Omna Tigray: On the Mass Detainment of Tigrayans and Ethnic Discrimination

Omna Tigray strongly condemns the government of Ethiopia’s increased state-sponsored ethnic profiling of Tigrayans across Ethiopia, in and outside of the Tigray region. We are horrified by these reports and call on the international community to collectively condemn the gross human rights violations and demand for the verifiable protection of Tigrayans in Ethiopia. We have received credible and verified reports that the government of Ethiopia has alarmingly increased their intimidation and harassment of Tigrayans across the country, as well as the infringement of their constitutional rights, particularly in the aftermath of their significant military defeat against the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF). The government of Ethiopia has uniformly and judiciously instrumentalized a narrative that collectively blames Tigrayan civilians for the Ethiopian National Defense Forces’ (ENDF) military defeat in the Tigray region. Omna Tigray believes this systematic criminalization of the Tigrayan identity will further exacerbate the genocide of Tigrayans across Ethiopia. 

Following the retreat of the ENDF from Tigray’s capital Mekelle, ethnic Tigrayans have experienced intensified state-sponsored ethnic targeting and discrimination. This has included but has not been limited to: mass imprisonment on the basis of their Tigrayan identity, the forced closure of Tigrayan-owned businesses, discrimination at public universities, the denial of due process and the right to legal representation and visitations, extrajudicial searches of homes and properties, forcible abductions to concentration camps, and the silencing of solitary voices critical of the government’s genocidal actions in Tigray. Tigrayan residents in Addis Ababa and elsewhere in Ethiopia have reported targeted searches and checks of identification cards without probable cause, both at checkpoints and random areas throughout the city.^[1]https://africanarguments.org/2021/07/tigrayans-in-ethiopia-fear-becoming-the-next-rwanda/ Those of Tigrayan identity or having Tigrayan-sounding names are taken by plainclothes police officers^[2]https://africanarguments.org/2021/07/tigrayans-in-ethiopia-fear-becoming-the-next-rwanda/ to compounds allegedly holding thousands of Tigrayans with only one meal per day,^[3]https://apnews.com/article/africa-ethiopia-race-and-ethnicity-health-coronavirus-5f22a5aea128cbd659fbf4f810aac973 no access to water, and forced to sleep on the ground.^[4]https://twitter.com/moradnews/status/1414197714183770119?s=21

Tigrayans also report being arrested by plainclothes police for showing sympathy to rape, famine, or war victims in Tigray on social media.^[5]https://apnews.com/article/africa-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-b1a97f2569592f499565bfb6e673dc3d The few that were released report their families or friends having to pool thousands to pay fines or were forced to utilize non-Tigrayan networks and their connections to the police force in order to be released. Meanwhile, the whereabouts of thousands of arrested Tigrayans is still unknown^[6]https://africanarguments.org/2021/07/tigrayans-in-ethiopia-fear-becoming-the-next-rwanda/ but it is alleged they have been moved to military camps that have been unlawfully housing an estimated 17,000 Tigrayan members of the ENDF since the outbreak of war in November 2020.^[7]https://africanarguments.org/2021/07/tigrayans-in-ethiopia-fear-becoming-the-next-rwanda/ Additionally, Dagnachew Assefa, a close advisor of Abiy Ahmed, recently publicly suggested in an interview that Tigrayans should face possible deportation from Addis Ababa and other regions outside of Tigray further inciting ethnic profiling and discrimination against Tigrayans in Ethiopia.^[8]https://www.facebook.com/MaledaMedia/videos/498935987993837/?extid=CL-UNK-UNK-UNK-IOS_GK0T-GK1C

The ethnic discrimination and targeting of Tigrayans have been systematically instiutionalized throughout Ethiopia, especially within the realms of public universities and property ownership. In terms of educational institutions, Tigrayan students at public universities have been expelled without cause. Ethiopian citizens of Tigrayan origin have been arbitrarily denied entry and exit from the country. An innumerable number of small and medium-sized businesses have been closed,^[9]https://apnews.com/article/africa-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-b1a97f2569592f499565bfb6e673dc3d some on the basis of playing Tigrigna music believed to be “inciting music that celebrates the adversity of the country and humiliates the ENDF.” The hindrance of commerce has extended to larger establishments including hotels and construction companies. Some have been coerced into selling their businesses below market price. 

The Ethiopian federal government has also intensified its attack on journalists and the press. Throughout the past eight months, the Ethiopian government has detained journalists and translators for “tarnishing the image of the government,”^[10]https://cpj.org/2020/12/ethiopian-journalist-dawit-kebede-detained-without-charge-since-november-30/ including those from international media such as Agence France-Presse, Financial Times and the BBC,^[11]https://cpj.org/2021/03/translators-and-journalists-released-without-charge-in-ethiopia/ and has deported a New York Times journalist.^[12]https://cpj.org/2021/05/cpj-condemns-ethiopias-expulsion-of-new-york-times-reporter-simon-marks/ Tigrayan journalists have had their homes ransacked for reporting on the atrocities committed in Tigray by Ethiopian and Eritrean Forces,^[13]https://cpj.org/2021/02/unidentified-armed-men-ransack-home-of-ethiopian-journalist-lucy-kassa-question-her-about-conflict-coverage/ and some like Dawit Kebede Araya of Tigray TV have been killed.^[14]https://cpj.org/2021/01/reporter-dawit-kebede-araya-shot-and-killed-in-ethiopia/ On June 21, journalist Abebe Bayu, a journalist for the dissident media outlet Ethio-forum, was surrounded by a group of four unidentified men outside a restaurant in Addis Ababa, and subsequently blindfolded, abducted, threatened with a pistol, beaten, and robbed.^[15]https://cpj.org/2021/07/ethiopian-journalist-abebe-bayu-abducted-and-assaulted-by-unidentified-men/ 

The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that on June 30, police in Addis Ababa raided Awlo Media Center and arrested 12 employees. In addition to the employees, the lawyer of the center, Tewlde Taddesse, was arrested at his home.^[16]https://cpj.org/2021/07/ethiopian-authorities-arrest-at-least-15-employees-of-2-independent-media-outlets/ Those arrested have not been brought to court and charges have yet to be filed. On July 2, nearly two weeks after his abduction and attack by unidentified assailants, it was reported that police arrested journalist Abebe Bayu and administrator Yayesew Shimelis of Ethio Forum.^[17]https://cpj.org/2021/01/reporter-dawit-kebede-araya-shot-and-killed-in-ethiopia/ State and state-affiliated media continue to instruct Ethiopians to spy on Tigrayans through a ‘see something, say something’ campaign. Pro-government social media activists, such as Seyoum Teshome, have openly called for the murder of journalists that have been critical of the war on Tigray and the 2021 federal elections.^[18]https://twitter.com/TsedaleLemma/status/1411272864897110027?s=20

Although the government of Ethiopia has steadily propagated anti-Tigrayan hate speech like “daytime hyena,”^[19]https://www.dw.com/en/hate-speech-in-ethiopia-abiy-ahmed-resurrects-old-demons/a-55800705 there has been a noticeable intensification of state-sponsored denigration of Tigrayans in the recent past weeks. Abiy has reinforced the targeted stigmatization of Tigrayans by using inflammatory language that conflates Tigrayan civilians with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), such as insinuating the civilian population in Tigray and elsewhere in the country were responsible for the ENDF’s military setbacks. One notable example is during Abiy’s post-election speech delivered to various Ethiopian media agencies, in which he claimed that weapons, not bodies, were being buried at funerals in Tigray.^[20]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xvv-YSRy3Y&t=160s 

Furthermore, Abiy added that Tigrayan priests carrying guns incite civilians to attack Ethiopian soldiers and Tigrayan civilians often exaggerated food aid needs in order to send surplus food to TDF soldiers.^[21]https://cpj.org/2021/07/ethiopian-authorities-arrest-at-least-15-employees-of-2-independent-media-outlets/ These narratives have been echoed by prominent members of Ahmed’s Prosperity Party, such as Taye Denda Aredo, a politician, who referred to Tigrayan civilians in Addis Ababa, as “residue” of the TPLF and accused them of stealing from other Ethiopian citizens in order to financially support TDF.^[22]https://www.facebook.com/312860729331033/posts/884952302121870/?d=n  Denda warned that they will be punished by the government of Ethiopia, stating “those who do not understand love and forgiveness will be trained to understand it through law enforcement.”^[23]https://twitter.com/TsedaleLemma/status/1411272864897110027?s=20

In addition to targeting Tigrayan civilians, the government of Ethiopia and its supporters have harassed humanitarian aid workers. In an effort to further discriminate against Tigrayan aid recipients and weaponize famine as a form of genocide, Ahmed accused humanitarian agencies of covertly supplying TDF with weapons and military strategy during an interview with Fana Television aired on June 23.^[24]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpCADjhS9UQ This systematic slander of aid workers and the Tigrayan people has led to the jeopardization of humanitarian workers’ physical safety in Tigray, as a means to hinder their access into Tigray. Since the start of the war, at least 12 humanitarian aid workers have been killed^[25]https://apnews.com/article/ethiopia-africa-db10ffa1070f8ed8a3bec2d4f9ecc465 by either the ENDF, Eritrean Defense Forces, Amhara Special Forces, or Amhara Fano Militia.

On July 12, the U.S.State Department stated they “strongly condemn any retaliatory attacks that have been or may be directed against civilians in the Tigray region” as Tigrayans residing in territories still occupied by Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Amhara forces face retaliatory violence at the hands of these forces.^[26]https://twitter.com/statedept/status/1414696064649736199?s=21 We urge the European Union and United Nations to similarily condemn the retaliatory ethnic targeting and discrimination faced by the Tigrayan people at the hands of Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Amhara forces and their supporters.

The mass detainment, ethnic discrimination, and targeting of Tigrayans across Ethiopia along with the current telecommunications blackout, blockage of roads and transportation, and “siege” of the Tigray region by the Ethiopian government, as acknowledged by the U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield, is not indicative of a government acting in the best interest of its citizens. As the safety and survival of Tigrayans inside and outside of Tigray are at risk, we call on the international community to pressure the Ethiopian Government to:

• Immediately cease the unwarranted and unconstitutional arrest of Tigrayan citizens residing in different parts of ethiopia including Addis Ababa on the basis of their identity; 
• Release all Tigrayans that have been held without charge, including dissident journalists and the 17,000+ Tigrayan ENDF members unlawfully held;  
• Respect the constitutional right of free movement for all Ethiopian citizens equally under the law; 
• Respect private property and the right of all citizens to exchange goods and services on a free market; 
• Restore public services including internet, electricity, water, banking, transportation, and telecommunications throughout Tigray;
• End its vilification campaign and restrain itself from the use of hate speech and the deployment of state-sponsored terror against Tigrayans.

We also call on the international community to:

• Impose targeted sanctions on Ethiopian and Eritrean government officials and an arms embargo on both countries;
• UN-led and UN-only independent impartial investigations on all atrocities committed against the peopleTigray;
• Officially recognize the Tigray Genocide committed by the ENDF, Eritrean Defense Forces (EDF), Amhara Special Forces, and Amhara Fano Militia against the Tigrayan people;
• Conduct any domestic or international bilateral or multilateral relations regarding Tigray with the democratically elected and constitutionally mandated government of Tigray and other stakeholders.