Int’l Rights Commission Report Does Not Meet UN Investigation System, Standards: Task Force

Addis Ababa September 21/2022 /ENA/ The International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE) report is agenda-driven and did not meet the UN investigation system and standards, according to the Inter-Ministerial Task Force to Oversee Human Rights Violations in Northern Ethiopia.

Briefing journalists today, Inter-Ministerial Task Force Secretariat Head Tadesse Kassa said the report didn’t show the true scale and atrocities committed in the three regions, namely Amhara, Afar, and Tigray regional states.

According to him, the report is not commensurate with the extent and magnitude of the damage that have occurred in all the three regions and it only shows a summary picture of the process.

He further noted that the report lacks impartiality and it was conducted in a way that questioned the neutrality of the organization, and it did not meet the UN investigation system and standards.

Therefore, the head stated that the report issued in the name of human rights violation is not acceptable as it is agenda-driven by certain forces to create agenda.

Tadesse recalled that the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, together with the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights, had conducted a joint investigation into the crimes committed during the war in the northern part of the country and the results were accepted by the UN and the Ethiopian government.

The results of the joint investigation were complete and accepted by the United Nations Human Rights Council. It is worth noting that the investigation was conducted in an independent and transparent manner; and the government started implementing the recommendations in the report.

On the other hand, Justice State Minister of Fikadu Tsega said the report of Inter-Ministerial Task Force to Oversee Human Rights Violations in Northern Ethiopia has verified documentation on the series of incidences involving torture, inhuman treatment and bodily injury committed by TPLF forces during the designated episodes against civilians in numerous localities of the Amhara and Afar regions.

It presents reasonable grounds to believe that the incidences amounted to serious violations and abuses of international human rights law (in particular the absolute prohibitions on torture) as well as international humanitarian law and national laws.

Since the cases demonstrate that they were directed against civilians who had not taken any part in the hostilities and yet are sufficiently connected to the war operations, there are reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes are committed, the state minister pointed out.

According to him, the task force will engage in the investigation of all alleged crimes and complete investigations in respect of new cases in Amhara and Afar regions that were not covered in the current round due to various reasons and file accusation on the perpetrators next month.