Libya .. Tabu prosecute Hifter in the international judiciary

Mahmoud Mohamed-Tripoli

The so-called "Tabawi Congress" in Libya has filed a lawsuit against the United States and the International Criminal Court in two cases against retired Major General Khalifa Hifter for committing the massacre of Murzuq and carrying out attacks against civilians since last January.

The International Criminal Court accepted, according to the Tabawi Congress, the first case 10 days ago, while the second filed in America last week.

The Tabawi Congress is a political party established in 2016.One of its goals is to defend Libya's Tabu minority at home and abroad and to guarantee its rights and has nothing to do with the Tabu minority in other countries.

In early August, an unmanned drone bombed civilians attending a social event in the Tabu neighborhood of al-Qalaa, causing casualties.

Hifter's forces tried to invade the southwestern city of Murzuq in January, sparking house fires, looting and theft of houses belonging to members of the southern protection force, which includes Tabu members.

Hifter's forces accuse the Tabu minority of backing Chadian rebels, a claim denied by Merzak residents, stressing that their ties are only historical because they are of one ethnicity.

Murzuq is considered a stronghold of the Tabu who oppose Hifter's entry into the city.

war crimes

Tabawi, the president of the US Congress, confirmed the assignment of a US lawyer to file a lawsuit against Hifter in America for the killing of Libyan citizens from Tabu by his forces.

Hifter's abuses began in Murzuq when his troops entered the city in January, burning about 95 houses, killing more than 30 Tabu people and scores of wounded.

When Hifter's forces withdrew from Murzuq, dozens of corpses were found killed by the Tabawi prisoners, while a number of abductees were still missing, activists said.

Abdul Majeed told Al Jazeera Net, "We work on two parts where we filed a lawsuit in Washington as Hifter his nationality is an American, and another case at the International Criminal Court in The Hague to try him for crimes against civilians in Libya."

The UN envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salama, was surprised by the crimes of Hifter in Murzuq. , Says Abdul Majeed.

A United Arab Emirates aircraft bombed a march by Hifter forces in early August, killing more than 48 people and injuring more than 60, causing serious damage to property.

Abdel Meguid reported that there are contacts with the Presidential Council of the Government of National Accord to submit a full lawsuit against Hifter in the Criminal Court and America for all the crimes committed, including the abduction of the woman MP in the parliament Siham Sarqewa and the bombing of civilians in Abu Salim and violations in Benghazi and Tripoli.

This, in addition to striking civilian airports in Misrata east of Tripoli and Mitiga in Tripoli and Zawara west, killing civilians in the fall of indiscriminate shells on various neighborhoods in Tripoli and a massacre against irregular migrants in the shelters of Tajura and Qasr bin Ghashir.

"When I meet next week with the ICC prosecutor's office to present new evidence of abuses committed to Tabu citizens in Murzuq, I am also authorized by the Tabu families to follow up the case against Hifter in America," he said.

the black day

In the context, the citizen in Murzuq Mohammed Kokni massacre Murzuq black day and tragic on the component of the Tabu and the population of Murzuq in particular committed by "war criminal Khalifa Hifter."

"All those who died were civilians, including my nephew, who came to the ambulance of the wounded and wounded," he said.

The cockpit that the drone bombed three times respectively unarmed civilians in Murzuq, pointing out that the families of the victims demanding the government of reconciliation and the international community and international human rights organizations to investigate the massacre and bring the perpetrators to justice, especially as the perpetrator is known.

"We do not want Hifter in our regions because we are not convinced of his tyrannical project and we have the right to live in safety like other Libyans who do not want Hifter the criminal."

Retribution from the killer

Ali Murzuq Omar, one of the victims of the bombing, said that the main demand of the Tabu families is retribution from the killer and to prevent any new attacks on the Tabu component in Libya.

"That day was very difficult," said Omar, an official in the town of Murzuq who came to rescue the wounded. "For the first time, I saw the bombardment of unarmed civilians, body parts and blood that filled the scene. In the third strike, I was seriously injured by shrapnel and shortness of breath."

Omar explained that the Tabu component absolutely rejects the entry of Hifter militants to his areas of influence, pointing to the city's dependence on the government of national reconciliation recognized internationally.

Omar said in his statement to Al Jazeera Net, that this hostility against the Tabu will have serious consequences for the south of Libya, including the disruption of the social fabric in Merzak, which holds two components, which will lead to continued hostilities in the future difficult to overcome over time and the formation of new relations.