Massacre in the mountains

"They are killing our people in this country, they are killing children, all ages of the population and they are conducting rape," Debretsion told CNN in a phone interview from an undisclosed location.

 

"All sorts of acts of genocide have been committed in Tigray. So, the most important thing is that an investigation must be conducted," he added.

"We are calling for an investigation into the CNN findings on the ground in Tigray." 

 

Ethiopia's foreign ministry on Monday rejected a call from the United States for the Ethiopian federal government to pull forces out of Tigray, saying it was "regrettable" that the US had attempted "to make pronouncements on Ethiopia's internal affairs and specifically, the reference to the Amhara regional forces redeployment."

 

"It should be clear that such matters are the sole responsibility of the Ethiopian government, which as a sovereign nation, is responsible to deploy the necessary security structures and means available in ensuring the rule of law within all corners of its borders," the ministry said in a statement.

 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday that the US was "gravely concerned by reported atrocities and the overall deteriorating situation," and called for Eritrean and Amhara regional forces to withdraw immediately. Blinken's statement came one day after CNN's investigation, as well as another by Amnesty International, both detailing eyewitness accounts of civilian massacres in two separate assaults in late 2020.

 

 

Ethiopian refugees fleeing Tigray line up to receive supplies at the Um Rakuba camp in Sudan's eastern Gedaref province, on November 16, 2020.

Eritrea's government denied involvement in the atrocities reported by Amnesty, but has yet to respond to CNN's request for comment in relation to the Dengelat massacre.

 

Debretsion said he was making an urgent call to the Biden administration to keep the pressure on the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments.

"We want to have peace in this region, in this country so we want [the US] to continue to push [for the withdrawal] of invader forces from Tigray to stop the atrocities, genocide and destruction," he told CNN.

 

"We need, you know, humanitarian assistance as well ... The whole Tigray is in social and economic crisis. Our people need assistance, they need humanitarian support. So, it's an urgent call. We need this push from the [US] President."

Repeated denials of Eritrean involvement

The Amnesty International report charged that Eritrean forces killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in the city of Axum, also in Tigray region, in November through indiscriminate shelling and shooting and extrajudicial killings, in what the human rights organization said could amount to a crime against humanity.

 

The Ethiopian foreign ministry's statement Monday did not mention the presence of forces from neighboring Eritrea during the recent offensive. It added that it was "fully committed" to investigating any human rights violations. Prime Minister Abiy has also denied that soldiers from Eritrea crossed into Tigray to support Ethiopian forces.

Blinken had called for a "full, independent international investigation into all reports of human rights violations, abuses and atrocities."

 

 

US calls for withdrawal of Eritrean forces in Ethiopia following investigation into massacre

 

"We strongly condemn the killings, forced removals and displacements, sexual assaults, and other extremely serious human rights violations and abuses by several parties that multiple organizations have reported in Tigray," he said.

 

Blinken also acknowledged Abiy's stated commitment to allow humanitarian aid to the region, and said that the US Agency for International Development would send a disaster assistance response team to Ethiopia. On Monday, Ethiopia's foreign ministry said it was working to ensure unfettered access to Tigray for the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

 

TPLF troops seized power in Ethiopia in 1991 with the backing of Eritrea, and the TPLF's Meles Zenawi became the nation's leader. Debretsion became deputy prime minister after Zenawi's death in 2012. The TPLF ruled until 2018, when members of the Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups united against the party. Abiy was appointed prime minister in 2018 and won a Nobel prize last year for his peace deal with Eritrea.

 

Violence flared in the region last year after Tigray went ahead with local elections that the Abiy government had banned because of the pandemic.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the year Debretsion became Deputy Prime Minister. It was in 2012.

CNN's Angela Dewan, Emmet Lyons, Bethlehem Feleke, Gianluca Mezzofiore and Katie Polglase contributed to this report.

(Paris) – France’s National Assembly should approve a bill to require the government to return assets looted by corrupt foreign officials to the people of the county where the money was stolen, Human Rights Watch said today. The bill is scheduled for a vote on March 2, 2021. Members of Parliament should improve the restitution process so that it is fully transparent and independent.

“French courts are at the vanguard of holding corrupt foreign officials accountable for looting public funds,” said Sarah Saadoun, senior business and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Members of Parliament now have the chance to set the gold standard on how governments can provide justice to corruption’s victims.”

On February 19, the National Assembly unanimously voted to include amendment n°176 in a broader bill on development and fighting global inequality. The provision would fill a gap in French law by mandating that proceeds from the sale of assets confiscated from foreign public officials convicted of money laundering or related financial crimes – known as “biens mal acquis” or ill-gotten gains – are returned “as close as possible to the population of the foreign State concerned.” French law does not currently allow for the restitution of such proceeds, so the French government keeps the seized funds.

France began the process of revising its law to enable the return of ill-gotten gains after a French court convicted the vice president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodorin Nguema Obiang Mangue, of money laundering and embezzlement and confiscated around €150 million (around US$182 million) worth of assets. In February 2020, an appeals court upheld the conviction and in December, the International Court of Justice issued a final ruling rejecting Equatorial Guinea’s claim that the most valuable asset implicated by the case, a mansion worth €110 million, should be protected by diplomatic immunity.

Nguema has appealed the case to France’s Court of Cassation, its highest judicial court, which is expected to hear the case in the coming months. If the French government does not pass a law by the time the court issues its ruling, the money will be absorbed into the French general budget if the conviction is upheld.

The case against Nguema, initiated by Transparency International France and Sherpa in 2008, broke new ground in French anti-corruption litigation allowing nongovernmental organizations to initiate criminal corruption proceedings. Since then, organizations have initiated other cases against prominent foreign officials for money laundering that are winding their way through French courts. 

Returning stolen assets is a requirement under the UN Convention Against Corruption, which France ratified in 2003. In 2017, the Global Forum for Asset Recovery, an intergovernmental initiative hosted by the World Bank, agreed to a set of principles for ensuring transparent and accountable return of recovered assets, including a provision that “stolen assets recovered from corrupt officials should benefit the people of the nations harmed by the underlying corrupt conduct.”

Recently, civil society organizations developed their own set of principles for responsible asset return, drawing on their experiences observing cases around the world. These principles call for transparency, accountability, and public participation at every stage of disbursing funds to mitigate the risk that they are re-looted.

The French bill would establish a new budgetary program, housed under the Office of Development Assistance, that would disburse the funds through nongovernmental organizations or the French Development Agency (AFD). Parliament would provide oversight with input from local and international nongovernmental organizations.

This system would be a big improvement over an earlier proposal, which would have given the development agency full control over the funds. However, given the high risk of such funds being lost again to corruption and the importance of protecting the principle that the money does not belong to the French state, it should be improved to ensure that there is full transparency and accountability through completion of the project.

The development agency should be required to keep the funds fully separate from its general budget. Civil society in the recipient country should also have a role in decision-making about how the funds are used.

“It should be clear that the French government’s role is as a steward to responsibly return the stolen money to the people to whom it rightfully belongs,” Saadoun said. “Local civil society organizations should be able to track the funds and help decide how they are spent on behalf of the public.” Human Rights Watch

Photo Source: BBOXX 

Bboxx Ltd, a UK-headquartered next generation utility that delivers solar home systems (SHS), last week unveiled a couple of deals to support its business in Kenya, including a minority investment from Electricite de France SA (EPA:EDF).

The French energy major is acquiring a 23% stake in Bboxx Kenya under a strategy to further ramp up its common activities in the field of off-grid development in a number of African countries.

Bboxx manufactures, distributes and finances decentralised solar powered systems in developing countries such as Togo, where it has an existing 50/50 joint venture with EDF. In that country, the partners have recently moved beyond SHS installations to also include solar-powered irrigation systems for sustainable farming.

As per the activities in Kenya, Bboxx says it has positively impacted the lives of 500,000 individuals, rural households, communities and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a goal to serve more than 2 million Kenyans by 2025.

In addition to EDF’s investment, Bboxx has also received an additional contribution of an undisclosed size for its Kenyan business from existing shareholder Africa Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), which previously invested USD 31 million (EUR 25.7m) in Bboxx’s Kenya, Rwanda and DRC operations. Renewables Now

On March 15, the oral hearing in the case of Maritime Delimitation in the India Ocean (Somalia Vs Kenya) is set to begin. Legal teams representing these countries are in top gear to prepare for the case, with Kenya naming a new team, according to The Standard (https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/kenya/article/2001404078/kenya-hires-eight-lawyers-in-maritime-case-with-somalia)

Prof. Sean D. Murphy and Judge Tullio Treves will lead other six legal professionals in arguing Kenya’s case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. This team is well-acquainted with maritime disputes having represented other countries in the same court.

Prof. Murphy is a scholar of public international relations at The George Washington University Law School, where he has taught since 1998. Previously, Murphy served as a legal counselor at the U.S Embassy in The Hague, where he argued several cases before the ICJ and represented the U.S government before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Justice Tullio Treves was a Judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea from 1996 to 2011, and he served as the President for the Seabed Disputes Chamber. Some of the notable cases he has led include France and Canada’s arbitration on the delimitation of maritime zones in the area of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. He is also the counsel for Peru in the maritime dispute with Chile, which is currently pending at the ICJ.

The other members of the team include professors Phoebe Okowa, Makane Mbengue, Laurence Boisson De Chazournes, Christian Tams and Eran Sthoeger. In addition, the experienced boundary dispute expert Coalter Lathrop will assist the team with geographic analysis and cartographic skills.

In 2014, Somalia petitioned the ICJ for a review after bilateral talks with Kenya failed to settle the maritime dispute involving a 62,000 square-mile triangle in the Indian Ocean, which is believed to be rich in hydrocarbons. In the recent past, Kenya and Somalia’s diplomatic relations have deteriorated, with Somali citing interference in its sovereign affairs by the Kenyan government. By The Maritime Executive