As of March 2021, the military, security and political situation in Libya still remains complicated despite the halt of the active military confrontation between the Government of National Accord (GNA) and the Libyan National Army (LNA) and international and internal efforts to relaunch the political settlement process.
SouthFront offers the official statement of Sheikh Al-Senussi Al-Haleq Al-Zawi, President of the Zawi Tribe Council and Vice President of the Supreme Council of Libyan Tribes, and his proposal on the national reconciliation process in Libya.
Sheikh Al-Senussi Al-Heliq Al-Zawi (C). Archive image
The State of Libya – the Presidential Council
National Reconciliation Commission
Written and prepared by Sheikh Al-Senussi Al-Heliq Al-Zawi
A proposal to establish the National Reconciliation Commission
The national reconciliation is one of the national constants that aims to restore peace and security, especially after the years of violence and instability. The state must confront the legacy of the past and its egregious effects, whether political or social. On the other hand, it must face future challenges in order to build peace. National reconciliation is the main requirement at that stage. Therefore, in order for Libya to achieve political stability, we need a comprehensive national reconciliation process that would secure a successful transition to a state of peace. However, difficult challenges stand in the way of this process so far.
There must be vital and adaptive processes aimed at building and healing the torn structure of relationships between individuals and living, which is related to people and their relationship, finding a way to progress together, and searching for the most successful way out of the situation we are in, from political instability and political, electoral and security crises, which confused the scene between the political parties. Those in charge of the political and social scene and mediators from experts, tribes and civil society institutions should search for a mechanism to achieve political stability before all other necessities of eating and drinking, as this is an inevitable result of covering up the deep wounds in the souls of Libyans caused by wars and conflicts.
National reconciliation is the solution to tolerance and justice between political and public parties with the aim of turning the page on the past and achieving stability and peaceful coexistence among all segments of society. Failure to achieve it may cause the failure of the dialogue and the settlement as a whole.
Patriotism, with its concepts of civil harmony, civil peace, national unity or social integration and others, implies forgiveness, justice and tolerance, especially in societies that have suffered a violent form of conflict, tension or wars, as in Libya.
The question here is to what extent will the national reconciliation in Libya contribute to achieving political stability?
We ask a set of questions to lay down the verses and the means that lead to achieving national reconciliation in Libya
What is the Libyan position on the national reconciliation?
Do Libyans need to apply the transitional justice law?
What are the challenges facing national reconciliation and the future prospects that the country is heading towards?
What are the proposed solutions that must be followed in order to lead the country to stability and social security?
Does the national reconciliation process need international and regional support?
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First – the definition of national reconciliation
There is no comprehensive and preventive definition of reconciliation, but it is a kind of understanding and consensus to get out of the crisis and violence that occurs in the way that most countries adopt in the post-conflict period with the aim of effective mechanisms and solutions that people accept and reality responds to by seeking good and social peace and always contemplating finding solutions for people to accept.
The environment interacts with it and the reality responds to it through fairness and achieving justice in order to make reconciliation a decisive and inevitable national collective agreement. It is a national project that achieves justice and stability, defuses tension and arbitrates the rule of law in society, and builds the basis for peaceful democratic dialogue among all as the basis for progress of community.
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Second – Conditions for national reconciliation
There are four main conditions necessary for achievement of national reconciliation in societies that have witnessed violent trends, and they are as follows:
1- Truth: Truth for the victims means to confront and defend their fears, on the part of the perpetrators it means knowledge and understanding of their actions. From the point of view of all members of society, it is caution and an examination of the deep causes and consequences of violence and giving the community the opportunity to know the tools and responsibilities for everyone who is involved.
2- Mercy: It contains the meaning of amnesty, but more than that it is the ability of individuals who have been hurt by violence to initiate respect through their human spirit and agree to live peacefully with the perpetrators. Moral support and material compensation must be provided to the persons and families affected by the violence. This compensation is an official and established principle and it applies.
3- Justice: Justice benefits the meaning of equality, as everyone has diverse rights that cannot be abolished in the system of equal and adequate basic freedoms.
Consistent with the system of freedoms for all, highlighting the experience of transitional justice in the memory of patriotism, and justice in its general meaning is a mixture of religious, moral and social values, and it benefits fairness, moderation and integrity.
4- Peace: Peace is achieved through two elements:
A- To stop the violent actors who caused the conflict , and this is called the peace process.
B- As for the second element, it is to create a space in which people can be together to start the long process and build society again, as peace within society is the important conditions for achieving reconciliation and the state’s respect for the lives of its citizens. Efforts must be replaced in order to uncover and identify all kidnapped and missing persons, and to take care of their families and help them.
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Third – the challenges to national reconciliation in Libya
Libya needs a comprehensive national reconciliation process that would secure a successful transition to a state of peace and political stability. The current security situation in Libya is unjust and untenable. Militias and military councils are the ones ruling the country, and in effect entire cities and tribes have been excluded from the reconciliation process. The number of refugees has reached to nearly a million refugees, in addition to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people. Given the rift that struck Libyan society, national reconciliation should include all Libyans that would ensure Libya’s transition from a fragile, war-torn country with divided society into a stable nation and a united people. Reconciliation itself can be ambiguous in terms of what leads to understanding it in different ways among Libyan citizens in the absence of a unified definition of reconciliation. We must talk about justice before we deal with reconciliation, and thus social justice is presented as it is an essential component of reconciliation.
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Mechanisms of national reconciliation
1- Creation of a supreme national body under the name of the National Reconciliation Commission
2- Subcommittees operate in all the municipalities of the three regions, which the commission undertakes to expand reconciliation
3- Operating sub-committees in the municipalities to set up cultural and media dialogues, follow up the national reconciliation process, evaluate its stages, and shed light on it.
4- Holding conferences for various segments of society, such as
A- Religious scholars conference to support the reconciliation process to issue fatwas in support of it.
B – The tribal chiefs conference issues a code of honor to confront the state of contradiction and defeat terrorism and corruption.
C – A conference of the active political forces in the arena pledging to support the state, protect the political process and face challenges.
D – Calling all civil society institutions to carry out activities, conferences, seminars and education to achieve the goals of the national reconciliation project.
Required principles and policies
1- Adoption of a rational political discourse on the part of the political forces participating in the political process, deepening the spirit of trust and reassuring all parties.
2- Adopting a sincere national dialogue in dealing with all political stances that contradict it and the positions of the various political forces.
3- Adopting the constitutional and legal legitimacy to solve the country’s problems and address all problems and ignorance in order to control all negative phenomena.
4- That the political forces take a stand rejecting all forms of violence.
5- To pardon the detainees who were not involved in crimes, and to form the necessary committees to release the innocent as quickly as possible.
6- Taking quick measures to improve services in remote areas and villages.
7- Carrying out a parallel Arab-Islamic regional move with the government to put the governments in a way that is going on in Libya.
8- Serious and rapid work to build the armed and security forces to take over administrations from Libya and cooperate with the 5 + 5 Committee.
9- Activating the outputs of Geneva, encouraging the initiative for national dialogue, and gaining its approval for the practical aspect of national reconciliation.
10- To start a large-scale reconstruction process for all affected areas of Libya and to address the problem of unemployment.
11- The adoption of confirmed and not malicious information in the process of arrest and search is carried out according to a judicial order issued by the Public Prosecution that does not contradict human rights.
12- Compensation for those affected by violence.
13- What was produced by the Geneva outcomes of a presidential council and government is considered constitutional legitimacy by the will of the Libyan people.
Results of national reconciliation in Libya
– Taking Libya out of the crisis, restoration of security and reassurance of the Libyans
– Bringing the Libyans back to the power to build their state, institutions and law
– Initiate a comprehensive development program to recover from what she has missed during ten years in the field of housing and infrastructure.
– Bringing the displaced inside and outside the country back to the homeland and opening the way for everyone to contribute to the reconstruction of the country, opening of the prisons, and the relevant state institutions to look into the detainees’ files.
The full statement in Arabic:
No reconciliation is possible until the Muslim Brotherhood is eradicated, remember: the MB is the colonial vehicle with which the West has led to all forms of terrorism, it is the root from which all evil for the Arab world and also for the larger Islamic world.
The people of Libya need to return to what Gaddafi started. The country was doing well under his leadership.
These talks only ever mean one thing. That both sides are re-grouping and re-arming. Where is the UN in all this? Keeping a low profile from the mess they allowed to occur by sitting on their hands and looking dumb.
It seems the biggest problems peace keepers face in Libya are the questions of Libya’s own sovereignty, control of its own resources and control of its own banks. Without control of these, there is little point of discussing conciliation with those who call in nato pirates every time the revenue looks likely to stop flowing westwards. Nato are supposed to be the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, but has morphed into a modern day East India company.
The UN only works if both sides are willing to compromise.
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