Sowing Hate & Discord In The Name Of Human Rights Movements
Date: March 8, 2021
GPE Public Relations and Liaison Section
We have come across continued pro-genocidal hate speech targeting people of ethnic #Amhara, #Oromo and #Eritrea|n descent & effectively encouraging genocide. This particular interaction hosted by popular cultural page @Habeshatings was in the presence of @SWTigray co-founder Ms. Rahwa Gidey (@RahwaTigray) of the movement Stand With Tigray.
This disturbing online interaction took place on “Instagram Live” in Amharic language but the translated (English) script is as follows [the 4 participants included: @Habeshatings, HT (top-left panel); @RahwaTigray, RT (bottom-right panel); Paulos, P (top-right panel); Guest, G (bottom-left panel)]:
HT: Go ahead and Finish if you have an opinion!
G: I am not commenting on Welkayt but they [TPLF] were killing them [Amhara people] for a while.
HT: Who was killing whom?! (visibly angry)
RT: (Inaudible..Don’t worry Paulos).
HT: G**** [racial slur], G**** Amhara wediyo!
RT: Take turns because we can’t hear you.
P: Don’t you use your brain when you say TPLF cleansed 2 million ethnic Amharas?!
G: How? Are you going to deny this?
HT: Where were you? Where were your grandparents? Were they not G****? Your ancestors were G**** Word Donkey. You are a bastard of Donkey and G**** Amhara, how do you have the nerve to say Welkayt is Amhara? You don’t even know Gondar.
Regrettably, pro-TPLF activists have been engaging in a concerted disinformation campaign to mislead the world about the current situation in Ethiopia. In parallel, such activists have been engaging in consistent pro-genocidal hate speech and propaganda in social media discussion groups across different social media platforms. While many such clips have been sent to us, we found it concerning that awareness initiatives such as @SWTigray are led by extremist youth that are engaging in toxic and highly inflammatory propaganda which can have lasting, destructive effects including promoting further genocide in Ethiopia against innocent people.
More extremely disturbing reflections from the leaders of the Stand With Tigray movement are shown below.
We would like to note that the movement @SWTigray was closely working and even collaborating on public campaigns with Amnesty International, HRW and prominent individuals who work in the media, human rights, international relations, and aid and development sectors. We urge that organizations that many look up to in their struggle for justice and equality do not inadvertently endorse such vile messages that may undo all the good they are trying to do.
What is even more worrying is that fabricated reports that were born out of such hate that one can see from the sample evidences presented above have found their way to statements made in mainstream media accounts which further misinformed state officials into making damaging references to ethnic groups without understanding the repercussion on the ground. For example, as a result of TPLF’s attack of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF), North Command, the Commander-in-Chief ordered a retaliation. At the time, regional forces from the Amahra and Afar regions were deployed to aid the ENDF, and those from Oromia were on stand-by if more force was to be needed. However, because the coordinated online campaign had a political goal of removing Amharas who were able to take control of their homestead after murder, rape, extortion, and finally banishment of over half a million people by TPLF in the past 40 years, the campaigns started picking on only Amhara forces, with the hopes that their reference will also subtly include the Amhara militia who were there to save their families from another massacre similar to the one TPLF carried out against Amahras in Maikadra on November 9, 2020. See here, statements of US Department of State, United States Mission to the UN, and Rep. Dean Philips’ question in congress.
Unfortunately, all this has a vicious circle effect, the statements form trusted political offices and mainstream media in turn exasperated the hate and genocidal calls made against Amahras. Subsequently, increase in hate speech against Amharas was observed. Provided the pattern seen in the past , especially both the October, 2019 and July 2020 massacres in Oromia being linked to a highly coordinated preceding social-media genocidal campaign against the ethnic Amahras, Guraghes, and Gamos, we do not take such increase in hate speech lightly.
Some have transcended from just broadcasting hate speech into an actual tactical call to destroy cities, factories, kill and annihilate whole group of people.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the member of Ethiopian diaspora in Israel as well as Israelis of the Ethiopian Bete-Israel descent for taking the initiative and making the individual who was broadcasting this message accountable for his criminal acts by reporting to the appropriate law and order institution in Israel. This is a significant action that all Ethiopians across the globe need to take against such actors who are committed to creating more havoc that will translate into immense suffering for Ethiopians back home.
Regarding institutions that are expected to be the vanguards of human rights globally; we warn that in this age of heightened social media use where one can be tempted to obtain any information through these virtual networks coupled with the added obstacle the COVID19 lock-down created to freely move and investigate events, organizations may succumb to being victims of disinformation that may mislead them into passing verdict on the very same people that are being victimized in the first place. It goes without saying those that have the resources to create a well curated network from the western media rooms right down to a remote village in Sub-Saharan Africa are bound to control the narrative, a dangerous precedent for burying the truth and miscarrying justice. We recommend that human rights as well as aid and development organizations bring their mode of operation up to date by putting checks and balances so that these newly available tools for accessing information do not compromise their operations.
