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   Zecharias Zelalem (zekuzelalem@dair-community.social)'s status on Thursday, 25-Jan-2024 13:02:10 JST Zecharias Zelalem

   • The Continent

   Looks like impunity reigns supreme in Ethiopia. Last September, I produced a visual investigation into videotaped Ethiopian army extrajudicial killings of civilians that made the cover page of @thecontinent weekly paper. I had managed to geolocate the incident, and spoke to residents of the town of Debre Markos where the atrocity took place. Four months later, I learn the Ethiopian army launched an investigation following my report.

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     Zecharias Zelalem (zekuzelalem@dair-community.social)'s status on Thursday, 25-Jan-2024 13:02:04 JST Zecharias Zelalem

     in reply to

     The actual person who captured the footage is safely out of the country. For no crime of their own, the detainees were put through an extremely traumatic experience.

     It clearly indicates that there is no interest in accountability of any kind, and that the government's main concern is sealing off the phone and internet connections to disrupt the potential flow of incriminating evidence of army atrocities.

     The investigation, republished in the Mail & Guardian.

     https://mg.co.za/africa/2023-09-18-ethiopian-forces-implicated-in-amhara-war-crimes/

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     Zecharias Zelalem (zekuzelalem@dair-community.social)'s status on Thursday, 25-Jan-2024 13:02:05 JST Zecharias Zelalem

     in reply to

     My sources tells me the army raided one of the buildings and went door to door detaining around twenty random residents, confiscating computers and phones in an attempt to find the footage or evidence of communication with me or other journalists. The detainees were beaten and interrogated for days and had their devices thoroughly searched before the army conceded that none of them was the source of the footage. They were gradually released, between a month and two months later.

     AnthonyJK-Admin repeated this.
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     Zecharias Zelalem (zekuzelalem@dair-community.social)'s status on Thursday, 25-Jan-2024 13:02:06 JST Zecharias Zelalem

     in reply to

     They analyzed the footage and visited the location, and determined that because of the perched aerial video angle, whoever filmed it must have been doing so from a high window at one of the nearby buildings, which happen to be residential apartments where students and staff from the nearby Debre Markos University reside.

     https://maps.app.goo.gl/cXKdSMYgJrBXykGq6

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     Zecharias Zelalem (zekuzelalem@dair-community.social)'s status on Thursday, 25-Jan-2024 13:02:08 JST Zecharias Zelalem

     in reply to

     So this is what we learned from a source: the Ethiopian army used our data to locate the incident (which suggests as is widely reported, that atrocities committed during August 2023 had been so many, that they weren't immediately aware of where such killings may have taken place).

     Instead of taking action against the perpetrators, the army investigation set out to determine how the press could obtain the footage when a region wide internet blackout was supposed to prevent such leaks.

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     Zecharias Zelalem (zekuzelalem@dair-community.social)'s status on Thursday, 25-Jan-2024 13:02:09 JST Zecharias Zelalem

     in reply to

     Analysis of various landmarks in the 90 second video, including greenery, a gas station, roads and residential structures resulted in our placing the exact location of the executions right here:

     https://maps.app.goo.gl/9o61TsptgNeexdMF6