YE Ethiopia Tigray Peace Deal USAGM
Metadata
- YE Ethiopia Tigray Peace Deal USAGM
- December 5, 2022
- Content Type Package
- Language English
- Transcript/Script English ((PLAYBOOK SLUG: YE UPDATED - ETHIOPIA TIGRAY PEACE DEAL HEADLINE: Ethiopia’s Tigray Peace Deal Struck, but Grievances Linger TEASER: A need for aid and desire for justice for possible war crimes still plague Tigray and beyond PUBLISHED: BYLINE: Henry Wilkins SCRIPT EDITORS: RH: CAW, Salem Solomon PLATFORMS: WEB __ TV X RADIO X EDITOR NOTES: There is a TV version to accompany this piece. This piece updates an earlier story published on 12/01/2022 at 3:52 p.m. Changes have been made to amend an earlier translation and correct the spelling of Hiyab Gebretsadik. Additional information also has been added to transition from events in the Tigray region to the Amhara region in graf 5. For questions and final review, email Henry Wilkins: hwilkins@associates.voanews.com and henrywilkins127@gmail.com)) ((INTRO)) [[A peace deal to end Ethiopia’s two-year civil war with Tigrayan forces was struck in November, but whether it will be honored remains to be seen. There is a desperate need for aid across much of Tigray, and on both sides, victims of possible war crimes are crying out for justice. Henry Wilkins, who reported for VOA from Ethiopia this year, has this report.]] ((TEXT)) 2020’s Axum Massacre saw Eritrean and Ethiopian troops carry out extrajudicial executions against civilians, indiscriminate shelling and widespread looting in the city in northern Tigray. Residents estimate hundreds were killed. Hiyab Gebretsadik is a survivor. ((Hiyab ACT, in English)) “The federal government is actually the perpetrator of the crime, and the criminals cannot investigate their own crime. Justice should come from free international organizations like the U.N., the EU, and the African Union.” ((END ACT)) Like many in Ethiopia, he wants justice for the suffering that he and his community endured during the country’s two-year conflict. A peace deal was signed in South Africa in early November, and an end to the war may be in sight. But grievances stemming from possible war crimes remain. In September, a U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Ethiopia said, “starvation of civilians” in Tigray was used by the government as a “method of warfare” and that Ethiopian and Eritrean forces used “sexual slavery” against Tigrayan women and girls. Tigrayan forces, the U.N. said, didn’t use such tactics but were accused of “war crimes,” including rape in areas they occupied in the Amhara and Afar regions. [[ https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/09/un-experts-warn-potential-further-atrocities-amid-resumption-conflict ]] A woman from Lalibela who asked to remain anonymous out of fear says she was seven months pregnant when Tigrayan soldiers came to her house and raped her. ((Rape Survivor (in Amharic)) ((fade and establish)) She says the soldiers took her to a deserted area and raped her. They held her with them from Monday to Saturday, even though they knew she was pregnant. “There was no administration, no police, and everyone left, she said, adding that it was only people who were helpless and weak left, including her blind mother. ((END ACT)) Although both sides have committed atrocities, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch says it has documented a sustained campaign of ethnic cleansing against Tigrayans, much of which has taken place in “darkness” because media and human rights investigators could not gain access to the Tigray region. Laetitia Bader is the Horn of Africa director for Human Rights Watch. She says that since the peace deal, the amount of aid being allowed to enter Tigray... ((Bader Act, in English)) “… is not enough to meet the enormous need there. And at the same time, the services — be it communications, electricity, banking, which are so critical to meeting the needs of the population, as well — have not been restored by the federal government. We really are talking about a context where abuses are ongoing." ((END ACT)) Asked whether the peace deal is being implemented fast enough, one analyst, William Davison of the International Crisis Group, told VOA there are challenges in seeing it through. ((Davison ACT, in English)) “It’s not entirely clear how much progress has been made in de-conflicting the front lines, the disengagement process. This doesn’t mean that the deal is about to collapse. It just demonstrates how hard this process is.” ((END ACT)) Tigrayan leaders have repeatedly said they wish to hold a referendum to leave the Ethiopian federation. ((Henry Wilkins, for VOA News))
- Transcript/Script ((PLAYBOOK SLUG: YE UPDATED - ETHIOPIA TIGRAY PEACE DEAL HEADLINE: Ethiopia’s Tigray Peace Deal Struck, but Grievances Linger TEASER: A need for aid and desire for justice for possible war crimes still plague Tigray and beyond PUBLISHED: BYLINE: Henry Wilkins SCRIPT EDITORS: RH: CAW, Salem Solomon PLATFORMS: WEB __ TV X RADIO X EDITOR NOTES: There is a TV version to accompany this piece. This piece updates an earlier story published on 12/01/2022 at 3:52 p.m. Changes have been made to amend an earlier translation and correct the spelling of Hiyab Gebretsadik. Additional information also has been added to transition from events in the Tigray region to the Amhara region in graf 5. For questions and final review, email Henry Wilkins: hwilkins@associates.voanews.com and henrywilkins127@gmail.com)) ((INTRO)) [[A peace deal to end Ethiopia’s two-year civil war with Tigrayan forces was struck in November, but whether it will be honored remains to be seen. There is a desperate need for aid across much of Tigray, and on both sides, victims of possible war crimes are crying out for justice. Henry Wilkins, who reported for VOA from Ethiopia this year, has this report.]] ((TEXT)) 2020’s Axum Massacre saw Eritrean and Ethiopian troops carry out extrajudicial executions against civilians, indiscriminate shelling and widespread looting in the city in northern Tigray. Residents estimate hundreds were killed. Hiyab Gebretsadik is a survivor. ((Hiyab ACT, in English)) “The federal government is actually the perpetrator of the crime, and the criminals cannot investigate their own crime. Justice should come from free international organizations like the U.N., the EU, and the African Union.” ((END ACT)) Like many in Ethiopia, he wants justice for the suffering that he and his community endured during the country’s two-year conflict. A peace deal was signed in South Africa in early November, and an end to the war may be in sight. But grievances stemming from possible war crimes remain. In September, a U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Ethiopia said, “starvation of civilians” in Tigray was used by the government as a “method of warfare” and that Ethiopian and Eritrean forces used “sexual slavery” against Tigrayan women and girls. Tigrayan forces, the U.N. said, didn’t use such tactics but were accused of “war crimes,” including rape in areas they occupied in the Amhara and Afar regions. [[ https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/09/un-experts-warn-potential-further-atrocities-amid-resumption-conflict ]] A woman from Lalibela who asked to remain anonymous out of fear says she was seven months pregnant when Tigrayan soldiers came to her house and raped her. ((Rape Survivor (in Amharic)) ((fade and establish)) She says the soldiers took her to a deserted area and raped her. They held her with them from Monday to Saturday, even though they knew she was pregnant. “There was no administration, no police, and everyone left, she said, adding that it was only people who were helpless and weak left, including her blind mother. ((END ACT)) Although both sides have committed atrocities, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch says it has documented a sustained campaign of ethnic cleansing against Tigrayans, much of which has taken place in “darkness” because media and human rights investigators could not gain access to the Tigray region. Laetitia Bader is the Horn of Africa director for Human Rights Watch. She says that since the peace deal, the amount of aid being allowed to enter Tigray... ((Bader Act, in English)) “… is not enough to meet the enormous need there. And at the same time, the services — be it communications, electricity, banking, which are so critical to meeting the needs of the population, as well — have not been restored by the federal government. We really are talking about a context where abuses are ongoing." ((END ACT)) Asked whether the peace deal is being implemented fast enough, one analyst, William Davison of the International Crisis Group, told VOA there are challenges in seeing it through. ((Davison ACT, in English)) “It’s not entirely clear how much progress has been made in de-conflicting the front lines, the disengagement process. This doesn’t mean that the deal is about to collapse. It just demonstrates how hard this process is.” ((END ACT)) Tigrayan leaders have repeatedly said they wish to hold a referendum to leave the Ethiopian federation. ((Henry Wilkins, for VOA News))
- NewsML Media Topics Arts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
- Network VOA
- Embargo Date December 5, 2022 11:18 EST
- Byline Henry Wilkins
- Brand / Language Service Voice of America