New Libya must focus on rights – Human Rights Watch

The end of Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year rule over Libya will offer the country a unique opportunity to end an extraordinarily long era of human rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said today.

“With the end of Muammar Gaddafi’s brutal rule, the Libyan people now deserve to see justice for the many crimes committed on his watch,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

“For four decades Libyans faced terror and repression. Gaddafi’s death doesn’t lessen the need for Libyans to learn the truth about those horrendous decades and see other high-level officials implicated in abuses fairly brought to justice.”

Stretching over 42 years, the Gaddafi era accumulated an appalling record of disregard for human rights, at home and abroad.

The new authorities should seek thorough, independent investigations into the most serious crimes of the past four decades. The killing of an estimated 1,200 prisoners at Abu Salim in 1996 is the most notorious episode in a long catalogue of human rights abuses.

Since 1969, these have included disappearances, politically-motivated arrests, and the use of torture, as well as the near-total repression of freedom of expression and association.

Gaddafi’s Libya was one of the region’s most thorough police states. The unique political system he invented, the Jamahiriya, or “state of the masses,” also precluded meaningful elections – something that a new, democratic Libya must remedy.

Outside Libya, he was best-known for his alleged involvement in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 270 people.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Gaddafi shook off decades of diplomatic isolation to become an ally of the US and European governments in counterterrorism efforts.

Human Rights Watch documented complicity between the Gaddafi government and the US and UK intelligence services in the rendition of alleged terrorism suspects, which led to their torture.

“Western governments’ apparent eagerness to embrace Gaddafi for his support on counterterrorism, as well as lucrative business opportunities, tempered their criticism of his human rights record in recent years,” Whitson said.

“Libya’s new leaders will have an unprecedented opportunity to lead by example on human rights, including by protecting basic rights in a new constitution. The new authorities will be in a position to ratify and put into practice a host of international legal and human rights instruments and treaties that the Gaddafi regime did not. Penal and criminal procedure codes, as well as laws restricting association, expression, and political parties, will require extensive revision if Libyan laws are to be brought into line with international human rights standards, and the judicial system and security services will require profound reorganization, reform, and training.”

Whitson said the NTC should take immediate steps to stop revenge attacks, including looting and destruction of property in Sirte, long a Gaddafi stronghold, as well as Bani Walid, which the NTC forces captured on October 17.

“It should send a strong message that revenge attacks on Gaddafi supporters and on their property in these cities will be investigated and prosecuted. The council should also investigate the circumstances leading to the death of Gaddafi, including whether he was killed while in detention, which would constitute a serious violation of the laws of war.

“The drafting of a new constitution offers a golden opportunity for positive change in Libya,” Whitson said. “The best way to ensure the Gaddafi nightmare is never repeated is to build a new Libya based on the rule of law and respect for the rights of all people, and to prosecute those who take justice into their own hands.”