LONG STRUGGLE FOR TRUTH ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES IN LIBYA 2 LONG STRUGGLE FOR TRUTH ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES IN LIBYA ‘Libya today is not Libya of yesterday, and Libya of tomorrow, God willing, will be even better’ Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader and head of the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, March 2010 Thousands of Libyan families are waiting for isolation. Today it is a full member of the violations committed and to apologize. answers from the Libyan authorities. They international community, elected to the UN They want accountability and assurances all have relatives who have been forcibly Human Rights Council in May 2010. Sadly, that such abuses will not be repeated. disappeared or who have been killed by the country’s international reintegration has Only then will they be able to mourn and agents of the state in past decades. Despite not been accompanied by steps to address heal, and only then will the authorities be Libya’s recent transformation from pariah the legacy of gross human rights violations able to regain their trust. state to international player, they have had committed in past decades. no satisfactory responses to their demands Far from responding to the families’ for truth and justice. Routine abuses committed in the 1970s, legitimate demands, the Libyan authorities 1980s and 1990s included arbitrary have first ignored the families and later tried Only a few years ago, Libya was a closed detentions, enforced disappearances, torture to pacify them through offering financial country under UN, European Union and and other ill-treatment, extrajudicial compensation – accepted by some families US sanctions. Gross human rights violations executions and deaths in custody. Victims but rejected by many others. The took place in a climate of secrecy and ranged from political dissidents living in authorities have not revealed the truth Libya or abroad to suspected members or about the fate of thousands of individuals MILOuD BOuShAShA supporters of armed Islamist groups. To date, who disappeared or died in the hands of the Libyan authorities refuse to acknowledge, security forces and no perpetrators have Nouri Boushasha wants to know the truth about let alone redress, the harm done. been brought to justice. In fact, some still what happened to his brother Miloud, whom he apparently hold official positions. This has not seen since his arrest in March 1989. A The relatives of the disappeared are asking climate of total impunity facilitates human group of men in civilian clothes came to the to know the fate of their loved ones and the rights violations. It also sends the message family home in Benghazi and took 23-year-old reasons why they were victimized. They that members of security forces and others Miloud away without explanation. The distraught want the authorities to recognize the responsible for gross human rights family spared no effort to locate Miloud. They violations are above the law, while victims asked local authorities and visited prisons in are outside its protection. Benghazi. All in vain. Three years after his arrest, the family heard rumours that Miloud enforced disappearance was in Abu Salim Prison. They made the long AMRAJA’ MAS’OuD FARAJ AL-KABAILI journey to Tripoli, but the prison administrators An enforced disappearance is: “ the arrest, refused to tell them anything. Eventually, they detention, abduction or any other form of Ahmed Mas’oud Faraj Al-Kabaili is still admitted that Miloud was held there, but did not deprivation of liberty by agents of the State searching for the truth about what happened to allow the family to see him. For years, the family or by persons or groups of persons acting his brother, Amraja’ Faraj Al-Kabaili, who was kept delivering food and clothing for Miloud, with the authorization, support or arrested in Ajdebia, in the northeast of Libya, in not knowing that he had been killed in June acquiescence of the State, followed by 1989. Amraja’ Faraj Al-Kabaili, father of five, 1996. Thirteen years later, in June 2009, the a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation was reportedly suspected of supporting Islamist family was given a death certifiate and offered of liberty or by concealment of the fate or armed groups. his family has obtained no news 200,000 Libyan dinars (about uS$158,000) as whereabouts of the disappeared person, about him despite requests for information from financial compensation. They refused to accept which place such a person outside the the authorities in Ajdebia and Tripoli. Years later, it until they are told the truth about why Miloud protection of the law ”. the family was given a death certificate which was arrested in the first place and why he was did not specify a cause of death, nor the exact killed in 1996. Article 2 of the International Convention for the place and date of death. Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance Amnesty International June 2010 Index: MDE 19/008/2010 LONG STRUGGLE FOR TRUTH 3 ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES IN LIBYA © L i b y a n H u m a n R i g h t s S o l i d a r i t y A BU SALIM PRISON KILLINGS Up to 1,200 prisoners were killed in Abu Salim Prison in June 1996. This one event, for which no one has been held accountable , hangs heavy over Libya to this day. Shortly after the incident, rumours Families of victims of the Abu Salim Prison killings met with representatives of the Gaddafi circulated that a large number of detainees International Charity and Development Foundation in Benghazi in November 2009. Families were had been killed. However, the first official outspoken about their sufferings and insisted on knowing the truth about the fate of their relatives. acknowledgement of any disturbances The Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation called on the Libyan authorities to came eight years later, when Colonel address the killings in its latest annual report issued in December 2009. Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi, Libya’s leader, described the “tragedy” to an Amnesty © A International delegation. He said that what was happening, but they later heard m n e following an escape attempt and the killing that scores of prisoners had been killed. No s t y I of a number of guards by prisoners, the official statistics are available but according n t e r police had intervened. There was an to an organization headed by Saif al-Islam n a t i exchange of fire resulting in casualties, al-Gaddafi, the Gaddafi International Charity o n a including deaths, on both sides. and Development Foundation, there are at l least 1,167 families of victims – some of Another version is based on accounts by whom lost more than one relative. former prisoners, who described a riot sparked by appalling prison conditions on Most of those killed in Abu Salim Prison 28 June 1996. Prisoners allegedly took two were not only victims of extrajudicial guards hostage, stole keys to the cells and executions, but also victims of enforced tried to escape but were thwarted by locked disappearance. They had been arrested at gates. Security forces intervened and shot various times since 1989, and had not been randomly at prisoners who had managed seen by their families since. They were cut to leave their cells. A delegation of senior off from the outside world, denied contact security officials then arrived to negotiate with lawyers, and held unlawfully: without with prisoners’ representatives. It has been charge or trial or after grossly unfair trials. reported that during the negotiations, which A map of reform and rehabilitation institutions lasted late into the night, officials promised The Libyan authorities had refused to in Libya. The notorious Abu Salim Prison in that some of the prisoners’ demands for disclose their fate and whereabouts before Tripoli is not shown. The prison was the site of better conditions would be met. the Abu Salim Prison killings took place. up to 1,200 killings in two hours on the After June 1996, they denied the killings. morning of 29 June 1996. The prison is However, the next morning, former In fact, many families continued to bring believed to be controlled by the Internal prisoners said they heard an explosion food and clothes to the prison gates until Security Agency, an intelligence body, rather followed by shootings which lasted some the early 2000s believing that their relatives than the judicial police which has the two hours. At the time, they did not know were still alive. responsibility for prisons. Index: MDE 19/008/2010 Amnesty International June 2010 4 LONG STRUGGLE FOR TRUTH ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES IN LIBYA © ‘They [the Libyan authorities] A P Libyan leader, Colonel Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi, P h acknowledged to an Amnesty International stole the happiness from the life o t o / A delegation in 2004 that there had been of a whole family.’ b d e disturbances in Abu Salim Prison in June l Mohamed hamil, whose three brothers died in the custody of M 1996. This was the first time in eight years a g the Libyan authorities i d that the Libyan authorities admitted that an A l F incident had occurred. To date, no independent e r g investigation has taken place into the killings a n y and families are still waiting for an explanation by the Libyan authorities. FROM DENIAL TO PROMISES MOhAMED hAMIL AhMED For years the authorities categorically Mohamed hamil has three brothers who died in Ahmed [not his real name] was called in for denied that any killings took place in Abu custody: Khaled, Saleh and Sanoussi hamil questioning by the Internal Security Agency Salim Prison in 1996.