Thread by @LaurenBinDC

Today, Secretary Blinken has announced the findings of the State Department's review of atrocities reported during the war in northern #Ethiopia:
🔹all parties to the conflict committed war crimes
🔹the ENDF, EDF, and Amhara forces committed crimes against humanity in Tigray

🔹Amhara forces committed the crime against humanity of deportation or forcible transfer, and committed ethnic cleansing through their treatment of Tigrayans in Western Tigray.

Blinken cited "murder, rape, and other forms of sexual violence and persecution" in the @StateDept's determination that members of the ENDF, EDF and Amhara forces committed crimes against humanity in #Tigray.

Some definitions:
ushmm.org/genocide-preve…

un.org/en/genocidepre…

As noted in this @issafrica piece, Ethiopian criminal law doesn't proscribe crimes against humanity.
issafrica.org/iss-today/pros…

"We reserve crimes against humanity determinations for the most egregious crimes," @SecBlinken declared in @statedept's recent announcement regarding crimes against humanity by members of Russia's forces and other Russian officials.
state.gov/crimes-against…

The Rome Statute defines crimes against humanity as atrocities that are "“committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack.” The finding indicates evidence of a pattern of atrocities...

... and the systemic nature tends to suggest direction from somewhere up the chain of command (not simply crimes by low-level soldiers).

Crimes against humanity are among the most serious crimes in int'l law.

Secretary Blinken did not comment today on allegations that acts of genocide were committed in Tigray. (Nor did he do so in announcing the Russia determination.) Unless the @statedept says otherwise, this does not mean they have ruled out the crime occurring.

Genocide is a very difficult crime to prove. It requires evidence of intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.