The joint investigation may be the world’s only official source of information on the atrocities committed in Tigray.
Ethiopia has tried to limit a UN human rights investigation into atrocities in the blockaded Tigray region, according to people familiar with the investigation.
The joint investigation by the UN Human Rights Office and the government-created Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) may be the only official source of information in the world on the atrocities committed in the war against the forces of Tigray which began in November 2020.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s national government has banned human rights watchdogs, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, as well as foreign media from entering the besieged region.
The UN human rights office in Geneva said the government’s cutoff of flights and communications from Tigray during the planned investigation period made it difficult to access key sites “from a logistical and security point of view ”.
Access to Tigray had been granted on condition that the UN agreed to work with the EHRC. The presence of the government agency has raised concerns in Tigray, including among interim Tigray authorities handpicked by the Ethiopian government to manage the region.
The former chief of staff of the administration of Tigray, Gebremeskel Kassa, rejected the investigation in these premises. “We believe this is a government tool,” he said of the EHRC.
People familiar with the investigation who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity said EHRC chief Daniel Bekele downplayed some allegations that fighters in the Amhara region of the country were responsible for abuses in Tigray, and instead insisted on highlighting abuses by Tigray forces.
This version of events contrasted with testimony which indicated that soldiers from neighboring Eritrea, Ethiopian forces and combatants in the Amhara region were responsible for most of the abuses.
Bekele dismissed the charges saying attempts to influence the investigation came from “many directions” in such a polarized environment. He added that the commission underlined “serious indications that all parties involved in the conflict have committed atrocities.”
The investigation lacks the support of the Tigray authorities who administer the region since Tigray forces recaptured much of the area in June.
In September, the Ethiopian government expelled Sonny Onyegbula, the UN human rights official. He has yet to provide a legal basis for his decision.
“We cannot accept the allegation that our staff member… was interfering in the internal affairs of Ethiopia,” the UN said.
Six other UN officials were declared “persona non grata” alongside Onyegbula and were given 72 hours to leave the country.
The conflict has been marked by atrocities, including gang rapes, mass expulsions, willful starvation and thousands of killings.
Investigators were unable to reach the scene of many suspected massacres in Tigray, including the deadliest known in the city of Aksum, where witnesses say several hundred people were killed.
