Ethiopia Denounces US Indictments Of War Crimes In Tigray

The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that U.S. accusations of war crimes in Ethiopia's Tigray region are "inflammatory" and "selective because they unfairly allocate responsibility among the parties" to the conflict.

During the two-year conflict in Tigray, all warring parties, including pro-government forces and rebels, committed war crimes, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who had just returned from Ethiopia. 

He claimed that many of these acts were not "due to chance" or "an indirect consequence of the war," but rather "calculated and deliberate.

He specifically referred to "murders, rapes and other forms of sexual violence and persecution" committed by the federal Ethiopian army and its allies (the Eritrean army and the forces and militias of the Amhara region), while omitting to mention the forces of the rebel authorities in Tigray.

"The government of Ethiopia does not accept the general condemnations contained in this (American) statement and sees no point in such a one-sided and antagonistic approach," the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. 

This claim is partial because it unfairly assigns blame to different parties. The United States "seems to absolve one of the parties of certain allegations of human rights violations, such as rape or sexual violence, for no apparent reason, despite clear and overwhelming evidence of its guilt," the report continues.

Such a division of labour is unjustified and jeopardizes American support for an inclusive peace process in Ethiopia as Ethiopia implements the peace process.

The remarks made by Washington are also inappropriate. Human rights violations committed during the conflict "There will be further investigations" and this declaration "undermines (Ethiopian) domestic efforts to fully investigate these charges, regardless of who the perpetrators are," Addis Ababa said.

The ministry criticized a "partisan and divisive approach," adding that the U.S. statement is "inflammatory" and "will be used to fuel campaigns pitting communities against each other" in Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian government declared, "Ethiopia will continue to put in place all measures to hold those accountable, including completing the national consultation on transitional justice and making sure that justice is done to all victims.

Two years of brutal conflict in Tigray, a region of northern Ethiopia, came to an end on November 2, 2022, with the signing of a peace agreement in Pretoria.