Talk:Zalambessa massacre

This article was nominated for deletion on 9 November 2021. The result of the discussion was Procedural keep.

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POV

A big part of the "massacre" section of this article contains multiple issues for instance the following statement:

It started as indiscriminate shelling on the town, coming from the northern (Eritrean) side during 13 consecutive hours. Then soldiers of both armies went house to house arbitrarily killing civilians. Burials were prohibited and corpses eaten in the streets by hyenas and dogs. Every killing has been carefully documented by some survivors.

In one case, which is not at all most extreme, the soldiers entered the house of Haleqa Tewolde Adhanom and his wife Minia Embafrash. They killed both spouses, then occupied the house, and settled there while feasting on the slaughtered goats of the family. They stayed 12 days in the house, eating the 30 goats, and only after that the bodies of the spouses could be buried.

uses TigrayOnline as a source. Which is a politically motivated website that posts impartial and biased articles.

The article goes on to say

The Zalambessa massacre seems in the first place an act of terror, on the moment of the invasion of Tigray from the north, in order to frighten any town that would offer resistance. This included shelling of Zalambessa’s Cherkos church and its vandalisation.

There is no reliable source presented for the shelling of a church in Zalambessa. Tghat is a new blog website that releases subjective views on issues of Tigray and has a conflict of interest. Wikipedia asks to exercise caution when using such sources. Check WP:SELFPUB .

Another claim in the article

On 18 December 2020, an EEPA report stated that four named priests and three civilians were killed by troops (reportedly ENDF and Eritrean Defence Forces, EDF) in Zalambessa.

This claim has EEPA web blog as a reference. EEPA blog is presented here as an authoritative source. Please check WP:SELFPUB and present verifiable sources to back the claim.

Typical massacres committed by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers in the Tigray war are (1) revenge when they lose a battle; (2) to terrorise and extract information about whereabouts of TPLF leaders; (3) murder of suspected family members of TDF fighters and (4) terrorising the Tigray society as a whole such as in case of mass killings in churches.

The tone of the above paragraph shows impartiality to the circumstances in Tigray WP:IMPARTIAL and is composed of allegations which can't be verified by any independent entities to the matter. It lacks sources WP:SOURCE. The cited audio does not substantiate the claim.

Unreliable Source issue

In the intro, it says

The Zalambessa massacre was a mass extrajudicial killing that took place in Zalambessa (Tigrinya: ዛላምበሳ) in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia during the Tigray War, on 13 November 2020, with some aftermath killings up to 17 November

The introduction section consists of references to a single research named Tigray: Atlas of the humanitarian situation. This paper is a non peer reviewed original research which is made by entities that are close to the event. WP:OR makes it quite clear that Wikipedia articles must not contain original research. The phrase "original research" (OR) is used on Wikipedia to refer to material—such as facts, allegations, and ideas—for which no reliable, published sources exist.

It goes also against wikipedia policy of WP:PRIMARY . Please use reliable sources that back the claim that has been made in the article. Check out WP:SECONDARY and WP:TERTIARY for more information.

The above are lengthy paragraphs by an apparent new Wikipedia user (lobbyist?) aimed at denying that the massacre occurred, in line with an attitude by Ethiopian and Eritrean governments. To cope with the issues mentioned, formal general reactions by those governments are now mentioned in the article.Rastakwere (talk) 04:55, 17 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]