Libyan rebels-turned-prison-guards exacting revenge on Gaddafi backers

They told us that they planned to shift control of a few prisons this week, but it has not happened. … The government has to take over the prisons one by one by negotiating with the people who run it. It is not uniformly or automatically done.
A United Nations official, based in Tripoli • Discussing the situation with Libyan prisons, where conditions in the post-Gaddafi era have gotten quite bad, as rebel-sympathizing prison runners are using the prisons to exact revenge on people who supported the former Libyan leader during the revolution. Prison owners have tried to tell a different story, but some humanitarian groups have stopped helping Libyan prisons due to torture allegations. The United Nations has complained about the problem for months, noting that the government should be in control of the prisons to ensure fair treatment, not former rebels. Roughly 8,500 detainees, many sub-Saharan Africans suspected of fighting for Gaddafi, are being held in detention centers nationwide. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

Let us question who has the interest in the fact that Gaddafi will not be tried. Those who wanted him killed were those who were loyal to him or had played a role under him. His death was in their benefit.
Mustafa Abdel-Jalil • Speaking on the NTC’s new committee to investigate the killing of Muammar Gaddafi, after what glimpses of video have made clear was an initial live capture of the deposed dictator. The tact of this quote is a little bothersome, though, for the simple reason that Abdel-Jalil is already implying that Gaddafi’s people, not his people, are to blame for this. At best this is an opinion for which there’s yet no evidence, or none the NTC has presented — we’d feel a bit better about this if, with today’s formation of a Libyan committee to investigate the killing, the NTC leader wasn’t promoting any pre-conceived notions of may have happened. Hopefully the committee will be impartial, and pursue an independent analysis of what took place, even if it doesn’t end up reflecting well on the rebels who surrounded Gaddafi in his final moments. It’s an early test. source

Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

Libyan NTC claims credit for Gaddafi killing: It’s been a rather wild day as far as world news is concerned, which you’d probably expect when a notorious dictator of forty years is slain; in the aftermath, Libya’s National Transitional Council has said that Gaddafi’s capture and subsequent death (what happened exactly is yet unknown, as video has surfaced of Gaddafi once being alive under rebel custody, albeit in chaotic circumstances) was the work of Libyans, contrary to speculation NATO may have had a hand in it. Said spokesman Ahmed Bani: “It was our courageous revolutionaries who have killed the tyrant and not NATO.” source

Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

Libyan rebels believe Gaddafi is cornered: The New York Times is reporting that the Libyan rebels believe Muammar Gaddafi has been pinned down in Bani Walid, a desert town that sits about 150 miles from Tripoli. Said Abdul Hafith Ghoga, the deputy chairman of Libya’s transition council: “Since today we have learned that he is staying in Bani Walid, we are waiting to give him a chance to surrender.” It’s worth remembering that yesterday, Libyan council leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil gave Gaddafi loyalists a four-day surrender deadline. source

Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Feb 2012 10:45