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Subscribe to RSSNew evidence implicates Libyan militia in the apparent execution of dozens of detainees in the immediate wake of Moammar Gadhafi’s capture and death last year, according to Human Rights Watch.
In a 50-page report issued Wednesday, the New York-based organization said at least 66 members of Gadhafi’s convoy were captured and ‘summarily executed’ by militia based in Misrata.
By comparing mobile phone video taken by the opposition militia members with hospital morgue photographs, HRW have identified numerous detainees who were captured in Sirte and later executed at the town’s Mahari Hotel.
Goran Tomasevic / REUTERS
An uprising in Libya ousts dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
“When we arrived, there were 53 bodies lying in the garden of the hotel. The first indication we had this was an execution site was that many victims had their hands tied behind their backs,“ said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at HRW. Volunteer workers at the scene said that relatives of additional victims had recovered their bodies prior to the Human Rights Watch visit.
"In case after case we investigated, the individuals had been videotaped alive by the opposition fighters who held them, and then found dead hours later," Bouckaert said.
HRW said these killings constitute the largest documented execution of detainees by anti-Gadhafi forces during the eight-month conflict in Libya.
In an exclusive interview with NBC News' Ann Curry, Libyan President Mohamed Magarief says he has "no doubt" the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was pre-planned.
One case cited by HRW is that of Ahmed Ali Yusuf al-Ghariyani, 29, a Navy recruit originally from Tawergha, a Gadhafi stronghold. In a phone video that is believed to show him in captivity, militia forces are seen to abuse and taunt him.
Al-Ghariyani’s body was later found at the Mahari Hotel and was photographed by hospital staff and buried as unidentified body number 86. He was later identified by family members from the hospital photographs.
The report also casts doubt on what HRW said is the Libyan authorities’ account of the fate of Gadhafi and his son Motassim, both of whom are officially reported to have died in cross-fire.
In video released with the report, Moammar is seen alive and bloodied in the hands of the rebels, in images similar to those widely circulated in the days after his death.
Less than a year after Moammar Gadhafi's fall, Libyan's vote in what U.N. General Secretary Ban Ki-moon hailed as "a march toward democracy." It's the country's first democratic election in more than half a century as Libyans choose a National Congress. Lindsey Hilsu, Channel 4 Europe, reports.
According to the report, Motassim Gaddafi was also captured alive at the scene of the Sirte battle. He was wounded and then filmed being transported by members of a Misrata-based opposition militia to their home city. He was again filmed in a room, smoking cigarettes and drinking water. By the evening, his dead body, with a new wound on his throat that was not visible in the prior video footage, was being publicly displayed in Misrata.
Peter Brouckaert said the Libyan authorities’ refusal to accept or investigate atrocities by former rebels shows ‘a government in denial.’
“They are not in a position to confront the militia,” he said, ”It shows who’s in power in Libya.”
Calls for militias to be brought under the control of the defense or interior ministries have met resistance from some fighters.
The president pledges he will get to the bottom of the events that led to the death of a U.S. ambassador in Libya and calls Romney's criticisms of his actions following the attack "offensive."
Meanwhile, some groups have been implicated in revenge attacks and communal strife, while members of one Islamist militia have been accused of taking part in the attack on the U.S. Consulate in the eastern city Benghazi on Sept. 11 that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens.
In the aftermath of Stevens' death, popular resentment surged and thousands took to the streets of Benghazi demanding the dismantlement of the militias. The government has taken over some militia headquarters and appointed military officers to run the groups, and designated some "outlawed" and others "tolerated."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Ah, the soft breezes of the "Arab Spring". Democracy in North Africa?
What better time to plant the opposition than Arab Spring?
"A revolution is not a picnic. Ultimately, political power comes from the barrel of a gun." --- MaoTse Tung.
Before the rebels over threw Ghadafi's government and his tribal fiedom, Ghadafi claimed to have the higher moral ground and consequently, brutally crushed the opposition. After the revolution, the table has turned. What goes around, comes around.
To the victor, the privilege of rewriting history. To the loser, the privilege of appealing for morality and mercy.
Yawn! Like this sort of thing never happens in revolutions?
But the Rebels represent freedom, change and a true voice for humanity!! Viva la revolution!! Same story, just another transfer of power to those who will be new dictators in the end drunk with power........timeless.
Good for them! It shows they are smarter than us. They aren't worried about having show trials. They know what those people did. They did to them exactly what they had done to themselves. No Gitmo. No BS. No releasing criminals only to find them on the battlefield later. They did exactly what you are supposed to do during a revolution or war--- Find the enemy and kill them. Anybody think that Goering had a chance of acquittal at Nuremberg? Anyone think that British loyalists escaped unscathed after our revolution?
Seven2Seven
"just another transfer of power to those who will be new dictators"
_______________________________________________________
... just like Cuba...
Thanks to Obama and Hillary Clinton's short-sighted foreign policy, Once-prosperous and flourishing countries like Egypt and Libya now lie in ruins, with jihadi hooligans in power.
Vision, are you suggesting that the US should have used military force to keep Mubarak and Qaddafi in power? It wasn't too long ago that some conservatives were screaming for us US boots on the ground to help "liberate" the Libyan people?
Egyptians ousted Mubarak and elected a government of their choice and the US did the right thing by staying out of their politics. We paid for our arrogance and interference in Iran with the Shaw, history repeats itself if one does not learn from past mistakes.
If these two countries were flourishing there wouldn't have been any upheavals, I've been to Cairo on my occasions, things were very desperate for the average citizens, mail was being delivered to the people living in tombs in the local cemeteries. Be realistic and some common sense.
So What!! They got what they deserved
so much for the democratic government and peace loving folks our administration helped install in libya. i bet hillary and BO were invited to the executions
Buffalo, please not to long ago, some conservatives were calling for boots on the ground in Libya to "help" the rebels achieve their freedom, but now its the President's fault that revenge was extracted from the rebels enemies. Qaddafi was a tyrant, and what would you have America do, more nation building?
skyparrot, there are many that still think nothing is our President's fault. One thing we know for sure though is the Obama Administration has been putting out false narratives with regard to a demionstration/riot that never happened since the day of our ambassador's murder. He can't blame that on Bush.
David -3462383 spoken like a true democracy spreader buddy , did you see what they did to Qaddafi , they stuck the knife up his butt while he standing there after the captured him , these are the freedom fighters we support , these are the same thugs that attacked here on 9/11 , We should have known that , look who's behind them , the Saudis and Qataris , where in the hell are we going to open our eyes and see the real threat behind all these attacks , none other than our beat friends , THE FNG SAUDIS AND QATARIS , NOT SYRIA AND RAN , WAKE UP YOU DUMB ASS'S SENATORS , OR YOU PROBABLY ON THE SAME BOAT WITH THESE THUGS TOO .
This continues to make us accessories and accomplices to cold blooded murder.
my turn, first off I agree with you completely where do all these jihadis and al quaeda thugs come from but our allies in the middle east. Second, Syria and Iran are our problem because they are the same thing just a different sect of Islam. In fact the Syria conflict is actually a welcome sight for my eyes cause look at what will happen Hezbollah and Hamas versus Al Quaeda lol. all muslim governments are our enemies not the people they all need to fall.
It is fitting that after the boastful president of the United States says that the "world is a safer place" is shown, once again, to be nto quite so factual and his stated hatred for the Lybian dictator is now being satisfied by the same murders that he, himself has undertaken..or maybe he really didn't murder OBL!
WarLord72 First , these thugs are killing all the Christians in that part of the world , and civilians that we and NATO and the UN claim that we want to protect , but all these killings happening on our watch , and my man there is bad in every race and religion, Jeffrey Dummar was not a Muslim , and all these murderers in our country are not Muslims or Shiites , and all these civilians dying in Syria , and the ones starving in other countries because of sanctions , are innocent people , how many of our politicians you like to starve and put sanctions on ????? exactly !!!! my feeling too .
So what's the point? This sort of thing happens during wars and coups. The US killed scores of loyal Iranians when we ousted their FAIRLY ELECTED PRESIDENT back in the 1950's, thanks to Dwight Eisenhower and his cronies.
Da BUCK stops here,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, But don't blame me.
Street "Justice" occurs every time a repressed population throws off the yoke of a Dictator; no one person can be a dictator, it takes accomplices.
Critical times hard to deal with, will be here.
Amen
How much longer?
Obama, the buck stops with me! But Bush did it!
Poetic Justice. The people who help Khaddafy run the country like his own personal country club, using secret police, kangarool courts, secret prisons, torture, and fear to keep the people downtrodden and submissive, got caught and executed. Is this unfair? What good would 64 trials lasting 10 years do? Give those killers a public forum? Why? It's all good. They are gone. For good. Lybia can move on. I am for fair trials ONLY WHEN fair trials are for everybody. Those people NEVER gave anyone a fair trial, or freedom, or justice. They got what they deserved.
HAH! Guess they don't tax their Bullets Enough! Right, Chicago!
What about or Ambassador and the three other people! They didn't get a FAIR TRIAL!
After this happened, Lybians lined the streets waving American Flags? Can you tell me when the last time that was without going back to WWII? The only OTHER time I remember was when Bill Clinton visited Kosovo, the new, independent country that split from the old Yugoslavia AFTER near genocide by a new era Nazi. The Isrealis don't wave American flags. The Iraqis don't. The Afghans don't. The Kuwaitis don't. The people of Bengahzi chased out a radical army. It appears to me the thugs who violated international law and killed these good people who helped free Lybia are NOT loved or liked by the people of Lybia who have just won their freedom after 40 years of Khaddafy thanks to NATO (US). The President has vowed to die to bring democracy to his country, He apologized and said he will try to hunt down the muderers. It is a NEW country with little central control and a weak national army. I can tell the difference between what happens in Lybia and what happens in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. They hate us there and yet, we send billions of dollars and our soldiers fight and get hurt and die. All we did was send planes and some advisors to Lybia. The people there did the rest of the fighting. Yet, they waved American Flags. No, they didn't get a fair trial BECAUSE they were unjustly mudered. Khaddafy's boys were JUSTIFLY MURDERED. Not the same and I can tell the difference.
Another Snake Eating its Own Tail! Alls Fair in Love and War! Right?
Cuba didn't want Them! So whatta ya going to DO!
This whole Mideast thing, is like the Hatfields & McCoys! and were SURPRISED?