Mekete Tigray UK & TYN London Demonstration – Thursday, 14 April 2022 Speech
1. We are demonstrating here today against the Genocidal War on Tigrayans in Northern Ethiopia.
2. For over 16 months, Ethiopian, Eritrean and Amhara armies have been committing mass atrocities against Tigrayans. These include: War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide.
3. The people of Tigray have been deliberately denied, as part of the war strategy, basic services for more than 500 day now. These include education, health, banking, transport, telecom and the Internet.
4. To date over half a million Tigrayans have perished due to the war. More are dying unless the war is stopped.
5. In the war on Tigray, sexual violence and rape, including gang rape, is weaponised as a strategy of war. Over 120,000 Tigrayans women and girls have been subjected to horrific sexual violence and rape. This level of sexual violence had not been seen in the world since the Second World War.
6. In the War on Tigray, hunger, starvation and man-made famine have been weaponised. 7 million facing famine.
7. The governments of Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Amhara Regional State have deliberately destroyed most of Tigray’s infrastructure and economy. These include an economic blockade and military siege of Tigray.
8. The war crimes in Tigray include the deliberate destruction of Christian, Judaic and Islamic traditions, artefacts and institutions that have existed in Tigray for two thousand years.
9. Sadly and shamefully, the UK Government, the US, or the European Union have done very little concrete actions to stop the Genocidal War on Tigray. This is apart from their usual diplomatic clichés of being concerned or being worried. Their inactions are tantamount to appeasing the Ethiopian and Eritrean dictators and condoning the Genocidal War on Tigray. They are morally and legally obliged to confront and stop Genocidal wars everywhere.
10. Russia and China have aided and abating the Genocidal War on Tigray by supporting the dictatorial regimes in Ethiopia and Eritrea. This is because these authoritarian regimes are conduits for Russian or Chinese hegemonic designs on Ethiopia and East Africa. We urge on Russia and China to stop being complicit in the Tigray Genocide.
11. Similarly the United Arab Emirates and Turkey have provided drones and war technologies that have caused mass atrocities in Tigray. We condemn their complicity and urge them to stop supporting the Tigray Genocide.
12. We call upon the UK public to pressurise the UK Government to stop appeasing the dictators in Ethiopia and Eritrea and to help end the horrific genocidal war in Tigray that have been going on for nearly two years now.
13. As the World, UK Government and public rightly condemned the Russian Aggression Against Ukrainian People, we urge that it is also right and just to show similar concern over the Genocidal War on Tigray.
Thank You