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Africa North

UN renews its demand for the release of MP Seham Sergiwa and all those forcibly disappeared in Libya

2019-10-19

[EN.ALWASAT.LY] On Thursday, the U.N. Support Mission in Libya called for the immediate release of politician Seham Sergiwa, who was kidnapped in mid-July by button men from her house in the eastern city of Benghazi ‐ the Libyan National Army stronghold.

"We will continue to lift our voices to demand her release and that those responsible for her violent abduction be held accountable," the UNSMIL statement said.

Since her kidnapping, Libya's eastern authorities have failed to reveal her whereabouts.

The Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
-based government, as well as some members of her family, accused forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar

...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
, the LNA commander, of being behind the 56-year-old parliamentarian's disappearance.

Although a member of the east-based parliament known for its loyalty to Haftar, Sergiwa was a vocal critic of the Libyan National Army offensive on Tripoli.

In Thursday's statement, the UNSMIL condemned Sergiwa's kidnapping as an attempt "to silence one of Libya's prominent female voices and to intimidate other women seeking to participate in the country's political life."

Several rights groups have previously said that Libyan militias on all sides of the conflict have committed human rights
...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state...
abuses, including abducting activists, journalists and rights activists.

Posted by:Fred

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