Mereja.Forum

It has been almost a year since Nobel Peace Prize Winner Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed along with his Eritrean and Amhara allies launched a war against the Tigray region. Although cast by the Ethiopian regime as a “law enforcement operation” and by the international community as an unfortunate but almost inevitable military solution to political differences between Abiy Ahmed and the governing party of Tigray, the Tigray People’s Liberation Force (TPLF) the war has proven to be a genocidal campaign intent on decimating Tigray and to “wipe out” Tigrayans.

Over the last year, the world has been shocked by the constant stream of revelations about the atrocity crimes that have been committed in Tigray, including dozens of massacres of innocent civilians, weaponized sexual violence on an industrial scale, systematic destruction of the Tigrayan economy, and livelihoods, as well as ongoing siege and total blockade of humanitarian operations orchestrating man-made famine that has put millions of people under imminent threat of starvation.

A persistent backdrop to this long list of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide committed in Tigray thus far has also been the ethnic profiling, harassment, arbitrary mass arrests, extrajudicial and mob killings of Tigrayans living outside of Tigray, in the rest of Ethiopia. Although these have all been reported upon by Human Rights organizations and the media several times, thus far the treatment of Tigrayans outside of Tigray has always seemed to pale in comparison to the atrocities being visited on Tigray itself. This, however, seems set to change in the most horrific way possible with the intensification of inflammatory speech and incitement to genocide over the last days and weeks.

The continuous drumbeat of hate speech and genocidal rhetoric that has accompanied the war and fuelled atrocities in Tigray seems to now be heightening to a feverish pitch and is focusing on Tigrayans in the rest of Ethiopia. This direction has particularly been evidenced in the seemingly concerted campaign inciting government action and vigilante attacks on Tigrayans that has followed the most recent military setbacks faced by the Ethiopian federal troops and allied Amhara regional and irregular forces.

Incitement to Violence and Genocide

A cursory look at the barrage of posts recommending measures against Tigrayans across Ethiopia, which mainly erupted on Facebook on the 30th of October 2021, suggests that the initial post that seems to trigger others (or possibly intentionally starts a preorganized campaign) is one by ESAT journalist Messay Mekonnen, infamous for making the call to “drain the sea to kill the fish” – i.e. eliminate the Tigrayan people.

Of particular note is the last paragraph which partially reads as follows:

Urgent Message to the Government: It is not too late. It is necessary to intern everyone of Tigrayan descent, even if they have no connection with TPLF, in temporary camps. During the Second World War, the United States was able to win the war against the invading Japanese forces and Hitler’s army only after interning all Japanese citizens living in the country in camps. Ethiopia is now facing even more imminent danger. It is widely believed that the main actors in the struggle for Dessie are TPLF supporters living amongst the people. It is impossible to win the war with them in our midst. This step should be taken urgently, including for their own safety.

Continue reading https://tghat.com/2021/10/31/do-it-even ... -ethiopia/