Mansour Rashid Kikhia (also spelled Mansur, ar, منصور الكيخيا; December 1931 – c. 1993) was the Libyan Minister of Foreign Affairs (1972–1973), Libyan Ambassador to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

, Permanent Libyan Representative to the United Nations (1975–1980), and later an opposition figure to Libya's leader

Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...

, and human rights activist.

Biography

He was born in

Benghazi, Libya Benghazi () , ; it, Bengasi; tr, Bingazi; ber, Bernîk, script=Latn; also: ''Bengasi'', ''Benghasi'', ''Banghāzī'', ''Binghāzī'', ''Bengazi''; grc, Βερενίκη (''Berenice'') and ''Hesperides''., group=note (''lit. Son of he Ghazi ...

in 1931. As a child, he studied in his hometown Benghazi before being sent to Egypt to attend high school and graduated from a university in 1950. al-Kikhia received a degree in International Law from

Paris-Sorbonne University Paris-Sorbonne University (also known as Paris IV; french: Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV) was a public research university in Paris, France, active from 1971 to 2017. It was the main inheritor of the Faculty of Humanities of the Universit ...

. In 1962, he joined the Libyan Embassy in France and then, in

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

in 1963. He was made Libyan General Consul to the UN office in Geneva (1963-1967) and a member of the Libyan Mission to the United Nations in 1968. After the 1969 Libya coup, he went on to occupy important post in the new government. During the early 1970s, he stood up for his principles and defended prisoners rights despite the risk. From 1972 to 1973, he served as foreign minister and later Libyan permanent representative to the UN from 1975 to 1980. He resigned in 1980 in opposition to Gaddafi's regime in protest against the policies of

summary execution A summary execution is an execution in which a person is accused of a crime and immediately killed without the benefit of a full and fair trial. Executions as the result of summary justice (such as a drumhead court-martial) are sometimes include ...

s practiced by the Libyan government at the time through the so-called revolutionary committees. He moved to the United States in 1980 and applied for American citizenship. He was married to an American, Baha Omary Khikia, where they lived in

Vienna, Virginia Vienna () is a town in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. census, Vienna has a population of 16,473. Significantly more people live in ZIP codes with the Vienna postal addresses (22180, 22181, and 22182), bordered approx ...

. During exile, he founded the Libyan Human Rights Association in 1984. Two years later, he established the Libyan National Alliance and was elected as secretary general.

Disappearance in Egypt and Discovery of Body

On 10 December 1993, he vanished mysteriously after participating in an

Arab Organization for Human Rights The Arab Organization for Human Rights ( ar, المنظمة العربية لحقوق الإنسان) is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that works on human rights issues in the Arab World. It was founded with a resolution agreed on in Hamm ...

Board of Trustees meeting in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

. Eyewitnesses at the time reported that he was seen drinking coffee with two men believed to be working for Egypt's

Mukhabarat ( ar, مخابرات, also transliterated '' / ''), is the Arabic term for intelligence, as used by an intelligence agency. In most of the Middle East, the term is colloquially used in reference to secret police agents who spy on civilians. Organi ...

abducted by three men in a black limousine with diplomatic license plate a few yards from the Safir Hotel Cairo where he was staying. Neither the Egyptian nor the Libyan authorities have issued reports or claimed responsibility regarding this

forced disappearance An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organiza ...

, ever. A four-year investigation conducted by the CIA, which was concluded in August 1997 produced convincing evidence that Egyptian agents staged the abduction and forcibly escorted al-Kikhia to the residence of Ibrahim Bishari, Libyan ambassador to the Arab League where he was interrogated by Abdullah Senussi, then to the Libyan authorities, who executed him. His body was found in October 2012 inside a refrigerator of a villa in Tripoli belonging to the former military intelligence after former Libyan intelligence chief,

Abdullah Senussi Abdullah Senussi ( ) is a Libyan national who was the intelligence chief and brother-in-law of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. He was married to Gaddafi's sister-in-law. Scottish police officers plan to interview him in connection with the Lockerbie ...

provided the information and his death still remain a mystery. Some have speculated that he died during the events at

Abu Salim prison Abu Salim prison ( ar, سجن أبو سليم) is a maximum security prison in Tripoli, Libya. The prison was notorious during the rule of Muammar Gaddafi for alleged mistreatment and human rights abuses, including a massacre in 1996 in which H ...

; while others claim that he died in prison as a result of medical negligence. Khikia was provided a state funeral in Benghazi and memorial service in his honour on 3 December 2012.

Egyptian government accusations

The similarity between Reda Helal and Kikhia cases has raised widespread suspicion about the involvement of high-ranking Egyptian officials. Kikhia's lawyer does not rule out Libyan and American involvement in his disappearance."Al Kikhya's lawyer does not rule out Libyan and US involvement in his disappearance,"
ArabicNews.com (10/28/1997) The recent arrest in London of a highly respected Egyptian engineer, Professor Momdouh Hamza, has implicated four top Egyptian officials with close ties to the Mubarak family and re-opened the rumor mill in Cairo. For years Egyptians have heard of forced disappearance of public figures elsewhere in the region (e.g. Iraq, Syria and Libya), but not their own.

Personal life

He was the cousin of Libyan-American academic Mansour Omar El-Kikhia, whose father, Omar Pasha Mansour El Kikhia, was the first prime minister of Cyrenaica.

References

External links