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    February 16, 2012

Libyan Militias Accused of Targeting African Migrants

   Joe DeCapua
   African migrant workers whom rebels accused of being mercenaries seen
   detained in a military base in Tripoli, Libya, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011.
   (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)
   Photo: AP
   African migrant workers whom rebels accused of being mercenaries seen
   detained in a military base in Tripoli, Libya, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011.
   (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)

   A human rights group says armed militias in Libya are fueling
   instability and committing rights abuses with impunity. Amnesty
   International says the militias are targeting suspected supporters of
   former leader Moammar Gadhafi, as well as African migrants and
   refugees.

   Donatella Rovera, Amnesty's senior crisis response advisor, spent
   several months in Libya looking into alleged abuses by militias.

   De Capua report on Libyan militas

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   'One has to do with detention, unlawful detention. Basically people are
   being seized and detained by militias, who have neither the authority
   to do so and they're keeping people in places which are also not
   authorized as detention centers. The pattern is they keep people for a
   few days, torture them and then hand them over to kind of more
   recognized, more semi-official detention centers,' she said.

   Amnesty reported that detainees said they had been 'suspended in
   contorted positions; beaten for hours with whips, cables, plastic
   hoses, metal chains and bars and wooden sticks.' Some said they had
   also received electric shocks.

   The other area of concern, she said, is the 'hunting down and taking
   revenge' on people or communities that militias suspected of supporting
   Gadhafi.

   'They take them out of their homes. Burn down their houses,' she said.

   Sub-Saharans

   During the fighting to topple Gadhafi last year, sub-Saharan African
   migrants and refugees became targets of stigma, discrimination and
   violence. Many accused them of being mercenaries fighting on behalf of
   the former Libyan leader.

   'At the beginning of the crisis, there was the vastly exaggerated
   propaganda for which the highest level of the National Transitional
   Council should take some responsibility because they largely
   contributed to that unfounded propaganda,' she said.

   Reports circulated of tens of thousands of sub-Saharan mercenaries.

   'Today we know that that was not the case. There might have been some
   for sure, but we're talking very small numbers. That irresponsible
   propaganda had the direct consequences of having African migrants being
   hunted down and killed and hanged off bridges and public buildings by
   the then rebels,' she said.

   Rovera said that 'problem has subsided' because the International
   Organization for Migration spent much of last year evacuating
   sub-Saharans out of Libya. But she says now there's a new problem.

   'People come through Libya on their way, hopefully, to Europe. And they
   get stuck in Libya. At the moment, their cases are being dealt with in
   a fairly arbitrary fashion. Most of them are there illegally,
   unauthorized, and nothing much happens. Others get detained and they,
   too, get tortured,' said Rovera.

   Reported torture deaths

   'We've had more than reports. We investigated about 12 cases and I know
   that there are more, but that's the cases we've looked into since
   September. What is of great concern is that not even in cases like that
   have the authorities initiated any investigation. I'm not aware of a
   single case where the authorities have investigated. It's this kind of
   impunity that makes militias feel that they are above the law because
   indeed they are at the moment. And that encourages further abuses,' she
   said.

   Rovera said Amnesty has frequently made its concerns known to Libyan
   authorities.

   'Every time they say that they will investigate. What is then lacking
   is the investigations themselves. You know, the promises have been
   there. The fulfillment of those promises is for now no.' she said.

   However, the Amnesty adviser said it's fair to say the current
   authorities are facing many challenges. 'It's not easy to take the guns
   off the streets and we understand that. The militias are becoming more
   entrenched in their above the law attitude. The verdict is that unless
   action is going to be taken, these kinds of abuses are not going to
   stop magically by themselves.'

References

   1. http://av.voanews.com/VOA_Clickability_Feed_Connector/48/929/DE_CAPUA_-_LIBYA_-_MILITIAS_2-16-12.Mp3