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Libya has faced a wave of internal conflict that has claimed thousands of lives since Colonel Muammar Gaddafi overthrow in 2011.
Between civil wars, the Abu Salim prison massacre, Gaddafi’s regional conflicts and a tendency to “disappear” political dissidents during his reign, many thousands of Libyans have lost loved ones to political conflict and instability. .
This is the reality of war and dictatorship. But the widespread disappearance of human beings is often overlooked as a consequence.
Sunday marks the International Day of the Disappeared. Every year on August 30 draws attention to the disappeared and the consequent suffering of their family and friends.
The cost of war
Across the African continent, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has recorded the disappearance of 44,000 people. Surprisingly, almost half of these people were children at the time of their disappearance.
But the ICRC only registers a missing person when a family member opens a case with the organization.
“This number of cases is a drop in the bucket,” said Sophie Marsac, the ICRC’s regional adviser for the missing and their families in Africa.
In Libya, for example, the ICRC has recorded the disappearance of more than 1,600 people. But according to the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), which aims to keep a record of every disappearance, some 10,000 people are currently missing in Libya alone.
It is not an unusual number after such a long period of conflict and instability. The conflicts and atrocities that accompanied the disintegration of Yugoslavia, for example, are estimated to have led to the disappearance of 40,000 people. While in Syria and Iraq, the ICMP estimates start at 100,000 and 250,000 people, respectively.
In large part, these numbers comprise those who disappeared during years of dictatorship and conflict. But, in Libya, a significant part can also be attributed to slavery, human trafficking and Libya’s position on the migration route to Europe.
The moral significance of these findings cannot be underestimated. Each missing person leaves behind a family, often with little support, who faces psychological, legal and financial challenges for years after the disappearance of their loved ones.
“I hardly sleep,” said Kaltum, from Nigeria, whose daughter disappeared nine years ago. “I feel in my heart that my daughter is alive. I still have hope.”
Kaltum’s daughter disappeared in Nigeria nine years ago. More than half of the 44,000 cases of missing persons recorded by the ICRC in Africa are children [Courtesy: ICRC]
‘I still have hope’
Today, there are organized international efforts to determine the fate of missing persons around the world.
In the Western Balkans, for example, ICMP pioneered the use of DNA matching and tight database computing to locate and identify thousands of missing persons. And today, 70 percent of those who disappeared in the wake of the conflicts of the early 1990s have already been tallied.
In Libya, the ICMP said it has made remarkable progress since signing a cooperation agreement with the government in November 2012.
Together with the Ministry of Families of Martyrs and Disappeared (MFMM), ICMP helped develop the Libyan Identification Center to act as a focal point for investigations across the country. And since then, ICMP has significantly enhanced the MFMM’s technical and scientific capabilities by providing specialized training courses in forensic archeology, crime scene management, and collection of DNA reference samples.
In all, ICMP has helped authorities identify 150 people and collect genetic reference samples representing more than 2,500 missing persons from across Libya. Given the political instability that runs throughout the country, this is a significant result.
However, much of the organization’s work is “intelligence-based,” meaning that a lot of time is spent interviewing witnesses and survivors of political crimes before going out into the field to search for physical evidence.
Since the outbreak of the civil war in 2014, the continuing threat of violence has made these operations incredibly dangerous, forcing the ICMP to suspend its mission in Libya.
Mass grave excavations found in Tarhuna, Libya in June [Hazem Turkia/Anadolu]
New challenges
International organizations have come to expect such challenges in their line of work. But these difficulties have only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic that has spread across the world.
It is now impossible for ICRC analysts to gather large groups of people to hear names or look at photos, and with many countries suspending travel between states or provinces, it has become extremely difficult to conduct large-scale searches.
So ICMP helped pioneer the use of satellite imagery and spectral analysis to identify the boundaries of mass graves.
According to the ICRC, their family link tracing websites – Trace the Face Southern Africa and Trace the Face Europe – They have come in handy amid the limitations associated with COVID-19 as family members can now continue their search remotely using a vast database of digital photos.
These tools help keep the search for the missing alive. But, despite the best efforts of the ICMP and ICRC, thousands still wonder about the fate of their loved ones.
It is not just about a closure for the families of the disappeared, but about the responsibility of the government, justice and social healing.
In addition to obvious ethical obligations, states also have a legal responsibility to account for the missing. The vast majority of these disappearances are the result of political crimes, and it is the responsibility of the State to hold those responsible to account.
As Kathryne Bomberger, ICMP Director General explained: “Accountability for the missing is a moral obligation, but also, and this is crucial, a legal obligation.
“All families of all missing persons have the right to justice. States are legally obliged to investigate the whereabouts of missing persons and the circumstances of their disappearance in accordance with the rule of law,” he told Al Jazeera.
But effective efforts to discover missing persons require cooperation between countries, international institutions, and civil society. By involving the state in discovery and prosecution processes, Bombardier He said the organization also hopes to strengthen national institutions.
In Libya, for example, the ICMP has helped facilitate cooperation between civil society and local government, and helped develop an institutional and legal framework to account for missing persons.
Such operations are vital to the development of strong institutions and, by guaranteeing the rights of its citizens, the state also reinforces its own legitimacy, something that is often lacking in post-conflict societies.
Beyond this, the process of searching for and discovering missing persons also helps build an accurate record of a nation’s history, which is itself key to maintaining peace in post-conflict sensitive states.
These societies are fragile, and by exploiting popular fears and resentments, unscrupulous leaders can often drag them into violence and civil war. But a historical record based on scientific facts greatly reduces the possibility that future leaders will foster mistrust, hatred and conflict.
“Accounting for the missing is an investment in peace and stability,” Bomberger said.
Future perspectives
However, the future of these projects appears relatively uncertain.
This week in Libya, renegade commander Khalifa Haftar and his self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) rejected the announcement of a ceasefire made by the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA). These two factions represent the main forces in Libya’s ongoing civil war, and Haftar’s firing casts doubt on what was at least a fragile peace.
Combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, charities and international organizations face increasing obstacles in their search for the missing.
But these organizations are incredibly resilient. In Iraq, for example, ICMP has helped establish legislative, government and civil society initiatives that work together to locate missing persons, prosecute those responsible for their disappearance, and support the families of the missing.
All of this has been achieved despite continuing unrest across the country, demonstrating the remarkable progress that can be made with the necessary effort and political will.
As Marsac explained: “International Day of the Disappeared should remind us that countless families are searching for a loved one, many of them parents looking for a child. The tragedy of the missing persons is a humanitarian crisis that cannot be forgotten. As the world focuses on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. “
