Month: April 2022

Use of HIV infected soldiers to rape Tigrayan women qualifies as biological warfare

The mass rape of Tigrayan women by HIV infected ENDF and Eritrean soldiers qualifies as a biological warfare under the UN resolutions against use of biological agents Photo source UK Telegraph

Many recorded reports by health care facilities in Tigray of Tigrayan women who were raped by admittedly HIV positive Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers who boasted their intent to subsequently transmit it to the victim. Under the most common internationally recognized definitions of biological warfare these actions against civilians would qualify as biological warfare. To qualify an act of biological warfare requires that an agent be introduced in a forceful way intended to harm via a mechanism.  An infectious agent was used, HIV, which would not normally have entered the victim except for the violation organized by the invading forces using a stockpile of means to introduce the weapon, the recruited HIV positive soldiers who were ordered to rape civilian women. 

There have been some publications about the incidence of HIV in the Ethiopian Army. These indicate that regular testing and counseling is done about the risk of acquiring and transmitting HIV.  There was higher incidence of HIV in the soldiers compared with the civilian population. Discussions were held on numerous occasions between medical researchers and Ethiopian Army leadership about the potential for spread of HIV by sexual violence in war. Unfortunately rather than act in preventative manner it appears the Ethiopian leadership choose to weaponize those infected with HIV.

Under United Nations Security Council Resolution (1540) passed in 2004 it recognizes that biological warfare can  cause “in addition to the tragic loss of lives, such events could cause food shortages, environmental catastrophes, devastating economic loss, and widespread illness, fear and mistrust among the public”. 

The refusal of Ethiopia to supply humanitarian aid including medications to treat HIV infected persons including those occurring after rape is a continuation of the impact of the use of a biological weapon making it an even greater war crime and crime against humanity.  The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has documented the strict searching and supervision of the Ethiopian government over any and all medical supplies going to Tigray. Since the first supplies were sent in July 2021 many times key drugs for treatment of HIV and other conditions were removed by security forces before the shipment was allowed to be delivered to Tigray.

Such acts violate the UN Charter. The Secretary General should “”carry out prompt investigations in response to allegations of the possible use of chemical and bacteriological (biological) and toxin weapons that may constitute a violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol or other relevant rules of customary international law. If any Member State provides the Secretary-General with a report of such allegations, the Secretary-General is authorized to launch an investigation to ascertain in an objective and scientific manner the facts of the matter, including dispatching a fact-finding team to the site(s) of the alleged incident(s), and to report the results of the investigation to all Member States”. 

Vile personal attacks on Tigray women advocates for human rights do not obscure truth

A well known Tigrayan advocate for women’s rights and protection has not been deterred by efforts to demean her by the Ethiopian propaganda machine.  The dehumanization of the people of Tigray has been a constant theme of Ethiopia and Eritrea to justify atrocities carried out intentionally.

Ethiopian and Eritrean supporters are now resorting to personal attacks laced with lies in a vile and vain attempt to defend the indefensible.  In the wake of a majority of United Nations members nations mandating international investigation of human right violations in Tigray a new round of ad hominem attacks on the womanhood, intelligence, and morality of accomplished highly educated Tigrayan women who have spoken up for protecting human rights is their latest desperate Ethiopian attempt to obscure reality. Ethiopian leadership who claim to be pious Christians seem to have discarded the Commandment given by God through Moses that “thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour“.

Although the protagonists of this effort have internalized this concept of the complete dehumanization of Tigray to justify their murder by drones, violation, and deprivation their attempt to propagate it to the rest of the world is failing more and more each day. This degrading of the humanity of Tigrayans has in the twisted mentality of Ethiopia and Eritrea been a justification for egregious human rights violations including weaponization of starvation, military ordered rape, destruction of property and livelihoods, detention, and isolation.

Since the beginning of the Ethiopian Tigray conflict supporters of Abiy Ahmed and Isaias Afwerki have incessantly, loudly, and nefariously degraded the humanity of the people of Tigray.  Within the first few days of the invasion of Eritrean and Ethiopian forces into Tigray they called Tigrayans “hyenas” who should be eradicated. Soon after Ethiopian Protestant and Orthodox clergy supported the concept of a Christian fatwa against Tigray. They proclaimed Tigray mothers wombs were possessed by Satan. A prominent Abiy Ahmed “intellectual” supporter on social media was emphatic that Tigray children are destined to be evil and should be killed at birth. Within a few days we learned that Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers were told by their commanders to kill male children under age four. The ranks of the invading army into Tigray purposefully included HIV infected soldiers to spread the disease in their violation of women. 

In fact a recent video of the ENDF shows a commander discussing the live burial of a five year old Tigrayan child. The Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed himself referred to Tigrayans as weeds that need to be cut out and his Social Minister, a so-called Deacon, called for  the complete elimination of Tigray from the planet as well as any history of their existence.

When Mekelle was under the Ethiopian Tigray Interim Administration the local military commander admitted to Ethiopian news media that there had been rapes committed in the city. The Minister of Women, Children, and Youth, Filsan Abdi, went to Mekelle along with a prosecutor and determined that there was significant evidence of mass violations against women by invading forces. The response to this evidence from Abiy Ahmed supporters was to release mocking videos by Amhara women that the Tigrayan women were lying and probably wanted sex with the soldiers. In the end Filsan Abdi felt she had to resign when the Ethiopian Federal government refused to foll0w up on the reports of human rights violations.

More recently a video of the burning of Tigrayans alive purportedly for the purpose of cannibalism was proudly posted on social media. Just within the past 24 hours numerous photographs have similarly been posted on social media showing Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers digging up mass graves of Tigrayans in Western Tigray to be secretly relocated or destroyed. This occurs in the region where there has been irrefutable documentation of extrajudicial killing of Tigray whose bodies were thrown into the Tekeze River.

 

 

Ethiopia fears greater atrocity exposure and accountability in defying UN investigation

 
The defiance by Ethiopia of international investigation into human rights violations in the Ethiopian Tigray conflict exposes their fear of exposure of the true extent of atrocity committed. Additionally Ethiopia under Abiy Ahmed has received great benefits of UN membership while exercising little responsibility to the organization’s charter.

Ethiopian defiance of international investigation of human rights violations in the Ethiopia Tigray conflict reflects their fear of the discovery of the extent of atrocity as well as lack of commitment to UN membership. The deteriorating relationship between democratic members of the UN with the Ethiopian government persists with attempts to block objective investigation into human rights violations in Ethiopia and Tigray. This week the UN General Assembly’s budget committees strongly voted against cutting the funding of the approved commission to investigate human rights violations by all parties in the Ethiopia Tigray conflict. Ethiopian diplomat Lemlem Fiseha defiantly stated that the UN had no rights to proceed with the investigation echoing sentiments reminiscent of the Derg defiance of the UN in the past.

Membership in the UN has benefits but it also has responsibilities. Whereas so many of Abiy Ahmed’s supporters in the diaspora and Amhara regions claim a “Christian” manifest destiny to their actions they overlook the writings of Saint Paul in  2 Thessalonians that calls for members to actively work in building a community and not just be passive members receiving the rewards.  Similarly according to the United Nations Charter “all Members shall give the United Nations every assistance in any action it takes in accordance with the present Charter, and shall refrain from giving assistance to any state against which the United Nations is taking preventive or enforcement action“.

Ethiopia has been one of the main beneficiaries of United Nations programs for aid and development over the past seventy-seven years aid since joining on November 13, 1945. The Western Democracies have contributed hundreds of million dollars to the UN which ultimately benefited Ethiopia as well as directly to Ethiopia for decades. Ethiopia in recent times has received the highest amount of aid from the United States of any African country. 

Although Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie is recognized for wanting Ethiopian involvement in the UN and African Union while at the same time his lack of attention to the overall national economic development caused persistent poverty and famine leading to revolution. The Soviet backed despotic Derg government which replaced the monarchy murdered and starved more than a million civilians. Democratic reforms were quashed, the economy wrecked, and a strong alignment with Russia evolved with a rejection of UN and Western democracy concerns for human rights violations based upon the principle of national sovereignty overriding any claims.

The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front which replaced the Derg and was removed from national power when Abiy Ahmed was appointed Prime Minister in 2018 worked to develop security forces with the UN and African Union  to stop the spread of violence form Islamic radical groups. Now Abiy Ahmed has reduced the Ethiopian role in this important international security cooperative effort.

The previous EPRDF government worked with many international non-governmental organizations, UN related agencies, and foreign ministries to build infrastructure, educational, medical, agricultural, and other capacities. Meanwhile the current Ethiopian government has now made it routine to accuse organizations like the Red Cross, World Food Program, and others of nefariously fomenting war.

At this moment no source of funding, i.e. China, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, has agreed to refinance the estimated over $70 billion debt of Ethiopia. Families cannot afford to buy the staples of life including food, fuel, and medicines because of rapidly rising inflation which may reach 50% soon for the year. Like the Derg the Ethiopian government wants to accept no responsibility to be in the world community of nations.