The U.S. government and NATO countries
used alleged human rights violations as a pretext for the war on
Libya. These allegations were later proven false by numerous human
rights groups, including Amnesty International. Now evidence has
surfaced pointing to human rights violations committed by the
pro-NATO Libyan rebels.
Human Rights Watch announced on Oct. 24
that they had discovered 53 decomposing bodies at a hotel in the city
of Sirte, which rebels were using as a prison. Evidence indicates
that many or all of the victims appear to have been summarily
executed. Some of them had their hands tied behind their back, bullet
holes were found in the ground and spent rifle shells were strewn
about. Many were shot in the head. Several have already been
identified as Gaddafi supporters.
The UK Defense Minister said that the
mass killing may be a war crime but that it would be “virtually
impossible” for Britain to investigate, although Britain, along
with the United States, played an integral part in the war.
Quryna, a local newspaper in Sirte,
reported on Oct. 26 that 267 bodies of Gaddafi supporters were buried
in a mass grave. The story, which cited the Red Cross, said that the
bodies were found throughout Sirte and its suburbs and had been
buried by the NTC.
Just
days before these gruesome discoveries, NATO Secretary-General Anders
Fogh Rasmussen
reiterated the imperialists’ line. He told the press at NATO
headquarters in Brussels that “Our military forces prevented a
massacre and saved countless lives.” Nothing could be further from
the truth.
Throughout the seven-month war, pro-NTC
rebels were notoriously brutal. Peter Bouckaert, of Human Rights
Watch, said that “This latest massacre seems part of a trend of
killings, looting and other abuses committed by armed anti-Gaddafi
fighters who consider themselves above the law.”
NTC attacks women’s rights
On Oct. 23, as Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the
head of the NATO-backed National Transition Council, was officially
declaring Libya “liberated” he also announced that Libyan law
will now be in accordance with sharia. While sharia law can be
interpreted in various ways, Jalil singled out Libyan laws on divorce
and marriage in his speech: “The law of divorce and marriage …
This law is contrary to sharia and it is stopped.”
Previously in Libya, women were allowed
to marry and divorce freely and polygamy was outlawed. After divorce,
women left marriages with their previous assets, the family home and
generally all joint assets. These practices will now be abolished and
polygamy and secret marriages will be legalized.
This may be the first of many laws to
turn back the clock on women’s rights in Libya. Under Moammar
Gaddafi’s government, women were highly educated and
well-represented in all occupations, including positions in the
government. This is the liberation that NATO has brought to Libya.
