LIBYA’S NEW government has bowed to international pressure and announced an investigation into last week’s killing of Muammar Gadafy, as officials in the coastal city of Misurata ordered a halt to public viewing of the dictator’s decomposing corpse.
Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, head of the ruling national transitional council (NTC), said a committee had been set up to look into the circumstances of the deaths of Gadafy and his son Mutassim in Sirte, the scene of the regime’s last defiant stand. He said Libyans would have preferred to see the deposed leader stand trial and be held accountable for his crimes.
New evidence of atrocities emerged with a report that the bodies of 53 Gadafy loyalists, some of them bound and shot in the head, had been found in Sirte.
No arrangements have yet been made for Gadafy to be buried and the Misrata council has refused to release his body to his relatives. Al-Arabiyya TV said it was possible he would be buried at sea, and local residents were refusing to have him interred even in a special cemetery set aside for “invaders”.
A third body in the Misrata meat storage facility is that of the old regime’s army commander, Abu Bakr Younis. Guards finally closed the doors on Monday as people queued up to have a look at the grisly scene inside.
Libyan TV channels continue to screen footage of Gadafy’s final moments as well as scenes of fighters squatting by his corpse and cursing him in the cold store.
“We have formed a committee to investigate how Gadafy was killed during the clashes with his supporters while arresting him,” Abdel-Jalil said in Benghazi. “All Libyans wanted to prosecute him over what he did to them, from executions to imprisonment, corruption, wasting their money. Those who have an interest in killing him before prosecuting him are those who had an active role with him.”
Observers suggested the NTC move had been prompted by expressions of concern from the US and other countries about the rule of law and human rights in post-Gadafy Libya. John Jenkins, the UK ambassador, saw Mr Abdel-Jalil in Benghazi before Sunday’s ceremony marking the formal liberation of the country.
Mahmoud Jibril, the NTC prime minister and the man credited with securing western and Nato support for the rebels, had already said he was in favour of an investigation.
Mr Abdel-Jalil indicated that the NTC still held to the initial official explanation that Gadafy may have been killed in “crossfire” with his own men – a view many of his own officials do not appear to believe. Privately, most defend the killing.
Ordinary Libyans canvassed in Tripoli and Benghazi since last Friday seem indifferent to the international concerns about how Gadafy was killed or about the propriety of leaving his corpse on public display. “You think it’s bad?” one Tripoli resident said. “Gadafy was very bad. And we suffered from him for 42 years.” Many expressed sentiments of raw vengeance.
Ahmed al-Atrash, a university lecturer, said: “I don’t care how Gadafy was killed. But I do wish he had been captured alive because it would have been interesting to hear what he had to say about everything he was involved in.” – (Guardian service)