Thread by @timnitGebru

Please watch this important video about the abuse Haben has received for speaking up. I'll also list out ways in which people have come at me. Here's the playbook.

1. Every news showing atrocities in Tigray & not solely assigning responsibility to TPLF & only TPLF is #FakeNews.

https://twitter.com/HabenGirma/status/1371190260869128192

Mind you thats countless outlets with respected journalistic standards. Nothing can be real. Verified videos, satellite imagery, countless witness testimonies whether they are refugees or victims of rape, or families of those killed, nothing is real. Everything is fake news.

2. People accuse you of speaking up a lot about Tigray and not speaking up about what is happening to Amharas. There are horrible things happening. Most recently 29 ethnic Amharas were massacred in Wollega.

There are also atrocities to other ethnicities not getting enough news coverage. There are probably many I don't know about. Some of my friends told me about what happened to people in Wolayta zone.

Many ethnic Oromos also raise awareness of whats been done to their communities & their relationship to the Ethiopian state & history.

Growing up we never learned about what was done to them in the name of creating the Ethiopian empire.

I don't recall tweeting about this but I have not received a single criticism from people in this camp about not speaking up about atrocities in their communities.

I have also not tweeted about conditions in Eritrea. And Eritreans in this camp haven't accused me...

of saying something about Tigray without saying something about Eritrea. After all, I am ethnically a Tigrayan Eritrean.

In the backdrop of all this, there are other comments accusing me of not talking about "other atrocities." One even said "AllLivesMatter"

Others say the same while also saying #TigrayGenocide is #FakeNews.

As a Black person in the US I certainly don't have a great association with #AllLivesMatter.

If you dare say #TigrayGenocide you must be a TPLF supporter.

Mind you thats the political party responsible for exile & deportation of our families.

We must be their supporters because we're horrified by whats happening to Tegaru civilians. Or we must be falling victim to their misinformation campaign because...

nothing reporting on #TigrayGenocide is real except for state media or other local outlets with specific mandates.

3. People also deny the presence of Eritrean troops let alone the committed atrocities. Many however, had known of this presence moths ago before confirmation...

by news outlets with so much evidence.

OR they go from not acknowledging their presence to outright defending them.

4. When that doesn't work I get messages of being a traitor & threats. Funny enough I've gotten those from accounts that purport to be supporters AND opponents

of the Ethiopian prime minister.
Who knows the ppl behind the accounts tho.

Some Eritreans also try to question my Eritrean identity (same as they're doing to Haben). Mind you there are many in the diaspora who's only understanding of Eritrea is that...

one should never criticize whats done in its name.

Ask them about culture, language, or Eritreans' living conditions...

Either zero knowledge or complete denial just like Tigray. Many of these people kept on tweeting that they were happy Google fired a "junta supporter."

In the end, I have never witnessed something this disturbing in my life time. It is one thing to be silent. It is another to have complete denial, and shame and bully those who are saying something. The level of complete denial by people I thought would never do this is shocking