05 Dec 2017

Libya head of mission to Botswana, Mr Hussein Hinidah has condemned the western media for portraying Libya in a negative way.

Addressing a press conference following recent reports that Libyans have been auctioning black people to Europeans, Mr Hinidah said the reports were  baseless and   Libya has launched an investigation into the slave auctions.

He said immediately after the report is out, it would be published for the whole world to know the truth.

He appealed to the international community to provide more support for the country to tackle the problem.

The footage of men being auctioned off as slaves in Libya was met with outrage with the UN Secretary-General calling on the international community to ‘unite in fighting the scourge’.

In the grainy mobile footage, unidentified men were offered up as a group of ‘big strong boys for farm work’.

The film was obtained by CNN journalists, who later witnessed another sale of a dozen men in a courtyard outside the country’s capital, Tripoli.

Mr Hinidah explained that the truth of the matter is that Libya is being used as a gate way or transit route because of its proximity to Europe.

He explained that there were about 5 000 human traffickers in Libya and the country had no capacity to control this huge figure.

On other issues, the head of mission explained that Libya had a legitimate government, which is the National Transitional Council of Libya after the fall of Muammar Kaddafi in 2011.

The formation of the NTC was announced in the city of Benghazi in February 2011 with the purpose to act as the ‘political face of the revolution’.

On other issues, Mr Hinidah said the government of Libya seriously condemns matters of slave trade and human trafficking.

He said both acts are criminal and should be condemned in every way possible because they dehumanise people.

He said Libya is also bordered by terrorist Islamic States groups such as ISIS, which are fuelling the criminal activities and the world interpretes such offences as being done by the Libyans.

He said Libya is not poor to the extent of trading in slaves and trafficking humans, adding that the country is now doing well in developing its people after the fall of Kaddafi. BOPA