Mass graves in Libya: Crimes against humanity

An independent Fact-Finding Mission has found evidence of people kidnapped, tortured, and killed in the western Libyan town of Tarhouna in a mass grave, and the mission suspects that there are other mass graves.

The Libyan authorities have already recovered 247 bodies in the town. Many of the dead bodies are blindfolded and handcuffed, and the mission said that the crime was carried out by the Kaniat militia operated by seven brothers, and it operated between 2016 and 2020.

The details of the killings are based on testimonies of the local people interviewed by the mission, and it is included in the 51-page report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The mission said in its report: “According to insider knowledge there might still be up to 100 as of yet undiscovered mass graves.”

A few days earlier, the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has asked the Libyan authorities to conduct investigations into the eight mass graves in Tarhouna, and it said in a statement, “UNSMIL notes with horror reports on the discovery of at least eight mass graves in past days, majority of them in Tarhouna.”

The justice ministry has promised to set up a committee to inquire into the mass graves, and the UN mission welcomed the move, and asked the members of the committee to identify the bodies, establish the cause of death and hand over the bodies to the next of kin.

Most of the victims are disabled people, women, and children. The brothers who had operated the militia have now fled to the eastern parts of the country.

Libya has experienced a breakdown ever since leader Muammar Qadhafi was overthrown in 2011 and killed.

The militia was aligned with the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord and now with its rival, the Libyan National Army led by Khalifa Haftar. It is based on this evidence that the fact-finding mission has concluded that the militia committed crimes against humanity.

The Libyan authorities are not keen that the mission should continue with its inquiry because of the fear that it could reveal the complicity of the rival factions in the crimes committed by the militia.

It is not difficult to reconstruct how the government authorities entrusted private militias of maintaining a semblance of law and order, as well as collect ransom from the people using various threats. The militias must have mercilessly killed people who seemed to be of no value in terms of labour.

The fact that militias were going around should be laid at the door of Libyan authorities, or the various factions which were holding the reins of government in different parts of the country. The central authority keeping the whole country together has faded out even as different groups claimed to be rulers of the country. The impasse continues in Libya.

Libya’s political and military rulers must reckon with the fact of the crimes of the Kaniat militia. They cannot claim ignorance, and the recovery of the bodies from the mass graves provides horrific evidence of the militia’s actions.

The fact that the Kaniat militia was with both the ruling factions, at one time or another, makes it evident that the killings did not happen in secret and the political players had no knowledge of it.

The Fact-Finding Mission has asked the Libyan authorities to continue to search for the mass graves, and to set up a tribunal to try the international crimes. A resolution is before the council to extend the life of the Fact-Finding Mission by another nine months.

The Kaniat militia is not an isolated example of the kind of groups who are terrorising civilian populations in many countries in Africa. It is incumbent on governments in Africa and also bodies like the African Union to set up institutional mechanisms to protect the civilians and defend their rights, especially their right to life.