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A6 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 28 March 2023

U.N.-backed probe cites crimes against humanity in Libya

By JAMEY KEATEN lar migrants” churned up
and SAMY MAGDY “significant revenue” that
Associated Press spurred continued rights
GENEVA (AP) — U.N.- violations, it said.
backed human rights ex- “The support given by the
perts said Monday there EU to the Libyan coast
is evidence that crimes guard in terms of pull-
against humanity have backs, pushbacks, (and) in-
been committed against terceptions led to violations
Libyans and migrants in of certain human rights,”
chaos-stricken Libya, in- said investigator Chaloka
cluding women being Beyani. “You can’t push
forced into sexual slavery. back people to areas that
The investigators commis- are unsafe, and the Libyan
sioned by the U.N.-backed waters are unsafe for the
Human Rights Council also embarkation of migrants.”
faulted the European Union He said the European bloc
for sending support to Liby- and its member states
an forces that they say con- weren’t found to be re-
tributed to crimes against sponsible for war crimes,
migrants and Libyans, and but “the support given has
called on EU authorities to Mohamed Auajjar, center, Chairperson of the Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya, aided and abetted the
review their policies toward Chaloka Beyani, left, and Tracy Robinson, members of the Fact-Finding Mission, speak to the commission of the crimes.”
Libya. media ahead of presenting the findings of the final report, at the 52nd session of the Human European Commission
The findings come in an ex- Rights Council during a press conference, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in spokesman Peter Stano
tensive new report, based Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, March 27, 2023. Associated Press told reporters Monday that
on interviews with hun- the EU did not fund the Lib-
dreds of people, including seeking a better quality available for comment. of arbitrary detention, mur- yan coast guard “nor any
migrants and witnesses, of life in Europe. A ctivists The investigators found der, torture, rape, enslave- other entity in Libya,” add-
that wraps up a fact-find- have long decried horrible “reasonable grounds to ment, sexual enslavement ing that the EU assistance
ing mission created nearly conditions faced by mi- believe that crimes against and enforced disappear- was meant to “improve
three years ago to investi- grants who were trafficked humanity were committed ance.” their performance.” “We
gate rights violations and and smuggled across the against Libyans and mi- The Libyan coast guard, are providing assistance
abuses in the North African Mediterranean. Spokesper- grants throughout Libya,” which has received training to help them improve
country. The mission shared sons for the government in said Mohamed Auajjar, the and equipment from the their performance when it
its findings with the Interna- the capital of Tripoli, which head of the fact-finding EU, has worked “in close comes to search and res-
tional Criminal Court. works in western Libya, and mission. Speaking in Ara- coordination” with traffick- cue, be it with vessels, be
Oil-rich but largely lawless the forces of a powerful bic through a translator at ing networks in Libya, the it with equipment, or previ-
Libya has in recent years commander that controls a news conference in Ge- report said. ously training with a focus
emerged as the dominant eastern and southern Lib- neva, he said his team un- The “wide-scale exploita- exactly on human rights,”
transit point for migrants ya, were not immediately earthed “numerous cases tion of vulnerable, irregu- he said.q

U.S. lawsuit seeks to protect habitat of endangered corals

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) of failing to protect 12 en- have been decimated by improve water quality in dangered category in De-
— An environmental group dangered coral species warming waters, pollution the coastal zone, limit ex- cember. The other seven
filed a lawsuit Monday ac- across the Caribbean and and overfishing. cessive fishing and protect endangered species in the
cusing the U.S. government the Pacific Ocean that The Arizona-based Center spawning grounds, ac- Pacific include the acro-
for Biological Diversity said cording to the environmen- pora jacquelineae, which
it filed the lawsuit against tal group, which said “ab- resembles a flat plate that
the National Marine Fisher- sent bold and immediate can grow up to three feet
ies Service more than two action” coral reefs world- (1 meter) long.
years after the agency wide could collapse over Corals worldwide have suf-
proposed to protect more the coming century. fered die-offs from pollu-
than 6,000 square miles A spokeswoman for the tion, diseases, acidification,
worth of coral habitat but National Oceanic and At- over-fishing and an event
never did so. mospheric Administration known as “coral bleach-
The critical habitat desig- Fisheries said the agency ing,” which is caused by
nation would cover 5,900 does not comment on liti- warming oceans as a result
square miles off Puerto gation. of climate change.
Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, The Caribbean has five en- Overall, 23 coral species,
Florida and the northwest- dangered species of coral, which are the building
ern Gulf of Mexico. It also including the mountainous blocks of reefs, are listed
would cover 230 square star coral, which is largely as endangered and six as
miles around islands includ- brown with fluorescent critically endangered, ac-
A coral grows under in the Caribbean Ocean along Caye
Caulker near the second largest barrier reef that runs along the ing Guam and American green streaks, and the pil- cording to the International
coast of Belize, Dec. 15, 2009. Samoa in the Pacific. lar coral, which was moved Union for Conservation of
Associated Press Such a designation could from vulnerable to the en- Nature.q