Mashashiya

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The Mashashiya (also: Mashashi ; Arabic المشاشية al-Maschaschiya , DMG al-Mašāšīya ) are an Arab tribe in Libya .

Way of life

The Mashashiya originally lived as nomadic shepherds in the south of Libya, their name means something like "those who walk" in Arabic , which indicates the lack of mounts and poverty. They do not belong to any major tribal confederation and rely on the descent from a marabout . At the beginning of the 1970s, the Gaddafi regime settled them in the southeast of the western Libyan Nafusa Mountains . This led to conflicts with the resident tribes of the Sintan , Khalifa and Kikla, who believed that the Mashashiya had been unjustly settled on their land.

Libyan civil war

During the Libyan civil war , the Mashashiya were accused by neighboring Arab and Berber tribes of unanimously on the side of Gaddafi. The places they inhabit Oumer, Zawiyat Al-Bajoul and Awaniya are said to have been used as a base for shelling rebellious regions. They are also said to have failed to comply with an agreement concluded between the tribes to maintain neutrality in the conflict and to have opened their cities to Gaddafi's troops. Evidence for these allegations could not be produced. Mashashiya leaders say they left their cities immediately after they were occupied by Gaddafi's troops, fled to Tripoli and Shgeiga and did not take part in the fighting.

Their cities were largely destroyed after the conquest by militias ( thuwwar ) from Sintan and the Nafusa Mountains, and their houses looted and burned down. Most of the Mashashiya fled to the city of Shgeiga , near Tripoli , where they have been living in emergency shelters ever since. In September 2011, tribal elders and leaders from the Nafusa Mountains assured them that they would return to their homeland if they surrendered their weapons, handed over wanted people and raised the " independence flag" in Shgeiga . Although they said they met the requirements, they could not return safely to their places of origin. The residents of Nafusa made it a condition that they can reliably prove their land ownership in the region. Shgeiga was bombed and occupied by Sintan militias in December 2011. In addition, several members of the tribe disappeared after kidnappings by the Sintan militias. In November 2012 a unit of the Libyan armed forces from Mashashiya was formed, on this occasion the then interim president al-Magariaf visited Shgeiga. Spokespeople for the Sintan militia protested against uniting the army. In 2012 and 2013 there were further attacks by the Sintan militias on Mashashiya in Shgeiga and Mizdah , as a result of which 120 people died and over 1000 families were displaced. The total number of displaced people is given by spokesmen for the tribe with over 10,000 from 1,730 families. A report by the UN Security Council from June 2013 mentions several thousand Mashashiyas displaced. Their shelters are poorly equipped and unsafe and their freedom of movement is severely restricted.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David Blink, Glossary of Libyan Tribes ( December 20, 2014 memento in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Libya, March 2, 2012 , United Nations Human Rights Council; P. 131–134 ( Memento of the original from August 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lcil.cam.ac.uk
  3. ↑ a b c BARRED FROM THEIR HOMES , Report, Amnesty International, London 2013, pp. 5–7, 17, 21, 33
  4. ↑ Wolfram Lacher, Bruchlinien der Revolution , SWP Berlin 2013, p. 25
  5. ^ United Nations Security Council, 6981st meeting, Tuesday, June 18, 2013 (PDF), p. 4

Sources and web links