By Sami Zaptia.
London, 8 August 2019:
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Faiez Serraj-led Presidency Council and Government of National Accord, Mohamed Siala, appealed to the Prosecutor General of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Fatou Bensouda, to ‘‘take the necessary and urgent measures to investigate the crime of the bombing of the Qala neighborhood in the city of Murzuk, which killed dozens of innocent civilians and a number of wounded’’.
In a letter sent to Bensouda, the Tripoli Foreign Ministry reported yesterday, Minister Siala stressed that Khalifa Haftar’s actions were ‘‘blatant aggression and a coup against the legitimate authority to seize power, which was a violation of international law’’.
The Tripoli Foreign Ministry also reported that Bensouda called for high efforts to demand that the perpetrators of the bombing of Qala neighbourhood be punished before a just international court as a war crime and a crime against humanity.
It will be recalled that on Monday, the internationally-recognized Serraj government condemned in the strongest terms Sunday’s air strike by the Khalifa Hafter-led Libyan National Army Air Force on the southern Libyan city of Murzuk.
It said that the airstrike targeted the Al-Qala residential area of the city killing and injuring tens of civilians. It placed all the responsibility for this aggression on what it called ‘‘Hafter’s militias’’ and for all the aggression that the city has experienced in the recent period when Hafter’s forces have been present in the city. It also blamed Hafter’s forces for all the conflict in the south of Libya.
It had called on UNSMIL and the international community to accept their responsibility and to conduct an investigation into the crimes committed by Hafter’s forces in Murzuk in order to hold accountable those who carried them out and those responsible for the crimes.
https://www.libyaherald.com/2019/08/05/serraj-government-condemns-hafter-air-strike-on-murzuk-killing-and-injuring-tens-of-civilians/
