Libya Toubou tribal leader in separatist threat

Abu Sina · Mar 28, 2012

Libya Toubou tribal leader in separatist threat

The head of the Toubou tribe in Libya on Tuesday denounced what he said was a plan to "ethnically cleanse" his people, and raised the threat of a separatist bid, a day after deadly clashes
AFP , Tuesday 27 Mar 2012

"We announce the reactivation of the Toubou Front for the Salvation of Libya (TFSL, an opposition group active under the former regime) to protect the Toubou people from ethnic cleansing," Issa Abdel Majid Mansur told AFP.

"If necessary, we will demand international intervention and work towards the creation of a state, as in South Sudan," he said after more than 10 people were reported killed in clashes in the southern oasis city of Sabha.

Monday's fighting pitted Toubou tribesmen and Sabha residents, Abdelrahman Seif al-Nasr, security chief of the southern Fezzan region, told AFP.

According to Ali al-Dib, a former rebel, the clashes erupted in the city centre and resulted in between 15 and 20 dead among the ex-rebel forces. Dib said the fighting broke out when the Toubou refused to hand over to local authorities one of their men accused of killing a member of the Bussif tribe.

Mansur, formerly an opposition activist against the regime of Moamer Kadhafi, had announced the dissolution of the TFSL movement after the slain dictator's regime fell.

"It turns out that the National Transitional Council and the Kadhafi regime are no different. The NTC has a programme to exterminate us," claimed Mansur, whose people played a key role in the south during last year's revolt.

"We have already said that the unity of Libya was above every other consideration. But now we have to protect both ourselves and other minorities," Mansur told AFP.

The Toubou are oasis farmers by tradition who also have connections beyond Libya's borders. They live in southern Libya, northern Chad and in Niger, and have on previous occasions denied having separatist ambitions.

Ruling NTC member Mukhtar al-Jadal said on Monday that NTC chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil had met representatives from the south in an effort to broker a solution to the crisis in Sabha.

A local source said Toubou tribesmen who had been in "brigades of former rebels have defected and rejoined their own" people, adding that "some elements from Chad are fighting with the Toubou."
The Toubou have also been involved in deadly clashes with another tribe in the Saharan oasis of Kufra, where two ethnic groups are locked in a standoff over smuggling.

Despite an army-brokered truce, tensions still simmer in Kufra, where clashes between the Toubou and the Zawiya and other groups claimed more than 100 lives during a fortnight of violence in February.

The triangle bordering Chad, Egypt and Sudan is a key transit route for the trafficking of goods of all kinds, both legal and contraband -- alcohol, cigarettes, counterfeit goods, drugs, weapons and especially illegal immigrants hoping to reach Europe.
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http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsCon...oubou-tribal-leader-in-separatist-threat.aspx

So will we have Toubouland next along with Serenaika breaking off ?

skeptic-f · Mar 28, 2012

The Libyans appear not to play well together. If this keeps up, they'll end up with another strong man or an Islamist regime.

Serfin' USA · Mar 28, 2012

It's Libya... what do you expect?

We'll just replace Gadhafi with another Gadhafi.

The same goes for Egypt, Tunisia, and probably Syria. You can't expect democracy to work in most of North Africa or the Middle East.

waltky · Jun 10, 2012

Obama goin' after dem terrorists no matter where dey at...

Libyan official: U.S. drones seeking jihadists in Libya
June 7th, 2012 - A senior Libyan official told CNN that the U.S. is flying surveillance missions with drones over suspected jihadist training camps in eastern Libya because of concerns over rising activity by al Qaeda and like-minded groups in the region but said that to the best of his knowledge, they had not been used to fire missiles at militant training camps in the area.

The revelation follows a failed attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi on Tuesday night, which a shadowy jihadist group claimed was to avenge the death of al Qaeda No. 2 Abu Yahya al-Libi. The official said that one militant commander operating in Derna, Abdulbasit Azuz, had complained that a drone strike had targeted his training camp in the east of Libya. Last month, there were reports of explosions outside the Derna area in the vicinity of the camps, according to a different source. The CIA's covert drone strike program is rarely publicly acknowledged. It has been widely reported that drones have been deployed to target militants in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

The U.S. flew drones for a while after the NATO intervention in Libya to monitor chemical and biological sites, US military officials tell CNN. But the officials would not comment on whether drone flights were ongoing. The senior Libyan official said it would be bad if such a strike had occurred. He added that the Americans' use of drones in a surveillance capacity had been discussed at the top level of the transitional Libyan government. As CNN has reported, Azuz is a senior al Qaeda operative and longtime close associate of the group's leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was dispatched to Libya from the tribal areas of Pakistan in spring 2011, according to several sources. There, he subsequently recruited fighters.

Azuz is a veteran jihadist who fought the Soviet-backed government in Afghanistan in the early 1990s, according to several sources. He later to moved to the UK, where he increasingly came on the radar screen of British security services for his radical recruitment efforts in Manchester. In the period after the July 2005 London bombings, he was detained in the Belmarsh high-security prison and placed under a Control order, according to the sources. He left the UK in 2009 and traveled to the tribal areas of Pakistan, from where al-Zawahiri redeployed him to Libya to set up a bridgehead for the terrorist group, according to the sources.

According to one source, Azuz has dispatched men as far west as Ajdabiya and Brega in his attempt to build up al Qaeda operations in eastern Libya. According to the senior Libyan official, five radical Islamist militant commanders are operating in the Derna area, with 200 to 300 men under their command in the camps. According to Libyan security sources, within the militant ranks in Derna, there are 20 to 30 hardcore jihadist fighters who are cause for most concern. One source said a number of Egyptian jihadists are also present in the Derna area, as well as fighters belonging to al Qaeda's North African affiliate, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

MORE
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waltky · Aug 9, 2013

Eastern Libya wracked by waves of political assassinations...

Rights Group: Wave of Political Assassinations Paralyzes Libya
August 08, 2013 Human Rights Watch [HRW] says more than 50 people have died in a broadening wave of apparent political assassinations in the cities of Benghazi and Derna in volatile eastern Libya. Analysts say the state has been unable to reign in the violence that has taken place during the two years since Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was ousted in 2011.

The rights group said two of those killed were judges and 44 were serving members of the security forces. Most held positions in the Gadhafi government and at least six were high-ranking officers during his leadership. Hanan Salah, a Libya researcher at Human Rights Watch, said, In none of these cases have the law enforcement agents, the criminal investigations department or the police been able to conclude any of these investigations. People interviewed by HRW said law enforcement agents have not investigated at crime scenes, summoned potential witnesses, or provided information to the families about their investigations.

Libyan officials could not be reached for comment. Law enforcement officials in Benghazi, though, have said the unstable security situation creates major obstacles to their investigations and they lack the means to summon witnesses without the use of force. They also say they do not have access to sophisticated tools for investigation, such as DNA testing. Salah said the government has shown no political will to resolve the situation. "The weakness of the government and the lack of means for these law enforcement agents to conduct their jobs, to do their investigations, is the main cause for that." No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

People stand in front of a damaged Marks & Spencer store after a blast in Benghazi, Libya

Shashank Joshi, a Libya analyst at the Royal United Services Institute research group in London, said the situation has grown steadily worse since the overthrow of Gadhafi and shows little sign of improving. "At this point it is difficult to see how the state could do more without a more fundamental change in the political circumstances - and that is, all groups respecting the legitimacy of the central state." He said the law enforcement system is not cohesive enough to apprehend suspects from far-flung parts of the country where they might have fled. Also, because of porous national borders to the south, suspects can easily flee the country. Libyas prime minister has said he will re-shuffle his government to try to tackle instability in Benghazi.

On top of the assassinations, the city has recently been hit by bombings, public protests, and a mass jail breakout. Joshi said the government needs to rein in the situation now or risk state collapse. "I think they have a strong incentive in showing themselves to be competent. Because the more they allow this to continue, the less capable they are, the more they lose legitimacy and the more they lose ground to militias." The research carried out by Human Rights Watch shows a peak in political assassinations in Benghazi in the second half of 2012, and then again in January and July 2013. It says most of the killings have been in central and eastern Libya.

http://www.voanews.com/content/huma...l-assassinations-paralyzes-libya/1726303.html
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waltky · Jun 6, 2014

UN says violence in Libya gettin' worse...

UN Says Violence, Abuses in Libya Getting Worse
June 06, 2014 The United Nations human rights office has denounced worsening violence in the eastern part of Libya, especially in Benghazi, where it says killings, human rights abuses and other forms of repression are escalating at an alarming pace.

UNOHCHR officials condemned the recent murder of the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross sub-delegation in Misrata, Libya, as one of the latest examples of the country's seeming lawlessness.

According to UNOHCHR spokesman Rupert Colville, eastern Libya has become a place where impunity reigns. The government is effectively unable to exercise control over a large number of armed brigades. That is a major concern," he said. "The government does not have effective control over the whole country at all. Assassinations and other attacks systematically target state officials themselves, and facilities belonging to the state, particularly in the east." Colville says hardly a week passes without bombings or attacks by armed groups sometimes on innocent civilians. While these groups should be answerable to the law, there aren't yet official laws on the books to enforce.

A rocket-propelled grenade damaged Libyan government offices in Tripoli

Beyond the deteriorating security situation, he calls Libya's judicial system broken and unable to address many human rights concerns. For example, 7,000 people who continue to be deprived of their liberty without regard for due process: There have been reports on torture and other ill-treatment in detention facilities, the issues relating to detention of refugees and migrants transiting through Libya," he said. "Again, around 7,000 are believed to be detained, often in very poor conditions. Some of them have been detained for three years."

The United Nations published a report late last year focusing on the situation of torture and deaths in detention facilities throughout Libya. Colville notes the government has responded to the report and has been making an effort to improve this deplorable situation.

http://www.voanews.com/content/un-says-violence-abuses-in-libya-getting-worse/1931210.html
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