NEW YORK UNIVERSITY CENTER ON INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION The International Role in Libya’s Transition | August 2011 - March 2012 Emily O’Brien with Richard Gowan July 2012 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY CENTER ON INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION The world faces old and new security challenges that are more complex than our multilateral and national institutions are currently capable of managing. International cooperation is ever more necessary in meeting these challenges. The NYU Center on International Cooperation (CIC) works to enhance international responses to conflict, insecurity, and scarcity through applied research and direct engagement with multilateral institutions and the wider policy community. CIC’s programs and research activities span the spectrum of conflict, insecurity and scarcity issues. This allows us to see critical inter-connections and highlight the coherence often necessary for effective response. We have a particular concentration on the UN and multilateral responses to conflict. Table of Contents The International Role in Libya’s Transition | August 2011-March 2012 Emily O’Brien with Richard Gowan Authors and acknowledgements 2 Foreword 3 The International Role in Libya’s Transition | August 2011- March 2012 6 August 2011 6 September 2011 8 October 2011 13 Gaddafi’s death 15 The end of the NATO mission 16 November 2011 19 December 2011 22 January 2012 25 February 2012 28 March 2012 29 Authors and acknowledgements Emily O’Brien is a Senior Program Officer at CIC. Richard Gowan is Associate Director at CIC. He is also a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. The authors would like to thank the officials and experts who offered comments on earlier versions of this report. CIC’s Laurie Mincieli also provided extremely useful editorial assistance. All errors in this report remain the authors’ own. All views expressed in this report are those of the authors only, and do not necessarily represent the views of CIC. 2 NYU The International Role in Libya’s Transition | August 2011 - March 2012 CIC The International Role in Libya’s tion. While the new Libyan authorities were opposed to Transition | August 2011- March 2012 any international military presence, regional politics also worked against the deployment of peacekeeping troops Foreword from a Western organization like NATO, and there was no appetite for any such mission in the budget-strained al- Following the death of Muammar Gaddafi in October liance. The Arab League and African Union did not have 2011, the situation in Libya fell largely out of the headlines, the operational capacity to mount an effective assistance with the majority of reports focused on the fragile security mission. The UN was the most viable actor to lead interna- environment there. Meanwhile, international attention tional assistance efforts, but deploying a heavy UN peace- has been fixed on the crisis in Syria. keeping operation did not gain traction as an acceptable model. One reason that Libya receded from international attention was that the UN did not put a large-scale post- Instead, the UN took its cue from the Libyan transitional conflict presence in place there, as it has done in situations government. UNSMIL’s operations have been tailored to like those in Kosovo, Haiti and Afghanistan. The UN the type of assistance the National Transitional Council Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), mandated by Security (NTC) has requested. From the outset Ian Martin, UNSMIL’s Council Resolution 2009 on 16 September 2011, has a head and the Secretary-General’s special representative for broad mandate but a light footprint. Although the UN Libya, made clear that the UN would be responsive to the has taken the lead in post-conflict peacebuilding support, priorities that Libya’s NTC set out for the transition. Martin Libya has not proved to be a classic case for blue helmets. described UNSMIL’s initial mission as “an opportunity not This approach has reinforced the false impression that only to provide immediate assistance and advice to the the international community is not deeply engaged in NTC… but then through that engagement to make sure 3 rebuilding Libya. that the longer-term mission that we recommend to the Security Council genuinely reflects Libyan ownership CIC’s last report The Libyan War: A Diplomatic History pre- and Libyan wishes.”1 The ongoing process of assisting the sented a record of the international community’s diplo- political transition and beginning peacebuilding work has matic engagement over Libya, from the first international not been built around peacekeeping or a very large-scale responses to the uprising there in February 2011 to the political mission. eve of the rebel assault on Tripoli in August 2011. This re- port picks up where the last left off, and tracks internation- Its light footprint aside, UNSMIL has played a central role al efforts to stabilize the country and begin the process of in post-conflict work in Libya and in coordinating other reintegrating it into the international community, ending international actors. The complexity of these multilateral with the Security Council’s decision to renew UNSMIL’s engagements on Libya stands out. This report highlights mandate for a year in March 2012. Although there have the range of international actors involved in Libya’s been important developments in Libya since March, the transition, and their work in responding to a series of goal of this report is to highlight that international assis- challenges: tance to the country after Gaddafi’s fall was wide-ranging and important — even if it received relatively little public- • Addressing human rights concerns. Reports of ity. In a period in which the future of large-scale interna- rampant abuses by Gaddafi troops in the last days tional interventions is in doubt, the Libyan case may offer of his regime were followed by accounts of torture precedents for future post-conflict situations. and abuse by militia forces. A UN inter-agency humanitarian assessment team was dispatched Some commentators initially debated how to get peace- to Tripoli in September; the UN Office of the High keeping troops on the ground in Libya rapidly, and which organizations had the capabilities to stabilize the situa- 1. “New UN political mission in Libya begins operations and deployment of staff”,UN News Centre, 22 September 2011. NYU The International Role in Libya’s Transition | August 2011 - March 2012 CIC Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) put a hardware previously in the Gaddafi regime’s team of senior officials in the field and the high possession. The UN sent an inter-agency assessment commissioner, Navi Pillay, was vocal about the mission there in December; UN political offices situation; and the Independent Commission of in West Africa and Central Africa met to address Inquiry in Libya (ICIL), set up by the UN Human Rights regional security concerns; the Organization for Council, urged the NTC to investigate allegations the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) of abuse. The Commission released a widely-read undertook an assessment of the security of Libya’s report on 2 March summarizing its findings. weapon stockpiles and provided assistance to the NTC; and the UNSC passed Resolution 2017, calling • Taking up transitional justice issues. The Inter- on states in the region to prevent the proliferation of national Criminal Court (ICC) has been at odds with arms with international assistance. Libyan authorities over Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi’s future, as well as that of Muammar Gaddafi’s former intelli- • Building an inclusive political framework. The gence chief Abdullah Senussi. Following the capture interim government is committed to an ambitious of the two men within days of each other, the tran- timeline of political reform, including national sitional government resisted turning them over to elections that took place in early July. The NTC the Court, where they face charges of crimes against declared Libya to be liberated three days after humanity. At the time of this writing, the Court had Gaddafi’s death, and in October 2011 named a not issued a final legal determination on whether prime minister, Abdurrahim El-Keib, who formed Libya could try the two men, per the Libyan interim a cabinet to run the interim government until the government’s petition. Complicating the situation, national elections. But political bargaining between 4 reports suggest that the men remain in the custody interested parties has been slow in coming, as groups of two different militias, and not under the interim continue to operate as separate power brokers government’s direct control. outside of government purview. The continued activity of Libya’s militias has raised concerns about • Creating conditions for economic recovery. the interim government’s ability to centralize International assistance for Libya’s economic authority, much less to bring a diverse coalition of recovery has proceeded along multiple tracks. political actors under its umbrella. The UN Security Council led the process of ending sanctions against Libya, freeing up needed assets • Establishing security. Concerns about the security for the NTC. Libya also looked to strengthen bilateral environment in Libya have threatened to overshad- ties with neighbors, and Gulf countries like Qatar ow all other stabilization work. Describing fighting and the UAE that played a role in NATO’s military between armed brigades in January, Ian Martin operations during the war. The NTC, European Union, noted that “Although authorities have successfully United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary contained these and other more minor incidents Fund (IMF) and other international partners jointly that continue to take place across the country on agreed on a framework for a post-conflict needs a regular basis, there is the ever-present possibility assessment in September 2011, creating a basis that similar outbreaks of violence could escalate.”2 for important political-financial linkages for post- Despite intensive international efforts in other areas conflict assistance.