By Jamie Prentis.
Tunis, 22 March 2017:
UN envoy Martin Kobler has underlined “his grave concern at continued and persistent reports of serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law being perpetrated across Libya.”
“I remind all parties that those responsible for committing, ordering or failing to prevent these acts, including hostage-taking, torture, extrajudicial executions, indiscriminate shelling and desecration of corpses when in a position to do so, are criminally liable, including in front of the International Criminal Court (ICC),” he added.
His comments come after widely-shared social media images showed Libyan National Army (LNA) troops executing captives and as militia clashes plague Tripoli.
Kobler warned that fighting in residential areas would endanger the civilian population and help militias prosper.
Meanwhile, the UN special envoy was in Tripoli today to see Presidency Council (PC) head Faiez Serraj. The UN envoy said the meeting discussed the security situation in the capital and he insisted that security arrangements must be put into practice to enable people to live a “normal life.”
He also met with State Council head Abdulrahmen Sewehli. It was reported that Kobler had assured him the ICC would open urgent investigations into the apparent war crimes committed in Benghazi. However, Kobler subsequently tweeted that neither events in Benghazi not the ICC had been discussed in their talks.
