Justice Delayed is Justice Denied

Open Letters

 

 

 


Open Letter 

High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet Jira

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

02/01/2022

Ref: Justice Delayed is Justice Denied

Dear High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet Jira,

We would like to start by wishing you a very pleasant, peaceful, productive and prosperous 2022.

One year has passed since Tigray was under a siege and total blackout. A population of more than seven million is subjected to a total siege and blockage where there is no running water, no food, no basic medicine, no electricity, no banking and as a result,thousands of children and their mothers perished every day . Thousands of adults and children who live with the help of medication are dying of preventable diseases. However, the whole world has watched this genocide act in silence while it taking its tolls in Tigray not for a day, not for a week, not for a month but for over a year now. This is not just sad but inhumane.

As if that was not enough, dozens of drone swarms and  jet fighters from China, Iran, UAE, Turkey and other countries darken in the skies of Tigray targeting any moving objects and destroying residential areas and public infrastructure; killing innocent civilian, livestock’s and burning crops. However, the whole world simply watched all these atrocities unfolding for over a year and still lets it continue. When the starved and the sick expected food and medicine, it is Incendiary bombs that aredropped to the people of Tigray. So sad!

No one in their minds will allow a genocider to investigate its heinous crimes. However, the whole world witnessed the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, the sole defender of Ethiopian government, coming up with a sickening half-baked crime report under the cover of UN Human Rights Council. Out of 160+ massacre sites barely a few were ‘investigated’ under a duress – eye witnesses who tried to tell the truth being intimidated, harassed and blackmailed.

As the UN high commissioner and the Ethiopian human rights commissioner pointed out, their recent report is far from a full rendering of the devastation experienced by civilians in Tigray. The report does not give well-documented trends the attention they deserve. It makes scant mention of the abuses committed by Amhara regional forces and militia against Tigrayans in Tigray. It documents brutal sexual violence by all warring parties, but fails to acknowledge the scale of abuses, including sexual slavery, by Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Amhara forces targeting Tigrayan women and girls, it glosses over the deliberate and extensive destruction and pillaging of civilians infrastructure, and the intimidation and killing of humanitarian workers.

Tigray Advocacy and Development Association (TADA) would like to express its gratitude to the European Union that tabled the serious human rights violation in Tigray and other regions of Ethiopia for further investigation by the UN Human Rights Council. TADA is also very grateful to those countries for their right decision and vote on the investigation. As described above, over seven million people of Tigray are under a total siege and blackout for over a year resulting in a full scale genocide in a broad daylight.

TADA believes that at last justice was done to the people of Tigray when the UN Human Rights Council voted on 17/12/2021. However, unless the people of Tigray are still not getting the basic supplies like food, water and medicine; the whole effort will have no meaning as it will be too little too late for the people who are dying by their thousands everyday.

TADA therefore urges the UN Human Rights council in partnerships with the UNSC:

  • Declare no fly zone in the skies of Tigray to prevent migs and drones from killing innocent civilians and destroying properties
  • Allow UN convoys to pass through the Region of Afar as they used to pass in the past
  • Allow UN flights to Mekele on a special arrangement with the goverments of Ethiopia and Tigray.

 


Tigrayan Advocacy & Development Association (TADA)
211 Clapham Road
London
SW9 0QH
Email: info@tadauk.org  

Note:

Human Rights Council decides to establish an International Commission of Human Rights Experts to investigate allegations of violations in Ethiopia

OHCHR | Human Rights Council decides to establish an International Commission of Human Rights Experts to investigate allegations of violations in Ethiopia

https://www.ungeneva.org/en/news-media/meeting-summary/2021/12/le-conseil-decide-de-nommer-une-commission-dexperts-chargee

Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Urges All Parties to Pull Back from a Posture of War in Ethiopia | UN GENEVA

https://www.ungeneva.org/en/news-media/meeting-summary/2021/12/le-conseil-decide-de-nommer-une-commission-dexperts-chargee

https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/Pages/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=27999&LangID=E

G7 Foreign Ministers’ Statement on the situation in Tigray, Ethiopia | Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (mofa.go.jp)

Statement on the killing of three MSF aid workers in the Tigray Region

https://ethiopia.un.org/en/133273-statement-killing-three-msf-aid-workers-tigray-region

https://ethiopia.un.org/en/146875-statement-secretary-general-ethiopia

https://ethiopia.un.org/en/150848-secretary-generals-right-reply-security-council-meeting-ethiopia

All Info – H.Res.445 – 117th Congress (2021-2022): Condemning all violence and human rights abuses in Ethiopia, and calling on the Government of Ethiopia and the Government of the State of Eritrea to remove all Eritrean troops from Ethiopia, and for all belligerents in the conflict, including the Ethiopian National Defense Forces, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, and Amhara regional forces, and other armed groups to cease all hostilities, protect human rights, allow unfettered humanitarian access, and cooperate with independent investigations of credible atrocity allegations. | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

OHCHR | Human Rights Council Adopts Three Resolutions on Human Rights in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia, Human Rights in the Context of HIV and AIDS, and on Violence against Women and Girls with Disabilities

Ethiopia-Related Sanctions | U.S. Department of the Treasury

Sanctions on Certain Persons with Respect to the Humanitarian and Human Rights Crisis in Ethiopia 14046.pdf (treasury.gov)

Health facilities targeted in Tigray region, Ethiopia | MSF

 

 

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