Ethiopia’s Attorney General’s Office (AG), in their recent so-called ‘independent investigations’ on what happened in Axum, on 28 November 2020 came to conclude that, the claim of deliberate execution of civilians at the hand of Eritrean troops was fictitious, and concludes the victims were only Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) fighters.
The massacre had initially been reported by Amnesty International, and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) issued a 12-page preliminary report on the massacre in March. The Ethiopian Government has been in a tight spot lately, with the Biden Administration and European Union breathing down its neck. So, it has switched from denying every evidence-based report by international organizations to belittling the atrocities committed. The deliberate misinformation campaign by the fascist Ethiopian Government to cover up their blood-soaked hands has now been obvious to the world.
Amnesty International says the finding by the AG office differs from its own report based on two key issues: the identity of the victims and the role of Eritrean troops in killing civilians.
Amnesty International report points out, hundreds of civilians were the victims at the hand of Eritrean Troops, whereas the AG’s office says they were only TPLF fighters. We shouldn’t forget that. after Federal troops took over Axum (after 24-hours long carnage by Eritreans Troops), they went straight into making propaganda without a shred of sympathy to what happened to the civilians, and eventually, decided to carry out investigations only after multiple international organization like Amnesty showed, there was great evidence pointing that massacre indeed has taken place. The Ethiopian Human Rights commission although showed this in its preliminary investigations. So, we can conclude that the AG’s intent to carry out the investigation was politically motivated.
The AG’s Office report tried to paint the picture of Eritrean troops’ role in the massacre as minimal. This is obvious as I tried to mention the investigation was politically motivated. The AG’s office claimed that the TPLF had distributed Ethiopian and Eritrean military uniforms to criminals released from prison. However, witnesses interviewed by Amnesty International identified the Eritrean soldiers who conducted the house-to-house raids in Axum not only by their military uniforms but also by cultural and linguistic signs unique to Eritreans.
As Isayas Afewrki is calling the shots in Ethiopia’s matter, especially the government narrative on the war in Tigray, it is expected this sort of bogus report by AG’s office. But in the end, Tigray will prevail. As the saying goes, ቃልስና ነዊሕን መሪርን እዩ ዓወትና ግን ናይ ግድን እዩ!