At the outset, the Government of Tigray would like to reiterate that Tigrayan forces, as a matter of policy or institutional practice, do not condone the deliberate targeting of civilians. Our forces are fighting a legitimate war of self-defense as they seek to stop atrocities against the people of Tigray and bring perpetrators to justice. Tigrayan forces are not out there to inflict the same horrific pain on people in neighboring regions as the Ethiopian, Eritrean and Amhara forces did on our people. To the degree that non-combatants have been victimized by any member within Tigrayan forces, our heart goes out to the victims of such crimes.
If our investigation discovers that Tigrayan fighters have in fact deliberately targeted non- combatants, the Government of Tigray will bring the perpetrators to justice. Even so, ultimate responsibility for whatever harm might have been done to civilians must be laid at the feet of the criminal Abiy regime and the expansionist Amhara elite. This destructive duo has, through incessant propaganda, transformed a fundamentally political conflict rooted in a clash of visions about the nature of the Ethiopian state into a bloody internecine war by mobilizing tens of thousands of poorly-trained, untrained, ill-equipped, and often unarmed civilians.
Since early August, the Abiy regime and Amhara authorities have called on the rest of Ethiopians to confront Tigrayan forces with whatever weapons they have at their disposal. On August 10, for instance, as the Associated Press (AP) reported, the Abiy regime called on “all capable citizens to fight in the Tigray war.” As the AP rightly noted then that “the call to arms is an ominous sign that all of Ethiopia’s 110 million people are being drawn into a conflict” that had already claimed the lives of tens of thousands. During his televised appearance and in a written statement, the Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, called on citizens to be “the eyes and ears of the country in order to track down and expose spies and agents” of the Tigrayan Army. This dangerous call to arms was not made off the cuff, but as part of a calculated approach to whip up civilians into frenzy with a view to stopping our forces’ advances by deploying human waves. By priming untrained and unarmed civilians to engage our forces, the criminal Abiy regime is responsible for putting them at risk by blurring the line between combatants and non-combatants, thereby undermining the principle of distinction under the laws of war.
As if to outbid the Abiy regime in its disregard for the sanctity of life, the Amhara regional government has issued an official instruction, still in effect, for unarmed civilians to engage our forces. To incentivize them to obey this mindboggling instruction, the regional authorities sweetened the deal: civilians would legally own whatever weapons they managed to wrest from our forces. This irresponsible and morally repugnant policy effectively put civilians at risk by turning them into combatants without the advantages of trained and armed fighters. Much as Tigray forces seek to comply with applicable laws of war, the decision by these power-crazed elites to use civilians as cannon fodders effectively undermines our ability to distinguish legitimate civilians from those that would pose a mortal threat to our forces.
In fact, reaffirming its disregard for the sanctity of life and commitment to turning a tragic civil war into a bloody internecine conflict, the Abiy regime in early November once again called for the mobilization of unarmed and untrained civilians to engage our forces. As CBS News noted on November 2, on the heels of a series of defeats, “Abiy has now issued a terrifying call for citizens to take up arms to defend his government—demanding that loyalists double efforts to defend the seat of power using “any type of weapon” available to them.” The Prime Minister added that “dying for Ethiopia is a duty for all of us.” A regime that deliberately and as a matter of policy calls on unarmed citizens to serve as cannon fodders against a force equipped with modern weaponry has forfeited its right to lecture anyone about the ethics of warfare. Its self-serving, righteous indignation is a calculated ploy to whitewash its own complicity in the brutalization of unarmed “citizen fighters.”
During the fighting in Dabat in Northern Gondar—where the Chenna village is located— thousands of unarmed civilians, including priests and other religious figures carrying “Tabot” or a replica of the Ark of the Covenant came out to engage our forces. The Abiy regime and the expansionist Amhara elite have persistently framed the conflict in existential terms by representing the people of Tigray and Tigrayan forces as the “other” or a Godless alien invading force against whom the rest of “patriotic” and “religious” Ethiopians should rise up. This dehumanizing rhetoric has fostered a toxic climate of vigilantism. It is in the context of this destructive duo’s representation of Tigrayan forces as the embodiment of evil that the actions of “Tabot” carrying priests is intelligible. Indeed, the HRW report includes such nuggets as this one: “Some Chenna villagers fought alongside government soldiers, which under the laws of war would be directly participating in the hostilities.”
Similarly, in the town of Kobo, Tigrayan forces were searching for weapons and chasing armed actors operating in the area. According to the HRW report, “In at least two villages, Gedemeyu and Zobel, farmers responded by attacking the Tigrayan forces.” In fact, during the period under consideration, there was an armed extremist group that confronted Tigrayan forces operating in the area at the direct behest of the Abiy government. While this extremist group operating in the area is not formally affiliated with the Ethiopian military as well as with the Amhara regular and irregular forces, it is actively sponsored by the Ethiopian security services. The Abiy regime and Amhara authorities are trying to gloss over their complicity in these crimes, given their direct role in sustaining this marauding gang of criminals, by preemptively and baselessly blaming our forces for the atrocities committed by the group.
Only an independent investigation by an impartial international body can get to the bottom of all atrocities committed since the start of the genocidal war on Tigray. It is to be recalled that the Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Amhara forces have from the get go resisted international calls for an independent investigation of the numerous crimes they have been accused of committing in Tigray. Denial and obfuscation have been constant elements of their modus operandi. By contrast, the Government of Tigray has always called for an independent investigation into the devastating atrocities committed in Tigray. The Government of Tigray reiterates its calls for an independent investigation into any and all atrocities committed over the course of this devastating war to be conducted by an impartial international entity.