UN says dozens of bodies discovered in a section of Libyan capital run by armed militia
The United Nations human rights office expressed concerns on Wednesday about the discovery of dozens of bodies, some charred and buried and others in hospital refrigerators, in an area of Libya's capital controlled by an armed militia whose leader was killed last month.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said he was shocked by revelations that gross rights violations were uncovered at detention facilities in Tripoli run by the Stabilization Support Authority, or SSA, an armed group whose commander Abdel-Ghani al-Kikli, was killed in militia fighting in mid-May.
The rights office said it later received information on the excavation of 10 charred bodies at the SSA headquarters in the Abu Salim neighborhood and another 67 bodies discovered in refrigerators in the Abu Salim and Al Khadra hospitals. It also cited reports of a burial site at the Tripoli Zoo that was run by the SSA.
The office said the identities of the bodies were not immediately clear.
'Our worst held fears are being confirmed: dozens of bodies have been discovered at these sites, along with the discovery of suspected instruments of torture and abuse, and potential evidence of extrajudicial killings,' Türk said in a statement.
Türk called on authorities to seal the area to preserve evidence and said there needed to be accountability for the killings. He said the U.N. should be granted access to the sites to document rights violations.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Dawn French takes down Israel-Gaza video after backlash
Dawn French apologised after receiving backlash for a Video she posted about the Israel - Gaza conflict. In the now-deleted Video, French satirised those supporting Israel 's military campaign in Gaza, leading to criticism that she trivialised the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. French acknowledged that her satirical Video failed in its original intention and apologised for clumsily using a mocking tone. She stated her intention was to critique the leaders on all sides of the war, expressing heartbreak for the innocent people killed, tortured, raped, and kidnapped. French explained she was motivated by the suffering of children in Gaza and wanted to voice her desire to say 'NO' to further violence from both sides.
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Why so many Thai nationals are among the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza
Israel has announced the retrieval of the body of Nattapong Pinta, a 35-year-old Thai national taken hostage during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. Pinta was among 31 Thais abducted during the assault that triggered the ongoing conflict. Thailand's foreign ministry confirmed Pinta's death in a statement on Saturday, noting that he was the last Thai hostage held in Gaza. The ministry added that the bodies of two other Thais killed in the conflict have yet to be recovered. According to the foreign ministry, 46 Thais have died since the start of the war. Thai citizens comprised the largest group of foreign nationals held captive by Hamas, and were among tens of thousands of Thai workers residing in Israel at the time of the attack. Why are there so many Thais in Israel? Israel once relied heavily on Palestinian workers, but it started bringing in large numbers of migrant workers after the 1987-93 Palestinian revolt, known as the first Intifada. Most came from Thailand, and Thais remain the largest group of foreign agricultural laborers in Israel today, earning considerably more than they can at home. Thailand and Israel implemented a bilateral agreement a decade ago to ease the way for workers in the agriculture sector. Israel has come under criticism for the conditions under which the Thai farm laborers work. A Human Rights Watch report in 2015 said they often were housed in makeshift and inadequate accommodation and 'were paid salaries significantly below the legal minimum wage, forced to work long hours in excess of the legal maximum, subjected to unsafe working conditions and denied their right to change employers.' A watchdog group found more recently that most were still paid below the legal minimum wage. How many Thai nationals work in Israel? There were about 30,000 Thai workers, primarily working on farms, in Israel prior to the attack by Hamas. In the wake of the attack, some 7,000 returned home, primarily on government evacuation flights, but higher wages than those available at home have continued to attract new arrivals. The Thai ambassador to Israel, Pannabha Chandraramya, recently said there are now more than 38,000 Thai workers in the country. What happened after some left? Faced with a labor shortage in the wake of the exodus, Israel's Agriculture Ministry announced incentives to try to attract foreign workers back to evacuated areas. Among other things, it offered to extend work visas and to pay bonuses of about $500 a month. Thailand's Labor Ministry granted 3,966 Thai workers permission to work in Israel in 2024, keeping Israel in the top four destinations for Thais working abroad last year. Thai migrant workers generally come from poorer regions of the country, especially the northeast, and even before the bonuses, the jobs in Israel paid many times what they could make at home.
Telegraph
7 hours ago
- Telegraph
Asylum seeker suspected of recruiting child soldiers can stay in Britain
An asylum seeker suspected of recruiting child soldiers for the Tamil Tigers has won a human rights case to stay in Britain. The Sri Lankan has been allowed to remain in the UK despite claims he had 'enlisted children under the age of 15' in the militant group. The French justice system previously ruled that he should be denied asylum in France due to the allegations, an immigration tribunal heard. However, British judges ruled that there was not enough evidence to say the allegations were true, and he has been granted refugee status. The Home Office, which attempted to deport him, tried to fight the ruling, but lost its appeal. The identity of the migrant has not been revealed as he was granted anonymity by the Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber. The hearing, in London, was told that before he arrived in the UK, the Sri Lankan was alleged to have recruited child soldiers for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) - also known as the Tamil Tigers. The LTTE is a militant terrorist organisation founded in Sri Lanka. It was heard that the unnamed Sri Lankan was working for the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) - a refugee charity - but was secretly supplying information. Before arriving in the UK, the French asylum court - the Cour nationale du droit d'asile - found that he 'ought to be excluded from a grant of asylum under Article 1F of the Refugee Convention due to his alleged involvement in war crimes, in this case the alleged recruitment of children'. In Britain, the Home Office refused him refugee status, but in 2023, he won an appeal at the First-tier Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber against the decision. At the time, the judge found that the Home Office 'had not shown serious grounds for concluding that [the Sri Lankan] was guilty of the war crime of conscription or enlistment of children under the age of 15 or using them to participate actively in hostilities'. The judge at the 2023 hearing concluded: 'I am not satisfied even on the evidence of his own admissions, accurate or otherwise, to the French that this goes far enough to show that the [Sri Lankan] was effectively collecting information which he knew was going to be misused, and misused specifically for the recruitment of child soldiers under the age of 15. 'Nor am I satisfied that there are serious reasons for considering on all the evidence adduced that the [respondent] has been shown to have knowingly materially assisted in the recruitment of child soldiers under the age of 15, by the work done by the TRO in gathering information, possibly subsequently used by the LTTE for that purpose.' The Home Office appealed that decision at the Upper Tribunal, but lost its case. Home Office lawyers argued that the judge in 2023 did not attach enough weight to the French court decision. Lawyers argued that the judge 'ought to have followed the French Court and that inadequate reasons were given by the judge for not doing so'. But, Deputy Upper Tribunal Judge Adrian Seelhoff ruled that the 2023 hearing considered the French decision 'extensively'. Judge Seelhoff said: 'The Judge assessed that evidence to see if it supported the [Home Office's] case that [the Sri Lankan], whilst working for the TRO, supplied details which the LTTE used to recruit child soldiers. '[The Home Office's] position before us was not that the judge was bound to follow the French court decision, but that he had not given adequate reasons for reaching a different decision or that he failed to attach weight to the decision. 'We find that the judge did give adequate reasons for not following that decision, and for the weight he attached to it and that accordingly there is no error of law in the decision under appeal.'
