist Atrocities in Amhara a Drop in the Bucket
A number of reports have earlier been released by Amnesty International regarding the untold crimes committed by terrorist TPLF in Amhara and Afar regions. Suffice it to mention the chilling massacre of daily laborers counting to about 1200 in Maikadra town. 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.
Recently Amnesty International came up with a report on terrorist TPLF atrocities in Amhara region highlighting “New burial sites near St. Georges Church in Kobo”.
“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 2021. 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,” the report indicated.
The report quoting Sarah Jackson, Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, said: “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. 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.”
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,” Amnesty said.
Amnesty quoting 12 eyewitnesses of Kobo residents said that they found the bodies of local residents and labourers 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,” the report added.
According to the report, 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.
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.
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 terrorist fighters stole possessions from their homes and shops and looted and vandalized public properties, including medical clinics and schools in both Kobo and the Chenna areas.
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.
All told, given the magnitude of the crimes committed by terrorist TPLF against citizens in the entire Amhara and Afar regions, the report by Amnesty International is just a drop in a bucket. Although other human rights organizations have delivered similar reports over time, the atrocities conducted by the terrorist organization is far deeper and expansive affecting millions of citizens in Amhara and Afar regions.
More investigative reports are expected from other human rights organizations to accelerate its joint investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Terrorist TPLF is again being emboldened to commit any crime in neighboring regions, Amhara and Afar, because the western powers are nonchalant of the agony and sufferings of the people of Ethiopia but are echoing TPLF’s false narrative of “genocide in Tigray”, which has never been verified by facts and evidence on the ground. It is regrettable to observe that politics is overpowering justice while the terrorist is 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 the brutal group with no further delay.
Source: Ethiopia News Agency