Equipo Nizkor - UNSC S/2016/508 - Letter from Libya rectifying an information contained in the last report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Support Mission in Libya.

United Nations
Security Council

S/2016/508

Distr.: General
3 June 2016
English
Original: Arabic

Letter dated 2 June 2016 from the Permanent Representative of Libya to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council

I should like to draw your attention to paragraphs 15 and 16 of the report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (S/2016/452), where the expression "forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar" is used instead of the term "Libyan army". This appears to be an insult to hundreds of officers and thousands of troops because it implies that they are loyal to an individual rather than to their homeland and to the legitimate authority that finances the army and supplies it with weapons. It is not in keeping with the neutral role that the United Nations is supposed to be playing in Libya and undermines the Libyan Political Agreement.

The Libyan army is the sole regular armed force recognized by the Libyan House of Representatives, which, alongside the Presidency Council of the Government of National Accord, is one of the two legitimate authorities recognized by the Political Agreement. It is the authority before which General Khalifah Haftar swore his oath when he was appointed as Commander-in-Chief of the Libyan army, and also the authority that appointed General Abdulrazzaq Nazuri as Army Chief of Staff. General Nazuri is also the focal point for the ISIL (Da'esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee, and is responsible for signing end-user certificates for exemptions from the arms embargo against Libya.

Whatever the differences of opinion about the Commander-in-Chief of the Libyan army, that army is an institution with a presence on the ground in all parts of Libya. It should be a party to any resolution to the crisis in Libya and should have a major role in formulating Libya's security and defence policies through the Ministry of Defence of the Government of National Accord.

The contents of the report confirm that the Secretary-General's Special Representative in Libya and the Department of Political Affairs have accepted the propaganda of armed groups and political movements hostile to the army and the police. On 30 May 2016, in an interview with the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, Martin Kobler said that Haftar does not have an army or any territory that he controls fully, as he claims, and that his army is more a patchwork of regular forces, former Qadhafi loyalists, mercenaries from the Sudan and Chad, and some tribal forces.

That statement has no basis in fact, and is a barefaced slander against the Libyan army for which the Secretariat and Mr. Kobler must apologize.

I should be grateful if you would have the present letter issued as a document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Ibrahim O. A. Dabbashi
Ambassador
Permanent Representative

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03Jun16

Letter from Libya rectifying an information contained in the last report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Support Mission in Libya