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Tripoli, 16 September 2103:
Worries about Libya’s transition were brought to the attention of the UN Security Council today by UN Special . . .[restrict]Representative to Libya, Tariq Mitri.
There was wide-spread popular discontent with political parties and growing polarisation in public life in Libya, Mitri said, giving his six-monthly briefing today in New York on the situation in Libya. There was a “sense of scepticism, and perhaps of rejection, with which the Libyan people view the political process”. Free and fair elections “may have augured a democratic process but they raised more expectations than what the political institutions and forces have been capable of meeting”.
Security was the immediate issue. “The Government’s preoccupation with the deteriorating security situation and the increasing divisions among political groups and revolutionary brigades have all inhibited the development of a solid, coordinated and effective national security system,” he said.
Security remained “the predominant concern” for Libyans, he said. “Tensions among various political, tribal and armed groups have also escalated into confrontations in various parts of the country resulting in several deaths. Assassinations of security figures, mostly in the east, and more recently of political activists and journalists, improvised explosive devices, attacks against members of the diplomatic community, threats against the UN and general criminality continue in the face of weak state security institutions.”
He indicated that ensuring both justice and reconciliation in the country remained a distant prospect. In particular the imprisonment of an estimated 8,000 conflict-related detainees was “problematic”, he stated. “Reports of deaths in custody, torture and other forms of ill-treatment continue to be a source of concern” despite the fact that UNSMIL had seen a marked improvement in conditions of prisoners.
Although noting the growing disillusionment with the new political establishment, there was, however, no mention of the electricity and water cuts that have seriously exacerbated public resentment and anger. On the other hand, Mitri pointedly brought to the Security Council’s attention the disruption of oil exports. It had, he said “grave consequences for Libya’s economic stability”.
The Libyan government, he said, “faces the dangerous prospect of not being able to meet its financial obligations unless a resolution to this crisis is reached imminently”. A resolution to the oil crisis, was vital to the country’s national interest “and its ability to make meaningful progress in its transition”.
Despite the worrying situation, there were reasons for optimism. The Libyan constitution-making process, he said, had made “some progress”, with the adoption by the General National Congress of a law for the election of the Constitution Drafting Assembly. But for Libya to progress there had to be dialogue between all sides. It would allow “for the Libyan national interest to prevail over factional, regional and short-term interests.”
Dialogue, he told the Security Council, would enable Libya “to address urgent priorities and ensure public support to the efforts of state-building, more particularly in the security and justice sectors”.
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