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Global Leaders to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed: Stop the Atrocities in Tigray

Seven highly respected leaders in conflict resolution have issued a call for Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to take immediate action to bring a halt to the atrocities being committed in the Tigray region of his nation

The rugged landscape of Tigray, Ethiopia’s most northern region, stretches away to the north and into Eritrea. The Tigray Region has been rocked by conflict since November 2020. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

DILI, Jun 11 2021 (IPS) - Seven highly respected leaders in conflict resolution have issued a call for Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to take immediate action to bring a halt to the atrocities being committed in the Tigray region of his nation. The letter urges the Prime Minister to implement seven steps to resolve the crisis.

It was authored by José Ramos-Horta, former President of Timor-Leste and 1996 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and five other international diplomats and peace builders, “colleagues and friends the Prime Minister knows well,” including former President of Finland Tarja Halonen, former UN and Arab League Special Envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi, Emeritus Bishop of Oslo and former Vice Chair of the Nobel Committee Dr. Gunnar Stalsett, former President of Slovenia and former UN Assistant Secretary General and President of the World Leadership Alliance Danilo Turk, and former UN Under Secretary General and Special Envoy for the Prevention of Genocide Adama Dieng.

The letter notes that “grave human rights violations and abuses are being committed against civilian Tigrayans, including extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, looting and destruction of property, mass executions, arbitrary arrests, rape, forced displacement of populations, hate speech and stigmatization including ethnic profiling. These attacks have caused tens of thousands of Tigrayan children and adults to flee their homes and to seek refuge in Sudan under extremely deplorable conditions.”

“As a result of this conflict, according to the United Nations, approximately 4.5 million of a population of 6 million people are in immediate need of humanitarian assistance,” it says. “Between two and 2.5 million people in the region will experience severe food insecurity through September. News outlets from around the globe are also increasingly writing of horrifying stories of rape, torture, and mass arrests.”

It recalls Abiy’s own words, from his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech two years ago, “there are those, ‘who have never seen war, but glorify and romanticize it. They have not seen the fear. They have not seen the fatigue. They have not seen the destruction or heartbreak, nor have they felt the mournful emptiness of war after the carnage.”

Specifically, the leaders urge Prime Minister Ahmed to:

1. Act now and swiftly to save his country and end the suffering of Ethiopians afflicted by war in Tigray.

2. Invite independent and credible investigations, in full cooperation with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, into human rights abuses and violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law by all actors in Tigray. We encourage the Prime Minister to ensure that other human rights organizations are provided access in order to independently investigate reports of human rights abuses and violations in Tigray.

3. Consider establishing a hybrid court empowered with jurisdiction to hold accountable Eritrean perpetrators of war crimes.

4. Fully cooperate with regional organizations and the international community to facilitate all-inclusive dialogue, reconciliation and healing, involving all political and civil society actors in Tigray with the goal of charting a consensual way forward for the region’s future governance.

5. Lead calls for a cessation of hostilities by all parties involved and encourage other parties to commit to ending the fighting immediately. Press for the immediate and verifiable withdrawal of Eritrean and Amhara regional forces from the Tigray Region.

6. Facilitate the work of international humanitarian staff including by issuing long-duration visas, expediting the process for the importation and use of satellite communication technology by humanitarian organizations, and instructing your military and allied forces to establish a civil-military coordination cell to facilitate the work of humanitarian organizations on the ground.

7. Issue orders to protect all civilians in Tigray and throughout Ethiopia regardless of their ethnicity, including refugees and internally displaced persons, and particularly women in the light of widespread reports of sexual and gender-based violence.”

“It is clear that like all wars, the political dispute that led to the Tigray crisis cannot be resolved through military means alone,” it states. “The suffering inflicted on the people in the region has already been too great. For the good of Ethiopia, and the good of the region and the world, we ask the Prime Minister to work toward a political solution as soon as possible. It is only through dialogue and negotiation that lasting peace can be established, and the healing for so many can begin.”

There has been no response to date from Prime Minister Abiy.

Read the letter

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  • Gobanaa Dacci

    Total hypocrisy, TPLF a tiny ethnic party supported by The West wheeled an ethnic militia, invaded the other 95% Ethiopians and did unspeakable cruelty 27 years. Millions were evicted, tens of thousands murdered, they rape men hang bricks on prisoner’s testicles. Ethiopians wept blood none of the above listed were present to listen. Now TPLF is defeated & hiding in caves all of these? Believe me, you will not negotiate with Al-Qaida, and Ethiopians with TPLF. The West wants to force us to go back to slavery. It will simply not happen, and if they use force the outcome will be horror 100 times Syria. Tens of millions will come to Europe. The simple solution, tell your TPLF dogs to lay their arms down that way the food pass to the ordinary folk.

  • HAILEMICHAEL SOLOMUN

    lives of million’s of tigray people is in the hands of international community. apparently people’s are dying through famine. the gov’t of Ethiopia and his foreign allies are using famine(starvation) as a weapon of war. we need action that could save lives of millions

  • Souradjou Lawani

    are you serious..
    you are serious. on sent the hatred of the tigreens in your propros.
    I have not been in Ethiopia,
    but I saw a time the highest Ethiopian officials swear that there are no Eritrean soldiers, no rapes in Tigray.
    2 weeks later on seeing the video,
    and the same who deny in front of cameras around the world, recognize.
    At in West Africa on said “They must be unworthy to swallow his spit” ..
    it says a lot about what kind of person Abby is and those they surround themselves with …
    Destroying the trees might not be enough to take you away from the mountains too.
    We imagine that Abby was an idol. here is what is circulating in the media
    Amaha:
    child killers and rapists of women
    with supporting evidence.

  • Gobanaa Dacci

    Dont talk about things you dont know. You see, crying girls raped in Berlin, German cities turning into rubble neglects the fact who started the battle. That nations from France to USSR were invaded, butchered, humiliated, looted. That millions went up in smoke thru the chimney. This barbaric evil tiny TPLF invaded the other 95% in 1991 & committed unspeakable atrocities. Tens of thousands were butchered, millions evicted, they raped not only women but men too, they hang bricks on prisoner’s testicles. But above all knowing their tiny status imposed a hateful ethnic bantustan. Erased provinces that existed for centuries replaced by ethnic enclaves. Husband and wife divorced , countless butchered, churches and mosques burnt. Meanwhile, the komalams looted the country blind, billions. One conglomerate effort hold half of the economy. Tigray this Tigray that because their pile of rock is still there. They cut into four wiped my SHEWA of the face of the earth, cultural genocide, 20 million folk in it a 1,000 yrs old. Can you say no Rajistan, Punjab tomorrow? These are the most EVIL people ever created. Just keep quiet.

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