Grave violations of International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law in Derna : Human rights Solidarity (HRS) expresses its concerns over the situation in the city of Derna. Since 5th June 2018

 

Human rights Solidarity (HRS) expresses its concerns over the situation in the city of Derna. Since 5^th June 2018, the fighting escalated very dangerously, and the old quarters of the city are completely isolated, while fighting rages there. With the city under blackout, the General Electric Company of Libya (GECOL) announced the blackout on 1^st June 2018 due to damage to high voltage lines[i], and the lack of telephone services[ii] in the area, very little news is coming out from Derna in general, and the center of the city in particular.

The city is without water supply since 28^th May 2018 after the desalination plant was shut down[iii], and since the escalation of hostilities on 3^rd May 2018, food supplies, including groceries and fruits, became very limited and shops ran out of supplies. All that

The city’s only public hospital, al-Hraish (al-Wahda) Hospital, was hit with a mortar shell on 5^th June 2018, all patients and staff were evacuated[iv] and the hospital remains closed since then. The health services in the city were in a very dire shape since Haftar’s militias imposed a suffocating siege on the Derna since June 2016, and deteriorated sharply due to severe shortage in medical supplies[v] since 3^rd May 2018, after Haftar declared the start of military campaign against Derna.

The indiscriminate shelling[vi] and air raids[vii] has forced many families, those who have means, to flee the city. On Friday, 8^th June 2018, a corridor[viii] was setup to allow residents to leave the dense urban parts of the city. The heavy air raids and indiscriminate shelling of residential areas were intentional, to drive the local population to flee their homes, after the two years long siege failed to drive them to leave[ix]. With little resources, and lack of any government support[x] for internally displaced people (IDP), residents of Derna preferred[xi] to endure the suffocating siege[xii] than end up displaced like IDP’s from other cities.

With the fleeing families, disturbing news started to come out. News of families pleading for help to bury the dead and evacuate and care for the wounded. Stories of families, trapped in their homes with scarce supplies of water and food[xiii]. While some families have managed to flee the area of fighting, HRS learned from confidential sources that there are still families trapped inside the city center, who could not leave because they have no means to support themselves once they leave and some simply have no means of transport.

Very few videos and photos of other violations have been published on Libyan social media pages[xiv]. Violations committed by forces of retired Maj Gen Haftar. One video shows militias dragging two injured men from a car and execute them[xv]. HRS has received information from confidential sources of grave violations that took place in one of Derna’s districts. HRS is in the process of verifying these claims.

There were two reports of incidents of abductions of civilians and using them as hostages to force those wanted to surrender. One case[xvi] is the abduction of the family of Brig Gen Yahya al-Usta Omar, the head of the Derna Security Directorate. Al-Usta surrendered himself on Friday morning, 8^th June 2018, after Haftar’s forces abducted his wife & 3 sons[xvii].

Human Rights Solidarity is very disturbed by a report by the satellite TV channel, France 24 Arabic[xviii]. The French state-owned channel report[xix] described Brig Gen Yahya al-Usta as “responsible for the security affairs of al-Qaeda organization in Libya”. Brig Gen Yahya al-Usta is an officer in the Libyan Army. In 2015 he met three times[xx] with Maj Gen Abdulrazeq al-Nadhuri[xxi], Chief of Staff of Haftar, in Tubruk, seeking military support to fight the terrorist organization Daesh (ISIS) after it was expelled from Derna[xxii]. He also met with the Commander of “Karama Operation Command” in Benghazi, Maj Gen Abdulsalam al-Hassi. After both al-Nadhuri & al-Hassi refused to support him to fight ISIS, al-Usta joined a group of military officers, who abandoned the Karama operation, to spend the following 10 months fighting ISIS in al-Haila frontline, South West of Derna.

In August 2016, al-Usta was appointed by the local council of Derna to head the Security Directorate of Dena. According to reliable information available to HRS, from several sources, Brig Gen Yahya al-Usta was never a member of the Shura Council of Mujahedee Derna and its Suburbs (DSCM) nor is he a member of al-Qaeda. HRS finds the report of France 24 unprofessional and irresponsible. Associating Brig Gen al-Usta with a terrorist organization puts his life in danger, very grave danger.

Brig Gen al-Usta was the focal point of all negotiation efforts to resolve the situation peacefully. But the lack of any sort of support from the Government of National Accord combined with the uncompromising position of the Haftar camp, who made a set of unacceptable demands[xxiii], led to the failure of all efforts of mediations.

Some of the demands made by the Haftar camp, at least 6 of the 7 demands, violate International Human Rights law. They target civilians because they served in the local council[xxiv], target civil society activists[xxv], target members of the Council of Elders of Derna and the Social Council[xxvi], and target civilians who participated in the uprising against Daesh (ISIS)[xxvii]. The demands ascribe the use of collective punishment[xxviii] to forcefully evict 650 families from their home town Derna.

Human Rights Solidarity demands the cessation of all hostilities, and to:

• Allow relief and medical crews to reach the stranded families in Derna,
• Release Brig Gen Yahya al-Usta and guarantee his safety,
• Release all civilians detained; among them Mr. Khalil Ben Saud, chairman of the Council of Elders of Derna; and Sheikh Belgasem Ali Ben Arous, the Imam of al-Sahaba Mosque, and
• Guarantee the unconditional return of all families who left the city.

Human Rights Solidarity calls on the Government of National Accord to shoulder its responsibility to protect the citizens of Libya, if it does not have the capacity, then it should seek the support of the international community under the principle to protect adopted by the World Summit of 2005. Derna is under terrorist attack aided, and directly participating in it, by foreign forces.

[i] GECOL: “Blackout in Derna due to break in the 220KV powerline al-Tamimi – Derna. The line will be repaired once security situation improves”.

[ii] The head of security Directorate in Derna, Brig Gen Yahya al-Usta, wrote in a post on Facebook, on 5^th June 2018, that the cut off of telecom communications was intentional by Haftar’s militias to stop the flow of information (link).

[iii] The plant was shut down by the plant’s management because of concerns for the safety of the plant’s workers (link). UNICEF confirmed the plant’s closure, which provides over 80% of the city’s drinking needs, because of the conflict (link).

[iv] The head of security Directorate in Derna, Brig Gen Yahya al-Usta: “al-Hraish hospital is completely closed, medical staff were evacuated after a mortar shell fell on it and caused material damage in the radiology department. One elderly patient died.” (link), 5^th June 2018.

[v] The escalation of hostilities by Haftar caused severe shortages in medical supplies well before the hospital was closed on 5^th June 2018. For example, the hospital announced that it ran out of oxygen bottles on 20^th May 2018, and this led to cancelling surgery operations.

[vi] Several videos show the indiscriminate, senseless & criminal, shelling of residential areas. This video, published on 29^th May 2018, show militiamen firing light & heavy calibre machine guns from a hilltop toward residential area far below. Another video, shows the intensity of the firing and bombing during one night in Derna’s dense residential area, published on 6^th June 2018.

[vii] Two videos, recorded by residents show airstrikes against dense urban areas. One video shows what appears to be a bombing raid by a bomber. The other video is claimed to be of a missile strike by a drone.

[viii] The Libyan Red Crescent Society – Derna (LRCS-D) posted on 9^th June 2018, that its volunteers succeeded in evacuating more than 320 families from different parts of the city over two days, 8^th & 9^th June 2018 (Link). Social media pages showed a video of a long queue of cars leaving the city on Saturday, 9^th June. Another video shows cars leaving residential area, on 9^th June 2018.

[ix] IOM latest “Derna Alert Snapshot (9 June 2018)”: “Over the past three days [6-8 Jun], at least 1’634 households (approximately 8’215 individuals) have been displaced from Derna … Since the start of the escalation of the security situation in mid-May, at least 2’183 families (approximately 10’915) have been displaced to surrounding areas of Derna.”, 9^th June 2018.

[x] Over 70% of IDP’s in Libya pay the rent of properties displaced to, others rely on charitable societies for lodging and food.

[xi] Another factor behind the decision by Derna’s residents to stay and not leave, is the fear for the fate of their properties. As seen in many places in Libya, since 2011, militiamen loot properties; homes, businesses, and public buildings, they take everything that can be carried, including windows, doors, and electric wiring.

[xii] This is how Haftar himself described the goal of his siege of Derna, to suffocate the local population. In a video recording of Haftar, speaking in a gathering, he said: “When we say siege we mean siege, so everyone should understand this issue, not that every now and then some people say [asking for permission] ‘We have people who want to go to Hajj.’, or ‘kids [students] want to go to study’ … Can’t fool us with all these pretexts … Forget all this … The siege is siege … The siege means strangulation [pointing his hand to his neck with a strangulation signal] I do not think anyone at that moment can say ‘Let me breathe’ … no medicine, no health care, no petrol, no oil … all the excuses we have closed, no solution is left“. The video recording is available on YouTube at this link, last accessed on 21^st May 2018.

[xiii] Almanara Libya: “Urgent appeal from the residents of Ben Taher & Bu Shertila apartment blocks, trapped in downtown, ran out of food & water supplies and asking for safe corridor to leave the area”, 7^th June 2018.

[xiv] Young men, including children from age 14, at risk of being detained at checkpoints operated by Haftar’s militias, and abused. [WARNING, content of the videos & photos is graphic. Viewer discretion is advised] On 29^th May 2018, a photo of the body of a man, bleeding, hanging by his feet from the muzzle of a heavy machine gun mounted on a truck. The man was a resident from Derna. A video, published on YouTube on 28^th May 2018, shows the inhumane treatment of a man at a checkpoint manned by Haftar’s militias. Another video shows Haftar’s militiamen defiling a dead body, published on 8^th June 2018. A video published on FB on 12^th June 2018, shows a group of militias taunting a man & threatening him with their rifles. A video published on FB on 12^th June 2018, shows a group of militias desecrating a dead body. A video published on FB on 12^th June 2018, shows a group of militias taunting a man & threatening him with their rifles.

[xv] [WARNING, content of the video is graphic. Viewer discretion is advised] Almanara Media posted the video, on 12^th June 2018, showing the dragging & execution of the two men, who were already bleeding and did not appear to be armed and did not show any resistance.

[xvi] A post on Almanara Media, published on 4^th June 2018, claimed the abduction of the whole family of Faiz Dawwal, the Imam of Hamza Mosque in the district of “Sahel el-Sharqi” (Eastern Coast) of Derna. The post also claimed that the assailants killed the Imam’s nephew. HRS could not verify this from independent sources.

[xvii] Elmanassa: “al-Usta surrendered himself to al-Wershifani after the abduction of his family”, 8^th June 2018. Al-Wershifani is a captain in the “Anti-Terrorism Agency” in Haftar’s organization.

[xviii] France 24 is a state-owned 24-hour international news and current affairs television network based in Paris.

[xix] France 24 Arabic: “Libyan army arrests senior al Qaeda leader”, 8^th June 2018.

[xx] Brig Gen Yahya al-Usta published a post, on his personal page of on Facebook on 22^nd May 2018, stating his efforts to get military support from Haftar’s subordinates to no avail. The title of the post is “I have never been against building the Army”. The post is available at this link, last accessed on 12^th June 2018.

[xxi] Maj Gen Abdulrazeq al-Nadhuri was appointed by the House of Representatives (parliament) in August 2014.

[xxii] A popular uprising against ISIS in Derna, in April 2015, expelled the terror group from the city in less than 3 days. Scoring the first defeat of ISIS since it took over Mosul & much of northern Iraq in the summer of 2014. But ISIS remained a treat to the city of Derna, as it took positions on the hilltops overlooking the city from the south and east. Al-Usta and other officers, enraged by Haftar’s decision not fight ISIS, cut off all ties with Haftar’s camp and joined the fight against ISIS. One of the officers who joined al-Usta is Lieutenant Colonel Muftah Omar Hamza wrote about these events in a post, dated 9^th June 2018, spoke about it in a video recording, published 31^st January 2016 on YouTube. Two more officers on record on the events of the fight against ISIS in and around Derna between April 2015 to June 2016. Colonel Basit al-Shaeri on a video posted on 3^rd February 2016 and Colonel Mohamed Bu Ghfaiar on a video posted on 28^th September 2015 and another video posted on 17^th November 2015.

[xxiii] Brig Gen Yahya al-Usta published a post, on his personal page of on Facebook on 27^th May 2018, titled “21 thousand residents of Derna are wanted by security agencies [of Haftar]”. The post included screen shot of a post, al-Usta, described as minutes of meeting by pro Haftar camp, in which they set 7 demands that are “none-negotiable” and must be complied with to avert military action against “the terrorist groups inside Derna”. A copy of the minutes of meeting was published around 14^th July 2017, one copy in this post, and another is in this post.

[xxiv] Demand no. 4 in the list calls for the surrender of “members of the Derna Local Council, and all employees who served in the council over the period from 2015 to 2017”. The names of the wanted were listed in Appendix (d).

[xxv] Demand no. 6 in the list calls for the surrender of “a group of media, civil society and charitable work, activists who have played a major role in falsifying the facts, distorting the image of the military establishment and damaging the social fabric between the city and its surrounding areas”, names listed in Appendix (e).

[xxvi]  Demand no. 3 in the list calls for the surrender of “leadership and members of the so-called Council of Elders and Dignitaries in the city of Derna, and the Social Council”, names listed in Appendix (c).

[xxvii] Demand no. 2 in the list calls for the surrender of “130 civilians who participated in the war, supporting the Shura Council, against ISIS organization”, names listed in Appendix (b).

[xxviii] Demand no. 7 in the list calls for the “eviction of 650 families from Derna, resettle them in cities and areas around Derna, in order to preserve the social fabric. Some of these families must live outside Derna for at least 10 years, others for around 2 years, as an act of reparation and to stop the bloodshed”.