Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte met with President Al Serraj in Tripoli, followed by the President of the High Council of State, Khaled Al Meshri. Then the Italian premier met with General Khalifa Haftar in Benghazi. A mission through which to carry out, with the work of diplomacy and intelligence, the plan proposed with the International Conference of Palermo, on 12 and 13 November last. At the center of the talks is the issue, already addressed also with the UN envoy Ghassam Salamé, of Libyan stabilization.
Giuseppe Conte during the interview with Al Serraj, according to sources from Palazzo Chigi, the premier hoped that 2019 could be "the turning point" for Libya: "We do not want to decide the fate of the Libyan people, but as a country we have their fate at heart and this is the reason why we met in November in Palermo and why I am here today: there is a concern of Italy to offer a contribution so that you can find a path of peace and stability".
The Italian premier has assured that he will be the bearer of this message of support in his contacts today with the other Libyan interlocutors.
Then Giuseppe Conte went to Haftar in Bengasi. He reiterated that the "road to stability remains political agreement" During the long meeting with Khalifa Haftar, the Italian premier reiterated that the road to a stable solution for Libya remains a political agreement. Conte then took off for Tobruq to meet the Speaker of the House of Representatives Agila Saleh.
A change of course for Italy with the strong man of Cyrenaica, General Khalifa Haftar. A secret mission until yesterday, organized by the Farnesina and Aise (the Italian intelligence services).
The Italian premier, before leaving, had already had an interview with the UN envoy to Libya, Ghassam Salamé, in which it was reiterated that Italy's work is part of the UN's path towards Libyan stabilization. Italy is very active in Libya (supported by the US and Russia) and this is demonstrated by the recent appointment of the ambassador to Tripoli, Giuseppe Maria Buccino Grimaldi, but also with the opening of the Consulate in Benghazi.
Conte con Serraj will surely have said that Italy, unlike France, has not only formally recognized its premiership and the Government of National Accord (GNA), but that it has also concretely supported the pacification process with the delivery of medicines in the various districts and with the donation of equipment and training from the Libyan Coast Guard, through the Eunavfor Med-Op. Sophia mission.
Another point put on the table is the strengthening of institutions shared by both Tripoli and Benghazi. Haftar, according to the meeting held at Palazzo Chigi last December 6, wants to have the support of the Italian government in the plan to unify Libya's armed forces and become its commander general. A condition that Haftar has placed, also in Palermo, by supporting Serraj as prime minister in the transition phase towards the elections which, according to the Salamé road map, should be held by June 2019. A general conference is scheduled for January 2019, in preparation for the electoral phase.
Italy had to change course and also include General Kalifa Haftar in the belief that in order to make significant progress in the complicated process of stabilization of Libya and tackle the problem of the external borders, it is necessary to focus on the man who best guarantees control of the territory , especially in that part of Libya (Fezzan) where Italian interests are most concentrated, concerning oil plants (ENI) and the fight against human traffickers.
Haftar has about 40 thousand men and the support of the majority of the most powerful tribes in Libya, in Cyrenaica but also in Tripolitania.
The Italian opening towards Haftar is also due to the fact that other international actors have created a privileged relationship with him, from Egypt, to the Emirates, Russia and France.
Another chapter writes Giovannangeli on Huffington Post is the question of the conditions of the migrants detained in Libya, victims of gang rape and violence of all kinds.
The vast majority of women, including minors, undergo this treatment in the detention camps set up in Libya for migrants who seek to reach Europe from Africa, according to a detailed report drawn up and made public in recent days by the United Nations which speaks of torture, of slavery, of murders, of corpses thrown away like garbage. A document based on first-hand stories collected between January 2017 and last September 30 from the hands-on voice of 1.300 migrants, who survived that Libyan patient and his "unimaginable horrors", managing to arrive in Europe. The report - presented in Geneva and the fruit of the work of the UN mission in Libya and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights - in fact launches a warning to Europe, which closes ports and borders, reiterating that Libya "cannot be considered a safe harbor ”where to bring back the migrants intercepted at sea by the Tripoli coast guard. Because those people, who had just come out of that dark and terrible tunnel, are thus returned to their tormentors, with the prospect of having to retrace it.
The UN report is a shocking gallery of "violations and abuses", of which news had already leaked in the past, committed by a wide range of people who occupy public posts in Libya, by armed groups, human traffickers and smugglers. "Women, adults and adolescents, are generally raped by the herd, while others are picked up and taken to other places where they suffer violence and from which they come back upset, injured and with torn clothes". Witnesses also tell of other murdered, tortured inmates, inhumane conditions of detention, slavery, exploitation and forced labor. And also extortion: more money than those already paid for the trip, extorted from family members by exercising threats on their loved one held hostage and threatened with torture or being killed. In detention centers, the report reveals, the conditions of squalor and violence do not change for children. "Countless migrants and refugees lost their lives in captivity, in the hands of traffickers, shot dead, tortured to death or simply left to starve or for denied medical treatment," the document reads. "Across Libya, unidentified bodies of migrants and refugees with gunshot wounds, torture marks and burns are discovered, often in trash cans, dry river beds, farms and in the desert."