Arms embargo breaches fuelling Libya violence: UNSC
‘Scant regard being paid to compliance with the sanctions measures.’
An as-yet-unpublished report by experts to the United Nations Security Council Libya Committee, seen by news agencies, will say that the arms embargo in place is being flouted by nations including Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
According to Reuters, the experts wrote that, ‘The transfers (of military material) to Libya were repeated and sometimes blatant with scant regard being paid to compliance with the sanctions measures.’
It will say that both sides in the ongoing struggle for power between the Government of National Accord, and the Libyan National Army, are recipients of arms imported in breach of UN sanctions.
In a briefing to the Security Council in early November, International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told delegates that there had been an escalation of violence in Libya, with a ‘high number of civilian deaths, thousands of persons internally displaced, and a sharp increase in abductions, disappearances and arbitrary arrests.’
She said that without the ‘unequivocal support’ of the international community, Libya risked being ‘embroiled in persistent and protracted conflict and continued fratricide.’
The experts’ report on Libya will, it is believed, be made available in December.
