Gaddafi regime denies war crimes

THE embattled regime of Muammar Gaddafi has vehemently denied accusations by a UN panel and Western nations that Libyan government forces have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Libyan diplomat Mustafa Shaban told the UN Human Rights Council it is the government that is “the victim of a widespread aggression” and blamed the media, opposition and African and foreign mercenaries for human rights violations and even “acts of cannibalism”.

Shaban’s comments came after the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court said he is investigating whether Gaddafi provided Viagra to Libyan soldiers to promote rape.

A UN panel said last week its investigators found evidence that government forces committed murder, torture and sexual abuses.

Shaban said the government “denies and reaffirms its denial of the existence of widespread and systematic violations of human rights, done with the knowledge of the authorities, by order of the Libyan authorities or covered up by them”.

“We also deny indications of widespread and systematic attacks against civilians, or extrajudicial killings, or arbitrary arrest, detention and torture, or other abuses indicated in the report,” he said.

He blamed international condemnation of his government on “fabricated and erroneous information reported by media that is hostile to my country, giving a wrong picture of the situation”.

The three-member panel of UN investigators also said they found evidence that rebel forces had committed some acts that would constitute war crimes in a civil conflict estimated to have killed between 10,000 to 15,000 people.

European and US diplomats said they believed Gaddafi’s regime must be held accountable.

“The documented evidence is substantial and clear, that the Gaddafi military and paramilitary actors committed atrocities, allegedly crimes against humanity, and war crimes against their own people,” said US ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe.

She said the Human Rights Council would decide next week on a British proposal to extend the UN panel’s investigative work in Libya until March 2012.

But Shaban told the Geneva-based council that Gaddafi’s opponents have “even admitted to acts of cannibalism” without further elaboration, and the Libyan government would “reserve our rights to prosecute the media” for what he described as misinformation”.

Chief ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said there was evidence the Libyan authorities bought “Viagra-type” medicines and gave them to troops as part of the official rape policy.