Geneva, Switzerland/Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Reuters
All sides fighting in the war in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray committed violations that may amount to war crimes, according to a joint investigation by the United Nations and Ethiopia published on Wednesday.
The report accuses all sides of torturing and killing civilians, carrying out gang-rapes and making arrests on the basis of ethnicity.
Civilians displaced from Kobo town are seen at a school makeshift camp for internally displaced people due to the fighting between the Ethiopian National Defense Force and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front forces, in Dessie town, Amhara Region, Ethiopia, on 9th October. PICTURE: Reuters/Tiksa Negeri/File photo.
It was released the day after Ethiopia declared a state of emergency. Tigrayan forces said on Monday they might march on the capital to topple Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government.
The investigation was carried out by the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the state-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission.
ETHIOPIAN LEADER, MARKING YEAR OF WAR, SAYS HE WILL BURY FOES ‘WITH OUR BLOOD’
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed pledged on Wednesday to bury his government’s enemies “with our blood” as he marked the start of the war in the Tigray region one year ago.
Abiy, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, was speaking a day after a state of emergency was declared in the country and with Tigrayan forces threatening to advance on the capital Addis Ababa.
“The pit which is dug will be very deep, it will be where the enemy is buried, not where Ethiopia disintegrates,” he said in a speech at an event at the military’s headquarters in Addis Ababa.
“We will bury this enemy with our blood and bones and make the glory of Ethiopia high again,” said Abiy, who won the Nobel prize for settling Ethiopia’s longtime conflict with Eritrea.
An earlier call to “bury” the enemy contained in a statement posted on Abiy’s official Facebook page over the weekend was removed by the platform for violating its policies against inciting and supporting violence, the company said.
“As the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia intensifies, we are committed to helping keep people safe and preventing online and offline harm through our platforms,” a company spokesperson told Reuters. Facebook changed its name to Meta last month.
During Wednesday’s commemoration of the first anniversary of the conflict, a moment of silence was observed at the candle-lit ceremony to commemorate those killed on 3rd November, 202, when forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front – including some soldiers – seized military bases in Tigray. In response, Abiy sent more troops to the northern region.
The TPLF led Ethiopia’s ruling coalition for nearly 30 years but lost control when Abiy took office in 2018 following years of anti-government protests.
Relations with the TPLF soured after they accused him of centralising power at the expense of Ethiopia’s regional states – an accusation Abiy denies.
– Reuters
It covers from November to June during the year-long conflict fought by Tigrayan forces against the Ethiopian military and its allies – forces from the Amhara region and soldiers from the neighbouring country of Eritrea.
“We have reasonable grounds to believe that during this period, all parties to the Tigray conflict have committed violations of international human rights, humanitarian and refugee law. Some of these may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,” said Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
It did not determine the proportion of offences by each side, saying investigators could not make an exhaustive list. Bachelet said most violations in the period covered by the report were committed by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces, but since they they had seen an increase in reports by Tigrayan forces as well as continuing abuses by the Ethiopians and Eritreans.
“Eritrean forces were the main [party] responsible for violations of human rights,” she said.
It was not clear whether the report’s findings could form the basis for legal action. Ethiopia and Eritrea are not members of the International Criminal Court, so it has no jurisdiction.
The report draws on 269 interviews, many containing graphic details of rapes and mutilations by Eritrean soldiers on military bases.
Prime Minister Abiy said he accepted the report despite some “serious reservations” and said it did not accuse the government of genocide or using food as a weapon. He said a civil-military taskforce would be established to investigate all the allegations in the report.
Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh declined to comment. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front spokesperson Getachew Reda and Amhara regional spokesperson Gizachew Muluneh were unreachable.
Eritrea refused to engage with investigators, the report said, but has previously denied that its forces carried out rapes, despite extensive documentation, including by Reuters. Ethiopia has said some individual soldiers are on trial for rape and killing. Amhara has denied abuses.
TPLF’s Getachew has previously denied that Tigrayan forces committed abuses but said some “vigilante” Tigrayan groups may have.
The report said Eritrean soldiers had killed around 100 civilians in the city of Axum, that Ethiopian soldiers had dragged about 70 men from their homes and killed them in three villages in southern Tigray, and that Tigrayan forces had killed around 200 Amhara civilians in the town of Mai Kadra, a crime followed by revenge killings of Tigrayans by Amhara.
Reuters and other news organisations, rights groups, and civil society groups have documented many more killings of civilians that were not mentioned.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet attends the launch of a joint investigation into alleged violations of international human rights, humanitarian and refugee law committed by all parties to the conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on 3rd November. PICTURE: Reuters/Denis Balibouse.
Year of conflict
The report also accused Eritrean soldiers of forcing Eritrean refugees living in Tigray to return, in violation of international law.
The report accused all sides of blocking aid at different times and said it could not verify whether starvation was used as a weapon of war, as had been previously alleged by the United Nations aid chief. The United Nations has previously said the government operated a “de facto blockade” of food aid. The government denies this.
The report mentioned investigators were often hindered in their work, particularly areas controlled by Amhara forces, or unable to visit certain areas due to insecurity. It did not mention that Ethiopia deported a UN investigator working on the report in September.
The TPLF, which controls most of Tigray, has said the report was incomplete because investigators did not visit many areas.
The report said the Tigrayan leadership was reluctant to engage due to the presence of investigators from the state-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission.
The war began a year ago after regional forces and Tigrayan soldiers in the national army seized control of military bases across Tigray. They said the central government was about to move against Tigray after the region held its own elections despite a government directive delaying them.
The conflict has left about 400,000 people in Tigray facing famine, killed thousands of civilians and forced more than 2.5 million people in northern Ethiopia to flee their homes.
– Additional reporting by MAGGIE FICK and KATHARINE HOURELD.
