The Cuban government has voted against a UN commission of inquiry confirmed this Thursday that will be investigated war crimes and against humanity committed in Ethiopiareported the agency EFE.
This investigation was approved by the last December United Nations Human Rights Councilfollowing an initiative of the European Union (EU), which was carried out in spite of the Resistance from countries like China, Russia, Cuba, Eritrea or Venezuela.
Ethiopia, which refused to set up this commission from the startpresented a resolution to the Fifth Committee of the UN General Assembly – the body responsible for budgetary matters try to invalidate this investigation, but his proposal was rejected.
In a vote on the Ethiopian text received 27 votes in favour, 66 against and 29 abstentions. Russia, China and Cuba once again sided with Ethiopiaalongside many African countries, while members of the EU, the United States and many Latin Americans, among others, voted against.
The Ethiopian delegation argued unsuccessfully that the investigation was politically motivated and had colonial overtones. and that poses a threat to the sovereignty and independence of the country.
The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) celebrated the defeat of the Ethiopian initiative and urged the United Nations to launch its investigation as soon as possible.
“UN countries sent a clear message to Ethiopia today their blatant attempt to avoid accountability for war crimes and other abuses by starving the UN human rights inquiry is unacceptablesaid HRW’s representative to the United Nations, Louis Charbonneau.
The commission of inquiry will consist of three experts and will have a mandate of one year Investigation of human rights violations recorded in the Tigray conflict.
UN experts have denounced this since the beginning of the war Members of the Tigrin people were arrested, tortured and in some cases executed not only in the conflict area in the north of the country, but also in the rest of Ethiopia.
According to the organization Thousands of people died and about two million had to flee their homes in Tigray because of the war, That erupted in November 2020 when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered an escalation in political tensions in retaliation for an attack on a federal military base and then an attack on the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (PFLT) – the party that governed the region.