PHOTO: Pro-Government fighter in Benghazi, January 2015 (Esam Omran Al-Fetori/Reuters)
Less than 3 1/2 years ago, the residents of Benghazi, Libya’s second day, celebrated “Liberation Day” and the fall of the Qaddafi regime:
Now, as Amnesty International warns, Benghazi and Libya are “on the brink of collapse”. The UN-backed Government, appointed by the elected House of Representatives, has fled to the eastern city of Tobruk after it was driven out of Tripoli in August 2014 by militias. The self-declared National Salvation Government in Tripoli is backed by some members of the former General National Congress.
In Benghazi, a city of more than a million people, rival armed forces are fighting for control. Professionals and activists for civil society have been driven out of the country — if they have not been killed.
What happened? And what can be done?
The introduction to Amnesty’s report, based on 40 interviews, images, and official material:
Four years since Libyans rose against the ruthless rule of Colonel Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi, the country is on the brink of collapse. Two governments and two parliaments are fighting for legitimacy and power through various coalitions of militias and armed forces, and are supported by a set of regional and international actors. Across the country, political, ideological, tribal and regional fault lines have opened up to become seams of intense fighting in the west, east and south of the country. Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city and the birthplace of the 2011 uprising, is experiencing the worst of the violence. Street battles, assassinations and abductions have become the daily norm. Many of those that once took to the streets in the hope of a better future, have now been forced into exile.
In mid-January 2015, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, estimated that some 400,000 people were displaced across Libya as a result of the fighting and other violence in several areas of the country. Such areas include Benghazi and Derna in the east, near the Gulf of Sidra, around Tripoli in the west and in the south-western town of Obari. Many have experienced a fourth or fifth displacement since the start of the fighting in mid-2014, and are unable to access schools, hospitals and adequate shelter.
Since the start of the armed conflict in eastern Libya between a coalition of Islamist militias and armed groups known as the Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries (SCBR) and forces loyal to Operation Dignity, a military campaign launched in mid-May 2014 by General Khalifa Haftar — allied with the elected parliament and UN-backed government based in Tobruk — all sides appear to have committed serious human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, some of which may amount to war crimes.
The fighting pushed some 90,000 people to flee their homes in Benghazi alone, according to estimates of the Benghazi Local Council reported by UNHCR on 16 January 2015. Among those who have been forced to leave their homes are scores of prosecutors, judges, activists, human rights defenders and journalists who have opposed the grip of the Islamist militias on Benghazi, and the systematic attacks against state institutions over the last three years. Most have fled abroad after receiving numerous death threats and following a sharp increase in assassinations. The murder of human rights lawyer Salwa Bugaighis, one of Benghazi’s most prominent figures, on 26 June 2014, was particularly shocking to Libyans, both because of her respected status in the local community, and because such killings had previously targeted men exclusively.
The current battle for Benghazi was launched on 15 October 2014 by the leader of Operation Dignity, General Khalifa Haftar. Under the banner of counter-terrorism, and with the stated aim of retaking the city from SCBR forces and imposing the rule of law, Haftar’s offensive on the city led to weeks of intense fighting in several residential areas considered to be Islamist strongholds. These areas include al-Lithi, Bel’oun, Sabri, the area around Qar Younes University, as well as in Qawarsha and al-Hawari districts located on Benghazi’s outskirts. In many cases, SCBR members appear to have taken positions in residential areas, leading to weeks of street battles. Forces aligned with the SCBR gained control over Benghazi at the end of July 2014 after they captured the military compound of Sa’iqa Special Forces in Bou‘Atni, prompting the withdrawal of Operation Dignity forces. On 30 July 2014, members of Ansar al-Shari’a, one of the armed groups forming the SCBR, declared that Benghazi was an Islamic Emirate in a video posted online. Armed clashes continued in the Benina area near Benghazi over the control of the civilian and military airport located there.
According to Benghazi residents interviewed by Amnesty International, both army units under General Khalifa Haftar’s command and fighters of the SCBR have been operating in, and launching indiscriminate attacks from, residential areas in Benghazi. This has increased the risks to civilians and civilian buildings and infrastructure in the area. Forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar have additionally carried out airstrikes on residential areas. Those forces have occasionally issued warnings on the Libya Awalan and al-Karama TV channels and through social media urging civilians to evacuate their homes prior to attacks, while members of the SCBR have issued similar warnings via al-Nabaa TV. Nonetheless, civilians have continued to remain caught up in the violence.
Under international humanitarian law, warring parties have an obligation to take all measures to spare civilians and civilian objects. The presence of fighters in residential areas does not absolve parties from their obligation to minimize harm to civilians. Under IHL each party must, to the extent feasible, avoid locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas.
The fighting in and around Benghazi has resulted in civilian deaths and injuries and damage to civilian buildings and infrastructure in indiscriminate attacks with anti-aircraft machine guns, artillery and rockets. Forces loyal to Operation Dignity additionally used tanks and launched airstrikes against alleged SCBR positions in residential areas without taking the necessary precautions to protect civilian objects and life, while SCBR forces took positions in
civilian areas. In certain neighbourhoods, considered to be SCBR strongholds, the damage to homes, mosques, cars and other civilian objects, was extensive. Violations of international humanitarian law were also committed elsewhere in the country during battles conducted in the south and the west, which involved airstrikes carried out by Dignity forces in addition to fighting on the ground.
Amnesty International is alarmed at numerous reports of abductions of civilians, summary killings, torture, and attacks against civilian property, allegedly perpetrated by all parties and their allies.
At least 267 individuals, including civilians and fighters, have been reported missing in Benghazi between June and the end of November 2014, according to the Libyan Red Crescent Society (LRCS). Of these, only three individuals had been successfully found. In recent months, numerous notices have appeared on social media posted by families desperately looking for their missing relatives who had disappeared in unclear circumstances. Amongst those missing is at least one woman. Amnesty International believes that many of these individuals may have been captured or abducted and possibly summarily killed.
The organization’s concerns are heightened by reports of dead bodies found dumped every week in and around Benghazi, including in and around al-Marj, a town located approximately 90 km east of Benghazi, which is under the control of Operation Dignity forces. Terrorized by months of violence, Libyan refugees interviewed by Amnesty International in December 2014 in Cairo spoke of bodies being frequently found in car trunks, abandoned construction sites, on the side of roads or near mosques, sometimes with their throats slit or bullet wounds on their heads and bodies. According to its media office, the LRCS recovered at least 119 dead bodies between 15 October and the end of November 2014, often from areas where armed confrontations had not taken place, and following reports by local residents. In some cases, the corpses showed signs of binding and abuse or were found decapitated. According to information available to Amnesty International, approximately 10 decapitated bodies were brought to the Benghazi Medical Centre in the first month of the current offensive, suggesting they were unlawfully killed following capture or abduction.
Videos that have appeared in recent months on social media, which appear to show evidence that forces operating under the SCBR, including the armed group Ansar al-Shari’a, have carried out execution-style killings of captured fighters and abducted civilians, including at least one beheading. In November 2014, the report of the beheading of three activists in Derna shocked and outraged the Libyan civil society. While no one claimed responsibility for the beheadings, Derna residents blamed Islamist armed groups. They believed that the activists were beheaded in relation to their activism against armed groups controlling the city, who had recently pledged their allegiance to the Islamic State. Reports of assassinations of current and former security officers, state employees, activists and religious leaders continue to emerge. Similarly, as forces under Operation Dignity took control of areas in and around Benghazi, they detained fighters from the SCBR forces and civilians, merely on account of their real or perceived political affiliation or opinion. Operation Dignity forces have also carried out such detentions in al-Bayda and al-Marj in the name of fighting terrorism. In several cases, detainees were held incommunicado, tortured and summarily killed, and their bodies dumped in the area. Days or weeks later, their families would find out about the killings while browsing through photos of unidentified dead bodies on various Facebook websites.
Amid rampant lawlessness, chaos and proliferation of arms, ordinary people have increasingly taken the law into their own hands. Supporters of each side of the conflict have carried out numerous vigilante attacks involving abductions, unlawful killings and attacks against civilian property, often following incitement by individuals affiliated with the warring parties. Unless action is immediately taken by all sides to restore the rule of law, the cycle of revenge and abuse is likely to continue.
Some of the abuses are said to have been carried out by self-described neighbourhood defence armed groups, known as “neighbourhood youths”, which have emerged following Operation Dignity’s calls for an armed uprising on 15 October 2014. The “neighbourhood youths”, also referred to as sahawat (awakening groups) by pro-SCBR supporters, are said to ahave facilitated the army’s operations in residential areas, including by providing intelligence on the location of military targets, and to be fighting alongside Operation Dignity forces. Amnesty International has received numerous reports that these groups are armed by Dignity forces, but was unable to independently verify these allegations. Abuses were also reportedly perpetrated by groups known as the “Guardians of blood” — the name given to families who have lost relatives in assassination attacks since 2011. According to activists, the number of such assassinations had reached over 500 even before the start of Operation Dignity in mid-May of 2014. Many cited the Libyan authorities’ inability to carry out meaningful investigations into these crimes and bring the perpetrators to justice as the reason for their actions. While the identity of perpetrators remains unknown, many in Benghazi believe that these killings were perpetrated by Islamist armed groups such as Ansar al-Sharia.
Amnesty International calls on all parties to immediately stop the indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas; cease direct attacks against civilians or their property and other reprisals against civilians and detainees protected under the laws of war, to publicly condemn such acts and take measures to repress violations of IHL. The organization further calls on all parties to immediately stop the abduction of civilians and unconditionally release anyone held on account of their political affiliation or origin. All parties to the conflict must treat captured fighters humanely in accordance with international humanitarian law, ensure that their families are notified of their whereabouts and are able to communicate with them, that they receive adequate medical care and are protected from torture and other ill-treatment. In particular, commanders must make it clear that torture and other ill-treatment will not be tolerated, and remove from their ranks any individuals suspected of having ordered, committed or acquiesced to such acts. Commanders and other superiors who fail to repress torture and other war crimes by their subordinates can be held criminally responsible.
In light of the seriousness of the abuses, some of which amount to war crimes under the Rome Statute, the International Criminal Court (ICC) should expand its investigations into crimes under international law committed by all armed groups and militias in Libya from February 2011 until the present.10 The ICC continues to exercise jurisdiction over war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated in Libya following a United Nations Security Council referral on 15 February 2011.
In August 2014, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2174, which decided that “the supply, sale or transfer of arms and related materiel, including related ammunition and spare parts, to Libya” must be subject to advance approval by the Sanctions Committee, and expanded existing sanctions on Libya to include individuals or entities engaged in “acts that threaten the peace, stability or security of Libya, or obstruct or undermine the successful completion of its political transition”. The resolution furthers decided that such acts include the “planning, directing, or committing, acts that violate applicable international human rights law or international humanitarian law, or acts that constitute human rights abuses”. In a statement made on 17 January 2015, members of the UN Security Council called on all parties to “cease hostilities to create a peaceful and conducive environment for an inclusive dialogue” and recalled that the Sanctions Committee is prepared to sanction those that threaten Libya’s peace. Amnesty International welcomes the statement and calls on the UN Security Council to immediately impose targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against individuals and entities involved in “planning, directing, or committing, acts that violate applicable international human rights law or international humanitarian law, or acts that constitute human rights abuses” in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2174. In light of the scale and gravity of abuses, Amnesty International further calls on all states to fully cooperate with the Sanctions Committee in view of enforcing the arms embargo in Libya.
