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By Hadi Fornaji.
Tunis, 6 August 2017:
Efforts to obtain proper support for the families of those killed by a NATO air strike on the village of Majer, near Zliten, in 2011 were top of the agenda in talks today in Tripoli between Zliten mayor Muftah Al-Hamadi and Presidency Council (PC) co-deputy head Ahmed Maetig.
On the night of 8 August 2011, NATO bombers hit two compounds and surrounding homes. Thirty-four people, many of them women and children, were killed and many more injured. Some of them died while trying to rescue victims when the bombers went in for a second strike. One of the compounds was housing a group of displaced people at the time. NATO initially claimed at the time that the compounds were being used by Qaddafi’s military but no evidence to back this up was found by Human Rights Watch when it visited the area a few days later.
Representatives of the victims’ families who accompanied the mayor today said that what compensation had been paid since 2011 had not been enough to restore and rebuild the destroyed homes. They demanded the families be paid pensions for what they had suffered. They also demanded that there be proper treatment for those go had been wounded in the incident. The said that these had initially been treated abroad after the revolution but that this was stopped four years ago. They insisted that the wounded be given full material as well as psychological support.
No decision about any further compensation was announced following the meeting.
