New Mass Graves In Libya’s Tarhuna Demand Accountability

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor welcomed the efforts of the Research and Identification of Missing Persons after discovering two new mass graves that contain corpses of people who have not been identified yet, in the city of Tarhuna, in the agricultural zone known as “Mashro’a Al-Rabet”.

In a brief press release on Saturday, Euro-Med Monitor stated that the Government of National Accord have discovered about 27 mass graves in Tarhuna, 93 kilometers southeast of the capital Tripoli, after expelling the Kaniyat militia, accused of killing, kidnapping, arresting, and torturing hundreds of the town’s citizens.

Since the Kaniyat militia took control over the city of Tarhuna, the residents of the city reported about 338 cases of disappeared persons, which the militia carried out against its opponents. Most of them were disappeared during the battles that took place in the period between April 2019 to June 2020.

Since last June, the Research and Identification of Missing Persons discovered about 120 corpses, including those of children and women. Some of the discovered graves contained whole bodies while some others contained body parts, most of which were found in the agricultural zone.

The crimes the Kaniyat militia committed in Tarhuna, including murder and enforced disappearance, are crimes against humanity, which fall within the duties of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and require prosecuting and holding the perpetrators accountable under the principle of command responsibility.

Euro-Med Monitor calls on the United Nations to provide forensic experts to identify the bodies of the missing, to assist the Government of National Accord in its investigation, and to make the necessary efforts to reveal the fate of the perpetrators and bring them to a fair trial.

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