03 – 12 – 2022
GSTS
The Global Society of Tigray Scholars and Professionals (GSTS) has become aware of a video recording of the horrific killing of Tigrayan civilians, who were burned alive in the Benishangul-Gumuz Region of Ethiopia by armed men in military uniforms. We fully condemn this barbarous act in the strongest possible terms and demand immediate independent and international investigation and accountability for the perpetrators.
It is to be recalled that Ethiopia’s government has institutionalized large-scale ethnic profiling with the clear intent of eliminating Tigrayans accompanied by highly inflammatory rhetoric from Ethiopian officials, from the Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, down, who have used terms such as ‘terrorists’, ‘cancer’, ‘invasive weeds’, ‘junta’, ‘Satan’, ‘looters’, ‘hyenas’, and other genocidal monikers in public in reference to Tigrayans, putting those inside and outside of Tigray at grave risk. The current barbaric burning of Tigrayans alive in the Benishangul-Gumuz Region is a continuation of this state-sponsored genocidal plan against the Tigray civilian population.GSTS would like to stress that:
1. The use of the word “junta” by the perpetrators to refer to the victims in the video and the context to event circulated on Ethiopian media beforehand reveals that the victims are Tigrayans who have been targeted on the basis of their ethnic origin. It is to be remembered that the Beneshangul Gumuz regional state has admitted recently the deployment of Amhara Special Forces in its region saying they are there to exterminate “messengers of the Junta” and “remnants of the TPLF (Tigray People’s Liberation Front) that continue to carry its ideology and school of thoughts.”
2. The military uniforms in the video reveal that the perpetrators are members of the special security forces from the Amhara and Southern Nations Nationalities and People’s (SNNP) regional states and Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF), demonstrating that this is yet another example of the pervasive institutionalized violence characterizing all branches of the Ethiopian security apparatus and the climate of impunity that allows such atrocities to continue to be recorded and freely shared by perpetrators with no attempt to disguise themselves or their acts.
3. This act is a continuation of the over 16 months old state-sponsored persecution of Tigrayan in Ethiopia, who have been victims of progressively escalating ethnic profiling, arbitrary arrest, incarceration, and forcible disappearance with a marked intensification following the inflammatory rhetoric and dehumanizing campaigns by Ethiopian officials.
4. The Ethiopian government that has deliberately orchestrated a climate of toxic hostility targeting Tigrayans through coordinated campaigns of hate speech including explicit incitement for the extermination of Tigrayans is not able to fairly investigate this horrific crime or to bring perpetrators to account.
5. This attack should be understood and addressed from within the framework of the ongoing multi-pronged genocidal campaign of the Ethiopian, Amhara state, and Eritrean forces including weaponized starvation to exterminate Tigrayans by imposing brutal siege and de-facto humanitarian blockage on Tigray.
It is with this in mind that GSTS implores all actors to condemn this barbaric and inhuman atrocity, demand an independent investigation, and call for United Nations bodies and diplomatic missions based in Addis Ababa to immediately act to make perpetrators accountable and offer alternative forms of protection, including, as practiced by most countries, temporary refuge within their premises to Tigrayans seeking protection from threats to their lives.
