million people has been warned of potential flooding this weekend. ♪ >> you're watching al jazeera. a reminder of our top stories, at least two have been killed in a shooting in israel. more than a dozen others wounded in the attack. that happened in a crowded area with bars and restaurants. the gunman hasn't been found. reporter: the gunman has yet to be found. what we've seen are pictures of israeli security forces, special forces, according to national media, who seem to have surrounded a building and then

entered it but still no news of his capture of that gunman. also, meanwhile, the prime minister has convened a meeting of his top security officials, including the defense minister and they've decided to send out more security reinforcements on to the streets in and around tel aviv. >> the general assembly has voted to suspend russia from the human rights council for its invasion of ukraine. moscow says the vote is politically motivated. western nations have slammed russia with machine sanctions. the u.s. senate has voted unanimously to support slice to ban energy imimportant from russia while the european union agreed to ban coal. working to identify hundreds of bodies after russian troops with. drew. some of the bodies are in a mass grave near a church.

the u.n.'s hugh man ontario chief traveled to visit the site. >> ukraine's president has described the situation in the town as significantly more dreadful than -- he did not give more details that russia was responsible for civilian deaths. western nations say russia committed war crimes from its strike of the town. u.s. senators confirmed the first black senator to the scout. brown jackson was announced as president joe biden's nominee in february. biden says she'll be an incredible justice. i'll be back with more news in half an hour. "inside story" is next. ♪

>> are allegations of ethnic cleansing and war crimes in ethiopia being ignoreed? rights groups acues of astros cities. the allegations could fuel racial hatred, their leaders say. so what should the response be? this is "inside story." ♪ hello and welcome to the program. mass killings, rape, torture, people depreviewed of food and forcibly transferred are some of the more serious allegations from almost 18 months of war in northern ethiopia.

officials say evidence of ethnic cleansing and war crimes is being ignored internationally. the report focusing on the northern zone and accuses of a coordinated caaign against the fighting since late 2020 has so far killed thousands and forced many more to seek refuge in nearby areas. am nestity and others are calling for peace keepers led by the africanine. and accusing them of blocking aid workers and investigators from the war zone. >> ill treatment. [indiscernible] destruction and looting of property and mass -- [indiscernible] that amount to

crimes against humanity and war crimes. >> ethiopia's government is pledging to make the guilty accountable but says what it calls the report's either nick undertones could fuel hatred and that it's not helpful to pales efforts. let's remind you of the mainly events in this conflict. fighting began in november 2020 when ethiopia's prime minister ordered a military offensive. he said he was responding to attacks on army base. following months of fighting, fighters recaptured the region. by july, the regions to the south were captured. in october the government launched a ground offensive and recaptured the city of lalabala.

thousands for schism more than four million forced in -- from their homes. >> the situation in ethiopia, tigres in particular, of course. we can only be optimistic about the truth that has been announced and managed to be allowed for the first time in many months to be a convoy by road into tigr affects yes y with food, international -- tigray with medical supplies and especially non food items. >> let's bring in our guest from ethiopia. ann fitzgerald. the school of international affairs in canada and has worked in ethiopia for more than 20 years on issues regarding

conflict security and guard unanimous. in amsterdam in the netherlands, a writer and researcher and the founder and end torrey of a website documenting the war in tigray. a warm welcome and thanks so much for joining us. leticia, let me start with you today. these are very disturbing allegations outlined this in this report from your group, including am nestity international. could you detail some of the major findings of this report? >> basically there is based on over a year of research which started at the outbreak of the conflict. speaking to refugees who were fleeing from western tigray in november and december 2020 and what we find and we document in this report are waves of very

serious crime against the tigrayan population in western tigray. in the fist fails we document primarily war crimes by writhe ethiopian federal forces during the initial offensive in this region and then december 2020 onwards, we document waves of what we have described and found to be a campaign, an organized campaign of ethnic cleansing and as part of that campaign, we document a whole range of very serious abuses. extra judicial killings, sexual violence. mass incarceration and horrific detention conditions and then the forked expulsions of hundreds of thousands from in area that had been their home. >> and from your perspective, have you had a changes torret

read the report and what do you think about its findings? >> i think the objective of the report is very sound, to investigate something that reflects gross human rights violations and atrocities. that, i -- i guess i'm wearing my research halt and i would ask some questions that are methodical in nature, so the researchers did not go to the area where the evidence existed in the region itself. second militia, there were 427 interviews orchestrated and that's a very good number. however, on close examination of the footnotes, it seems that the evidence talent to the analysis was heavily weighted to the interviews undertaken by the researchers when they were on the ground in sudan and, of course, we know that the groups

in sudan at the time not only included event nick tigraya groups that were unfortunately and tragically displays from tigray prop proper but also the youth arm of the fighters which suggests organization stated the killings, deaths which the number continues to grow but number over 1200. so that was the first methodical question i had. the were devil calls that were made to evidentic amara from the region but these were small in number but we don't get a sense of numberles and don't see that reflected so much in the report. there is a big study on this issue which has been going on

for over a year. nick who said an expert on these issues -- and it's strange that there's no reference to that report and the public occasion of this report has been unleashed two days before the planned publication and launch of the gandar university report on those mass graves. the content to me does not legend to the findings. to draw such huge conclusions that accuse others of war crimes and ethnic cleansing needs a very deep investigation. a methodically sound and robust investigation. i do feel there's a slightly weak link between the content of the report and the findings.

>> he tissuea, ann seems to have some misgives with the methodology. would you like to respond? >> yeah, i'm very happy to. first of all, our research was ongoing until january 2022. in the cures of that a lot of what we document, i mean, the waves of abuses which happened from december 2020 onwards were at a time when the federal government forces and the militia were preventing people from threing into sudan so a lot of the research done in sudan was in the early phases of the conflict, including very detailed descriptions all of what happened but a lot of the sucks went research was done with individuals who were forcibly ex pulsed as heart of part of this organized campaign of evident nick cleansing which started from december 20 -- 2020

onwards and also, we have corroborated a lot of our it willal finding with satellite imagery, including the destruction of entire villages as well as the movement of those organized convoys. we're talking about vincks who were in detention facilities who were taken away from those and bust across into the area, which is seen as the natural bound rim between these two parts of tigray. but people who were living in the context of abuses of fear, of increasing violence against tigray. this was an area where the ethiopian government was in control of getting out assistance. wasn't instrumentalized and that was used at one of the means to

preventing citizens from having access to that. making it almost impossible to survive in. ethiopia is a country where human rights for decades has been doing remote research in and this is a context we're very used to operating in this type of con text. >> have you read the full report and if so, do you believe that it gives the full, most comprehensive picture of what's going on on the ground or do you believe there's more that needs to be reported? >> thank you. yes, i did and i'm happy that in report has started to scrap the surface of the crimes committed in tigray. bibut it does have also a lot of limitations. some of it imposed by the

government that they didn't allow. they're saying now they didn't go there but the police had a total block aid in -- blockade in communication. but it has also this problem of sticking the previous amnesty report, which was really a dangerous error that victimizes the very victims as perpetrators of crimes. even if there are lives where -- we've written a lot about this but the report states -- sticks to the previous amnesty report that they entered micadra on the

ninth. the truth is that the ethiopian government orchestrated this crime using am nestity and it uses that report to galvanize either yep eyewitness against them. the other thing in the report is the bigger context. really what is happening here is that tigray as a result of its history and its place in either yepian history is being wiped out as a politician of both governments. in fact, three governments had some kind of independent actor. so what i've been trying to do is they are trying to not only paints tig -- eliminate tigray as a region, as a state but also trying to eliminate the people. about a million people that

don't pause any threat to both evident yepa and the area and i think this is the biggest thing the report misses. >> the either chromian government declared that there was an indefinite humanitarian truce. they declared that in last march. is that holding? is aid getting into tigray right now? >> no, aid is not getting into tigray. they only let some in to reseptember -- in other words, to give-out the news that aid is getting into tigray. as soon as they announced that, they only allowed one day, 21 track we know that about 100 tracks are supposed to enter tigray every day. they have told international media that the aid is getting to tigray but the police is

reducing the grand population through starvation, migration. and it is working every second, every minute, every hour and they are succeeding in this. >> and i want to talk a little bit about the political picture in either koroma right now. how complicated things are and also what actually has to happen for this conflict to come to an end? >> i'd like to say first of all that forensic criminal evidence is required for this investigation into the mass graves and that's the sort of thing that needs to be done to find conclusions and recommendations of the sort that the report has put forward. and that has yet to be done and is desperately needed. secondly, in line with your question, i've just spent considerable time across the northern regions of either yepa. i have witnessed the huge levels of destruction and damage caused

by the fighting left by the tigrayan fighters. i have witnessed numerous mass graves so the mass graves in wolkite are certainly not the only mass graves and any investigation en masse graves should be comprehensive and for considerable numbers of tigrayan fighters still occupying five regions in northern afar. for any humanitarian groups to be successful, those troops have to pull back. for many of them and tie anxious lated research through these communities suggest numberles of 830,000 to 100,000 and the use of heavy weapons and -- secondly, this wash is not only

affecting tigray. it is affecting three regions. i visited one that was starving from of food and water at the moment while trucks bypass and go up through the region. there's great pressure for that aid to get to tigray and that is terribly important. the people ill interviewed who came to the camp across the border haven't had food for a long time. there are three regional states affected by the conflicts and i would summarize by saying that until the military activity is drawn to a conclusion and troops are drawn back, there can be no humanitarian conclusion. there are a vast number of troops still across the five regions of afar. so we're seeing, it seems, one side honor its commitment to

humanitarian truce at the moment but not the over party to the conflict. >> ethiopia's government is pledging to make the guilty accountable. after the property are you getting i would occasions from government officials that that is actually going to happen? >> maybe to follow up on one only points i made which i would say i agreed with one of the big recommendations in this report is the need for ongoing international independent investigations and as part of that there needs tock forensic expertise. one of the concerns we have with how long getting international investigations up and running into the abuses in the whole of northern ethiopia is that we have documented incidents of destruction of physical evidence. and there is an expertise which is required for the retrifle of bodies, including insuring --

ensuring this is done in a dignified way as well. so we have advocated far new commission at the level of the human rights council in jivea to really look into this and collect evidence, preserving evidence in a humanitarian, dignified manner for future accountability. the question of the humanitarian truce. under international humanitarian war, there does not need to be a truce to allow warring parties to allow unendered humanitarian access and i think it's important to continue to underline that what we've been seeing in tigray in particular and the obstructed assistance going in. regional minorities, security forces, etc., in constitutes an

effective siege and is a violation in itself and i think texas important to continue to underline that humanitarian access cannot be used as a political ploy. it is a responsibility of all the warring parties to allow that going in. in terms of commitments to investigations, we have in our report looked into what we've heard so far. one of the big concerns with western tigray, this is in many ways the elephant in the room. very contested and very complicated but we heard at the height of the beginning of the ethnic cleansing campaign, denyings from the federal government. it is positive to hear the government is going to look into our find, but it is absolutely key that we continue to see and we see the opening up of the space for credible international and regional investigations into what has been happening as well. >> from your perspective, why

hasn't machine action by taken by the international community? >> thank you. i just want to respond to some of the points the ethiopian government is the main engineer of this genocide. they even have a european envoy about their plan -- what they say to him. that the tigrayans, they've tried destroy them for 100 years and this is what they say to him. what we hear in the language every day is how to eliminate tigrayans. how to wipe them out. everyone of them, the authorities talk openly on media. so really, why we are talking

here. i don't know why we beautify things, you know? this is a policy of genocide and everything that happens, the aid, the black cade is all part of the plan to completely wipe out the tigrayans in the long term. ann was talking previously tigrayans coming out of tigray, that is the policy also. to first lay siege to them and them dispearls them. this was tried in 19 4 by the come analyst government. now it's a larger scale. so we don't miss that big picture so how do you expect the european government -- why do you expect them to act? it is the very entirety, the very engineer of this genocide. the other reason why the international community is not acting. unfortunately tigray doesn't

have a lot of global trillions and sadly, it has been allowed to die while once in a while saying some words like they're concerned but effectively they know that this is a genocide. they knew about in a long time ago but there is no action. in fact, today, they're signing a medicine a of understanding with european countryings. it's all business as usually. the siege, the blockade, the communicationings blackout has shield it would world to see what is happening. >> i'm sorry to interrupt. but i want to ask ann one last question. amnesty international and human rights watch are both calling for the deployment of pales keepers. is that something you think might happen? >> i don't know.

the deployment of pales keepers would require agreement on all sides. that's a fundamental principle of international piece keeping. we're seeing insurgency conflicts shamed bill a serious information campaign with mills information and disinformation and somewhat i would recommend is not peacekeepers so long as both sides respect a humanitarian truce and the ptlf fighters withdraw from afar but i think some verification and monitoring is desperately required so an independent verification and monotichaing force would be au-led. this is an amp can issue, for the african continent to support and resolve but i think something that verifies

misinformation, diss -- disinformation is vital. >> we're out of time. thanks so much to all of our guests. and thank you, too, for watching. you can see the program again anytime by visiting our website al jazeera.com and facebook.com forward slash ag inside story. and also view the program on twitter. from our whole team here, bye for now. o7ñ;ñ;?k úçúç

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