Mereja Forum

[Aba]

...Together we urge Prime Minister Ahmed to take the following steps without delay in order to save the lives of the people he was elected to serve, and to resolve this humanitarian crisis. We also urge the United States to use its formidable influence in the region to encourage these steps. We implore Prime Minister Ahmed to act swiftly to end the suffering of Ethiopians afflicted by war in Tigray by taking the following actions:

1) Lead calls for a cessation of hostilities by all actors, announce your willingness to do so, and encourage other parties to commit to ending the fighting immediately;

2) Press for the immediate and verifiable withdrawal of Eritrean and Amhara regional forces from the Tigray region;

3) Facilitate the work of international humanitarian staff including by issuing long-duration visas, expediting the process for the importation and use of satellite communication technology by humanitarian organizations and instructing your military and allied forces to establish a civil-military coordination cell to facilitate the work of humanitarian organizations on the ground;

4) Issue orders to protect all civilians in Tigray and throughout Ethiopia regardless of their ethnicity, including refugees and internally displaced persons, and particularly women in the light of widespread reports of sexual and gender-based violence;

5) Continue your support for investigations into human rights abuses and violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law by all actors in Tigray. We welcomed your support of the joint investigation by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights. We encourage you to ensure other human rights organizations are provided access to document independently ongoing reports of human rights abuses and violations in Tigray; and

6) Open credible and inclusive talks with political and civil society actors in Tigray with the goal of charting a consensual way forward for the region's future governance.

Military means will never resolve the political dispute that led to the Tigray crisis. They will only increase the suffering of the civilians in the region, which has already been far too great. As Ahmed himself said in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech two years ago, "There are those who have never seen war, but glorify and romanticize it. They have not seen the fear. They have not seen the fatigue. They have not seen the destruction or heartbreak, nor have they felt the mournful emptiness of war after the carnage."

For the good of Tigray, Ethiopia, the East Africa region and the world, we ask the prime minister to work toward a political solution as fast as possible. We and others in the international community stand ready to support the effort to achieve lasting peace in Ethiopia, and help Tigray start healing.

José Ramos-Horta is the former president of Timor-Leste and a 1996 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

https://www.newsweek.com/global-leaders ... on-1603022