The Libyan army withdraws from the national reconciliation file for this reason

Representatives of the General Command of the Libyan Army announced their withdrawal from participating in the national reconciliation file, in response to the President of the Presidential Council, Mohamed Al-Menfi, withdrawing the decision to include the dead and wounded of the army forces in the Martyrs’ Authority, which constitutes a blow to this project that aims to reunite the Libyans.

This week, Al-Menfi withdrew his decision to include the dead and wounded of the Libyan army forces in the General Authority for the Care of the Families of Martyrs, Missing and Amputees in the National Unity Government, after he was exposed to a wave of protests inside Tripoli that reached the point of storming his headquarters, and his deputy Ali Al-Lafi opposed him.

The Libyan army considered, in a statement, that the Presidential Council’s withdrawal of the decision after submitting to threats proves its incompetence to take over the management of the national reconciliation project, calling on the African Union to choose a better partner to lead this file away from politicization and procrastination.

He pointed out that the army forces provided their most precious resources to defeat terrorism and liberate the cities of Benghazi, Derna and the south from it and return them to the state, pointing out that one of the most basic rights is to care for the families of the martyrs and empower them with their rights.

In the same context, members of the Preparatory Committee for the Reconciliation Project, representing the General Command of the Army, in a letter addressed to the African Union, criticized the Chairman of the Reconciliation Committee, Representative of the Presidential Council, Ali Al-Lafi, of the decision to include the army dead in the body of martyrs, considering that Al-Lafi’s behavior constitutes bias towards one party over another. This deviates from the principle of neutrality that it is supposed to be, and undermines the efforts of the African Union to achieve national reconciliation.
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The army representatives called for a reconsideration of Al-Lafi assuming supervision of the reconciliation file, which cannot tolerate exclusion, evasion and procrastination, stressing that they will demand that the United Nations withdraw the file from the Presidential Council as a basic condition for them to continue in the committee if their request is rejected.

The withdrawal of the Libyan army from the reconciliation file would threaten the failure of this project, which aims to restore confidence between all political parties and reunite all Libyans, especially after the withdrawal of representatives of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, in protest against the continued imprisonment of Gaddafi figures without charges being brought against them.