General Assembly Security Council

UNSC meeting to discuss developments in Tigray, Ethiopia

[2 July 2021]

 

Statement by Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti

Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations

 

Thank you, Mr. President.

 

I thank USG Rose Mary Dicarlo and Acting USG for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief  CoordinatorRamesh Rajasingham for their briefings on the recent developments in the Tigray region in Ethiopia. I also welcome the presence of the Permanent Representative of Ethiopia at this meeting.

 

The people of Tigray region in Ethiopia have suffered during the eight month long fighting. The announcement of a humanitarian ceasefire in the Tigray region is therefore a welcome development. We commend the Government of Ethiopia for taking this decision and welcome the measures it has taken to address the humanitarian situation. This positive step should help ease the tensions and sufferings of the people. We hope that today’s meeting will help in de-escalating the situation on the ground and bring about reconciliation and peace in the region.

 

We also believe that the presence of external armed actors in the Tigray region militates against a return to peace and we call for an end to this. It is important that all stakeholders respect the ceasefire, allow humanitarian aid to reach all those in need and allow for regular farming activities to take place. This ceasefire period must be used for scaling up humanitarian aid immediately, which must reach those areas where access has been difficult due to the violence. We continue to urge all humanitarian agencies and the authorities to scale-up and coordinate to bridge the gaps on the ground especially since there has been a cumulative set of factors which has made the situation worse.

 

We appreciate the fact that the Ethiopian authorities have not only been providing humanitarian assistance but have also granted humanitarian access to a majority of areas under stress and encourage it to continue on that path. We also underscore the importance of adhering to the UN guiding principles of humanitarian assistance and we also call for protecting all humanitarian workers.

 

India calls for restraint and engagement by all stakeholders in a spirit of dialogue and reconciliation. We urge that the space provided by this humanitarian ceasefire be used to open channels of communication, pursue dialogue and find a peaceful and sustainable solution. All stakeholders must desist from rhetoric and threats, spreading misinformation, and raising tensions during the ceasefire. Instead, steps must be taken by all stakeholders to disengage and reduce tensions and work towards restoration of normalcy in the lives of the people in the affected region.

 

We call on the Ethiopian Government to sustain the ceasefire and find a way to address this conflict in a manner that serves the interests of all of its people in line with the federal constitutional provisions.

 

We also encourage the Government of Ethiopia to follow up on their commitments to investigate all allegations of human rights violations and to persist in efforts to hold the perpetrators to account in accordance with the law. We look forward to an early conclusion of the investigation by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the UN-OHCHR.

 

In conclusion, Mr. President, India reiterates its strong commitment to the unity, sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of Ethiopia.

 

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