Some mainstream media reports get basic facts about Libya situation wrong

On reading many articles on Libya, I have been shocked at the fact that professional news organizations such as Reuters, AFP, and the BBC have reported as facts statements that are demonstrably false. This article presents a number of examples.

For over a year, the UN has been trying, through what is known as the Libyan dialogue, to broker a deal, the Libya Political Agreement (LPA), between the two rival Libyan governments, the internationally-recognized House of Representatives(HoR) based in the east in Tobruk, and the rival General National Congress(GNC) based in Tripoli. Towards the end of his term this fall, then-UN Special Envoy Bernardino Leon was able to present a final draft of the LPA with names of senior members of the associated Government of National Accord (GNA) to the two parliaments. When Martin Kobler took over from Leon on Nov. 17, neither parliament had voted on the issue even though Leon had exerted considerable pressure for them to do so.

Kobler carried on from where Leon left off. He refused to open up the draft to amendments or to change the names of those the UN suggested as senior members of the GNA. Kobler, too, has been unable to have the LPA passed through either parliament. On Dec. 11, Kobler gathered together members of the Libyan dialogue including some from the HoR and the GNC. The GNC has strongly rejected the suggestion that its members represented the GNC. This is in itself is unprecedented. In negotiations, the representatives of each body are authorized by that body to attend negotiations. I expect that the HoR representatives were not designated as a negotiating team either. The HoR has said nothing about what happened even though the president of the HoR supports a competing plan other members of the HoR and GNC negotiated apart from the UN. I take this as a sign that the UN is trying to arrange some deal with the HoR that would be put in jeopardy by a negative reaction from the HoR, or perhaps the HoR is hoping for such a deal.

In any event, the members of the HoR and the GNC at the Tunis meeting agreed to the LPA. Subsequently, the UN Security Council supported the move. On Sunday a large international gathering on Libya also supported Kobler's action. In describing what happened many international news outlets misrepresent the facts. There was no agreement between the two parliaments at all just between some members of each parliament present at the Tunis meeting and no doubt hand-picked by Kobler.

An AFP report claims: Libya's rival parliaments will sign a UN-sponsored agreement next week on forming a national unity government, they announced Friday, as world leaders press them to end chaos in the country.Neither parliament has announced they would sign the deal as the report claims. Read the news release of the UN by Kobler. There is no mention that the parliaments signed or even will sign next Wednesday. He speaks only of the Libya Political Dialogue coming to agreement meaning all those specifically invited to the meeting in Tunis by Kobler. There are no doubt many who did not attend or were not asked to attend who feel quite differently for example the president of the HoR and of the GNC.

The Chinese news outlet Xinhua is no better. They report: Libya's two rival parliaments announced on Friday that Dec. 16 is the date to sign the final peace agreement.

The BBC also joins the chorus misrepresenting the facts: The rival governments agreed at talks in Tunis two days ago to sign the UN-backed political agreement on Wednesday, and Mr Kerry said he expected that to go ahead.As noted, Kerry expected the rival governments to sign the UN-backed agreement on December 16. This is possible but nowhere in Kobler's news release does he suggest that the agreement needs to be approved by the two parliaments. The agreement will go ahead whether they sign or not. So far it appears that the GNC is unlikely to sign on. There has been no response from the HoR.

Why is it that professional media get the facts wrong in this case? One reason may be that Kobler's news release helps them to come to a false conclusion because of the manner in which he arranged the announcement of the agreement in Tunis:You heard what was announced by Mr. Shoueib and Mr. Makhzoum just now, the Libyan political dialogue agreed on a target date for the signature on the 16th of December.Mr. Makhzoum is an official of the GNC government and Shoueib of the HoR government. The GNC claimed that none of their members present represented the GNC and that Makhzoum left the negotiating committee of the GNC back in August. The president of the HoR so far has opposed the LPA but has been silent of late. Notice that Kobler says nothing of the two parliaments signing. He is careful about that. He also at least stretches the truth when he says that the Libyan political dialogue agreed on the date for signing. Only those members of the dialogue invited by the UN to the meeting, forty members in all, agreed to that. No doubt there are many members who were not there who do not agree.

Philippines: NPA kills three AFP troops in Mindanao

This is from Earthtimes. This is the typical hit and run tactics that the New People's Army uses. The NPA is present in Mindanao along with several rebel independentist Muslim groups as well. The NPA will soon celebrate a half century of operation, and before them there was the HUK rebellion.


Three soldiers killed in clash in southern Philippines
Davao City, Philippines - Three soldiers were killed Saturday and six more were wounded in a clash with communist rebels in the southern Philippines, a regional army spokesman said. Major Patrick Cinco said the fighting erupted when an undetermined number of communist guerrillas attacked an army encampment on the outskirts of Davao City, 990 kilometres south of Manila.

Cinco said there were no reported casualties on the guerrillas' side but more troops have been dispatched to the area to conduct pursuit operations.

Communist rebels have been fighting the Philippine government since the late 1960s, making the movement one of the longest-running leftist insurgencies in Asia.

Arroyo orders investigation into killings of civilians by soldiers

This is from the International Herald Tribune. There is another article on the situation in Reuters but not as informative. Many people distrust the AFP and this would be especially true in Muslim areas. The early reports certainly do not look that good. This is an area where US troops are active supposedly limited to humanitarian and training activities. The US presence is also very much resented not just in the Muslim area but by many throughout the Philippines who see the country as too much under the influence of the U.S. However, the U.S. has close links to the AFP in the war on terror.

Philippine president orders investigation into killings of civilians by soldiers
By Carlos H. Conde
Sunday, February 10, 2008
MANILA: President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines has ordered an investigation into the killings last week of seven civilians and an off-duty soldier by Philippine military personnel in the southern province of Sulu.
"The instruction of the president is to have a credible investigation," Gilberto Teodoro, the defense secretary, told reporters Saturday. He also disclosed that at least 50 of the soldiers had been restricted to barracks pending the completion of the investigation.
The Philippine military said last week that its soldiers had encountered a group of militants from the Islamist group Abu Sayyaf in the village of Ipil, in Sulu, early Feb. 4. In the ensuing firefight, it said, three terrorists, two soldiers, seven civilians and one off-duty soldier were killed. Four of those killed were children and other minors, Sulu officials said.
Survivors and relatives of the dead, however, said the victims had been deliberately killed. One survivor, Rawina Wahid, widow of the off-duty soldier, told Teodoro in a meeting last week that soldiers had tied her husband's hands behind his back and shot him while he was facedown on the ground.
She said the soldiers had allowed her to accompany the body of her husband, and those of the other people killed, on a boat to Jolo town, and claimed to have seen American as well as Philippine soldiers on the boat just before she was blindfolded. That allegation has led to outraged condemnations from Muslim and leftist groups that oppose the U.S. military presence in the southern Philippines.
Rebecca Thompson, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy here, said American soldiers do not take part in combat operations in the Philippines. "They are here at the invitation of the Philippine government to share information and work with the Armed Forces of the Philippines on humanitarian and civic projects that benefit the people and benefit the local community," The Associated Press quoted her as saying.
Two units took part in the Ipil raid: the army's Light Reaction Company and the navy's Special Warfare Group. Both units have received training and logistical and intelligence assistance from the U.S. military.
U.S. military personnel have been stationed in the southern Philippines, where Islamist extremist groups such as Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah operate, since 2002.
Abdusakur Tan, the governor of Sulu, said last week that his office was preparing to file charges against the Philippine military.
The Commission on Human Rights, which sent a team to the island last week, said its initial investigation had found that most of the civilian victims had been killed while sleeping and that there were no signs of an exchange of gunfire.