Addis Ababa, April 27, 2022 (Walta) – Hundreds of Ethiopian Scholars and Civic Institutions have denounced the joint report produced by Amnesty International (AI) and Human Right Watch (HRW) in relation to Wolkait.
The scholars and civic institutions who released their response yesterday “strongly protested” against the joint report of the two right bodies.
AI and HRW recently issued joint reports that accuse the Federal Government of Ethiopia, the Amhara Regional Government, the Amhara Militia and Fano of committing human rights violations.
“We affirm that the findings and recommendations of the report are fraught with inconsistencies and biases. [it] lack methodological rigor and objectivity,” reads the preamble the response document Walta received.
The response document blames the joint report on four grounds; flagrant perpetuation of the TPLF narrative of ‘Western Tigray’, biased and one-sided reporting of atrocities, flawed research methodology and questionable timing to release the report.
The AI and HRW joint report rarely acknowledges that the TPLF security forces abused the rights of Amharas in Wolkait “over many years.” The two human right bodies’ joint report makes no effort to describe the gravity of these abuses as it has done on behalf of members of the Tigray community residing in Wolkait.
“Because it does not take these abuses as seriously, it does not call for any accountability of TPLF officials in the same way that it has been quick to do so against Amhara officials currently administering the Wolkait region. Indeed, the report recommends the suspension of these officials pending investigations into their actions, in utter disregard of their right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty,” argues the Ethiopian scholars and leaders of civic organizations.
The joint report also based its findings based on information and data largely gathered from interview of Tigrean refugees in the Sudan. The refugees are, in fact, the very same individuals who fled the country after participating in the gruesome Mai-Kadra massacre.
“We would be too credulous to believe that the very perpetrators of such a horrendous crime would come forward to tell the truth about their own involvement or what really happened in Wolkait,” argued the scholars and civic institutions.
The response document was signed by 193 Ethiopian Scholars and 37 Ethiopian civic organization leaders based oversee.