Libya denies human rights abuses

The embattled regime of Muammar Gaddafi today 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 yesterday 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.

The opposition to Gaddafi’s government also is backed by a nearly three-month-old air campaign led by Nato that is pounding his regime’s command compound and a wide range of other targets.

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 that the Libyan government would “reserve our rights to prosecute the media” for what he described as misinformation.

The UN panel also investigated allegations that Nato airstrikes in Libya have caused large numbers of civilian casualties. The alliance has conducted thousands of airstrikes as part of its UN mandate to enforce a no-fly zone and protect civilians in Libya.

Former Libyan diplomat Ibrahim Aldredi, who defected to the opposition, told reporters in Geneva the Benghazi-based rebels accepted the findings of the UN panel and would help prosecute and punish any perpetrators of human rights abuses.

Even if there were violations by rebels “they are not going to be as systematic as those committed by the regime”, he said.