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A30 world news
Dialuna 21 Juni 2021

Libyan guards accused of sexually assaulting minors

nizations say they have been She removed his hands and Europe. At least 677 people
trying to secure their release started to cry. The guard only are known to have either died
for weeks. stopped after realizing other or gone missing taking this
employees were at the center, route on unseaworthy boats
After their rescue from traf- she said. so far this year.
fickers in February, the
17-year-old was brought “Every day they do this,” she Nearly 13,000 men, women
along with eight other young said. “If you resist, you will and children have been inter-
female migrants to Shara al- be beaten or deprived of ev- cepted by the Libyan Coast
Zawiya. Four of the others erything.” Guard and returned to Lib-
were later released under un- yan shores from the start of
clear circumstances. The Libyan government has the year up to June 12, a re-
not responded to requests for cord number. Most are then
One night in April, around comment by the AP. placed in DCIM-run centers.
midnight, she asked a guard
to let her go the bathroom. At least two of the girls at- At some of the 29 DCIM-
When she finished, the guard tempted to kill themselves run centers around the coun-
attacked her and grabbed her in late May following alleged try, rights groups have docu-
(AP) — When Libyan secu- thing in return to go to the breasts forcefully, she re- beatings and attempted rapes, mented a lack of basic hy-
rity forces rescued her earlier bathroom, to call family or called. according to local rights giene, health care, food and
this year, the young Somali to avoid beating,” she said. group Libyan Crimes Watch water as well as beatings and
woman thought it would be “It’s like we are being held “I was petrified and didn’t and U.N. agencies. torture. DCIM receives sup-
the end of her suffering. For by traffickers.” The Associ- know what to do,” she told port, supplies and training,
more than two years, she had ated Press does not identify AP. The guard touched the One of them, a 15-year-old, including on human rights,
been imprisoned and sexual- victims of sexual assault, and rest of her body including her was taken to the hospital on through the EU’s 4.9 billion-
ly abused by human traffick- the young woman also asked intimate parts, then unzipped May 28 and treated by the euro Trust Fund for Africa.
ers notorious for extorting, not to be named, fearing re- his pants and tried to strip her international aid group Doc-
torturing and assaulting mi- prisals. clothes in an attempt to rape tors Without Borders only to Libya has been applauded
grants like her trying to reach her, she said. He continued be returned to the detention by the West for a cease-fire
Europe. Smugglers and traffickers his assault while she cried, center. reached last year and the ap-
in Libya — many of them struggled and pleaded for pointment of an interim
Instead, the 17-year-old said, members of militias — have him to get off her. Maya Abu Ata, a spokeswom- government earlier this year,
the sexual assaults against her long been notorious for bru- an for MSF Libya, confirmed prompting visits by Europe-
have continued, only now by talizing migrants. But rights “He only stopped when he that the group’s staff treated an leaders and the reopening
guards at the government- groups and U.N. agencies say was done on my clothes,” she the two at its clinic. MSF of some embassies. Despite
run center in the Libyan abuse also takes place in the said. “I was lucky that he was is the abbreviation for the seemingly growing political
capital Tripoli where they are official DCIM-run facilities. done quickly.” French name of the group, stability, activists and human
being kept. Medecins Sans Frontieres. rights organizations say their
“Sexual violence and exploi- The guard then ordered her access to migrants in deten-
She and four other Somali tation are rife in several de- to clean her clothes that had The MSF teams “advocated tion centers is becoming
teenagers undergoing simi- tention centers (for migrants) been covered in his semen, for their release from deten- more restricted.
lar abuses are pleading to be across the country,” said Tarik she recalled, breaking down tion and lobbied protection
released from the Shara al- Lamloum, a Libyan activist in tears. actors and different inter- “The guns are silent, a cease-
Zawiya detention center. It is working with the Belaady locutors, however, these at- fire is in place ... but human
one of a network of centers Organization for Human Terrified, she returned to her tempts were unsuccessful,” rights violations are con-
run by Libya’s Department Rights. cell and told one of the oth- she said. tinuing unabated,” said Suki
for Combating Illegal Im- er girls what had happened. Nagra, representative of the
migration, or DCIM, which The U.N. refugee agency She soon learned she wasn’t The UNHCR said it was Office of the United Na-
is supported by the Euro- has documented hundreds of the only victim. All the girls, working with Libyan au- tions High Commissioner
pean Union in its campaign cases of women raped while aged 16 to 18, had experi- thorities for the release of the for Human Rights in Libya,
to build Libya into a bulwark in either DCIM detention enced similar or worse abuse five young women still held who is following the reports
against mainly African mi- or traffickers’ prisons, with by guards, she said. at Shara al-Zawiya and their of abuse at Shara al-Zawiya.
grants crossing the Mediter- some even being impregnat- subsequent evacuation from
ranean Sea. ed by guards and giving birth A 16-year-old in the same cell Libya. Even when cases are docu-
during detention, said Vin- told the AP she started com- mented and alleged perpetra-
“While it is not the first time cent Cochetel, the agency’s ing under sexual harassment The case of the teens in Shara tors arrested, they are often
I suffer from sexual attacks, special envoy for the Central a few days after arriving at al-Zawiya also renews ques- released due to the lack of
this is more painful as it was Mediterranean. the center. When she pleaded tions about the EU’s role in witnesses willing to testify for
by the people who should with a guard to call her fam- the cycle of violence trapping fear of reprisals. For example,
protect us,” the 17-year-old The group of teens are the ily, he gave her a phone and migrants and asylum seek- Abdel-Rahman Milad, who
said, speaking to The Associ- only migrants being kept at let her out of her cell to call ers in Libya. The EU trains, was under U.N. sanctions
ated Press by a smuggled mo- Shara al-Zawiya, a facility her mother. Once she hung equips and supports the and was arrested last year on
bile phone. where usually migrants stay up, he stood behind her and Libyan Coast Guard to in- charges of human trafficking
only short periods for pro- grabbed her breasts, she said. tercept people trying to cross and fuel smuggling, walked
“You have to offer some- cessing. Human rights orga- the Central Mediterranean to free in April without trial.

Suspect arraigned in killing of American student in Russia

AP) — A court in central Russia wooded area near the city of Nizh- last texted her: “In a car with a strang- of a dispute.” Russian news reports
on Sunday arraigned a suspect ny Novgorod, 400 kilometers (250 er. I hope I’m not being abducted.” have identified the suspect as Alex-
on murder charges in the death miles) east of Moscow. She had been ander Popov and said he had a record
of an American woman who was missing since Tuesday. State news agency RIA-Novosti cit- of violent crimes.
studying at a local university. ed the local court as saying the sus-
Her mother, Beccy Serou, of Vicks- pect gave her a ride in his car, then He faces up to life in prison if con-
The body of 34-year-old Cathe- burg, Mississippi, told U.S. National took her to the wooden area and beat victed of murder.
rine Serou was found Saturday in a Public Radio that her daughter had her and stabbed her “in the course