Tripoli, 2 October:
As part of the country’s drive to . . .[restrict]identify nameless bodies from the Qaddafi regime and the revolution, a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between Repsol and the Ministry for the Affairs of the Families of the Martyrs and Missing Persons (MFMM).
After a request from the MFMM for help towards the creation of a forensic laboratory in Tripoli to identify unknown bodies, the Spanish oil giant pledged their support. and the agreement was signed at the end of September.
The General Manager of Repsol Libya, Mr. Félix Castañeda, said: “The agreement comes within the framework of supporting the Libyan people in giving definitive solutions to the problems of missing persons in the liberation war.”
Salah Elgabu, External Relations Manager for Repsol in Tripoli, told Libya Herald that Repsol agreed to the request as part of its commitment to social welfare of the country.
Repsol’s donation package will comprise equipment and services that can be used at the new forensic centre in Tripoli which the MFMM will establish. Using DNA testing, the centre will try to give closure to relatives of men and women who went missing before and during the revolution.
“Repsol has agreed with the MFMM to make its contribution by donating a whole package of equipment and services through a specific services contract and purchase orders with third parties for make its contribution to the project,” said Elgabu.
The agreement between Repsol and the MFMM will come into force this month, starting with the creation of a laboratory and followed by staff training. It is anticipated that the laboratory will be operational in September 2013.
A huge number of people has gone missing in Libya during the last 43 years. Up to 10,000 disappeared under the Qaddafi regime and thousands involved in the revolution remain unaccounted for.
In May, the Minister for the Affairs of Martyrs and Missing Persons, Naser Jibril Hamed, along with six other members of the MFMM visited the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) unit in Bosnia. Katherine Bomberger, the Director-General of the ICMP said that discussions were held to ensure Libya developed a sustainable capacity to address the issue of its own missing persons.
“The creation of the Libyan Identification Centre would provide the first, important step in enabling Libya to develop a sustainable process to work on the issue of missing persons,” said Bomberger.
“Libya is today faced with a huge problem, and that is to find, identify and return to the families the mortal remains of their missing relatives. We believe that ICMP’s proposal for a Libyan Identification Centre is a good one, which we would like to pursue,” said Hamad.
Help towards the identification of missing persons has also come in from other sources, including the South Korean government which has given $7 million. [/restrict]
