Eritrea on Tuesday described as "
defamatory
" and "
unfounded
" the accusations of "
war crimes
" and "
crimes against humanity
" perpetrated according to Washington by its army during the two years of conflict in the Ethiopian region of Tiger.
"
The charges, which are not new, are not based on any factual and indisputable evidence
," said the Eritrean Foreign Ministry, about the allegations made the day before by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
These accusations “
manifest the continuation of the unjustified hostility and demonization that the American administration has continued to show towards Eritrea since 2009 to promote its hidden political designs
”, assures Asmara.
Monday evening, Antony Blinken accused all belligerents in the conflict in Tigray - pro-government and rebel forces - of having committed war crimes, saying that many of them were not "due to chance"
or
"
an indirect consequence of war
" but "
calculated and deliberate
".
But he also accused in particular the Ethiopian federal army and its allies - the Eritrean army and the forces and militias of the Amhara region - of crimes against humanity - including "murders, rapes and other forms of
violence sexual violence and persecution
" - without mentioning the forces of the rebel authorities in Tigray.
This “
cheap campaign of demonization aims to blackmail and intimidate Eritrea and the Ethiopian federal government via spurious accusations
”, while “
strengthening
” the rebel authorities in Tigray to create more chaos “
and
” to create pretexts and conditions to pursue unlawful interference and intervention,” the Eritrean ministry continues.
The Eritrean regime supported the Ethiopian federal government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed militarily by sending troops to Tigray - which borders its southern border - to fight the forces of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that governed the region and dissented.
The TPLF, which ruled Ethiopia for nearly three decades until Mr. Abiy came to power in 2018, has been Asmara's sworn enemy since a war between the two countries between 1998 and 2000.
American policy disputes
The "
devastating war
" in Tigray was provoked by the TPLF, whose "
crimes (...) are too numerous to recall but have been deliberately downplayed
" by Washington, Asmara asserts.
The Eritrean government also notes that the US accusations come as US policy is "
contested around the world and particularly on the African continent".
".
Addis Ababa and Asmara have for months denied any Eritrean involvement in Tigray.
In March 2021, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed finally admitted the Eritrean military presence.
Washington imposed sanctions at the end of 2021 against the ruling party in Eritrea and the Eritrean army, whose troops have been accused of multiple abuses throughout the conflict, A peace agreement was signed in November 2022 between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray rebels, but Eritrea did not participate in the talks.
For the UN, the peace agreement should not prevent the investigation
The peace agreement that ended two years of brutal conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region should not prevent the investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the UN Commission of Inquiry said on Tuesday. .
The signing on November 2, 2022 in Pretoria of the peace agreement ending the conflict between the Ethiopian federal government and the dissenting Tigray regional authorities "
is an important step
", said the president of this group of investigators, Mohamed Chande Othman, before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
But "
the need to investigate allegations of violations, both before and since the peace agreement, remains more important than ever to achieve a lasting peace with full respect for human rights.
“, he underlined.
Last September, the Commission said it had "
reasonable grounds to believe that all parties to the conflict
" - Ethiopian and Eritrean forces as well as rebel forces - "
have committed war crimes and human rights violations since the fighting broke out in November 2020
”, recalled its president.
The Commission also referred to crimes against humanity committed by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces.
The UN Investigative Panel was established for one year on December 17, 2021, to thoroughly and independently investigate allegations of repeated human rights violations committed in Ethiopia since the start of the conflict in the north of the country in November 2020. His mandate was renewed in 2022 until September 2023. But some observers, including Amnesty International, have expressed concern that Ethiopia is trying to end it prematurely.
This would require Ethiopia to rally enough countries to consider launching a draft resolution to this effect in early April, when the resolutions are voted on at the Human Rights Council.
Countries have until Thursday to submit draft resolutions.
On Tuesday, the Ethiopian ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Tsegab Kebebew Daka, underlined the efforts made by his country within the framework of the peace agreement, particularly in terms of transitional justice and disarmament, but did not not indicated whether Ethiopia wanted to attack the mandate of the Commission.
However, he cautioned her, calling her “
to be very careful, by September when she presents her final report, not to repeat the type of inflammatory and unfounded allegations contained in her preliminary report, which threaten to jeopardize the peace agreement
".
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