{"id":1724,"date":"2021-08-25T15:54:39","date_gmt":"2021-08-25T15:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/?p=1724"},"modified":"2021-08-25T15:36:49","modified_gmt":"2021-08-25T15:36:49","slug":"us-eu-weaponizing-human-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/us-eu-weaponizing-human-rights","title":{"rendered":"US\/EU: Weaponizing \u201cHuman Rights\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Eritrea<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Profile Guest Column<\/b><\/p>\n

In the past few months, major western powers have invoked different facets of human rights and international laws of war in the conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia to cast the crisis in almost apocalyptic terms. And for maximum outreach and impact, the chorus continues to be amplified by pliant media outlets and affiliated international agencies.<\/p>\n

The packaging remains subtle and well-calibrated. At times, and especially these days, the specter of \u201cRwanda\u201d is harped on to ominously insinuate \u201cpotential or imminent ethnic cleansing\u201d in the making. The famine that stalked Ethiopia in the 1970s is rehashed for good measure now and then. And, at other times, the analogy shifts to Yugoslavia to convey impending \u201cbreak-up and State failure in Ethiopia with dire consequences to peace and stability in the Horn of Africa region\u201d.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the constant refrain and chilling hyperbole in much sensationalized international media headlines and news reports run: \u201chumanitarian conditions in Ethiopia are hellish as the nine-month Tigray conflict spreads in Africa\u2019s second-most populous country\u2026 People in Tigray are starving with up to 900,000 in famine conditions and more than five million in desperate need of humanitarian assistance\u201d.<\/p>\n

The frantic campaign is elastic with shifting focus and temporal intensity. As it happens, the tool kit in the first months of the conflict, mostly directed at Eritrea\u2019s Defense Forces for reasons that will be elaborated later, consisted of churning out, almost on a daily basis, horrid stories on alleged \u201cwanton massacre of civilians\u2026 vindictive looting and destruction of property\u2026 rampant sexual and gender-based violence, including gang rape, to instill fear on the civilian population in Tigray region\u2026. etc.\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n

Some major newspapers \u2013 New York Times, Daily Telegraph, etc. \u2013 run ludicrous stories alleging that the perpetration of rape by the Eritrean Armed Forces was part and parcel of a deliberate policy directive issued by higher echelons in the Army with the express aim of spreading HIV in Tigray. The peddlers of the false narrative were evidently ignorant of the fact that HIV prevalence in Eritrea \u2013 which stands at 0.2% is in fact 20 times less than the 4% rate in Tigray. Then there is also the \u201cMonaliza Saga\u201d. Her fabricated story of rape by Ethiopian soldiers, later maliciously altered to \u201cgang rape by Eritrean soldiers who also shot her in her left arm\u201d went viral on all mainstream media outlets. Her father belatedly admitted that the story was patently false; that she was a member of the TPLF Militia and her wounds\/hospitalization stemmed from the injuries she suffered in the battles during the early days of the TPLF attacks on the Northern Command.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, all the horrendous stories were, and remain, invariably based on \u201cwitness testimonies\u201d, the majority of them through telephone interviews from abroad as well as in refugee camps in the Sudan where thousands of TPLF former Special Forces and Militias are sheltered.<\/p>\n

The Amnesty International original report on the \u201cAxum Massacre\u201d was, for instance culled out from interviews with 31 TPLF militias in the Hamdayet Refugee Camp. Its \u201cfinal\u201d report, issued six months later, did not feature any better in terms of pitiful methodology \u2013 largely based, by its own admission, on telephone interviews from afar with 61 alleged victims. AI\u2019s long-standing and malicious agenda against Eritrea is another factor that casts a long shadow on the motive and credibility of its reports.<\/p>\n

Validation of outrageous allegations, even some modicum of background checks to ascertain credibility, affiliation, and\/or underlying motive of the \u201cwitnesses\u201d have been sorely absent on all the stories churned out gratuitously without due regard to the damage inculcated on those presumed guilty on the basis of sheer, unverified, allegations.<\/p>\n

More importantly, there is compelling evidence to corroborate that the driving force behind the concerted campaigns is indeed the singular pursuit of US-EU geopolitical agendas \u2013 albeit misguided \u2013 in the strategically pivotal Horn of Africa region; more than conscientious and humanitarian considerations and\/or the interests of regional peace.<\/p>\n

What is unfolding is in fact the weaponization and politicization of human rights and dire humanitarian realities to preserve and maintain narrow geopolitical agendas of the US and its European allies. The following facts illustrate that this is indeed the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Eritrea. Profile Guest Column In the past few months, major western powers have invoked different facets of human rights and international laws of war in the conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia to cast the crisis in almost apocalyptic terms. And for maximum outreach and impact, the chorus continues to be amplified […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":1723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8,16],"tags":[242,243,233],"class_list":["post-1724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-eritrea","tag-eritrea"],"yoast_head":"\nUS\/EU: Weaponizing \u201cHuman Rights\u201d - Eritrea<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Profile Guest Column In the past few months, major western powers have invoked different facets of human rights ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/us-eu-weaponizing-human-rights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US\/EU: Weaponizing \u201cHuman Rights\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Profile Guest Column In the past few months, major western powers have invoked different facets of human rights ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/us-eu-weaponizing-human-rights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Eritrea\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-25T15:54:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2021\/08\/img-6126637cd0efe.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"542\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/us-eu-weaponizing-human-rights#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/us-eu-weaponizing-human-rights\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"US\/EU: Weaponizing \u201cHuman Rights\u201d\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-25T15:54:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/us-eu-weaponizing-human-rights\"},\"wordCount\":703,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/us-eu-weaponizing-human-rights#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2021\/08\/img-6126637cd0efe.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Eritrea\",\"Eritrea\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/us-eu-weaponizing-human-rights#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/us-eu-weaponizing-human-rights\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/us-eu-weaponizing-human-rights\",\"name\":\"US\/EU: Weaponizing \u201cHuman Rights\u201d - 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