Forces in western Libya on Wednesday released more than 100 prisoners who had been captured while fighting under the putschist Gen. Khalifa Haftar, in a reconciliatory gesture following recent accords, officials said.
The fighters were freed in the coastal town of Zawiya in a televised ceremony attended by senior officials from the newly appointed transitional government.
The men were fighting for the 107th Brigade under the command of Haftar.
Mohammad Younes Menfi, head of the presidential council, called the move a “significant step” toward a national reconciliation initiative launched by the council, after years of bitter fighting between the internationally-recognized government and the putschist general’s forces.
Those released were seen wearing traditional white uniforms and caps at the ceremony in a soccer stadium before rejoining their families.
Musa al-Koni, deputy head of the presidential council, called for the release of all of Libya’s prisoners of war.
In a speech, Abdallah al-Lafi, vice-president of the country’s new presidential council, welcomed the move and called for further reconciliation and rebuilding.
“We must not pass on hatred and bitterness to our children,” he said.
After a recitation from the Quran and the singing of the national anthem, the prisoners were released and reunited with their families amid loud ululations.
The United Nation’s Libya mission UNSMIL welcomed the release of the fighters, hailing the “efforts by the national unity government.”
The mission tweeted that it “hopes that this initiative constitutes the start of a national reconciliation” and called for “the release of all detainees before the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan” in two weeks.
Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah tweeted that “Libya’s future and development are linked to its ability to heal its wounds through national reconciliation.”
Haftar’s forces launched an offensive in April 2019 to try and capture Tripoli but the campaign collapsed last June.
The warring sides reached a cease-fire deal in October that virtually ended the war and paved the road for U.N.-led political talks. Those talks then led to the appointment of an interim government in February, ahead of elections later this year.
Both Libyan camps have called for a monitoring mechanism led by Libyans themselves, and U.N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres insisted in a December report that “the implementation of the cease-fire agreement must be Libyan-led and Libyan-owned.”
But diplomats have voiced incredulity after the U.N.’s Libya envoy said last week that as few as five U.N. officials may be deployed to monitor the truce.
With some 20,000 foreign fighters still in the country, such a mission is a “pretty big task and probably takes more than a few U.N. ceasefire monitors,” one ambassador to the U.N. told Agence France-Presse (AFP), asking not to be named.
There also remains the difficult question of crimes committed during the war.
Human Rights Watch has said more than 300 people had been abducted or reported missing in Tarhuna, used by Haftar’s forces as a major staging point for his offensive on Tripoli.
Mass graves were later discovered in the town which was run by the local al-Kani militia.
Human Rights Watch’s Libya researcher Hanan Salah tweeted Wednesday that “No one has been held to account yet for the crimes of abduction, disappearance, torture and unlawful killing of scores of people” in Tarhuna.
