by Stephen Lendman
Wherever NATO intervenes, massacres, mass destruction, and unspeakable horrors and human misery follow.
Once Africa’s most developed country, Libya today’s a ravaged, out-of-control charnel house. Tens of thousands died. Multiples more were injured, made homeless, and forcibly displaced.Terror now stalks Libyans living in fear. Protracted conflict continues. Violence and instability rage. Expect no end for years. Washington’s-led NATO war is one of history’s great crimes. Colonization, occupation, plunder and exploitation were planned.
America got another bloodstained imperial trophy. Keeping it’s another matter. Green Resistance continues its liberating struggle.
Amnesty International’s (AI) New Report
Better late than never explaining NATO’s legacy. AI’s 2011 account misreported “The Battle for Libya.” It pointed fingers the wrong way. It blamed Gaddafi for NATO aggression. It falsely accused him of “kill(ing) and injur(ing) scores of unarmed protesters.”
It added “serious violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), including war crimes, and gross human rights violation, which point to the commission of crimes against humanity.”
Before Western-backed killer gangs arrived, Libya had peace and calm. AI blamed Gaddafi for their crimes. Its new report paints an entirely different picture, but still falls way short of truth and full disclosure. Titled, “Militias Threaten Hopes for New Libya,” it discusses pervasive violent lawlessness.
It doesn’t explain illegitimate National Transitional Council (NTC) authority or NATO’s illegal aggression against a nonbelligerent country. International law’s clear. AI knows it.
No nation may interfere in the internal affairs of another except in self-defense if attacked. NATO claimed responsibility to protect authority as Trojan Horse deception for war. Crimes of war and against humanity followed.
They continue out-of-control. NATO’s still involved. Thousands of US forces invaded to guard key oil facilities. Occasional air attacks occur. NATO warships occupy Libya’s ports. US, Italian, French, and perhaps other forces are involved. Reports from Misrata in January said Apache helicopters slaughtered rebel insurgents trying to scale Brega oil platforms.
Killer gangs rage out-of control. Frequent clashes kill civilians and rival insurgents. Militias control local areas and neighborhoods. Thousands of Gaddafi loyalists and Black African guest workers were murdered or held captive and tortured.
“Militias….continue to seize and detain people, outside any legal framework, and hold them in secret detention centers….” Thousands have no way to challenge out-of-control lawlessness or escape from brutal torture.
Detainees AI interviewed described their harrowing experience. They were:
- suspended in contorted positions;beaten with whips, rifle butts, cables, plastic hoses, metal chains, bars, and wooden sticks;
- electro-shocked with live wires and taser-like weapons;
- burned; and
- threatened with rape.
“(T)he NTC-led transitional government appears to have neither the authority nor the political will to rein in the militias. (They’re) unwilling to recognize the scale of militia abuses, at most acknowledging individual cases despite the mounting evidence of patterns of grave, widespread abuses in many parts of the country.”
As a result, ongoing torture and mistreatment continue. AI also exaggerated Gaddafi era crimes and ignored his mass public support. At the end, it was overwhelming, and today most Libyans yearn for him back.
NATO and illegitimate NTC officials spurn human rights and international law principles. Scheduled elections are cover for imperial occupation. Crimes of war and against humanity won’t be punished. As a result, they continue daily.
Dark-skinned Libyans are especially threatened. Thousands in Tawargha and elsewhere were forcibly displaced. They still can’t return, and their homes were looted and burned. As a result, those not held captive are in “poorly resourced” camps in Benghazi, Tripoli and elsewhere.
Many other Mshashiya and Qawalish tribe members, as well as Sirte, Bani Walid, and other residents, remain threatened by killer gangs. Revenge killings and other abuses continue. However, Green Resistance struggles to liberate Libya and restore Jamahiriya rule.
AI visited Libya in January and February 2012. Its researched focused in and around Tripoli, al-Zawiya, the Nafoussa Mountains, Misrata, Sirte and Benghazi.
They visited 11 detention centers in central and western Libya under insurgent gangs control. In at least 10, detainees were tortured and mistreated. AI interviewed them, those released, facility administrators, doctors and other hospital staff, relatives of people killed in custody, militia members, and NTC officials.
Exact numbers of detainees held and mistreated aren’t known. However, thousands remain imprisoned. ICRC representatives said they “visited over 8,500 detainees in about 60 places of detention.” Most were held in and around Tripoli and Misrata.
In February, NTC stooges held another 2,400. Nearly all current and former detainees AI interviewed said warrants didn’t authorize their arrests. They were extrajudicial and arbitrary. Self-appointed “judicial committees” function ad hoc. Defense lawyers aren’t present. Coercion, including torture and other severe treatment, force unjustified self-incrimination.
Many detainees said they were held at multiple locations. Some were secret. AI witnessed insurgents beating and threatening them, including some whose release were ordered.
One man said he was forced to lie on his back, hands and feet tied to the frame. “In this position, (he) was beaten with fists on (his) face. Then they beat me with a plastic hose on my feet.”
“Later, I had to turn around face-down and was tied to the bed. In that position, I was beaten again with a hose on my back and on the head. I was also subjected to electric shocks to various parts of my body including my left arm and chest.”
Others described similar experiences. Medical reports confirmed them. Since September 2011, AI confirmed at least 12 detainee deaths. Forensic evidence showed extreme abuse. NTC officials knew and do nothing, even when family members filed complaints.
Last September, they promised “to bring any armed groups under official authorities and (to) fully investigate any incidents brought to (their) attention.”
According to AI, “(t)his pledge has not been fulfilled. As long as defense lawyers and judicial authorities have no access to thousands of (detainees, they) remain held without trial or any means to challenge the legality of their detention….”
Moreover, extrajudicial killings occur. Investigations are announced but not conducted. Violence, impunity, and injustice continue. Libyans felt safe under Gaddafi. Occupation now terrorizes them.
Responsibility lies with NATO’s killing machine, puppet NTC stooges, and recruited killer gangs.
Today’s Libya is charnel house hell. It’s the same wherever NATO intervenes. Afghans, Iraqis, Syrians, and other victims know its horrors. As a result, their liberating struggles continue.
One Libyan in three wants return to authoritarian rule
Alistair Dawber
Thursday 16 February 2012
Despite thousands of deaths in the revolt against Colonel Gaddafi's 40-year rule, fewer than a third of Libyans would welcome democracy, according to the study published by the Institute of Human Sciences, at the University of Oxford, and Oxford Research International.
Libya is traditionally a tribal society and there are concerns that the vacuum created by Colonel Gaddafi's removal in October could lead to clashes between the factions that toppled him. In recent weeks, medical and human-rights groups have complained that the situation in parts of country is getting out of control.
The deaths of 12 detainees who lost their lives after being tortured by the various militias running law and order in towns and cities across country are documented in an Amnesty International report released today. The study follows last month's decision by Médecins sans Frontières to halt operations in Misrata after being asked by officials to treat prisoners midway through torture sessions, allowing authorities to abuse the victims again.
Still, the survey found 35 per cent would still like a strong leader in five years' time, although more than two-thirds wanted some say in future governance.
"Although there appears to be a push for an early election, the population seems to be happy with the National Transitional Council [NTC]," Christoph Sahm, director of Oxford Research International, said.
"Perhaps more significantly, Libyan people have not yet developed trust towards political parties, preferring a return of one-man rule. Yet they have also resoundingly said they want a say in how their country is run, which suggests Libyans who have had autocratic rule for decades lack the knowledge of how a democracy works and need more awareness of the alternatives to autocratic government."
While trust in the NTC will be welcomed by Western backers - 81 per cent of Libyans expressed faith in the new administration that helped defeat Colonel Gaddafi - 16 per cent said they were ready to resort to violence for political ends.
The figures are borne out by the Amnesty report, 'Militias threaten hopes for new Libya,' which points to evidence of war crimes being committed against Gaddafi loyalists. Its authors found that torture or ill-treatment was being perpetrated in 10 out of 11 detention centres they visited, with several prisoners saying they had offered false confessions to rape and other offences simply to end their ordeal.
The bodies of the 12 men who died were covered in bruises, wounds and cuts, Amnesty said, and some had fingernails and toenails pulled out.
"Militias in Libya are largely out of control and the blanket impunity they enjoy only encourages further abuses and perpetuates instability and insecurity," said Amnesty's Donatella Rovera. ""Militias with a record of abuse of detainees should simply not be allowed to hold anyone and all detainees should be immediately transferred to authorised detention facilities under the control of the National Transitional Council."
Libya is traditionally a tribal society and there are concerns that the vacuum created by Colonel Gaddafi's removal in October could lead to clashes between the factions that toppled him. In recent weeks, medical and human-rights groups have complained that the situation in parts of country is getting out of control.
The deaths of 12 detainees who lost their lives after being tortured by the various militias running law and order in towns and cities across country are documented in an Amnesty International report released today. The study follows last month's decision by Médecins sans Frontières to halt operations in Misrata after being asked by officials to treat prisoners midway through torture sessions, allowing authorities to abuse the victims again.
Still, the survey found 35 per cent would still like a strong leader in five years' time, although more than two-thirds wanted some say in future governance.
"Although there appears to be a push for an early election, the population seems to be happy with the National Transitional Council [NTC]," Christoph Sahm, director of Oxford Research International, said.
"Perhaps more significantly, Libyan people have not yet developed trust towards political parties, preferring a return of one-man rule. Yet they have also resoundingly said they want a say in how their country is run, which suggests Libyans who have had autocratic rule for decades lack the knowledge of how a democracy works and need more awareness of the alternatives to autocratic government."
While trust in the NTC will be welcomed by Western backers - 81 per cent of Libyans expressed faith in the new administration that helped defeat Colonel Gaddafi - 16 per cent said they were ready to resort to violence for political ends.
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| Tortured: Abdellatif Mohamed Iyad Zbaida shows off his foot after he allegedly abused the militia groups in captivity. Another person in the prison camp in Misratah show their wounds after he was allegedly beaten with whips and various cables. Photo: Amnesty International |
The bodies of the 12 men who died were covered in bruises, wounds and cuts, Amnesty said, and some had fingernails and toenails pulled out.
"Militias in Libya are largely out of control and the blanket impunity they enjoy only encourages further abuses and perpetuates instability and insecurity," said Amnesty's Donatella Rovera. ""Militias with a record of abuse of detainees should simply not be allowed to hold anyone and all detainees should be immediately transferred to authorised detention facilities under the control of the National Transitional Council."
Uprooted Palestinian 
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