Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) is coming under growing scrutiny today, not just for its growing internal faction fighting, but for the behavior of its fighting force. Replacing Moammar Gadhafi sets the bar pretty low for human rights, one would think, but the rebels seem to be struggling to meet even this standard.
Torture has become increasingly common among rebel fighters, who summarily arrest anyone suspected of supporting the old regime, and Human Rights Watch issued a statement today urging the NTC to stop its fighters from beating and shocking detainees.
Human rights groups are also expressing disquiet about the growing evidence of “revenge killings” against not just defeated regime forces, but suspected supporters as well.
This is not a new problem, but a growing one. The rebel military forces have been dumping bodies en masse for awhile, and being black has been probable cause for arrest virtually since the rebels took over the west. There seems to be little interest among the NTC leadership to change any of this, but as it continues, it remains to be seen how long NATO can turn a blind eye to their “allies” on the ground.
NATO will turn a "blind eye"to their allies on the ground as long as it takes to secure Libya's oil for its member nations – which is the only reason for NATO involvement in Libya. Any fool can see that.
NATO is killing and injuring more in Libya than any 'rebels' are.
You break eggs and heads and necks and blow people to pieces when you drop thousands and thousands of bombs. Spare us – we are not all stupid or amoral.
The credibillity of human rights groups has to be below zero and plummeting.
They fluff around the likes of Gaddaffi and Milosevic (excpet when he was almost certainly murdered)and other enemies of the empire – most conveniently – and completely ignore the widespread Imperial mass murders – not least in Serbia (now starting again) Iraq and Afghanistan and anywhere else on the planet that mispleases them or baulks at the plunder of its resources.
Libya is just the latest and Oh! not NATO and its vicious indiscriminate bombing is the target of the bleeding hearts brigade but some anonymous 'rebels' are the problem.
Bucket please.
Jason the "guardian angel" of Gaddafi. Ditz is desperate to witness his idol fall in the sand. Jason's lamentations have no end. Jason uses more and more ink in suport of his doomed leader's fate. How sad he says,: after half a century unelect rule of the criminal he is hiding in no-man's land.
In the end what NATO and the US will get is a strict Sharia Law radical Muslim government – the people of Libya will NOT be any better off – and the 'rebels' will be selling those 20,000 shoulder held anti-air missiles to whatever Islamic radical can pay for them.
And the 'rebels' will murder any and all Black Aficans.
What did we expect would happen in Libya?
As to NATO – what do they really care?