A member of security forces loyal to Libya’s GNA points to a mass grave. Source of the photo: www.aljazeera.com
On June 22, 2020, the UN Human Rights Council adopted by consensus a resolution strongly condemning all acts of violence in Libya and urging UN rights chief Michelle BACHELET to dispatch a fact-finding mission in this country.
Since 2015, a power struggle has pitted the GNA (the internationally-recognized Government of National Accord) in Tripoli against eastern-based renegade military commander Khalifa HAFTAR, with both sides backed by rival foreign powers.
The UN resolution expressed concern at reports of “torture, sexual and gender-based violence and harsh conditions in prisons and detention centers”.
The mission experts will “the document alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law and international humanitarian law by all parties in Libya since the beginning of 2016” the text said.
The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) called the mass graves terrifying and assured to investigate the matter.
“UNSMIL notes with horror reports on the discovery of at least eight mass graves in past days, the majority of them in Tarhuna” UNSMIL tweeted.
Tamim BAIOU, Libya’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, told the council shortly before the resolution was adopted that he hoped it would mark “a turning point for a better future for Libya”. The decision was put ahead in March by a group of African nations.
Heba MORAYEF, head of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa operations, stated in an announcement: “We welcome the establishment of the fact-finding mission as an important and long overdue step towards ending the rampant impunity that has for years fuelled by the horrific crimes committed in Libya”.
Hundreds have been killed and a few 200.000 folks had been displaced in Libya for the reason that the newest escalation, which started in April 2019, when LNA, backed by the UAE and Egypt, launched an offensive towards Tripoli, the seat of the GNA.
Human Rights Watch’s Eric GOLDSTEIN said: “The establishment of a fact-finding mission into abuses in Libya is a wake-up call to warlords and armed groups that they could be held accountable for serious crimes committed by their rank and file”.
“I have already had the opportunity to say very clearly to President ERDOGAN that I consider that Turkey is playing a dangerous game in Libya today and contravenes all of its commitments made at the Berlin conference” MACRON stated.
Fatou BENSOUDA, International Criminal Court prosecutor stated in an announcement on June 22 that she would “not hesitate” to enlarge her investigation following the invention of the mass graves, which she stated, “may constitute evidence of war crimes or crimes against humanity”.
Envoy BAIOU said that the GNA had shown that “impunity will no longer be tolerated” in Libya. Tripoli hoped that the decision indicated “the international community holds the same threshold for those countries who contributed to this situation in Libya” he said.
This article was edited using the data from the Aljazeera.com, English.alarabiya.net, Thechiefobserver.com, and Postofasia.com.
