UN Urges Field Team to Investigate War Crimes in Tigray

Today, the United Nations (UN) expressed their desires about the arrival of its field team to the Ethiopian city of Tigray to investigate allegations of human rights violations, including mass killings, which may amount to war crimes.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said, Tuesday, that what happened in the Ethiopian Tigray region- "horrific violations" of human rights- may amount to "war crimes."

Bachelet said, "If civilians are deliberately killed by one of the warring parties in the conflict, these killings amount to war crimes," stressing that "there is a need for independent, impartial, comprehensive and transparent investigations to determine responsibility and ensure justice."

The Commissioner described the incidents there as "heartbreaking" and "horrific". Among the incidents she cited were the alleged killing of several hundred people, most of them Amharic, in the northwestern town of Mai Kadra on 9 November.

Also, the spokeswoman for the United Nations Office for Human Rights, Liz Throssell, said, in a hypothetical media briefing in Geneva, that her office held talks with the Ethiopian government and was aiming to prepare a team to verify human rights violations as soon as possible.

Throssell added that some incidents of inpidual killing of civilians have been blamed on the "Fano" militia from Amhara State, which is believed to be aligned with the government.

The spokeswoman pointed out that the information obtained by the United Nations consistently indicates violations by all parties of the conflict.

Humanitarian workers had impossible access recently, and human rights workers are now seeking access to the ground to verify reports.

So far, the United Nations is distantly monitoring the situation and has obtained some of its information from refugees, among the tens of thousands who have fled to Sudan.

Both sides deny that their forces committed such monstrous deeds and blame the other for killing civilians.

The credibility of all parties is difficult to verify because telecommunications links have been disrupted during Tigray conflict and the government tightly controls access to the area.

The Ethiopian army has been fighting rebel forces in the northern Tigray region for more than six weeks in a conflict that has displaced nearly 950,000 people.