Court orders the arrest of Gaddafi

INTERNATIONAL judges yesterday ordered the arrest of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi for murdering civilians.

The International Criminal Court said Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and his intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanoussi are wanted for orchestrating the killing, injuring, arrest and imprisonment of hundreds of civilians during the first 12 days of an uprising to topple Gaddafi from power, and for trying to cover up their crimes.

The warrants turn the three men into internationally wanted suspects, potentially complicating efforts to mediate an end to more than four months of intense fighting in the North African nation.

When the UN Security Council ordered the court to investigate the bloodshed in Libya, it also urged all nations to co-operate with the court.

Presiding judge Sanji Monageng of Botswana called Gaddafi the “undisputed leader of Libya”, who had “absolute, ultimate and unquestioned control” over his country’s military and security forces.

She said there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that Gaddafi and his son are responsible for the murder and persecution of civilians.

Libyan officials rejected the court’s authority even before the decision was read in The Hague, accusing the court of unfairly targeting Africans while ignoring what they called crimes committed by NATO in Afghanistan, Iraq “and in Libya now”.

“The ICC has no legitimacy whatsoever. We will deal with it... All of its activities are directed at African leaders,” a spokesman said.

NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the court’s decision highlighted the increasing isolation of the regime.

“It reinforces the reason for NATO’s mission to protect the Libyan people from Gaddafi’s forces,” he said, adding that the Libyan leader and his supporters need to realise that “time is rapidly running out for them”.

Judge Monageng said evidence showed that following popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, Gaddafi and his inner circle plotted a “state policy... aimed at deterring and quelling by any means the demonstrations by civilians against the regime”.

Prosecutors at the court said the three suspects should be arrested quickly “to prevent them covering up ongoing crimes and committing new crimes”.

It is unclear how the warrant could restrict Gaddafi’s travels within Africa, since many African states are not International Criminal Court signatories and others have declined to act on an arrest warrant for another African leader, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.