Author: Rupert Wieloch

As we approach the New Year, there is renewed hope of prosperity in Libya.  The Libyan National Army has ended its  operations in Sidi Khreibesch.  The Presidency Council has announced that the long awaited return of Tawerghans to their homes will start on 1st February.  Ports and airports are re-opening and public pressure is increasing on the official bodies to move the political process forward.

However, with a terror attack reported on the oil pipeline network this week and food prices increasing, pressure on the Libyan economy remains tight.  See Chapter 6 of Belfast to Benghazi for the reconstruction efforts in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/belfast-to-benghazi/rupert-wieloch/9781861515667

 

 

 

 

East-West tension is increasing between Haftar’s Libyan National Army and Serraj’s UN backed Presidency Council.  The Libyan National Army has for weeks being indicating that it considered 17th December as a watershed date and that if no House of Representatives approved government were operating by then, it would move to save Libya.

Is the assassination of Mohamed Eshtewi, the moderate mayor of Libya’s third largest city, the start of this move?  Although several groups will profit from his removal, it is likely that the assailants who  dumped his body outside the Safwa Hospital in Misrata were local hard-liners, but what was their motive and are they linked to the LNA?

See Chapter 6 of Belfast to Benghazi for the background to the East-West tension and the pivotal role of Misrata and its neighbouring towns of Tawergha and Bani Walid in the revolution.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/belfast-to-benghazi/rupert-wieloch/9781861515667

Misrata 2011

Faiez Serraj and Salim Omeish met for talks this weekend as dozens of exiled Tawerghans demonstrated about their squalid living conditions pleading for the Presidency Council and the international community to organise their return home.

However, their safety and security depends totally on the Misratans.  They still have not forgiven the crimes committed by Tawerghan mercenaries during the 2011 civil war, with many hundreds of families grieving their martyrs and unaccounted-for sons and husbands.

See Chapter 6 of Belfast to Benghazi for the background to this shameful sore which needs the healing balm of a true peacemaker.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/belfast-to-benghazi/rupert-wieloch/9781861515667

Tawergha in April 2012

The Great Man Made Water system in Libya that brings 6,500,000,000 litres of water from the Nubian Sandstone Aquifers below the Sahara to the northern cities has been cut by militants.  As a result, over two million Libyans in Tripoli have been left without running water.

The dispute is over the arrest and imprisonment of Mabrouk Ahnish by Rada at Mitiga air base.  These security forces are linked to the head of the Presidency Council, Faiez Serraj, who has been in Washington this week opening the new Libyan Embassy.  Earlier this year, Rada detained the father of the Manchester bomber, Salman Abedi.

The increased risks of water borne diseases has increased and added to the suffering of children according to UNICEF special representative Abdel-Rahman Ghandour, who has instigated a full investigation.

See Chapter 6 of Belfast to Benghazi for the strategic importance of Mitiga and the security challenges of Libyan militias in 2011 and 2012.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/belfast-to-benghazi/rupert-wieloch/9781861515667

 

During his visit to Benghazi last week, Peter Millett laid a wreath at the Commonwealth War Cemetery that was vandalised by Islamic militamen.   He also confirmed that Britain is giving more than a £1 Million to train Explosive Ordnance Disposal operators and paramedics in the east of Libya; an example of the United Kingdom’s equal commitment “to all of Libya”.

See Chapter 6 of Belfast to Benghazi for the story of the attack on the cemetery and the background to the de-mining programme, which we set up in 2012.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/belfast-to-benghazi/rupert-wieloch/9781861515667

Yesterday a United Nations flight was refused permission to land at Tobruk airport, which has caused chaos and embarrassment among the House of Representatives.

All Tobruk flights must now land at Benghazi’s Benina airport, but this is a six hour drive through insecure areas to Tobruk, so it wastes a day’s work.   Last month the commander of the Libyan National Army closed the town’s port to all but local trade against the wishes of the people.

See Chapter 6 of Belfast to Benghazi to read about the British visit to Tobruk on 14th February 2012 when we were asked by the Libyan Air Force to rebuild the air base.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/belfast-to-benghazi/rupert-wieloch/9781861515667

The United Nations has described the European Union’s operation to patrol the coast of Libya as “inhuman”.

This strong criticism by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, shows a remarkable split between the two international organisations most involved in the reconstruction of Libya.  In September, the UN recorded 7,000 migrants being held in camps, but as a result of the EU-backed clampdown, during which thousands of migrants were captured in the major trafficking hub of Sabratha, the figure has increased to 20,000 detainees.

At the beginning of November, UN human rights monitors inspected four migrant holding centres and were “shocked by what they witnessed”.  Thousands of emaciated and traumatised men, women and children were piled on top of one another, locked up in hangars with no access to the most basic necessities, and stripped of their human dignity.  The Commissioner said: “We cannot be a silent witness to modern day slavery, rape and other sexual violence and unlawful killings in the name of managing migration and preventing desperate and traumatised people from reaching Europe’s shores”.

Chapter 6 of Belfast to Benghazi explains how the UN was given the lead for reconstruction in Libya, but the EU did its own thing in 2012.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/belfast-to-benghazi/rupert-wieloch/9781861515667

 

 

The announcement that the British Embassy in Tripoli will re-open after a gap of three years is a welcome sign of diplomatic progress.  The chancellery and ambassador’s residence, burned by Qaddafi’s henchmen in 2011, occupies disputed land, so it will not be rebuilt.  The Embassy in Tripoli Towers was a place of new hope in 2012 and can assist the Libyans resume their important place in the International Community as a leading nation in North Africa.

See Chapter 6 of Belfast of Benghazi to read about the rebuilding work completed at the British Embassy in 2012.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/belfast-to-benghazi/rupert-wieloch/9781861515667

 

 

Three days after the discovery of 36 tortured and killed men near al Abyar, the UNSMIL chief Ghassan Salamé has made a belated public condemnation of the crime.  This happened in the Government of National Accord’s area of responsibility and is an important test whether they are capable of bringing those responsible to account.

The Libyan National Army is distancing itself from the atrocity, but the fingerprints of their Special Forces are all over this.  It’s time for the ICC and UN to act, not just to wring their hands.  The Libyan people deserve better from those in authority.

Tomorrow is the 72nd anniversary of the day the UN Charter came into force.  The UN in Libya needs all the strength it can muster to resolve the differences between the House of Representatives, elected in 2012, and the Presidency Council created two years ago as part of the Libyan Peace Agreement.

It is disappointing that the Libyan talks in Tunis, led by UNSMIL Chief, Ghassan Salamé, have ended without compromise.  Given the security improvements this year, it is important that the Libyan political leaders support the action plan that was approved by the UN Security Council last month.    See Chapter 6 of Belfast to Benghazi for the challenges leading to the 2012 Election.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/belfast-to-benghazi/rupert-wieloch/9781861515667