On February 27, 2011, Jon Swaine, penned a piece in the Telegraph entitled, ‘“Libya: African mercenaries ‘immune from prosecution for war crimes.’” As the title indicates, Swaine seems to be concerned about the UN Security Council’s lack of specific call for inquiry into the actions of the “mercenaries” from Algeria, Ethiopia, Tunisia and other African countries. Ethiopian Review strongly believes that the participating African regimes, rather than the soldiers, that must face international justice for crime against humanity in Libya.
It is incumbent upon the United Nations Security Council to broaden its call for investigation by including the African regimes that are at the center in the ongoing carnage in Libya against defenseless civilians.
In the case of Ethiopia, the vast majority of soldiers join the army for economic reasons. Currently the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rules Ethiopia under the disguise of the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), headed by dictator Meles Zenawi. It is a group that runs Ethiopia as its fiefdom, more like the Moammar Gadhafi and his cohorts. The Ethiopian army and security forces take orders directly from Meles Zenawi.
In violation of the international law, Zenawi’s regime ordered the deployment of soldiers to Libya to take part in the assault against civilians — the soldiers are simply carrying out a mission.
It is vital for the United Nations Security Council to ask the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Zenawi’s regime’s participation in war crimes in Libya. In fact, once ICC begins its inquiry into this matter, it can expand its case to include other war crimes that had been committed by Meles Zenawi’s regime in Somalia between 2006 and 2009.
We firmly believe that the United Nations Security Council must set a precedent to demonstrate its commitment to have zero tolerance for regimes that are exporting terror globally. We hope for a swift action.