Enforced disappearances on the rise in Libya’s Tripoli

Sharif Abdel Zaher

The Libyan National Army (LNA) launched a new operation, codenamed “Operation Decisive Battle” on December 12, with the aim of purging Libyan capital Tripoli of the terrorist militias controlling it.

The operation coincided with a massive wave of arrests by the Turkey and Qatar-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), which rules Tripoli.

Documented violations

Arrests and enforced disappearances have risen dramatically in Libya in the past period. A London-based organization revealed this rise on December 24, especially in the vicinity of Tripoli, an area controlled by the GNA.

The organization referred to the discovery of the remains of lawyer, Yasser Youssef Othman, 60, in one of the streets of Ain Zara district on December 15. Othman was kidnapped by four masked men a few days earlier.

It also referred to the kidnap of Abdel Monem al-Sonossi al-Sharif, who heads a society development organization, from his home in Tripoli on December 15.

The GNA is wading even deeper into more crimes against humanity, a process that has intensified since the start of the march of the LNA towards Tripoli. The government is implicated in the kidnapping of those backing the LNA. It even shells civilians and children and uses them as human shields.

The Libyan National Committee for Human Rights referred to the kidnap of Libyan pilot, Nouri al-Atrash, on May 6 from his home in Tripoli by unidentified militants.

Condemnation

The United Nations expressed, meanwhile, deep concern over growth in the number of enforced disappearance cases and detentions in Libya.

Libyan officials, political activists, and journalists are especially targeted by these violations, the UN said.

It referred to articles in international law on personal freedom and against arbitrary detention.

The International Humanitarian Law also criminalizes the enforced disappearance of people, the UN said in a statement.

Detention

The militias controlling Tripoli continued to arbitrarily arrest thousands of people without charges.

A large number of the detainees are held at the Mitiga Prison outside the framework of law or judiciary oversight.

Libyan affairs specialist, Abdel Sattar Heteita, cited collaboration between the GNA, on one hand, and the terrorist militias controlling Tripoli, on the other, in the arrest of political opponents.

“The two parties also coordinate the kidnap of foreign nationals and demand ransom for their release,” Heteita told The Reference.