UN presses Libya on detained journalists, civilians

Reuters Africa, By Stephanie Nebehay, Tue May 3, 2011

GENEVA (Reuters) - A U.N. team investigating human rights violations has asked authorities in Tripoli to look into the fate of 18 Libyan and foreign journalists and pressed them about 86 detained protesters, a statement said on Tuesday.

A poster of Libya"s leader Muammar
Gaddafi is seen outside the door
of the U.N. office in Tripoli March
18, 2011. (REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah)

The team, led by Egyptian-born war crimes expert Cherif Bassiouni, gathered testimony in hospitals, detention centres and at the scene of incidents.

The three investigators met Justice Minister Muhammad Umuhammad al-Qamodi, and interviewed civilians held at Jdeida prison in Tripoli since their arrest in February and March. The statement said it sought their release on humanitarian grounds.

"The authorities promised to look into that matter with a view to release them in the coming days," it added.

"The Commission also raised the case of Ms. Eman al-Obeidi, requesting that she be given permission to leave the country," it said, referring to a Libyan woman who told reporters in March that pro-government militiamen had gang-raped her.

She was whisked away from a Tripoli hotel at the time, but Libyan authorities have said since then that she is not in custody. She is believed to be staying at an undisclosed location for security reasons, U.N. sources said.

The three independent experts, who also went to refugee camps in Egypt and Tunisia during a three-week mission that ended last Friday, is to report its findings to the Human Rights Council in mid-June.

The United Nations, Western powers and some Arab states accuse Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi of ordering his security forces to kill hundreds of civilians who rose up in protest against his four-decade rule.

Libyan offiicals have denied killing civilians, saying security forces were forced to act against armed gangs and al Qaeda sympathisers who, they say, are trying to seize control of the oil exporting power.

Libyan government officials and the National Transitional Council cooperated with the experts who went to Tripoli and the town of Zawiyah, now back in government hands, as well as rebel-held Benghazi, Tobruk and Al Bayda, the statement said.

The International Commission of Inquiry, as it is formally known, "has also visited the sites of incidents, hospitals and detention centres", the U.N. statement said.

Fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Gaddafi is forcing thoustands of refugees to flee western Libya on foot to the Tunisian border and by boat to Europe, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

The experts visited Benghazi medical centre and Al Jalaa hospital where they interviewed more than 30 patients wounded in the fighting. They also interviewed prisoners at Benghazi detention centre, including soldiers from the Libyan army and alleged mercenaries, according to the statement.

"The Commission reminded the authorities of the need to treat all detainees in accordance with international standards."

The experts have previously said they would probe alleged human rights violations committed by all sides in the conflict and share evidence with the U.N. war crimes tribunal in the Hague.

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