BY SOLOMON DIBABA
Article Two of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of genocide defines genocide as “any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such” killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or part, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
In his book Rwanda and Genocide in the 20th Century, the former secretary-general of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Alain Destexhe, wrote: “Genocide is distinguishable from all other crimes by the motivation behind it.
“Genocide is a crime on a different scale to all other crimes against humanity and implies an intention to completely exterminate the chosen group. Genocide is therefore both the gravest and greatest of the crimes against humanity.”
Some examples of internationally recognized examples of genocide include and not limited to Twentieth-century events often cited as genocide include the 1915 Armenian massacre by the Turkish-led Ottoman Empire, the nearly complete extermination of European Jews, Roma (Gypsies), and other groups by Nazi Germany during World War II, and the killing of Tutsi by Hutu in Rwanda in the 1990s.
Several years back, the ICC has produced an arrest warrant for the former Sudanese President Oumer Al Bashir for genocide against humanity in Darfur.
Given the above mentioned definition of genocide which I think is not adequately inclusive, the inhumane crimes committed by terrorist TPLF, its leadership and individual terrorists in the group fulfil almost all the major requirements of international law to which would qualify them to stand before the court of law at the ICC for crimes of genocide.
Remaining cognizant of the situation, terrorist TPLF on its part was trying to accuse the government of Ethiopia by transporting the remains of its combatants mostly composed of child soldiers, women and the elderly to Mekele to make a show off on common graveyards it dug to bury the dead combatants as a demonstration of a genocide committed by the ENDF. More recently, they also organized a drama in which they dumped the remains of more than 30 bodies of their own combatants leaving them to float on Tekeze River to show that this was done by the ENDF. The whole idea behind the drama was to deceive the international community of nations in falsely demonstrating that genocide has occurred in Tigray State.
The truth however is far from what terrorist TPLF has tried to depict. In reality, terrorist TPLF has been committing genocide before the eyes of the western powers and their international media. Terrorist TPLF’s acts of genocide kicked off on November 4, 2020 when TPLF’s so called Special Forces massacred more than 600 members of the Northern Command of ENDF and injured thousands of servicemen in different divisions and brigades under the Command.
According to the report from Ethiopian Human Rights Commission which has been verified by UN Commission for Human Rights, on November 9,2020, terrorist TPLF forces massacred more than 1000 poor daily laborers and young persons from Amhara and other ethnic group residing in Mai Kadra leaving their remains on the scorching sun on the roads in the town. Another hundreds of the poor daily laborers also suffered injuries from machetes used by terrorist TPLF militia group stationed in the town.
Another wave of genocide known as the Humera massacres was conducted by terrorist TPLF militia as a mass extrajudicial killing spree taking place in Humera and at other locations along the Tekeze River at the end of July, beginning August 2021.
A couple of days back, according to Communication Office of Afar Regional State terrorist TPLF forces massacred 240 persons from ethnic Afar including 89 women and 107 children as well as 44 elderly by using tanks and artillery units launched from a nearby terrorist TPLF camp in a district bordering with Tigray Regional State.
The US Secretary of State Anthony J Blinken accused Ethiopia by branding the law enforcement measures taken by the Ethiopian Government as ethnic cleansing and the entire western and US base media outlets falsely trumpeted on this false allegation but never uttering a word on human rights violations and genocide acts conducted by terrorist TPLF forces.
Terrorist TPLF were campaigning on the social media trying to falsely accuse the Ethiopian government by using doctored pictures and video clippings which allegedly show members of the ENDF forces killing or torturing civilians in villages and towns in Tigray.
While the truth is that terrorist TPLF has continued to massacre thousands of innocent citizens in areas it occupied in Amhara and Afar States, it has continued to conduct well fabricated fake news and reports attempting to misinform the international community on the truth on the ground.
For almost 9 months now, western media outlets are already partnering with terrorist TPLF in broadcasting unverified propaganda on the people and government of Ethiopia regarding the realpolitik in Tigray.
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald
The Ethiopian Herald August 14/2021
