By Ahmed Elumami.
Tripoli, 30 June 2013:
On 15 February 2011 demonstrators in Benghazi’s Tahrir Square demanded an investigation into the Abu Selim prison massacre. Qaddafi’s answer was to open fire, and the revolution began. Two and a half years on, it seems the protestors’ demand will finally be met.
The General National Congress (GNC) announced today that it is to investigate the 1996 massacre at one of the country’s most infamous prisons in response to the demands of the Abu Selim Martyrs’ Massacre Association.
Resolution No.59 of 2013 on the massacre of Abu Selim Prison “was issued after listening to the demands of Abu Selim Martyrs’ Massacre Association,” a member of the Grievance and Compensation Committee, Abdalsslam Alsufrane, told the Libya Herald. He added that a four-member committee would be formed to study the group’s demands and investigate the atrocity.
“This is fantastic news,” Ali Alakermi, president of the Association of Prisoners of Conscience told this paper, “We have been waiting over two years for this. We will now be waiting for the committee to act on the law.”
The committee will probe the massacre of some 1,300 inmates at Abu Salim prison, Alsufrane explained, as well as seek to account for the missing and take steps to prove their deaths. The committee will also submit a proposal on compensation and benefits for families and loved ones of those murdered at the prison.
“According to what I heard, the monthly subsidy for martyrs’ families will be LD 2,000, but this is up to the committee,” Alsufrane said.
A councillor selected by the General Assembly of the Court will head up the committee. Other members will include a judge and staff from the Office of the Attorney General and the Grand Mufti’s Dar Al-Ifta offices.
The resolution, in accordance with the demands of the Massacre Association, will enable this new committee to consider building a mosque or library in the place where the massacre took place. A memorial detailing the names of the dead could also be erected.
The group is further asking the state to formally recognise the massacre as a crime of genocide and announce the date it took place as a national day of mourning. [/restrict]
