Ethiopian Foreign Minister Dr. Tedros Adhanom has called on the international community and AU states to condemn the erection of a memorial in Italy dedicated to the memory of the Fascist Field Marshal Rodolfo Graziani who was responsible for the slaughter of thousands of innocent people in Libya and in Ethiopia.

Speaking at a ceremony commemorating the 19th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide on Sunday (Aril 7th), Dr. Tedros said he welcomed AU’s initiatives to prevent and resolve conflicts in the continent, to fight impunity and prevent recurrence of massive crimes as reflected in the AU’s Constitutive Act which gives the AU the right to interfere in member states’s cases.

Ethiopia and Libya would have appreciated the possibility of such action in the 1930s when Marshal Graziani was active in carrying out massacres in their countries. He did not deserve to be memorialized but rather should continue to be condemned for his war crimes, genocidal activity and crimes against humanity.

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Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs – MoFA – Apr 09, 2013.  Originally titled “Dr. Tedros calls for international condemnation of the Graziani memorial”.

Related (in this blog):
* Italy honors Fascist War Criminal infuriating Ethiopians (Sept. 2012)