Q & A with the head of Ethiopian human rights commission. The commission is accused of working for western interests
Posted: 25 Mar 2021, 15:56
Brother Tolcha, I commend the commission for its past works that include exposing crimes committed by Ethiopian government forces in parts of Ethiopia. It has shown in the past the commission is indeed independent of the government but in my view it has to show also that it is independent of the influence of western human rights organizations especially considering the fact that Dr. Daniel, the head of the commission, was executive director of the Africa division at HRW for years.
Agree!temari wrote: ↑26 Mar 2021, 06:11Brother Tolcha, I commend the commission for its past works that include exposing crimes committed by Ethiopian government forces in parts of Ethiopia. It has shown in the past the commission is indeed independent of the government but in my view it has to show also that it is independent of the influence of western human rights organizations especially considering the fact that Dr. Daniel, the head of the commission, was executive director of the Africa division at HRW for years.
The Axum report looks to me very in line with Amnesty and HRW reports making it a bit suspicious. As a native Ethiopian, the commission also need to take into account the nature of militias in Ethiopia and that militias in Ethiopia don't have uniforms and must thus dig deep to differentiate between armed militias and civilians especially when it comes to young male victims. The Axum Tsion religious celebration that was held around the date of the alleged massacre is also a big challenge for the Axum story.
Having said that every credible atrocity and crime on tigrean civilians should be condemned by all of us and is unacceptable. The government has an obligation to bring the criminals to justice and protect the civilian population from any harm in the future.