|
November 9, 2020
Ghelawdewos
Araia,PhD
IDEA,
President
webmaster@africanidea.org
The UN
Security Council
405 East
42nd Street
New
York, NY 10017
cted@un.org
Subject:
The Bombardment of the Regional State of Tigray
of Ethiopia
The
Institute of Development and Education for Africa
(IDEA) is deeply concerned of the ongoing conflict
in Ethiopia, particularly the war that has been
declared on Tigray by the Abiy Ahmed-led federal
government on November 4, 2020, and since the
official declaration of war on its own people, the
regime’s air force has been bombarding several
civilian areas in Tigray. The main purpose of this
letter, thus, is to appeal to the UN Security
Council to immediately intervene in the
meaningless war and rescue Ethiopians from aerial
bombardment and from carnage.
We
at IDEA are aware that bombardment of civilian
areas is prohibited by international law; more
specifically, we are aware that “in 1977,
Protocol I was adopted as an amendment to the
Geneva Conventions, prohibiting the deliberate or
indiscriminate attack of civilians and civilian
objects, even if the area contained military
objectives, and the attacking force must take
precautions and steps to spare the lives of
civilians and civilian objects.”
On
top of the 1977 Protocol I, there is one clause
(Article 25) in the Hague convention of 1907 that
is also relevant to our present appeal: “The
attack or bombardment, by whatever means, of town,
villages, dwellings, or buildings which are
undefended is prohibited.”
IDEA
has learned that the present regime, whose term in
office has expired and is continuing its authority
by fiat, has no regard whatsoever for the safety
of its citizens; it has no action when thousands
upon thousands of Ethiopians were being attacked
and terrorized by unknown gunmen, and the
bombardment of Tigray now is a manifestation of
the carelessness, indifference, and ineptitude of
the Abiy Ahmed government.
IDEA
is also aware that the Security Council is
entrusted, first and foremost, to maintain peace
and security and more specifically to undertake
investigation and mediation, dispatch a mission,
appoint special envoys, and request the
Secretary-General, to undertake action in the
peaceful resolution of disputes.
However,
since the war between the Ethiopian Federal
Government and the Regional State of Tigray has
been raging for the last five days and it is
highly probable that it is going to escalate, we
at IDEA appeal to the Security Council to
intervene and dispatch military observers or a
peacekeeping force to either mitigate the conflict
or altogether establish peaceful settlement to the
dispute. The Security Council should move fast to
prevent and avoid carnage and human catastrophe in
Ethiopia, at a time when Ethiopians are yearning
for peace and prosperity; at a time when Ethiopian
school children were about to resume classroom
attendance in spite of the OVID-19 challenge; and
at a time when Ethiopian peasants and farmers were
ready to collect their crops during this harvest
season
|
