As talks between the Ethiopian government and Tigray rebels continue in South Africa, fighting continues. In New York, the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia presented its report to the UN General Assembly. And during a press briefing on Friday, October 28, two of its members spoke of the likelihood that ” atrocity crimes are committed there, without explicitly speaking of genocide “.
” We’ll go where the evidence leads us » : it is in these terms that two UN commissioners, the Sri Lankan Radhika Coomaraswamy and the American Steven Ratner, evoked their method of work on Tigray, a method contested by the Ethiopian government.
The commissioners insisted on the standard of evidence and the need for precision » of a United Nations reportespecially considering the lack of time and the lack of cooperation ” regretted from Ethiopia and Eritrea.
This is why, in a hurry to say whether crimes of ” genocide were currently being committed in Ethiopia, Radhika Coomaraswamy wanted to be both cautious and firm:
Our concern is that atrocity crimes are imminent. As we said in our briefings, we prefer to use the language of the UN Secretary General. And that’s what he calls this type of crime. And if this war continues, we are heading towards this situation. This is why it is essential that the African Union peace process puts an end to the fighting at the top of its priorities, to prevent it from happening.
However, in legal terms, the atrocity crimes refer to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
During the day, Ethiopia once again refuted the Commission’s remarks, in veiled terms. In a statement, the government said, no longer being able to tolerate the defamatory untruths spread against Ethiopia by various Western entities “, but also ” venerable organizations and bona fide actors ” what is ” entities “would have” deceived “.
Tigray running out of vaccines, antibiotics and insulin
The talks between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray authorities continue behind closed doors in South Africa. At the same time, tough battles are going on around Tigray towns captured by government forces, according to rare sources, and the food and humanitarian situation is still dire: the World Health Organization, for example, announced on Friday that Tigray had run out of vaccines, antibiotics and insulin.
The Ethiopian Red Cross deplored Friday, October 28 the death of one of its Ethiopian paramedics, shot dead by unidentified gunmen while transporting wounded returning from the Tigray front.