Genocide of Tigray op-ed

By Mahmoud Basiony, head of the Arabic Network for Digital Media and Human Rights 

Currently, Tigray region in Ethiopia witnesses a new humanitarian tragedy due to the extensive usage of military force against civilians by the Ethiopian government in the region. The government does this to subject and punish Tigray People's Liberation Front members because the front conducted the right of Tigray people to vote regardless of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s unconstitutional order of canceling the general elections suspecting the chances of his party’s victory.

The fight in Tigray is still rising for the fifth months; therefore, the majority of Tigray’s residents abandoned the region after they were targeted by killing and forcible displacement. The thousands of Ethiopian refugees are now huge humanitarian burden on the Sudanese-Ethiopian border.

Previously mentioned conditions can name this humanitarian tragedy as a genocide based on international standers without receiving any action from major human rights organizations.

In World Summit 2005, world leaders agreed: “Each inpidual State has the responsibility to protect its populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. This responsibility entails the prevention of such crimes, including their incitement, through appropriate and necessary means. We accept that responsibility and will act in accordance with it. The international community should as appropriate, encourage and help States to exercise this responsibility and support the United Nations in establishing an early warning capability.”

Therefore, the Ethiopian government has been involved in violations against human rights and international law by using force against civilians. This action is fully prohibited by the Geneva conventions, in addition, many crimes can be ruled by the International Criminal Court (ICC) such as Ethiopian army attacks against civilians without any legal basis.

According to the definition of Genocide in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, “Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part…”

In addition, the convention assured that the genocide is a crime by international law whether operated in time of peace or time of war, and the country where the genocide operated is fully responsible for such a crime.

That means that all the Ethiopian regime behaviors in Tigray can be considered as genocide as it uses force inequality against a minority, in addition, these behaviors create a form of political authoritarianism, especially it rejects all opportunities for dialogue with its people. So, this regime can be defined as criminal one hostile its people and violate all UN human rights.

Therefore, Security Council should take a wider role to face all these crimes, in addition, the international organizations should deeply shed the light on the crimes of the Ethiopian army as it accused of violating the freedom of speech, and freedom of media after detaining BBC, France Press Tigray reports regardless of the permissions they carried.

Although the Biden administration declared its support to human rights and named human rights as part of its diplomacy mission, the US slightly discussed the genocide in Tigray, however, it showed more interest in another political issue ignoring the humanitarian tragedy of Tigray. For example, the US imposed sanctions against Russia due to human rights-related cases without imposing any sanctions against Ethiopia after such massacres.

The case of Tigray teases the conscience of humanity, that’s why it requires serious action by the UN and the Security Council to stop the extensive violence conducted by Abiy Ahmed and the Ethiopian regime against civilians. Based on what’s mentioned, we call the committee of the Noble Peace Prize to reconsider its stand with the prize awarded to Abiy Ahmed after heading killing his people and to not be an instrument of forgiveness for murders and extermination.

This article was prepared by Mahmoud Basiony in his personal capacity. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not reflect the view of SEE or its members.

Contributed by: Rana Atef