It is to be recalled that UTE has issued a press statement last month regarding the CoHA signed between the
Government of Ethiopia (GoE) and Tigray people Liberation front (TPLF) in Pretoria, South Africa, and
Nairobi, Kenya. The practical implementation of the CoHA has not been smooth confirming the pessimism
that UTE has had and the day-to-day life of Tigrayans has not been improved 45 days since the CoHA has been
signed.
UTE, therefore, reiterate its concern about the practical implementation of the CoHA regarding the following
issues
- Ethiopia has continued with the official politicization of international human rights and Humanitarian laws as unfettered flow of humanitarian aid and respect for human rights are not secured yet. Reports coming out from Tigray indicate that humanitarian agencies have reached only 31% of the people that are in need of humanitarian aid. The basic services, such as bank, power, telephone, internet, flight, and logistic activities are not restored in many parts of Tigray. It is time for the, UN, EU, US, AU and the international community in general to force the GoE to abide to the agreement signed by allowing unfettered flow of humanitarian aid both in air and land, and restoring the basic services.
- There is no sign of withdrawal of the non-ENDF foreign forces; the Eritrean forces, Amhara Fano and Afar militia, who still are committing atrocity crimes. These invading forces are terrorizing Tigrayans, robing by moving from house to house, raping and mass murdering civilians. They destruct infrastructures aimed preventing unfettered flow of the humanitarian aid. Sadly, this is happening in the presence of the ENDF soldiers. The Ethiopian government has neither publicly called for withdrawal of these forces nor seems interested to protect, Tigrayans (its citizens), from the crimes of these invading non-ENDF forces. It hasn’t, so far, taken any action against the Eritrean or Amhara Fano that are committing the above crimes on civilians and secure the territorial integrity of Ethiopia. Therefore, the international community must demand the Ethiopian government to order the Eritrean army to withdraw from occupied areas of Tigray by setting a deadline. UTE calls on the AU monitoring and verifying team to come out and denounce the atrocity crimes being committed by non-ENDF forces and demand for their withdrawal from Tigray as soon as possible. UTE reiterate its call for the inclusion of representatives of the UN, US, EU, and other multilateral organizations in the monitoring and verifying team as UTE believes it will have an impact for a faster withdrawal of the invading forces.
- UTE does not accept accountability and transitional justice mechanism to be coordinated in the auspice of by GoE, hence continues demanding the establishment of an independent transitional justice mechanism for justice to be served by holding the responsible leaders accountable. Thus, the international community should press the GoE to give ICHREE access to Tigray so that the investigation team perform the independent investigation on the atrocity crimes committed as mandated by the UN-HRC.
- UTE expected the CoHA to address the release of Tigrayans who are politically imprisoned because of their identity. However, many civil Tigrayans, political party leaders and former ENDF Tigrayan soldiers remain languishing in GoE’s detainee centers 45 days after the CoHA signed. Though both parties explained during the signing, both in Pretoria and Nairobi that the CoHA will benefit the victims who has suffered indescribably, the sufferings of Tigrayans continues to this date. Moreover, UTE has regularly been receiving worrisome reports of executions of former ENDF soldiers of Tigrayan origins, which the UN, EU, AU and US needs to be aware of. UTE is alarmed that Tigrayans are being held as hostage by GoE after the CoHA, for attaining political gains. UTE calls for this violation of human rights to end, and demands an immediate release of Tigrayan prisoners. The UN, EU, AU and US should boldly denounce the sufferings of innocent Tigrayans in concentration camps after CoHA.
- UTE has registered that ENDF soldiers are being deployed in different towns in Tigray, following the disarmament process of TPLF combatants. Sadly, we are receiving reports of traumatization of Tigrayans that witnessed the re-entrance of ENDF soldiers and also the ENDF engaged in house-tohouse robbery in some areas. We had called and remain calling that the psychological health of Tigrayans should be taken care of by avoiding redeployment of ENDF soldiers, immediately, except for security management of the federal institutions. The international community should advocate for use of disarmed TPLF combatants and the 17000 former Tigrayan ENDF soldiers, who are languishing in GoE’s detainee centers by reintegrating them in ENDF as specified in the CoHA.
- The UN, EU, AU and US know that Eritrea has already jeopardized the smooth implementation of the CoHA signed both in Pretoria and Nairobi. The GoE is failed to show its commitment to the agreement by not demanding non- ENDF invading forces to withdraw, while it knows they are obstructing unfettered flow of humanitarian aid and are still committing atrocity crimes in Tigray. Ethiopia appears weak to waive the pressure of the IC for not publicly demanding its Genocide partners from the constitutional territories of Tigray.
- UTE is disappointed by the UN, US, EU, AU and WBG that is providing financial and diplomatic support but failed to demand GoE to practically be committed to the CoHA signed in Pretoria and Nairobi. Delay and ignorance of the above issues are costing lives every day. UTE calls to the US, EU and AU that the normalization process should start effective immediately by allowing unfettered flow of humanitarian, restoring basic services, freeing Tigrayan prisoners as well as securing the withdrawal of Eritrean forces from Tigray and Ethiopia.