(Tripoli) – The Libyan government should take urgent steps to stop
serious and ongoing human rights violations against inhabitants of the
town of Tawergha, who are widely viewed as having supported Muammar
Gaddafi. The forced displacement of roughly 40,000 people, arbitrary
detentions, torture, and killings are widespread, systematic, and
sufficiently organized to be crimes against humanity and should be
condemned by the United Nations Security Council.
Newly released
satellite imagery analysis [click for images]
shows the systematic destruction of large swaths of the town by arson
and targeted demolitions after the fighting there had stopped in
mid-2011, in an apparent attempt to prevent Tawerghans from returning
home.
“Successive governments in Tripoli and local authorities in Misrata
have failed to stop the ongoing persecution of an entire community and
the destruction of the town,” said
Fred Abrahams, special advisor at Human Rights Watch. “This leaves a dark stain on the reputation of a new
Libya that claims to respect human rights.
Armed groups from Misrata, about 30 kilometers north, have been
responsible for most of the abuses. These groups accuse Tawerghans of
having fought with or supported pro-Gaddafi forces during the 2011
conflict, and of committing war crimes in Misrata. The Libyan government
and Misrata authorities have been unable to rein in these abusive armed
groups.
Militia commanders and senior officials in Misrata could be held
criminally responsible by domestic and international courts, including
the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, for ordering these
crimes, or for failing to prevent them or to punish the attackers, Human
Rights Watch said.
In her last
report to the UN Security Council
in November 2012, the ICC chief prosecutor said her office was
continuing to collect information about allegations of “killings,
looting, property destruction, and forced displacement by Misrata
militias” of Tawerghans to determine whether a new case should address
these allegations.
Libyan authorities should also promptly investigate individual
Tawerghans accused of committing serious crimes during the 2011
conflict, including alleged rapes and unlawful killings in Misrata, and
if there is evidence of a crime, prosecute them to the full extent of
the law, Human Rights Watch said. Punishing a community for alleged
crimes by community members amounts to collective punishment.
Foreign governments that intervened militarily in Libya under a UN
Security Council resolution to protect civilians forcefully condemned
violations by the Gaddafi government but have failed to challenge
effectively the ongoing abuses against Tawerghans and others, Human
Rights Watch said. The double standard in addressing these crimes
depending on who committed them erodes the credibility of governments
that said they intervened to protect civilians.
Human Rights Watch called on the UN Security Council to condemn crimes
against humanity against Tawerghans and to request the Libyan government
to report back in three months on how it is fulfilling its
responsibility to protect its population from mass atrocities. The
Security Council should also impose sanctions against officials and
militia commanders who ordered or failed to prevent these crimes, Human
Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch interviewed 13 families from Tawergha, who gave
detailed information about 17 people from the town who they say were
captured and killed. They also showed photographs of bodies of those
killed.
Thirteen of these victims were civilians killed after they had fled
Tawergha in mid-August 2011, the families said. One was a civilian
killed in detention in Misrata and one was a civilian captured and
killed during the 2011 fighting, family members said. The remaining two
were apparently killed in Sirte, during the fighting as Gaddafi was
captured in October 2011 in unclear circumstances.
Tawergha leaders in Tripoli told Human Rights Watch that the number
of Tawerghans who were captured and killed by militias after the
conflict was much higher. They said the precise numbers are unknown
because the community is displaced across Libya and the leaders lack
full lists of those detained and killed.
Human Rights Watch interviewed two relatives of Milad al-Buma, 33, who
said a militia from Misrata had detained al-Buma and his cousin Hussein
Ihneish, 25, near Tripoli on August 28, 2011, a week after the family
had fled Tawergha. The two men were taken to Misrata and never heard
from again, the relatives said. In early 2013 the family obtained a
photograph of al-Buma’s dead body.
In a separate interview, two relatives of Ihneish gave the same details
about his abduction and showed a photograph of his dead body that they
said they obtained in late 2012. Neither family had received a death
certificate or information about the place of burial.
Many Tawerghans currently detained have been held for more than one
year without charges, a judicial review, or access to a lawyer. The same
is true of most of the roughly 8,000 detainees held by the Libyan
government or militias. Human Rights Watch has
previously documented the use of torture against Tawerghan detainees, sometimes causing death.
Human Rights Watch also conducted new satellite imagery analysis based
on five images taken between 2011 and 2012, allowing an analysis of
destruction in Tawergha after the fighting there had stopped in
mid-August 2011. The analysis identified 1,690 damaged or destroyed
structures after the cessation of hostilities, more than 90 percent of
which appear damaged by fire. The total number of destroyed structures
is certainly higher, Human Rights Watch said.
The imagery and Human Rights Watch’s repeated
observations in 2011
of looted and burned buildings in Tawergha strongly suggest that the
widespread and systematic destruction was intended to prevent residents
from returning.
“The satellite images corroborate what we saw on the ground: the vast
destruction of a town,” Abrahams said. “The systematic looting, burning,
and demolitions were organized and seem intended to keep people from
going home.”
A functioning justice system is needed to address crimes by all sides
before, during, and after the 2011 conflict, Human Rights Watch said.
Laws on transitional justice would help identify and punish people who
committed crimes and promote reconciliation between communities and
tribes.
The central government has formed a committee to work on the return of
all internally displaced persons (IDPs) and Gaddafi supporters who fled
abroad, but the details of its work remain unclear. The
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says that, as of January 2013, Libya had just under 60,000 internally displaced persons, half of them from Tawergha.
Human Rights Watch called on the national government and Misrata
authorities, including militia commanders, to condemn attacks against
Tawerghans and other displaced communities and to allow the voluntary
return of people who wish to go home. The authorities should charge or
release detainees based on the evidence, investigate allegations of
torture and abuse of Tawerghan detainees, and investigate the widespread
arson and property destruction.
In its March 2012 report, the
UN International Commission of Inquiry on Libya concluded that Misrata militias had committed crimes against humanity of torture and killings of Tawerghans. “The Misrata
thuwar
[anti-Gaddafi forces] have killed, arbitrarily arrested and tortured
Tawerghans across Libya,” the report said. “The destruction of Tawergha
has been done to render it uninhabitable.”
On March 14, 2013, the UN Security Council passed resolution 2095,
which expressedgrave concern about “reprisals, arbitrary detentions
without access to due process, wrongful imprisonment, mistreatment,
torture and extrajudicial executions” in Libya and called on the
government to “accelerate the judicial process, transfer detainees to
state authority and prevent and investigate violations and abuses of
human rights.” The resolution underscored the government’s primary
responsibility for the protection of Libya’s population.
The UN Human Rights Council is currently considering a draft resolution
that urges Libya to investigate all violations of human rights and to
expedite the return of displaced persons. The adoption of this
resolution with the support of the Libyan government, expected on March
21 or 22, would send a positive message that Libya is committed to end
these abuses, Human Rights Watch said.
Missing, Detained, and Dead
In January 2013 Human Rights Watch interviewed 13 Tawerghan families
who gave details about 17 people from the town who they say were
captured and killed. Human Rights Watch saw photographs of these men’s
bodies, shrouded in sheets and with a number, apparently readied for
burial. None of the families had been able to obtain a death certificate
or find out where their family member was buried.
Thirteen of the men were civilians who were captured by various
militias and killed after they had fled Tawergha in mid-August 2011, the
families said. One was a civilian who died from beatings in detention
in Misrata and one was a civilian who was captured and killed during the
fighting when he traveled from Misrata to nearby Tomina to buy gas for
his car. Family members said that the other two were last seen in Sirte
in October 2011, during heavy fighting in the town, and that they did
not know how the person had died.
Human Rights Watch saw a list with names and individual photographs of
93 dead men who Tawergha leaders said had died since the conflict
started in February 2011 and had been identified by their families.
Whether each of these men was a civilian or combatant and the cause of
their deaths remains unclear.
Tawergha leaders claim that up to 1,300 people from their town have
died or been detained since February 2011 or are missing. Human Rights
Watch could not verify this claim or assess whether those who died were
killed unlawfully or died in combat. Some people from Tawergha fought
with Gaddafi forces.
In one case, a man from Tawergha who did not want his name revealed for
fear of retribution said an armed group from Misrata detained him in
Sirte in October 2011, when Muammar Gaddafi was captured and killed
there, and held him in Misrata until late 2012. Upon his release, he
informed the family of Salah al-Treki, 38, that al-Treki had died in
detention in December 2011 from beatings just after he was captured.
Human Rights Watch saw a photograph of al-Treki’s body.
“In Sirte they cracked his skull and broke bones – he was spitting
blood,” the released man told Human Rights Watch about al-Treki. “Don’t
have the body, don’t know where it is.”
On August 28, 2011, Hussein Ihneish, 25, previously an instructor in a
Tripoli military academy, went to inspect a farm near Tripoli with his
cousin, Milad al-Buma, 33, two of Ihneish’s relatives said. The men were
hoping the family could live there, after fleeing Tawergha earlier that
month. The two men never returned and the family was unable to find out
where they were. In late 2012 and early 2013, the Ihneish and al-Buma
families received photographs of the men’s dead bodies, but neither
family knows where the bodies are buried.
In a third case, two relatives of Ahmad al-Ghariani, 24, said they last
saw him on March 6, 2011, when he left his house in Tawergha to get gas
for his car in Tomina. The family members said they called his phone
and an unknown man answered, saying, “We caught [him], don’t call him
again.”
Some weeks later the al-Ghariani family saw a video on the internet,
which showed Ahmed being interrogated together with another man from
Tawergha in an unknown location. In the video, both men are lying on the
ground, bound and apparently injured. The family received no further
news about Ahmad but, in late 2012, relatives received a photograph of
his dead body. The location of the body remains unknown.
These reports of beatings and killings are consistent with accounts that people of Tawergha have previously
given to Human Rights Watch. Some Tawerghans captured in Sirte in October 2011 with the convoy of Gaddafi were
seen alive on video
in the custody of Misratan militias and then seen dead in photographs.
In the video, militia members are cursing Tawergha and searching for
Tawerghans among the detainees.
The new head of the Misrata local council, Ismail Shaklawoon, told
Human Rights Watch in January that 2,700 to 3,000 people were being held
in civilian and military-run facilities in Misrata. He said he did not
know how many of the detainees were from Tawergha.
About 1,300 Misrata detainees have been released since late 2011 after a
review of their cases, Shaklawoon said. He blamed the national
government for not doing more to get the judicial system up and running
so all detainees could be screened and charged or released.
Justice Minister Salah Marghani told Human Rights Watch in January that
the government acknowledged the urgency of screening all detainees and
said he had recently ordered 24 more prosecutors to work in Misrata. The
government is building a new prison with a capacity of 2,000 outside of
Misrata, at a former aviation academy, to accommodate the city’s
prisoners under government supervision, he said.
Shaklawoon said that abuse in Misrata facilities was the result of
individual misconduct and that all complaints are investigated. About
four cases had gone to court, including two deaths in custody, he said,
but he provided no details.
Satellite Imagery Analysis Shows Systematic Destruction
Human Rights Watch visited Tawergha repeatedly in August, September, and October 2011, and in January 2012, and
observed extensive burning and looting
of residential and commercial buildings in most parts of the town. In
one case, looting continued in front of Human Rights Watch researchers
while a militia from Misrata was standing guard.
During a January 2012 visit, Human Rights Watch saw Misratan militia
members systematically burning one neighborhood by dousing homes with
gasoline and setting them on fire.
Human Rights Watch has analyzed satellite imagery showing the extent of
the damage from arson and targeted demolitions in the town after the
fighting there had stopped. This analysis, together with on-the-ground
findings, strongly suggests that the purposeful and systematic
destruction of the town was intended to prevent returns.
Human Rights Watch analyzed five satellite images taken between July
28, 2011, and August 18, 2012. These images show 1,690 damaged and
destroyed structures. More than 92 percent of these structures appear to
have been damaged or destroyed by fire.
Not all structural damages are visible from the satellite imagery, so
actual damages after the fighting in Tawergha are likely to be
significantly higher, Human Rights Watch said.
The images show that two residential housing complexes were burned to
the ground, and another five residential complexes were seriously
damaged by fire. Virtually all large commercial and industrial or
municipal facilities appear to have been destroyed by fire, including a
complex of poultry farms on Tawergha’s northern edge.
Human Rights Watch compared satellite imagery with videos posted on
YouTube that appear to show militias using explosives to demolish a
municipal water tower and
residential buildings
in Tawergha after hostilities had ceased. In three instances, Human
Rights Watch matched the structures in the videos with the structures in
the satellite imagery, thus confirming the use of explosives for
controlled demolitions, as well as the locations and time periods for
the videos.
During an October 2011 visit to Tawergha, an international documentary team also
filmed armed men from Misrata firing weapons into abandoned residential buildings.
Based on the videos and satellite imagery analysis, Human Rights Watch
identified in the satellite imagery at least 81 buildings and two water
towers that were probably destroyed with explosives – nearly 5 percent
of all detected damages across the town.
The satellite imagery analysis revealed two distinct periods of
destruction. The first followed the capture of Tawergha in mid-August
2011 and continued until late October. The images show 240 sites that
appear to have been damaged or destroyed during that period. Based on
field research at that time, and because the imagery does not fully
capture the extensive burning inside homes, Human Rights Watch believes
the total number of damaged or destroyed buildings is probably much
higher.
This first phase was followed by a relative pause of about a month. The
second and main phase of destruction occurred between November 24,
2011, and May 25, 2012, when over 1,370 sites appear to have been
damaged or destroyed. This represents over 81 percent of damaged
structures detected from the imagery and appears to have been a more
systematic effort to destroy structures.
On May 3, 2012, the main military body in Misrata, the Military Council,
responded to Human Rights Watch’s earlier
charges of arson and property destruction
in Tawergha by saying that the “torching and demolition of some homes
in the Tawergha area” were “individual actions committed by people who
suffered the worst abuses at the hands of the people of Tawergha.”
Human Rights Watch believes the results of the satellite imagery
analysis contradict this claim. The scale of the destruction and the
time and resources required to damage or destroy over 1,600 industrial,
commercial, and residential sites strongly suggests that the destruction
was planned and systematic.
On several occasions, Human Rights Watch researchers witnessed looting,
arson, and demolitions in Tawergha while Misrata militia members at
nearby checkpoints watched. During one visit in October 2011, the
checkpoint commander at the entrance of Tawergha denied to Human Rights
Watch that looting or arson was taking place while a group of Misrata
militia members about 100 meters away fired a rocket-propelled grenade
into an unoccupied building. The commander then allowed the fighters to
pass his checkpoint with a truck full of looted goods, including school
desks.
Background
During the 2011 conflict, Gaddafi forces used Tawergha as a base for
attacks on Misrata and the surrounding area from March until August.
Many Tawerghans supported Gaddafi, whose government claimed that Libyan
opposition fighters would enslave Tawerghans if they took power.
Hundreds of Tawerghans joined the army, both Misrata and Tawergha
residents told Human Rights Watch.
Between March and May, Gaddafi forces besieged Misrata and repeatedly subjected the city to
indiscriminate mortar and Grad rocket attacks that killed many civilians. In April, Human Rights Watch documented the government’s use of
cluster munitions
in the city. Misratan fighters successfully defended the city and began
to overpower Gaddafi forces in the area, with help from NATO
airstrikes.
As Misratan fighters approached Tawergha around August 10, 2011, almost
all residents of the town fled. They were then subjected to
attacks, arrests, and harassment, mostly by militias from Misrata.
The displaced Tawerghans are now spread throughout Libya and unable to
return. According to Tawergha community leaders, about 18,000 people are
in Benghazi, 13,000 in Tripoli, and 7,000 in and around Sebha, in the
south. Smaller numbers are in Tarhuna, Khoms, Sirte, Ajdabiya, and a few
other places.
In Tripoli, the community is based mostly in four camps: at the Naval
Academy in Janzur, near Airport Road, in the al-Fallah neighborhood, and
in the Sarraj neighborhood. Basic humanitarian assistance comes mostly
from LibAid, a Libyan government agency.
Security has improved over time at the Tripoli camps, with fewer raids
by Misrata militias who claim they are searching for wanted men. On
February 6, 2012, militias from Misrata
raided the camp in Janzur and shot dead one man, three women, and three children.
Civil and military authorities in Misrata say that Tawerghans committed
serious crimes against them during the 2011 conflict, including torture
and rape. They blame the national government for failing to arrest and
prosecute these Tawerghans.
Authorities in and around Misrata are also preventing thousands of people from returning to the nearby villages of
Tomina and Kararim,
also accusing them of siding with Gaddafi during the 2011 conflict.
These authorities have failed to stop local militias from looting and
burning homes in the two towns, Human Rights Watch said.
According to the head of the Tawergha council, Abulrahman Shakshak,
interviewed in Tripoli in January, the town’s civil register had 42,000
people prior to the conflict. About 37,000 people lived in Tawergha and
around 5,000 lived in Misrata, he said. Some others lived in Tomina and
Kararim.
The
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
says that, as of January 2013, Libya had 59,425 internally displaced
persons. Of those, 30,000 came from Tawergha, 9,404 came from Sirte, and
9,200 came from the Nafusa Mountains, mostly members of the Masheshiya
tribe, who are also perceived as having supported Gaddafi. About 6,100
people are reportedly displaced from Misrata, most believed to be
originally from Tawergha. Another 2,400 people are Tuareg who fled
Ghadames.
Legal Standards
Certain crimes committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack
on a civilian population – as policy of the country or of an
organization such as a militia – may constitute crimes against humanity.
These crimes can include murder, torture, deportation or forced
transfer, arbitrary detention, or persecution of a group on political,
racial, ethnic, or other grounds.
The civilian and military leadership in Misrata, as well as the
national government, have a legal obligation to prevent forces under
their command from committing such crimes. They are obliged to support
steps to hold those responsible for the crimes accountable. Failure to
do so could result in criminal responsibility.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1970 gave the
International Criminal Court (ICC) ongoing jurisdiction over war crimes
and crimes against humanity committed in Libya since February 15, 2011.
As such, the ICC could prosecute senior civilian officials, military
commanders, or people effectively acting as military commanders for
serious crimes committed by forces or subordinates under their effective
command and control.
This can happen if the official or commander
knew or should have known that
his subordinates or forces were committing or were about to commit such
crimes and failed to take all necessary and reasonable measures to
prevent the crime, or to submit the matter to the competent authorities
for criminal investigation and prosecution.
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