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* Bipartisan draft resolution seeks to sanction rights abusers in Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict
* Conflict believed to have killed thousands, displaced 950,000
* Senators seek investigations, dialogue to address causes of conflict
NAIROBI, Dec 10 (Reuters) – Two US senators have asked their government to consider imposing sanctions on any political or military official who is responsible for human rights violations during a month-long conflict in the Tigray region, in the northern Ethiopia.
The proposed resolution was introduced Wednesday by Senator Ben Cardin, a Democrat, and Senator Jim Risch, a Republican.
It was the first such call by US lawmakers since war broke out between Ethiopian federal forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) on November 4.
The conflict is believed to have killed thousands and displaced more than 950,000 people, according to United Nations estimates, some 50,000 of them to Sudan.
Concern has grown over reports of civilians attacked by both sides, posing a political dilemma for the United States, which sees Ethiopia as an important ally in a volatile region.
The government has said it will investigate any reports of atrocities or mass killings, but will only allow independent investigations if the government was unable to do so.
Accounts on all sides are difficult to verify because most phone lines and Internet connections to the region have been down since the conflict broke out. Foreign journalists must have permits to leave the capital.
The Ethiopian army has captured Tigray’s regional capital, Mekelle, and declared victory, but TPLF leaders say they are fighting on various fronts around the highland city.
The Senate resolution presented by Cardin and Risch also called on the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the TPLF to cease hostilities and seek a peaceful resolution to the war.
“The ongoing fighting in Tigray has already cost thousands of lives and created a humanitarian crisis of disastrous proportions, which threatens the long-term stability of not only Ethiopia, but the entire region,” Cardin said in a statement after the presentation. of the resolution.
Civilians fleeing the fighting in Tigray last month told Reuters they witnessed shelling by government fighter jets, shooting in the streets and people being killed with machetes.
Human rights group Amnesty International said dozens and probably hundreds of people were stabbed or hacked to death in Tigray town of Mai Kadra less than a week after the war started.
The initial report by Ethiopia’s state-appointed human rights commission found that approximately 600 civilians were killed in that attack.
RESTORATION ORDER
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in Geneva on Wednesday that events in Tigray were still “worrying and volatile.”
“There is an urgent need for independent monitoring of the human rights situation in the Tigray region, all the necessary measures to protect civilians and accountability for violations,” Bachelet said.
Abiy spokeswoman Billene Seyoum responded that “there was nothing volatile in Tigray or Ethiopia.”
“The federal government is well equipped and capable of restoring order and is carrying out activities as cities and towns slowly return to normal activities,” he said.
Meanwhile, aid groups are pushing for safe access to the northern region, which is home to more than 5 million people and where 600,000 depended on food aid even before the conflict.
The government has said it delivers aid in areas it controls, but aid agencies are increasingly frustrated.
A United Nations team visiting refugees in Tigray was shot over the weekend. The government said it had not stopped at two checkpoints.
In response to that, another US Senator, Bob Menéndez, tweeted: “Attacks on humanitarian workers must STOP. Refugees and all civilians must be PROTECTED.”
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres acknowledged the problems on Wednesday and said Ethiopia and the United Nations had now agreed to joint missions to assess humanitarian needs.
(Reporting from Nairobi newsroom and Addis Ababa newsroom Additional reporting and writing by Maggie Fick, Angus MacSwan edition)
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