Are the Ethiopian & Eritrean Armies and the Amhara Forces Worse than ISIS?

By Daniel T. Fidino, Melbourne

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 of 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, the time has come, and showed that Ethiopia is much cruel and worse than ISIS in the body of the 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 a 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 before 2018, before Abiy�s ascendency to power. However, when the Tigray genocide is presided over by the Ethiopian, Amhara and Eritrean axis, they were fine or at least tolerated it. The same is true while Gumuz, Quemant, Afar, Somali, Guji 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 media. Overall, however, these leaders do not advocate for any group from a justice point of view � except when the government asks them to do so for its 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, 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, Mahbere Diego 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 Forces and the Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers. In most cases, the bodies of the victims were either thrown into rivers, cliffs or on the roadsides � 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 a 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 Mahbere Diego, 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 the 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 no case worthy of the court. The Amhara regional government in fact long put the direction that there should not be any need to �waste time� to take suspects to the courts. However, such a senseless and uncivilized approach can only radicalize the victim side for further determination to liberate themselves from such deadly intentioned governments.

To the People of Ethiopia � stand on the right side of history! Keep your children away from the genocide against Tigrayans � ask for free unhindered humanitarian access to Tigray. It will be over, but we are mutually destroying our present and future joy.

To the Global community � as long as Isaias Afework and his government continue with impunity in the Horn of Africa, peace will remain elusive. He will continue to disrupt. All in all, Isaias�s and Abiy�s soldiers plus Amhara forces are worse than the ISIS group that slaughtered Ethiopians in Libya.