BY LEULSEGED WORKU
The T-TPLF enterprise since it launched aggression against the adjacent areas of Amhara and Afar states, it committed crimes against innocent civilians that no one in his right mind would do that.
As it was disclosed by survivors of the horrific crimes, and proven by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, insurgents of the terrorist group massacred and tortured civilians irrespective of differences, gang raped teenage girls, married women and even nuns and caused physical harm and psychological trauma, looted and damaged private and public properties and demolish infrastructure in areas they occupied for a short time.
The recent report of the Inter-Ministerial Taskforce, a human rights taskforce established by the government to oversee redress and accountability measures in response to human rights violations committed in the context of the conflict in northern Ethiopia, also revealed the crimes committed by the rebel group.
As to the report, some 2,212 women, girls, boys, and men were subjected to Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), including gang rape, when the T-TPLF took over parts of the Amhara and Afar states.
The committee proved that T-TPLF forces perpetrated the overwhelming majority of the SGBVs through direct interviews conducted with many survivors and substantiated via documentary evidence obtained from health facilities, rehabilitation centers, regional women’s sector bureaus, and prosecutors’ criminal investigation files.
Referring to the report, local media indicated that in the Amhara State alone, some 2192 gruesome sexual attacks have been committed. Out of the 2192 sexual attacks, 706 were executed in the North Wollo Zone, 644 in South Wollo Zone and 290 in Dessie, Kombolcha towns. North Gondar Zone and Kemise Town have also witnessed gender based assaults by T-TPLF fighters.
Shene fighters also perpetrated a few cases of gang-rape in the Oromia Special Zone of the Amhara State.
Similarly, in Afar State, some 20 gender based violence were committed by the rebels, according to the report.
The data gathered by the Committee demonstrated that the gruesome incidents of gang-rape and rape included intentional communication of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), including HIV and AIDS.
The Inter-Ministerial Taskforce on Accountability and Redress Investigation and Prosecutions Committee interviewed 186 survivors and received credible testimony that the insurgents brutally raped women in different towns and woredas of the North Shewa Zone.
The Committee also interviewed a woman survivor who was gang raped by 3 TPLF fighters after tying her hands behind. She was 6 months pregnant when the violent incident occurred.
The survivor experienced abortion; serious physical injury and emotional trauma. The Committee affirmed that the person who was an accomplice in this grave offense was detained and is under investigation in Shewa Robit Town.
The report also documented 706 cases of rape in the North Wollo Zone only, and corroborated the occurrence of the incidences through 111 additional witness testimonies.
Sadly enough, many of the women were raped or gang raped in front of their family members, the report further explained.
Based on evidences gathered by interviewing 37 eyewitnesses and victims, at least 37 girls and women were raped across different woredas of the Oromia State. Seven survivors were subjected to brutalized gang rape, it was noted.
The rape cases in this zone were all committed by TPLF and Shene. They were frequently accompanied by dehumanizing ethnic insults, the report disclosed. In addition, the Committee gathered evidences and identified 20 survivors of rape in different woredas of the Afar State. The evidences demonstrated that a greater part of the rape committed by the TPLF in the Afar State was gang rape.
In Yalo Woreda, for example, one elderly mother was raped by 5 TPLF fighters. The list of survivors includes a 70-year-old woman.
The report concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the incidences amounted to serious violations and abuses of international human rights, international humanitarian law and national laws.
Since the cases demonstrate that they were intentionally committed against civilians who had not taken any part in the conflict, there are reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes were committed, the report stated.
The acts were willful and; have caused great sufferings and serious injury to the bodies or health of the victims.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2022
