ማሕበር ተጋሩ ኣውሮፓ
Union of Tigrayans in Europe
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE UTE-OC-20231107
Tuesday 07 Nov. 2023
Classification: Open
Press released on the one year old CoHA
The famous peace agreement signed by TPLF and the Federal government of Ethiopia (GoE), a year ago in Pretoria has ended the active war in Tigray. To mark the one year anniversary of the CoHA, the US administration, Canada, member countries of the European Union and some western media have issued press statements portraying the agreement as a success. Though it is understandable that the CoHA might be seen as a milestone achievement as it has silenced guns, for all who have been following up the developments in Ethiopia closely and most importantly in Tigray, peace remains very fragile. Therefore, the Union of Tigrayans in Europe(UTE) finds it difficult to understand how the implementation process of CoHA is something to celebrate considering the following issues enshrined in CoHA missing.
1. The IDPs in Tigray and outside of Tigray, not only didn’t return to their home as per the CoHA, but also left to suffer under Cold, rainy and flood weather conditions.
2. Non ENDF forces, mainly the Eritrean army and Amhara forces are still in control of 40% Tigrays territories and continue committing gross human right violations. They were supposed to leave the occupied territories concurrently with the DDR process of TPLF combatants. The African Union (AU) monitoring team has already verified that 90 % of DDR activities were completed months ago without any concurrent withdrawal of non ENDF forces. The ethnic cleansing of Tigrayans in Western, North western, Irob and southern parts of Tigray is still happening. Extrajudicial killings of tigrayans, forced change of identity, weaponized sexual violences and other human right violations are continuing.
3. The humanitarian aid has been politicized and interrupted affecting women, children, elders and other civilian members of the people of Tigrays. The International aid organizations have legitimized the GoE’s continued weaponization of starvation to exterminate Tigrayans. Many are dying of starvation as well as lack of medicines.
4. There is no sign of credible justice and accountability initiative to find the truth, secure healing, reconciliation and compensation. Sadly, the international community has submitted to GoE’s transitional justice mechanism initiative, which deliberately is designed to secure impunity by letting perpetrators of atrocity crimes go free. ICHREE in its last report has repeatedly used the legal term “atrocity crimes”, a collective terminology for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, signifying all forms of crimes have been committed against the people of Tigray. ICHREE is also clear in its recommendation about the essentiality of international accountability mechanisms if impunity shall be prevented and peace shall prevail in the region, which the international community has given a deaf ear so far.
UTE’s evaluation is, therefore, CoHA has not been implemented as promised and the achievements obtained are not something to brag about. The AU, the US administration and the EU, have failed the people of Tigray as the pertinent issues of CoHA are not implemented accordingly so far. UTE means that portraying the implementations of CoHA a success as observed in the recently released statements of the US, Canada, EU,and international media does not go with the facts on the ground. UTE views the statements rather as confirmations of our concern that the West is more concerned about political gains at the cost of humanity. Clear messages that say “Tigrayans life does not matter” have been conveyed, motivating the GoE to continue with the atrocity crimes in Tigray and beyond as we are witnessing day and night as we speak. It’s not surprising that the GoE delightly publishes a press statement following the praise from such misleading statements though it has miserably failed to implement the above dire situations. It’s incredible that the incomplete basic services tigrayans are getting are viewed as charity bestowed by the GoE, not their deserved rights as citizens. Furthermore, the praise has encouraged the GoE to go further on threatening to use force, endangering the peace agreement, by signifying what GoE thinks are possible advantageous causes by its own translation of the CoHA.
UTE, therefore, demands the international community to stop such misleading press statements that do not reflect the sufferings of the people on the ground, but will definitely be viewed as a legitimization of its atrocious actions by GoE. The International community should rather ensure controlling mechanisms regarding implementation of the CoHA, press GoE to stop committing atrocity crimes, and execute its prime legal obligation of safeguarding its own citizens from atrocious foreign and illegally armed forces.
Union of Tigrayans in Europe!