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Libyas permanent representative to the United Nations, Taher Al-Sunni, stressed the relevance of the EUs full consultation and coordination with the Government of National Unity (GNU), along with its specialized agencies, whilst carrying out any operations in the Mediterranean which may be related to Libya.

This came in a meeting in New York with the commander of Operation IRINI of the EU, Admiral Fabio Agostino, where he reviewed the activities of the operation in the context of its implementation of Security Council resolutions, regarding authorizing the inspection and search of ships on the high seas, which may be suspected of violations of the arms embargo.

Al-Sunni also stressed, particularly regarding the importance of showing full support for the GNU in its programs for monitoring and protecting Libyas borders, not only at sea but also the land borders, particularly the southern borders of the country, within the framework of an extensive strategy, which includes all neighbouring countries with Libya.

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Al-Sunni calls on EU to coordinate with Libya on all relevant issues regarding the Mediterranean - The Libya Observer

The Head of vaccination management at the Libyan National Center for Disease Control, Abdelbasit Samiyo, said the epidemiological situation in Libya's west and south is very serious and concerning.

Samiyo urged on Libya Alahrar TV Channel the officials in eastern Libya to get ready by preparing quarantine centers and keeping a good stock of oxygen as well as medical equipment in case of increased spread.

He also said that 300 samples a day in Zliten means that infections could reach 3000 in the city and other cities like Misrata, Al-Zawiya and Tripoli, adding that 500.000 doses of Sputnik Light vaccine will be disrupted once the Food and Drugs Authority okays the vaccine to be used across Libya.

Samiyo also said that the second dose of the vaccine will depend on bringing in sufficient quantities, adding that giving the first dose is more important and that 100.000 doses of the Sputnik vaccine will soon arrive in Libya.

He also said infections increased in the last period as people didn't abide by the precautionary measures and that they aim to vaccinate as many people as they can.

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Disease Control Center says Coronavirus spread in Libya's west and south concerning - The Libya Observer

Fresh evidence of harrowing violations, including sexual violence, against men, women and children intercepted while crossing the Mediterranean Sea and forcibly returned to detention centres in Libya, highlights the horrifying consequences of Europes ongoing cooperation with Libya on migration and border control, said Amnesty International in a report published today.

'No one will look for you': Forcibly returned from sea to abusive detention in Libya documents how decade-long violations against refugees and migrants continued unabated in Libyan detention centres during the first six months of 2021 despite repeated promises to address them.

The report also found that since late 2020 Libyas Directorate for Combatting Illegal Migration (DCIM), a department of the interior ministry, had legitimized abuse by integrating two new detention centres under its structure where hundreds of refugees and migrants had been forcibly disappeared in previous years by militias. At one recently rebranded centre, survivors said guards raped women and subjected them to sexual violence including by coercing them into sex in exchange for food or their freedom.

This horrifying report sheds new light on the suffering of people intercepted at sea and returned to Libya, where they are immediately funnelled into arbitrary detention and systematically subjected to torture, sexual violence, forced labour and other exploitation with total impunity. Meanwhile, Libyan authorities have rewarded those reasonably suspected of committing such violations with positions of power and higher ranks, meaning that we risk seeing the same horrors reproduced again and again.

The report also highlights the ongoing complicity of European states that have shamefully continued to enable and assist Libyan coastguards in capturing people at sea and forcibly returning them to the hellscape of detention in Libya, despite knowing full well the horrors they will endure.

Amnesty International is calling on European states to suspend cooperation on migration and border control with Libya. This week Italys parliament will debate the continuation of their provision of military support and resources to Libyan coastguards.

The report details the experiences of 53 refugees and migrants previously detained in centresnominally under the control of DCIM, 49 of whom were detained directly following their interceptions at sea.

Libyan authorities have vowed to close DCIM centres rife with abuse, but similar patterns of violations have been reproduced in newly opened or re-opened centres. In an illustration of entrenched impunity, informal sites of captivity originally run by non-DCIM affiliated militias have been legitimized and integrated into the DCIM. In 2020, hundreds of people disembarked in Libya had been forcibly disappeared at an informal site, then controlled by a militia. Since then, Libyan authorities have integrated the site into the DCIM, named it the Tripoli Gathering and Return Centre, colloquially known as Al-Mabani, and also put the former director and other staff of the now-closed Tajoura DCIM centre in charge. Tajoura, which was notorious for torture and other ill-treatment, was ordered closed in August 2019, a month after airstrikes that killed at least 53 detainees.

Ongoing abuse in Libyan detention centres

In the first half of 2021, more than 7,000 people intercepted at sea were forcibly returned to Al-Mabani. Detainees held there told Amnesty International they faced torture and other ill-treatment, cruel and inhuman detention conditions, extortion and forced labour. Some also reported being subjected to invasive, humiliating and violent strip-searches.

Tripolis Shara al-Zawiya centre is a facility which was also previously run by non-affiliated militias and was recently integrated under DCIM and designated for people in vulnerable situations. Former detainees there said that guards raped women and some were coerced into sex in exchange for their release or for essentials such as clean water. Grace said she was heavily beaten for refusing to comply with such a demand: I told [the guard] no. He used a gun to knock me back. He used a leather soldiers shoe to [kick] me from my waist.

Two young women at the facility attempted to commit suicide as a result of such abuse.

Three women also said that two babies detained with their mothers after an attempted sea crossing had died in early 2021 after guards refused to transfer them to hospital for critical medical treatment.

Amnesty Internationals report documents similar patterns of human rights violations, including severe beatings, sexual violence, extortion, forced labour, and inhuman conditions across seven DCIM centres in Libya. In Abu Issa centre in the city of al-Zawiya, detainees reported being deprived of nutritious food to the point of starvation.

In Al-Mabani and two other DCIM centres, Amnesty International documented the unlawful use of lethal force when guards and other armed men shot at detainees, causing deaths and injuries.

The entire network of Libyan migration detention centres is rotten to its core and must be dismantled. Libyan authorities must close all migration detention facilities immediately and stop detaining refugees and migrants.

Libyan rescue missions endangering lives

Between January and June 2021,the EU-backed Libyan coastguards intercepted around 15,000 people at sea and returned them to Libya more than in all of 2020 during what they describe as rescue missions.

People interviewed by Amnesty International consistently described Libyan coastguards conduct as negligent and abusive. Survivors described how Libyan coastguards deliberately damaged their boats, in some cases causing them to capsize, leading refugees and migrants to drown on at least two occasions. One eyewitness said after Libyan coastguards caused a dinghy to capsize, they filmed the incident with their phones instead of instead of rescuing all survivors. Over 700 refugees and migrants drowned along the central Mediterranean Sea route in the first six months of 2021.

Refugees and migrants told Amnesty International that as they attempted sea crossings, they frequently saw aircraft overhead or ships nearby that did not offer them assistance before the Libyan coastguards arrival.

Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard agency, has carried out aerial surveillance over the Mediterranean to identify refugee and migrants boats at sea and has operated a drone over this route since May 2021. European navies have largely abandoned the central Mediterranean to avoid having to rescue refugee and migrants boats in distress.

Italy and other EU member states have also continued to grant material assistance, including speedboats, to Libyan coastguards and are working to establish a maritime coordination centre in Tripolis port, mostly funded by the EU Trust Fund for Africa.

Despite overwhelming evidence of reckless, negligent and unlawful behaviour by Libyan coastguards at sea and systematic violations in detention centres after disembarkation, European partners have continued to support Libyan coastguards to forcibly return people to the very abuse they fled in Libya, said Diana Eltahawy.

Its well past time for European states to acknowledge the indefensible consequences of their actions. They must suspend cooperationon migration and border control with Libya and instead open urgently needed pathways to safety for the thousands in need of protection currently trapped there.

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For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact: press@amnesty.org or call +44 20 7413 5566

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Libya: Horrific violations in detention highlight Europe's shameful role in forced returns - Amnesty International

Libya goes through challenging months as the country heads towards elections on 24 December. On 2 July 2021, the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF), supported by the UN, was not able to reach a consensus on the constitutional basis of the upcoming elections. Earlier in June, during the Second Berlin Conference, there was no significant progress in terms of withdrawal of foreign troops or mercenaries from the country.

In this highly divided context, community-based reconciliation processes are critical to address conflicts stemming from local grievances. However, too often, local populations and communities are not sufficiently involved in the higher-level peace processes. To bridge this gap, Interpeace has gathered a broad range of change agents involved in establishing a common vision of priorities for peace to bring solutions at the local level through community dialogue.

The deep political divisions that characterize Libya both stem from and feed into local grievances creating a vicious cycle and making the work at the community level all that more important. Since 2011, Interpeaces engagement in Libya has focused on the development of local infrastructure for peace and social cohesion. Amid this prolonged state of conflict, Libyans are frustrated with the continued political stagnation, failed dialogue processes, and unkept promises. In the context of long-standing multifaceted crisis in Libya, there are high hopes for a democratic transition in the coming months, even with the last setbacks, but that is complicated by numerous social and political challenges in addition to the ongoing conflict and the spread of Covid-19.

The years of conflict have also weakened the already fragile social cohesion and widened the gaps in the country. Re-establishing social cohesion and inclusion must be a priority while building sustainable peace in such a complex conflict situation as the one in Libya. Through its project Strengthening Local Cohesion in Libya: A Pathway to Lasting Peace, Interpeace seeks to reinforce local resilience capacities for sustainable peace and contribute to the development of local environment for stability and future growth in Libya. Almost 30 communities benefit from the programme.

Over the last ten years in Libya, Interpeace has developed and accompanied a network of over 200 Change Agents or Dialogue Facilitators, across the country working directly with the population. This group is made up of influential individuals of all ages, genders and social status. Its members play an important role in building resilient peace in Libya from the bottom-up, by ensuring that engaged communities are equipped to be more resilient to conflict, especially at the community level. This initiative is aimed at catalyzing collaboration between Libyan communities, and with national authorities, to establish a common vision of priorities for peace through strengthening dialogue platforms and building the capacity of change agents in local communities. This effort is supported by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Swiss Federal Department for Foreign Affairs.

On the practical level, I was greatly empowered in my social participation. There were some activities I stayed away from, thinking they belong to the specialists, and I never participated. I felt that it [the engagement in the initiative] gave me the courage to participate. I was staying away from those having opposing ideas and positions, but I began to intervene in positive ways. If a tough situation occurs, I try and find constructive solutions to it, says a female change agent from Tobruk.

In the programmes framework, Interpeace sets up various initiatives to bring together change agents based in different parts of Libya and support their efforts in building peaceful social environment. The most recent gathering took place in Tunis from 20 to 28 June 2021. It was organized to help these community leaders and influencers in identifying and addressing priority issues inside communities.

This experience can be characterized in two ways: we established relationships in all Libyan cities when maintaining direct communication. I mean, now I have friends in every Libyan city, and I can say that 60% of the advantage I gained is the fact that I personally know young people from all the cities and from different fields. [] Personally, I have met influential people in different communities, wise people and influencers in civil society. [] We know mistrust that can exist among individuals towards international organisations working in Libya, but Interpeace has a different approach this is a special experience, explains a male change agent from Tobruk.

Forty change agents divided into two groups participated in four-days sessions for each. The workshop aimed at providing the dialogue facilitators who are based in the eastern part of Libya with the required skills and tools to design and conduct community dialogue tailored to their local context.

I am shy even when I have something to say, I prefer to stay in the background, keep quiet. I am not social by nature, I prefer staying at home. My participation in the workshops [] made me want to express my point of view whether or not it is accepted by the other party. Now, on the social level I have the power to participate in ongoing projects in Libya, such as enhancing the role of women in electoral processes, as voters or as candidates, as well as at the level of national reconciliation, says a female change agent from Al-Baida.

This work is critical with the current changes taking place in the sensitive political context of Libya and ahead of elections in which communities will play a key role.

The role of the change agents will be critical in the eventual implementation of a political agreement in bringing public support, particularly among civil society, who are likely to be key champions of any peace outcomes negotiated. The sustainability of a political solution will be dependent on a shared societal agreement about what peace means and what it entails, but also community engagement going beyond simple outreach as an actual process of inclusion in the implementation to ensure sustainable peace, concluded Rene Larivire, Senior Director for Programme Management at Interpeace.

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Libya: the value added of local peace and reconciliation processes - Libya - ReliefWeb

While the reconciliation process has added a sense of optimism, several legal and security challenges remain, just months before the proposed elections in December.

After a decade of conflict, insecurity and political fragmentation, Libya could be looking at a more stable future and sustainable peace.

Libya has made reasonable progress in addressing the chaos and violence that emerged with the Arab uprisings in 2011. In October 2020, the two warring partiessigned an official ceasefire agreement, which has broadly held so far, bringing about a reconciliation process designed to culminate in elections this coming December.

Despite the steps taken in recent months, there are a few prime considerations for the interim government: forcing out the foreign fighters and mercenaries, drafting a new constitution, and possibly holding elections by the end of the year.

On June 23, Germany and the UN hosted a follow-up to the January 2020 Berlin Peace Conference on Libya to discuss progress and ongoing challenges, seeking to build a stable and peaceful future.

The conference renewed pledges to hold elections in December to replace an interim government in Tripoli led by Prime Minister Abdel Hamid Dabaiba. The final declaration called for the total departure of foreign fighters without further delay and for all sides to refrain from activities that exacerbate the conflict, including financing military facilities or recruiting foreign fighters and mercenaries.

Although many Libyans are eager to take to the polls, holding free and reliable elections requires a conducive political and security environment where all people can participate and engage in the political process and support paths of democratic transition.

Key challenger: Mercenaries

The presence of mercenaries, in particular, remains a significant security challenge and continues to impede progress toward holding national elections in December.

The power vacuum that occurred in the wake of Moammar Gaddafis death enabled various militia groups and mercenaries to gain a foothold in Libya. The unstable security environment, particularly in the east of the country, stands out, where thousands of irregular forces and mercenaries are reportedly based, moving around freely. They are not part of any government organisation and could risk renewing the conflict.

From Turkeys perspective, some countries that attended the Berlin conference failed to distinguish between Turkish forces on the ground and mercenaries and foreign fighters operating primarily under warlord Khalifa Haftars orders.

Turkish forces are there upon an official invitation by an internationally recognised, and United Nations-backed, government of Libya. Thus, the Turkish presence cannot be considered in the same light as foreign fighters in the country.

Since the November 2019 military agreement signed between Turkey and Libya, Ankara has been helping restructure the Libyan army and police forces and is engaged in the process of institution-building the country. Turkish forces are also helping prevent potential attacks by Haftars LNA.

Libyas new internationally recognised governmenthas offered assurances that the agreements are in place between Libya and Turkey. The prime minister of the GNUstated that these agreements fully correspond to the interests of Libya.

Some countries, including Russia and the UAE, have even refused to even acknowledge their presence in Libya in fact they claim that they have no involvement in the Libyan conflict, despite UNreports saying otherwise. However, the Wagner Group, a private military company linked to the Kremlin, has reportedly been operating in Libya since September 2019.

Furthermore, a UN reportsaid that the UAE has played a significant role in bringing hundreds of fighters from Sudans Darfur region to Libya to bolster Haftars LNA.

Holding elections

Libyas rival factions have agreed for a vote on December 24, 2021. Yet enormous challenges remain in uniting the country and preparing for elections. In this respect, following the Berlin conference, members of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) recentlygathered in Switzerland to clear the way for national elections to be held on time.

The High National Election Commission (HNEC) has given a July 2021 deadline to the rival parties to agree on the constitutional foundations of the elections to avoid a delay to the December election.

Even though the participants of the Berlin conference expressed their support for the elections, Libyan delegates recentlyfailed to agree on a legal framework to hold presidential and parliamentary elections.

There is disagreement, for example, on whether to hold a referendum on a draft constitution prior to the elections or pass a temporary law and postpone broader constitutional questions. Furthermore, questions about candidate eligibility, such as whether they can have multiple citizenships, have to be addressed.

Recently, the chairman of Libyas High Council of State (HCS), Khalid al Mishri,said that Haftar lacks the legal prerequisites to get him on the ballots in December. According toan article from the draft constitution, those with dual citizenship cannot be candidates for the presidency.

More recently, there have been some mediareports that some of the LPDF delegates submitted a proposal that demanded no conditions be placed on presidential candidates regarding multiple citizenships or military rank. This demand was seen as an attempt to create conditions for Haftar to be a potential future candidate.

However, many representatives of the LPDF reportedly rejected the proposal, as Haftar is regarded as unfit for running owing to his US citizenship and military rank. Al Mishrisaid that Haftar sent his son to Geneva, specifically to pressure certain members of the LPDF to push for elections to take place without a constitution.

More recently, Haftar threatened a war if elections dont take place in December, saying that his forces will be ready to begin another offensive on Tripoli.

Nevertheless, the current reconciliation process and the UN sponsorship have contributed to increased optimism about a return to stability.

Given that the Libyan people are exhausted after ten years of war, occupation, turmoil and chaos, the international community must take more concrete steps to provide a safe environment to secure the holding of elections and fulfil the aspirations of Libyans for a more prosperous future.

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of TRT World.

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Source: TRT World

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In fractured Libya, is stability finally on the horizon? - TRT World