[D66] Mass killings, arbitrary detention under new Libyan regime

[Antid Oto]

Directeur Human Rights Watch vindt 53 lijken van Khaddafi- aanhangers
http://www.nieuwsblad.be/article/detail.aspx?articleid=GSJ3HHB8K

On 25-10-2011 9:00, Antid Oto wrote:
> Mass killings, arbitrary detention under new Libyan regime
> By Patrick O’Connor
> 25 October 2011
> 
> US-based Human Rights Watch yesterday revealed it had evidence of a massacre of
> 53 people carried out by anti-Gaddafi fighters in the devastated Libyan city of
> Sirte. The bodies, some with their hands bound behind their backs before being
> shot about a week ago, were discovered in Hotel Mahari, in Sirte’s District 2.
> 
> Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted: “The bloodstains on the grass directly below the
> bodies, bullet holes visible in the ground, and the spent cartridges of AK-47
> and FN-1 rifles scattered around the site strongly suggest that some, if not all
> of the people, were shot and killed in the location where they were discovered.”
> 
> Local people identified two of the murdered men as a former Gaddafi government
> official and a military officer, but reported that many others were Sirte
> residents who had attempted to flee as the NATO-backed “rebel” forces were
> laying waste to the city. The HRW statement continued: “Other victims were
> possibly released from Ibn Sina Hospital in Sirte, they said, after being
> treated for conflict-related injuries. The claim that some of the victims had
> been released from the hospital is consistent with the discovery of bandaged
> wounds on some of the bodies.”
> 
> The hotel was under the control of anti-Gaddafi forces from Misrata when the 53
> people were killed. Graffiti on the walls indicated that five militia groups had
> occupied the building.
> 
> The mass killing was committed in the final stage of the NATO-enforced siege of
> Sirte, which involved the unlawful firing of mortars, rockets, and other
> missiles into civilian areas. Not a single building in the city avoided being
> hit, and large areas were reduced to rubble. The operation culminated in the
> savage killing of Muammar Gaddafi and the massacre of his aides, guards and his
> son Mo’tassim.
> 
> HRW reported yesterday: “At the site where Muammar Gaddafi was captured, we
> found the remains of at least 95 people who had apparently died that day. The
> vast majority had apparently died in the fighting and NATO strikes prior to
> Gaddafi’s capture, but between six and ten of the dead appear to have been
> executed at the site with gunshot wounds to the head and body.”
> 
> Further details are emerging about the mistreatment and torture of Gaddafi
> before he was shot through the head by a “rebel” fighter. Video footage taken
> after his capture and before his execution, published on the GlobalPost website,
> appears to show Gaddafi being sodomised with an object by one of the militiamen.
> GlobalPost’s Tracey Shelton said: “There is some question as to whether the
> instrument was a knife from the end of a gun, which Libyans call a Bicketti, or
> a utility tool known as a Becker Knife and Tool, which is popularly known as a BKT.”
> 
> The barbaric conclusion to the NATO military campaign in Libya underscores the
> fraud of the declared “liberation” of the country. The Transitional National
> Council (TNC) has been installed as the puppet administration of Washington and
> its European allies, through a neo-colonial war that was waged in violation of
> international law. Its purpose was to bolster the imperialist powers’
> geo-strategic standing throughout the region and to give them control over
> Libya’s lucrative oil reserves.
> 
> TNC chairman Mustafa Abdel-Jalil yesterday announced a committee of inquiry to
> investigate the circumstances of Gaddafi’s death―but this will be nothing but a
> whitewash. Jalil has maintained that Gaddafi was either killed in “crossfire,”
> or, even more absurdly, that he was shot by his own staffers and loyalists.
> 
> Jalil and other TNC officials are yet to respond to reports detailing the
> arbitrary detention and torture of thousands of political prisoners, alleged
> Gaddafi supporters and fighters.
> 
> The Washington Post noted Sunday that under international law, combatants in
> civil war must be released after the fighting ends unless they have committed
> crimes such as attacking civilians. Under the TNC, however, the Post reported:
> “Nearly 7,000 prisoners of war are packed into dingy, makeshift jails around
> Libya, where they have languished for weeks without charges and have faced abuse
> and even torture, according to human rights groups and interviews with the
> detainees.”
> 
> The TNC is a self-appointed body, largely comprised of senior ex-Gaddafi regime
> officials, different Islamist forces and Western intelligence assets. Its
> installation as the new Libyan government has nothing to do with “democracy,” as
> claimed by US President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and
> Britain’s David Cameron.
> 
> Part of the “liberation” speech on Sunday delivered by Jalil, Gaddafi’s former
> justice minister, was an appeal to the Islamist forces within the disparate
> coalition that worked with NATO against the previous government. Jalil declared
> Libya an “Islamic state.” Insisting that any “law that runs contrary to the
> Islamic principles of the Islamic Shariah was legally void,” he decreed there
> would no prohibition of polygamy and that usury would be banned.
> 
> Behind the official rhetoric about a “liberated” Libya, the major powers are
> proceeding with their carve-up of the oil-rich state. Little pretence is being
> made by the governments involved that the so-called reconstruction of Libya is
> anything more than an oil and cash grab.
> 
> Britain’s defence secretary, Philip Hammond, told the BBC: “I would expect
> British companies, even British sales directors, [to be] packing their suitcases
> and looking to get out to Libya and take part in the reconstruction of that
> country as soon as they can... Libya is a relatively wealthy country with oil
> reserves, and I expect there will be opportunities for British and other
> companies to get involved.”
> 
> Daniel Kawczynski―a parliamentarian with Britain’s ruling Conservative Party who
> serves as chairman of the All Party group for Libya―spelled out the mercenary
> calculations of the major powers in even blunter terms. Demanding that the new
> Libyan administration foot the bill for Britain’s bombing raids during the NATO
> campaign, Kawczynski declared: “Libya is clearly not a country without means. We
> should not forget that in helping to free the people of Libya from oppression,
> we have also helped free an economy rich in natural resources that exported over
> $34 billion worth of oil products in 2009 and had a GDP estimated at over $85
> billion.”
> 
> British, French and other European corporate executives have already travelled
> to Tripoli and Benghazi in delegations sponsored by their national governments’
> trade and investment departments. The British government body, UK Trade &
> Investment, has estimated that oil and gas contracts―as well as projects
> involving reconstruction, civil engineering, education and
> telecommunications―will be worth $320 billion in the next ten years.
> 
> The US is aggressively pursuing its corporate interests. The InvestorPlace
> website noted yesterday: “Libya will be a multibillion-dollar payday for US
> stocks if the political situation stabilizes itself. And stocks like Exxon,
> General Electric, and Caterpillar will be first in line to benefit from the
> rebuilding.” Other identified “potential winners” included Chevron,
> ConocoPhillips and Halliburton.
> 
> Obama is being urged to ensure that these and other corporations are not
> outmanoeuvred by their European rivals. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham last
> week expressed concern that allowing Britain and France to lead the NATO
> campaign meant that “when a day like this comes, we don’t have the
> infrastructure in place that we could have.” He continued: “Let’s get in on the
> ground. There is a lot of money to be made in the future in Libya. Lot of oil to
> be produced.”
> 
> http://wsws.org/articles/2011/oct2011/liby-o25.shtml