Any information or special reports about various countries may be published with photos/videos on the world blog with bold legit source. All languages are welcome. Mail to lucschrijvers@hotmail.com.
The November 2022 truce between warring parties in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region was supposed to bring stability. Torture and forced deportations were supposed to stop. Thousands of people who had been displaced from their homes since fighting broke out two years earlier in November 2020 thought they would be going home.
But that’s not what happened.
A new Human Rights Watch report based on interviews with witnesses and victims shows how, despite the truce, local authorities and Amhara forces in the region have continued to harass and expel Tigrayans as part of an ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing.
Interviewees said local authorities and Amhara forces held more than a thousand Tigrayans in detention in the Western Tigray towns of Humera, Rawyan, and Adebai based on their identity before forcibly expelling many of them in and after November 2022. One report found that militia transported more than 2,800 men, women, and children from five detention sites in Western Tigray on November 10.
Since the outbreak of fighting in November 2020, detained Tigrayans described dire conditions in detention facilities with no adequate medical treatment, as well as the torture and killings of detainees. Security forces killed at least six detainees at a prison in Humera between June and August 2022. Many of these actions amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Tens of thousands remain in limbo after being forced to flee their homes. As of October 2022, the UN refugee agency had registered 47,000 Ethiopian refugees in eastern Sudan, with many reportedly displaced from Western Tigray. The number of Tigrayans internally displaced from Western Tigray remains unknown.
Meanwhile, militias in Western Tigray continued to threaten and harass Tigrayan civilians. A woman from Adebai who fled toward Sudan, said: “The [militias] came into my home and said I need to leave because it’s not our land. They would knock at midnight and say Tigrayans can’t come back.”
The Ethiopian government did not respond when presented with HRW’s findings. But as displaced Tigrayans’ hopes to return home remain on hold and those who remain in Western Tigray continue to face abuse, detention, and displacement, who will stand up for them?
Uganda’s President has signed a bill criminalizing same sex conduct, including potentially the death penalty for those convicted of “aggravated homosexuality,” into law.
Chinese authorities are increasing efforts to erase memories of the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square Massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing while people across the globe commemorate the event.
Armed Houthi forces stormed a private residence in Sanaa, Yemen on May 25 where Yemeni Baha’is were meeting and detained and subsequently disappeared 17 people.
This week, we mark the start of Pride Month. There is still lots to be done to achieve equality for LGBT people around the world. But we continue to push forward.
Read up on our latest reporting on the state of LGBT rights around the world.
Throughout Pride Month and every day, LGBT rights are human rights.
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten