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The family of a British-based photographer killed in 2011 by pro-Gaddafi forces during the Arab spring have launched a campaign to pressure Libya to investigate his death.

Anton Hammerl, 41, was shot after being targeted as part of a small group of journalists, including the US reporter James Foley who himself was subsequently kidnapped and murdered by Islamic State in Syria.

Left for dead in the desert after Foley and fellow journalists Clare Morgana Gillis and Manu Brabo were captured, Hammerls body has never been recovered.

The case was briefly investigated as a war crime by the international criminal court, but it was dropped after the death of Muammar Gaddafi and the fall of his regime.

The lack of a body has meant no inquest into Hammerls death has taken place in the UK, where the father of two, a joint South African-Austrian citizen, lived with his family.

After years of chaos and conflict in Libya, the family hope the new interim government will be able to help them locate his body.

The family are being represented by Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC, who has been heavily involved in the push to secure justice for the murdered Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, and they are also being supported by Foleys mother, Diane.

With the 10th anniversary of his killing on Monday, the family plan to take the case to the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and the UN working group on forced disappearances.

On the face of it we believe there is reasonable evidence to believe that Antons death was a war crime, said Gallagher, who added that research into Hammerls death that James Foley had been working on at the time of his own murder had been supplied to the campaign.

This wasnt journalists just caught in a crossfire. They were identifiable as civilians and journalists when they were targeted and Anton was killed during an enforced abduction. She added that in the intervening period the international community has treated his death with a shrug of the shoulders.

Hammerl was among a number of journalists killed during the chaos of the Arab spring and its long aftermath not least in Syria including Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times, the Sky News cameraman Mick Deane, Foley himself, and the photojournalists Chris Hondros and Tim Hetherington.

Hammerl had been covering the conflict between pro-regime and anti-Gaddafi forces when the group he was with came under fire from Libyan soldiers in a remote desert location near Brega on 5 April 2011.

Initially the family were led to believe by Libyan officials that all four journalists had been captured, and it was only six and a half weeks later when the survivors were released that it was revealed Hammerl had been killed and his body left in the desert.

Since his death, there has been sporadic and vague information about the location of his body, with a suggestion in 2012 that a body matching his description had been found in a mass grave of 170 people and DNA samples had been taken but never delivered for processing.

His wife, Penny Sukhraj-Hammerl, who had just given birth to the couples second child when Hammerl was killed, hopes the new government in Libya will finally take action to help find Hammerls body and explain his death.

Its been hard, a very hard 10 years for the family but its our hope after all these years there might be a different flavour in the air, a different calibre of leadership that may consider things in a different way.

So were hopeful. They have things at their disposal they should have been able to use if they would consider what weve been through. Because weve not even had a body. To think you knew someone who you had heard their voice the day before, and suddenly theyve vanished. Theres always a real hole.

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Family of photographer urge Libya to investigate his death - The Guardian

Five people have died and more than 500 have been returned to Libya in separate incidents in the central Mediterranean in the space of two days.

In the latest shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea involving migrants headed to Europe, two women and three children reportedly drowned when a boat carrying dozens of people capsized off the Libyan coast, a UN official told the Associated Press (AP) news agency on Wednesday (March 31).

Safa Msehli, spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said the incident took place late Tuesday. A fishing boat and Libya's coast guard managed to rescue around 77 migrants and returned them to Libya, she said.

According to IOM's Msehli, "a total of 400 migrants were intercepted and returned to Libya late Tuesday and taken to detention centers," AP reported. Over the weekend, Libya's coast guard had already intercepted nearly 1,000 migrants and brought them back to Libya.

Tuesday's deadly shipwreck was the latest along the central Mediterranean migration route. According to the IOM, 232 migrants died in the central Mediterranean between January 1 and April 1 this year, up from 137 in the same period in 2020.

A day later, on Wednesday (March 31), Libya's coast guard intercepted an inflatable boat carrying 138 Europe-bound migrants off the country's northwestern coast, the country's navy said. More than half of the migrants were from Sudan, while the rest were from other African countries, the navy added.

According to the AFP news agency, among the group were nine women and three children. The whole group was taken to a naval base in the capital Tripoli on Libya's northwestern coast.

Over the past decade, Libya has become a main transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. The oil-rich country of some seven million people plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

People smugglers have thrived in the subsequent lawlessness, often packing desperate families into overcrowded and unsafe rubber boats that capsize along the dangerous sea route across the central Mediterranean to Europe. Over the last several years, hundreds of thousands of migrants have reached Europe either on their own or after being rescued at sea.

Despite the dangers -- more than 17,000 people have drowned along the way in the central Mediterranean since 2014 --, the number of migrants risking the Mediterranean crossing to Europe has been rising lately: 6,669 people reached Italian shores by boat since the beginning of the year, 2.5 times as many as in the same period last year, according to Italian interior ministry data. More than half of all arrivals said their country of origin was Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Guinea, Bangladesh or Sudan.

Others are intercepted and forcibly returned by the country's coast guard, whereupon they are often left at the mercy of armed groups or confined in squalid detention centers without adequate food and water, rights groups say.

An AP investigation in 2019 found that "militias in Libya tortured, extorted and otherwise abused migrants for ransoms in detention centers under the nose of the UN, often in compounds that receive millions in European money, paid to Libya's government to slow the tide of migrants crossing the Mediterranean."

Over the past years, the European Union has partnered with Libya to prevent migrants from making the journey by sea to Europe. Among other things, it has been training and funding Libya's controversial coast guard, despite a record of abuses, to prevent migrants from reaching European soil.

Meanwhile, distress hotline Alarm Phone reported early Wednesday morning that around 80 people in distress on a rubber off Malta boat contacted them. At the time of publication early Wednesday afternoon, no rescue had been confirmed.

With AFP, AP

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Mediterranean: Five migrants dead, hundreds returned to Libya - InfoMigrants

Issued on: 29/03/2021 - 18:49Modified: 29/03/2021 - 18:50

France reopened its embassy in Tripoli on Monday after a seven-year closure, in a show of support for Libyas new unity government. A decade after French forces helped topple strongman Muammar Gaddafi, FRANCE 24 takes a look at Frances damaged standing in the North African country in an interview with Libya specialist Jalel Harchaoui.

Announcing plans to reopen the embassy earlier this month, French President Emmanuel Macron said France owed a debt to Libya and the Libyans for a decade of disorder a reference to the 10 years of turmoil and violence that followed the fall of Gaddafi in 2011.

Macron was speaking after a meeting in Paris with Mohammed al-Menfi, the head of Libyas presidential council. He promised Frances full support to the countrys transitional government, which took over earlier this month from two rival administrations that ruled Libyas eastern and western regions.

France had positioned itself as a mediator in the tussle pitting the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), which governed western Libya, against the eastern forces loyal to the renegade military commanderGeneral Khalifa Haftar. But its reputation as an honest broker was tarnished by accusations it secretly sided with Haftar, seeing in him a bulwark against terrorism claims Macron repeatedly rejected.

While Haftars final defeat last year helped pave the way for a new unity government, the Libyan reset hasalso underscored the shifting power-play in the war-torn North African country, cementing the growing Turkish and Russian clout.FRANCE 24 spoke to Libya expert Jalel Harchaoui, a researcher at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, about Frances efforts to restore its reputation and influence in the country.

FRANCE 24: How significant is Frances decision to reopen its embassy?

Jalel Harchaoui: The embassy is reopening in a very specific context. The political and security situations have altered dramatically over the past few months, surprising some foreign players like France, which had followed theprocess from the sidelines and treated it with a degree of scepticism. Naturally, Paris is now keen to exploit the new situation in Libya. The countrys political climate has changed considerably, thanks to a new style of governance embodied by the prime minister, a former businessman. However, there are other changes the French will have to deal with, most notably the growing Turkish and Russian presence. France can always lament Turkeys encroachment but it is powerless to halt it. The Turks are settled for the long term in the country, from where they will hold on to military bases.

In speaking of a French debt towards Libya, has Macron acknowledged a failure of French diplomacy in the country?

In using the word debt, Macron appeared to be asking for a chance to make up for the past and play a part in the new Libya. But the reset underway in the country does not necessarily mean France will be able to regain its standing there. It will first have to restore the credibility it lost by offering political and diplomatic support to General Haftar, who has since been pushed out of the picture. By referring to Libyas decade of disorder, Macron was hoping to dissociate himself from his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, who sought to topple Gaddafi in 2011. However, one mustnt forget that Libyans today are far more traumatised by Haftars deadly offensive on Tripoli in 2019. The memory of the fighting, in which thousands were killed, is still raw. And then theres the millions of dollars lost because of the oil blockade imposed by Haftar, in the midst of economic and health crises. In the eyes of many Libyans today, Frances real failure is to have played peace broker while betting on a warmonger whom future historians are unlikely to treat kindly.

>>How the Wests silence emboldened Libyas Haftar

How can France restore its credibility and play a role in Libya?

Post-Gaddafi Libya is essentially open to Europe and, as such, Libyans pay close attention to what France says or does. But it is not certain that this will last. Other powers that are neither African nor European are setting foot in the country, like Turkey and Russia. Even China could play a bigger part in Libyas reconstruction than France. Right now were seeing a flurry of French diplomatic activity in Libya, but France needs a coherent strategy with specific objectives that lead to measurable results. There are many areas in which France can have a positive impact, knowing that Libyans are generally appreciative and mindful of such gestures. But it is important to secure tangible results. As we have seen in Lebanon, in the wake of the Beirut port blast last year, French diplomacy can be proactive and yet produce zero results.

This article has been adapted from the original in French.

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To regain its standing in Libya, France must restore the credibility it lost - FRANCE 24 English

Libya may be able to maintain its current level of oil production of around 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) until the end of the year as the oil sector is finally receiving enough funding for field maintenance and development, Libyas Oil Minister Mohamed Oun told Bloomberg in an interview.

Oun was sworn in as the first oil minister of the country since 2014 as the new Libyan unity government took office earlier this month. The new cabinet is the first unity government of the war-torn country since 2014, and could potentially pave the way to more stability in oil production in the African OPEC member, which is exempted from the OPEC+ cuts.

The government has now approved a budget of US$1.6 billion to the National Oil Corporation (NOC), the largest recipient of Libyas development budget, according to Bloomberg.

There is a reasonable allotment of funds for oil-sector activities, Oun told Bloomberg, noting that the funds could be enough for the needs of the oil sector for the rest of this year.

Apart from frequent blockades of oil ports amid the fighting, Libyas oil production has suffered in recent years from a chronic lack of funds to NOC for oilfield development and infrastructure maintenance.

This has led to volatile production volumes from Libya, which is exempted from the OPEC+ cuts due to its fragile security situation. A more stable level of production, however, could mess with the OPEC+ plans to manage oil supply this year.

When the alliance announced the massive cuts in April 2020, Libya was pumping less than 100,000 bpd, and its oil export terminals were blocked by the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) of General Khalifa Haftar. The blockade ended in September, and Libya has managed to quickly restore its production to the pre-blockade levels, surprising many analysts.

Days before Libyas unity government was sworn in, NOCs chairman Mustafa Sanalla told Bloomberg Television that the country planned to raise its oil production to 1.45 million bpd by the end of this year.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

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Libya's Oil Production Set To Stabilize In 2021 - OilPrice.com

Esteemed Members of the LPDF,

Many thanks that you are making time for us today, I understand it is not the best day to have meetings but I didn't want to postpone this gathering, I wanted to address you as soon as possible after my briefing to the Security Council, and as soon as possible after my briefing to the Secretary-General and the leadership of the United Nations.

The meeting of the Security Council took place two days ago, and yesterday I briefed the Secretary-General. Today, I am briefing you. So with apologies for doing so on Friday, but I didn't want to postpone this any longer because otherwise, it would have been possible to have this meeting only approximately a week from now, and I considered that it would be too much.

I would like to thank you also for sending to myself and my colleagues your questions in advance. I would like to react to some of them now and then no doubt during the discussion. Many thanks for that as well.

Let me start by highly acknowledging the work of all of you, of LPDF of all the members of the LPDF. You have achieved something that no one expected, not only some months but maybe even weeks ago. You achieved a way towards the unification of the country, towards the sovereignty of the country you managed to get one government for the whole country. You managed to get a session of the parliament that was split, into a unified session. You managed to get the confirmation of the new government in a unity session of the Parliament. You managed to get the interim executive authority, including the Presidency Council, that is now recognized by the whole international community. You managed to get the Parliament to start working on their duties, for example, the budget for the country. You are keeping them under very tight control, you are keeping them accountable to you. This is a very big achievement that has historic nature and character.

I can also confirm that even after the February meeting of the LPDF, after you nominated the new interim executive authority not that many believed in such a breakthrough, in such a progress, inside of the country, including those that were nominated to lead the country in this interim period, towards the elections on the 24th of December. But also outside of the country. I was receiving dozens, hundreds of questions: is it possible to move this exercise forward? Or would it end up in a similar situation to what happened after 2015- 2016 that eventually resulted in two governments. This time there were concerns that there might be a third government added to the two that claimed power. This is a small miracle, and the Prime Minister shared with me this view several times.

Many of the processes moved under the constitutional umbrella because indeed there are some institutions and authorities of the country that have the sole prerogative and authority, for example, to confirm the vote of confidence and eventually take the oath of the Government or of the Presidency Council. They have the sole authority to legislate and that's why, we and I believe it was good that you gave space two these authorities to act, and they acted, they delivered the government and they delivered the new Presidency Council; but your work remains relevant. This body, the LPDF, is relevant and remains a key platform as the custodian of the achievements to ensure the follow-up on the implementation of the Roadmap, of its objectives. Because this is what it comes to, objectives.

This is one of the questions that I have received, and I would like to return it back to you. Yes, you are relevant, and you will be relevant also in the future.

As I said it was beneficial and it delivered the results the fact that you gave space to the authorities and institutions of the country to act. But now it's the time to get together and to discuss to take stock and maybe to listen to each other that would then help us take the next steps. I had this intention and I know that you also came with the initiative to convene a meeting of the LPDF with some points that you shared among yourselves, and with us as well, and at the same time you continued working in the framework of the Legal Committee, and I would like to highly acknowledge that work as well.

We were also using the time of the past weeks since I arrived, and let's just confirm it, I'm relatively new, I started only some five to six weeks ago, so we were using the time to mobilize the support of the international community, and to align the whole international community behind the objectives that you set forth in the Roadmap. I am very happy to report to you that the international community is aligned behind the objectives, behind the aspirations of the Roadmap and is committed to them.

The Working Groups of the Berlin Process have continued to meet and they again were a very useful source of encouragement to the authorities here in the country to move forward and implement the objectives of the Roadmap. The Political Working Group was briefed by Prime Minister Dbeiba, and Presidency Council President Mr Mnefi, and more recently by HNEC Chairman Dr. Emad Sayyeh.

The 5+5 Joint Military Commission also continued its important work. I would like to acknowledge their patriotic approach to the issues related to the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and notably also in facilitating the holding of the HOR session in Sirte. And we tried to contribute to this as well through our outreach to some international partners that then help creating a conducive environment including the possibility to use the Ghardabyia airport for moving members of the HOR to Sirte.

I visited numerous international capitals and had numerous telephone conversations with ministers of foreign affairs of a large number of countries, including neighboring countries of Libya, countries of the region, countries in Europe and as far as - if you wish - Japan and the United States, and all of them are - as I said - aligned at this point in time in support of and requesting the implementation of the LPDF Roadmap. I also briefed the Security Council, and you also registered that even in the previous Presidential Statement, the Security Council expressed its support for these processes and underlined the importance of the unification of the national institutions as set-up again in your Roadmap. This is again a confirmation of your successes and your achievements.

In my discussions with members of the Security Council and also, on Wednesday when I briefed the Security Council, I requested them to express themselves in a Security Council resolution in favor and in support of these positive developments. But again stressing what are the critical objectives of this support and referring to the objectives, as set out by yourselves, and among these critical objectives that we follow as a priority, is facilitation for the holding of the elections on 24 December of this year.

All the members of the Security Council were united in requesting the elections on the 24th of December of this year. All the countries of the region that I talked to, of your neighboring countries that I talked to, are united in requesting elections on the 24th of December. Yesterday, you had an opportunity to witness a very important visit of three Ministers of three leading European Union countries, France, Italy, and Germany. Germany is the Godfather of the Berlin process. They came here and said very clearly, among their priorities is holding of elections and supporting the holding of the elections on 24th December of this year. Therefore, this is for us and I hope that for the institutions and authorities of this country, not only a clear message but an imperative that I hope they will translate into concrete actions of a constitutional and legislative nature.

In my discussions, and meetings and conversations with the Speaker of the Parliament, I stressed the necessity of holding the elections and the obligation of the Parliament to take action to legislate and in our previous discussion with the Speaker, he reassured me that the Parliament is ready to ensure the necessary legal framework for the holding of the elections on 24 December. I plan to raise this issue in the coming days during my visit to him [HOR Speaker].

The head of the HoR Legislative Committee has been invited to brief the next meeting of the Political Working Group of the Berlin process. This is another format and, in another form, how to impress on the Parliament to live up to its responsibilities and duties.

But the time is of the essence, still, we do not see sufficient movement forward. There are questions and legitimate questions about whether indeed the Parliament will move and from our perspective, we cannot let it go by just hoping that they will move.

We need to think about some other alternative ways how to encourage them to take action. Because we know and we know it from the Chairman of the HNEC that he needs - and the country needs - to have a clear constitutional basis and legal framework for elections by the 1st of July to be able to ensure orderly preparations and conduct of the elections.

Therefore, the work of the Legal Committee, the continuation of its work with a clear focus on sound proposals for the constitutional basis for elections is, might and most probably will prove critical in finding a way for this issue.

And I hope that the Legal Committee will expedite its work with this very clear focus and will be able to complete this work relatively soon to contribute to creating the right atmosphere and send a strong signal to those who not only hesitate with elections but create problems and impediments to stall the process, that they will not be allowed to move with this kind of attitude.

In the meantime, we - UNSMIL - other parts of the UN but also other partners but also the international community is working with the HNEC on a number of files of a technical nature that should allow the holding of quality elections on the 24 of December. I am very grateful to a number of UN Member States for providing additional financing these days to the work of HNEC, through the UNDP Election Support program.

I plan to meet Dr Sayyeh soon in the coming days to continue our discussions on which areas he needs more support, more technical assistance and for that I already supported the request from the previous government addressed to the UN to send a needs assessment mission, experts from the UN HQ to agree with Chairman Sayyeh on additional areas of support.

This morning I met virtually with womens group and with civil society activists organized in the 24 December Movement to start our discussions, how to engage these very critical stakeholders, women, youth, civil society, both for the elections but also in favor of holding of the elections through their political and other campaigns, and through working in many areas, and I was encouraged to see their clear demand and clear focus. I look forward to working with them, in the future, very closely.

I raised this topic with Prime Minister Dbeiba the other day and he pledged to give the necessary support including the necessary budgetary means to the HNEC to be able to deliver the elections. I was very happy to note that one or two days after our meeting he came and visited HNEC and agreed again to providing support and this is, at least from my perspective, a welcome move.

There are many other areas in the Roadmap as objectives for the country. I am aware of a very slow process as regards to sovereign positions and it is on my and our agenda. I am aware of the disappointment when Prime Minister Dbeiba failed to nominate more women to ministerial positions. Yes, important portfolios, ministry of foreign affairs, ministry of justice are now in the hands of women, but this is not enough, and this is not the pledge that he gave when he was elected by you. His pledge was very clear: 30% of women in the senior positions and we will continue working on this with him.

Of course, there is the big task of national reconciliation and I again remember from the meeting in February, President of the Presidency Council, Mr Mnefi, saying very clearly that this is one of his top priorities. I heard from Prime Minister Dbeiba several days ago only that this is one of his topical priorities. So we would urge them not only to declare it but to take expeditiously steps and measures to establish a National Reconciliation Commission and to prepare a plan and to start to implementing it. I hope, and I will strongly recommend it to the executive authority to appoint a woman as the head of the National Reconciliation Commission.

The last point that I would like to mention is that we continue working on the withdrawal of all foreign forces and mercenaries from Libyan soil. It is a difficult process. It is a process but we dont only speak about it. I can tell you that in my meetings with a number of foreign countries the need to be addressed on this is. I am raising it because I know one thing that Libyans, the Libyan authority, institutions, including the 5+5 Joint Military Committee request the withdrawal of foreign forces and fighters from the country and indeed it is for all friends and partners of Libya to honor this request.

The country must finally be fully sovereign without any foreign presence that is not desired and at this point in time we need to work for the full implementation of the ceasefire and the withdrawal of all foreign forces and mercenaries from the Libyan soil.

I apologize for taking too long, but in the past weeks many things happened and I wanted to brief you about some of our activities but also about the vision, about the way forward, and to raise to some of your questions and also concerns, legitimate questions and legitimate concerns so that is why I took the floor for quite a while but now I will stop and I would like to invite you to make your points and comments that will inform our next steps.

Thank you very much for your patience and attention.

Excerpt from:
Transcript of the opening remarks of the Special Envoy for Libya, Jan Kubis, in the virtual meeting of LPDF - verbatim, 26 March 2021 - Libya -...