Genocide culprits rarely admit their crime: Ethiopia is no different
The indecisiveness of the international community despite recurring signals is emboldening the Ethiopian regime to continue committing atrocious crimes in Tigray with impunity
Source: Globe News Net
Our world had experienced a list of atrocious war crimes and crimes against humanity in the past decades. Although there existed little agreement and accountability against the list of Genocide crimes, the UN convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of Genocide decreed in 1948 defined Genocide as:
“Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group’’
[1948 UN Genocide Convention]
Whether we would like to hear or not, more than 500 thousand (half a million) people have vanished in Tigray in the last 500 days of a coordinated (planned, financed, and executed) Genocidal war by the evil axis of dictators in the horn of Africa- The Eritrean regime, the Amhara expansionist forces, the Ethiopian brutal regime and forces affiliated with it. The atrocious crimes being committed in Tigray are not too complex to define even for a layperson. It is a textbook example of Genocide.
Tigrayans in the last couple of years in Ethiopia had been subjected to state-led discrimination, ethnic profiling, indiscriminate killing , massacre , systematic starvation, illegal mass detention and disappearances , barbaric killings , ethnic cleansing , weaponized rape that includes disabling reproductive organs, and widespread emotional and psychological traumas .
Looking at the genesis of the war and the subsequent rhetoric and war crimes committed by the architects of the war on Tigray, the quest of the victims for an independent investigation and prosecution including naming the atrocious crimes remains above the board. Despite the legitimate voices and plethora of atrocious crimes in Tigray however, the large majority of media, human rights watchdogs and the international community at large had hardly given due attention nor ensured accountability yet.
The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (UNOCHA) in its periodic update released on March 17, 2022, indicated that Tigray is experiencing a staggering humanitarian crisis. Less than one percent (0.8%) of people are getting food assistance in the 21st century under the eyes of the international community. The UN body described the situation in Tigray as follows.
“Many activities remain reduced or suspended in Tigray. In the past week, fewer than 7,000 people received food assistance – an extremely small fraction of the 870,000 our UN colleagues are trying to assist each week. Partners also warn that less than 10 percent of the required amount of improved seeds have been brought in to Tigray before the start of the planting season, only a month away’’
UN
The WHO director-general in his briefing on March 16/2022 had alerted the international community that Tigray is passing through an unparalleled catastrophe and requested unfettered access & peaceful settlement of the crisis. The World Food Program (WFP) late in January 2022 had similarly been echoing the prevailing humanitarian crisis in Tigray and Ethiopia at large. According to the WFP report, two million people in Tigray were in urgent need of food by the month of January. People were desperately telling humanitarian workers and the media “we just sleep and hope we don’t perish”. The rest of the humanitarian agencies and NGOs weren’t as vocal except for a rare tweet from the USAID Administrator Samantha Power. As clearly indicated by the USAID chief, the Ethiopian regime along with its cronies had been systematically hindering the passage of humanitarian aid. The government of Tigray had consistently been updating the developmental partners and humanitarian organizations regarding the situation in that it was deserving urgent response and the government of Abiy Ahmed was systematically impeding the aid.
On March 17, 2022, editors of the Guardian have similarly echoed the international community to exert proportional focus on the humanitarian crisis occurring out of Ukraine and give the same level of solidarity and support. It had put the crisis in Tigray, Ethiopia.
“In Ethiopia, too, health workers have been attacked and grotesque violations of the laws of war have become the norm: this week a horrifying video emerged on showing armed men burning a Tigrayan man to death in western Ethiopia. As many as half a million people have died from the violence and hunger caused by the war, researchers said this week”, The Guardian said.
The humanitarian crisis in Tigray is deteriorating fast while the response from the international community is apparently low. Even though the recent rare call from US senator Robert Menendez to the US president to give due attention and response is encouraging, the solidarity and support from the remaining lawmakers in the US and the decision-makers in the European Union is inadequate and receives the least attention.
Despite the atrocities mentioned above and the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Tigray, the Ethiopian regime is trying to silence any voice that calls for unfettered access and ending the crisis through peaceful means. It is unthinkable to hear voices from within Tigray and Ethiopia as the regime had imposed a communication blockade and weaponized information and media . What is more appalling is the regime’s attempt to silence and attack aid workers, UN staff including DG of the WHO. The regime is shamelessly blackmailing Tedros merely for doing his job and calling for unfettered access. It is recalled the Ethiopian regime had expelled seven UN staffers from Ethiopia with a pretext of ‘meddling in the internal affairs of the country. This absence of concrete response for its unjustified measures has emboldened the regime to commit unlawful acts that threatened international humanitarian laws. In a desperate move, the regime via its state media Walta media and communication corporate had blackmailed US lawmakers who had drafted the HR 6600 with petty corruption.
Unless an international accountability mechanism is established and proper investigation is carried out, perpetrators of the atrocious crimes in Genocide don’t usually admit and take corrective measures in time. Alike the culprits of the Genocide crime elsewhere, the Ethiopian regime had taken denial, deception, whitewashing, and misinformation as its modus operand of the state in a futile attempt of deluding the international community. Denial indeed is the 10th step in the Genocide crime. For instance, the Ethiopian regime late in June 2021 had been pointing its fingers at the third body regarding the cold-blooded murder of humanitarian aid workers recently made public by the New York times investigation team.
As the US senator Robert Menendez perfectly put it in his recent letter sent to the Biden administration, countries and the international community, in general, shouldn’t outweigh their ‘strategic’ advantage over the basic human and democratic rights being threatened in Tigray. Though there had been golden opportunities for the international community to arrest the devastating crisis and gross human rights abuses in Tigray, it wouldn’t be too late now to intervene diligently. Countries and multilateral institutions have plenty of tools that could put the Ethiopian and Eritrean regimes held accountable and brings the Ethiopian regime to the negotiating table. The draft HR 6600 of the United States that aims at maintaining stabilization, peace, and democracy in Ethiopia could contribute to this end.
