The draft proposal for a political agreement among Libya’s opposing factions outlined last month by Bernardino Leon, head of the United Nations Special Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), raised controversy amongst activists. Some believe that Leon’s draft is comprehensive and meets the requirements of the current critical situation in Libya while others, namely the General National Congress (GNC), described it as immature and disappointing.
“It does not provide an objective, comprehensive, balanced solution,” read an official GNC statement.
The draft proposal for a political agreement among Libya’s opposing factions outlined last month by Bernardino Leon, head of the United Nations Special Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), raised controversy amongst activists. Some believe that Leon’s draft is comprehensive and meets the requirements of the current critical situation in Libya while others, namely the General National Congress (GNC), described it as immature and disappointing.
“It does not provide an objective, comprehensive, balanced solution,” read an official GNC statement.
Dialogue without stubbornness
Lawyer Azza Makhour said the draft proposal is coherent and comprehensive as it puts forward a number of key principles including the restriction of the state’s right to use force, the formation of an impartial national security council as well as an army under the civil authority.
Makhour added that the most important principles outlined in the draft include restricting the import of arms and ammunition to the government of national concord in addition to the full and permanent ceasefire.
“Such aspirations will not be achieved with intransigence and stubbornness when it comes to the homeland,” she said.
The Brotherhood objects
On the other hand, political analyst Khaled Mutawe said a great section of the Libyan people oppose Leon’s draft entirely.
“The Muslim Brotherhood in Libya rejected the UN draft proposal to solve the political crisis of the country as they previously rejected the elections of 2012 indirectly and the elections of 2014 directly,” he said.
Mutawe added that the UN draft recognizes that the democratic elections and the survival of the state are more important than the decisions of the constitutional body, despite their respect to their judiciary. In other words, he explained, the primary reason for the Brotherhood’s rejection is due to the document’s recognition of the Libyan House of Representatives (HoR) as the sole legislative authority in the country. Such a rejection is a mere political cover for the Brotherhood and is a manifestation of their affiliated militias’ opinion.
Similarly, the Justice and Construction Party, the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, issued a statement on the second day of submitting the draft in which the party urged Leon to take his draft off the table and expressed disappointment and surprise about this proposal since, according to the statement, it turned a blind eye to all the initiatives put on the table in the main dialogue.
Read it please!
On the other hand, journalist Suad Salem called for carefully reading the draft and disregarding the voices that aim at obstructing the process of resolving the country’s crisis.
Salem said she read the draft and whoever opposes it has no intention to the deliver the country from its suffering or as human rights activist Naima Jibril, who participated in the dialogue hosted in Morocco, puts it, “Leon is much more of a Libyan than the Libyans themselves.”
“Read it please,” Salem said and bitterly added, “If you have a more comprehensive vision that is not articulated in this draft, tell me.”
Salem urged the Libyans to consider the interests of their homeland, its components and its future aside from “exploiting religion, tribal affiliations and ignorance,” she stressed.
Fruitless and inconsistent
The HoR also expressed their opinion of the draft. Fathi Bashagha, the HoR member who has been boycotting the HoR sessions, said the draft is fruitless and contains inconsistent and contradictory articles. He also added that the draft used different descriptions in referring to the dialogue’s participants.
He attributed such inconsistency to the draft’s avoidance in acknowledging all involved parties, and he accused Leon’s proposal of serving one particular party to monopolize power.
Similarly, journalist Ismail Qreitly said the draft ignored a key party in the current crisis, namely the GNC. He added that the proposal’s structural failure is a result of neglecting the GNC and its political, military and social components while serving the interests of the parliament and its affiliated politicians, leaders and militants.
Qreitly also stressed that the draft and the UNSMIL failed to develop solid principles in line with their objectives and it is a ‘must’ to revise this obvious partiality even if it is ‘unintentional’.
Qreitly additionally said the proposal dealt with the Libyan army and security forces as if they were not parties involved in the current political and military conflict, which further increases the complexity of the scene and alarms against the danger of a fierce civil war that will not abide by any UN resolution or threats of sanctions.
We are involved
In light of the current crisis, the Constitution Drafting Assembly is still working on preparing a constitution that would be embraced by all Libyans — the assembly’s members are closely observing the ‘Leon draft’ negotiations.
Constitution Drafting Assembly’s member Omar Naasan said: “We are involved in the Libyan dialogue and we believe that Leon is trying to bridge the gap between the warring factions in Libya’s transitional phase. However, I always stress that what happens during this transitional period should not affect the work of the constituent body missioned with ending the transitional phase with all its interim entities to establish a phase of genuine stability and constitution-governed institutions.”
Skhirat dialogue, which began two months ago, aimed in the first place to ceasefire followed by appointing an agreed upon figure to lead the government of national concord and select the ministers who will represent the diverse parties in this government.
In parallel to these different opinions, UNSMIL headed by Leon is considering the criticism it received from all parties to outline a fourth political solution draft that would be accepted by all parties and affiliations. Would this fourth draft end the Libyans crisis?
