Ethiopian crisis: Rights group accuses rebel Tigray forces of summarily executing civilians
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) – Tigrayan forces summarily executed dozens of civilians in two towns they controlled in Ethiopia's northern Amhara region between 31 August and 9 September, 2021, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday.
These killings highlight the urgent need for the United Nations Human Rights Council to establish an international investigative mechanism into abuses by all warring parties in the expanded Tigray conflict, HRW said on its website.
It said on 31 August, Tigrayan forces entered the village of Chenna and engaged in sporadic and at times heavy fighting with Ethiopian federal forces and allied Amhara militias.
HRW quoted Chenna residents as saying that over the next five days Tigrayan forces summarily executed 26 civilians in 15 separate incidents, before withdrawing on 4 September.
In the town of Kobo on 9 September, Tigrayan forces summarily executed a total of 23 people in four separate incidents, witnesses said.
The killings were in apparent retaliation for attacks by farmers on advancing Tigrayan forces earlier that day.
“Tigrayan forces showed brutal disregard for human life and the laws of war by executing people in their custody,” said Lama Fakih, crisis and conflict director at HRW. “These killings and other atrocities by all sides to the conflict underscore the need for an independent international inquiry into alleged war crimes in Ethiopia’s Tigray and Amhara regions.”
Since the start of the armed conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region in November 2020, Ethiopian military forces, alongside Eritrean armed forces, Amhara regional special forces, and Amhara militias, have fought against a Tigrayan armed group affiliated with the region’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
HRW and other rights organisations have documented war crimes and possible crimes against humanity in the Tigray region by all parties to the conflict.
In July, fighting expanded to the neighboring Amhara region, leading to large-scale displacement, with 3.7 million people in the region in need of humanitarian assistance.
HRW said in September and October, it remotely interviewed 36 people, including witnesses to killings, victims’ relatives and neighbours, religious figures, and doctors about fighting and abuses in and around Chenna Teklehaimanot village (Chenna) and the town of Kobo.
It said 19 people described seeing Tigrayan fighters in Chenna and Kobo summarily execute a total of 49 people who they said were civilians, providing 44 names.
It also obtained three lists of civilians who had allegedly been killed in Chenna between 31 August and 4 September.
Taken together, the lists contain 74 names, 30 of which witnesses and relatives of those killed also mentioned to HRW, the statement said.
It added that in addition to summary executions, civilians may also have been killed during the fighting from crossfire or heavy weapons, but said it was not able to determine how many were killed in this way.
"The UN Human Rights Council should urgently establish an independent international mechanism to investigate abuses in the Tigray conflict, which has since expanded into the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions. The investigation should include alleged summary executions and other serious violations of the laws of war by Tigrayan forces, identify those responsible at all levels, and preserve evidence for future accountability," HRW said.
The human rights watchdog said the UN Security Council should add Ethiopia to its formal agenda and urgently take concrete measures against the warring parties to deter further abuses, including targeted sanctions and a global arms embargo.
“Tigrayan forces’ apparent war crimes in Chenna and Kobo spotlight the urgent need for all warring parties in Ethiopia to prioritize the protection of civilians,” Fakih said. “The UN Security Council needs to pressure the parties to make this happen through sanctions and an arms embargo.”
-0- PANA MA 10Dec2021
