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Guterres Appoints New Representative for Libya

Hanna Serwaa Tetteh of Ghana, the new envoy to Libya (UN)
Hanna Serwaa Tetteh of Ghana, the new envoy to Libya (UN)
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Guterres Appoints New Representative for Libya

Hanna Serwaa Tetteh of Ghana, the new envoy to Libya (UN)
Hanna Serwaa Tetteh of Ghana, the new envoy to Libya (UN)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced on Friday the appointment of Hanna Serwaa Tetteh of Ghana as the global body's new envoy to Libya, replacing Senegal's Abdoulaye Bathily who stepped down last April.

Before joining the United Nations, Tetteh was a senior member of the cabinet of the Government of Ghana as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2017, and member of the National Security Council and the Armed Forces Council. She also served as Minister for Trade and Industry from 2009 to 2013.

Tetteh, who has been Secretary-General Antonio Guterres's special representative to the Horn of Africa for the past two years, is the 10th person since 2011 to occupy the sensitive post of special envoy and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).

Tetteh's appointment requires endorsement by the UN Security Council, according to AFP.

The post, in a North African country riven by conflict and civil war for over a decade, had been vacant since the surprise departure last April of Bathily.

At the time the Senegalese diplomat warned of a “lack of political will and good faith” by Libyan leaders and said the United Nations could not “operate successfully” in such a climate.

Libya has been mired in political chaos and conflict since the overthrow of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

 

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Syria Arrests Assad-era Officer Accused of 'War Crimes'

Sultan al-Tinawi. (Syrian Interior Ministry)
Sultan al-Tinawi. (Syrian Interior Ministry)
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Syria Arrests Assad-era Officer Accused of 'War Crimes'

Sultan al-Tinawi. (Syrian Interior Ministry)
Sultan al-Tinawi. (Syrian Interior Ministry)

Syrian authorities said Tuesday they had arrested a former officer in the feared security apparatus of ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad, the latest such announcement as the new government pursues ex-officials accused of atrocities.

The interior ministry announced in a statement that security forces in the coastal province of Latakia had arrested the "criminal brigadier-general Sultan al-Tinawi", saying he was a key officer in the air force intelligence, one of the Assad family's most trusted security agencies.

The statement accused Tinawi of involvement in "committing war crimes against civilians, including a massacre" in the Damascus countryside in 2016.

It said he was responsible for "coordinating between the leadership of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and a number of sectarian groups in Syria".

Tinawi has been referred to the public prosecution for further investigation, the statement said.

A security source, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media, said that Tinawi held senior administrative positions in the air force intelligence when Jamil Hassan was head of the notorious agency.

Hassan has been sentenced in absentia in France for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes, while the United States has accused him of "war crimes", including overseeing barrel bomb attacks on Syrian people that killed thousands of civilians.

Tinawi had been "head of the information branch of the air force intelligence" before Assad's ouster late last year, the security source told AFP, describing the branch as "one of the most powerful and secret security agencies in the country".

Since taking power in December, Syria's new authorities have announced a number of arrests of Assad-era security officials.

Assad fled to Moscow with only a handful of confidants, abandoning senior officials and security officers, some of whom have reportedly fled to neighboring countries or taken refuge in the coastal heartland of Assad's Alawite minority community.