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Africa North

UN and ICRC Chiefs call for ceasefire in Libya's Tripoli

2019-09-20

[Libya Observer] The Secretary General of the United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
António Guterres

...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years...
and the Head of the International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC) Peter Maurer appealed Wednesday for a halt to bombings in 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...
, Libya, saying it is enduring untold suffering and destruction from a hail of bombs and shells.

They both called on all parties in Tripoli conflict to refrain from using wide-impact explosive weapons in populated areas, adding that parties to conflict should recognize that they cannot fight in populated areas in the way they would in open battlefields.

They also said that international humanitarian law absolutely prohibits directing attacks against civilians or civilian objects, indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, indiscriminate weapons, and using civilians as human shields.

Their statement stresses that Tripoli has been the epicenter since April of a bloody offensive by 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...
against Libya's "UN-recognized Government of National Accord", adding that the World Health Organization estimates that more than 1,000 people have been killed in the fighting, which has displaced about 120,000 people.

Posted by:Fred

#2 Either side can get a ceasefire if they want. It's called surrender.

Posted by: jpal 2019-09-20 13:05

#1 People not involved in the fighting calling for a cease fire? I'm sure that will work.

Posted by: SteveS 2019-09-20 11:55

00:00