Libya declared free, but Gadhafi death questioned

Wahab Al Ghaz­ali of Libya, left, poses next to a poster of Moam­mar Gad­hafi read­ing “End of Dic­ta­tor, Libya is Free, Thanks to the Blood of its Mar­tyrs” as they cel­e­brate at Saha Kish Square in Beng­hazi, Libya, Sun­day Oct. 23, 2011 as Libya’s tran­si­tional gov­ern­ment declared the lib­er­a­tion of Libya after months of blood­shed that cul­mi­nated in the death of long­time leader Moam­mar Gad­hafi. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

KARIN LAUB, KIM GAMEL

Asso­ci­ated Press

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libya’s interim rulers declared the coun­try lib­er­ated on Sun­day after an eight-month civil war, launch­ing the oil-rich nation on what is meant to be a two-year tran­si­tion to democ­racy. But they laid out plans with an Islamist tone that could rat­tle their West­ern backers.

The joy­ful cer­e­mony for­mally mark­ing the end of Moam­mar Gadhafi’s 42-year tyranny was also clouded by mount­ing pres­sure from the lead­ers of the NATO cam­paign that helped secure vic­tory to inves­ti­gate whether Gad­hafi, dragged wounded but alive out of a drainage ditch last week, was then exe­cuted by his captors.

The cir­cum­stances of Gadhafi’s death remain unclear. In any case, crit­ics said the grue­some spec­ta­cle of his blood-streaked body laid out as a tro­phy for a third day of pub­lic view­ing in a com­mer­cial freezer tests the new leadership’s com­mit­ment to the rule of law.

Britain’s defense sec­re­tary, Philip Ham­mond, said the Libyan rev­o­lu­tion­ar­ies’ image had been “a lit­tle bit stained” by Gadhafi’s vio­lent death. Both he and U.S. Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Rod­ham Clin­ton said a full inves­ti­ga­tion is necessary.

Gadhafi’s cap­ture and the fall of his home­town of Sirte, the last loy­al­ist strong­hold, set the stage for the long-awaited dec­la­ra­tion of lib­er­a­tion, deliv­ered by the head of the National Tran­si­tional Coun­cil, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil.

He did not men­tion the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing Gadhafi’s death — mobile phone videos showed the wounded leader being taunted and beaten by a mob after his cap­ture. But he urged his peo­ple to eschew hatred.

“You should only embrace hon­esty, patience, and mercy,” Abdul-Jalil told a flag-waving crowd of sev­eral thou­sand at the dec­la­ra­tion cer­e­mony in the east­ern city of Beng­hazi, the birth­place of the upris­ing against Gadhafi.

Abdul-Jalil laid out a vision for a new Libya with an Islamist tint, say­ing Islamic Sharia law would be the “basic source” of leg­is­la­tion, and that exist­ing laws that con­tra­dict the teach­ings of Islam would be nullified.

He out­lined sev­eral changes to align with Islamic law, includ­ing putting caps on inter­est for bank loans and lift­ing restric­tions on the num­ber of wives Libyan men can take. The Mus­lim holy book, the Quran, allows men up to four wives.

Abdul-Jalil thanked those who fought and fell in the war, say­ing they “are some­where bet­ter than here, with God.” Dis­play­ing his own piety, he then stepped aside from the podium and knelt to offer a prayer of thanks.

Using Sharia as the main source of leg­is­la­tion is stip­u­lated in the con­sti­tu­tion of neigh­bor­ing Egypt. Still, Egypt­ian laws remain largely sec­u­lar as Sharia does not cover all aspects of mod­ern life.

In Brus­sels, nei­ther the EU nor NATO wanted to address the issue of Sharia law. A NATO offi­cial said it was for the Libyans to decide on the sys­tem in their own country.

“We trust the Libyan author­i­ties to build an inclu­sive Libya, respect­ful of human rights and the rule of law,” the offi­cial said, speak­ing on con­di­tion of anonymity accord­ing to alliance rules.

Libya’s revolt erupted in Feb­ru­ary as part of anti-government protests spread­ing across the Mid­dle East. Islamist groups stand to gain ground in neigh­bor­ing Tunisia and Egypt, which shook off their dic­ta­tors sev­eral months ago. Tunisia has taken the biggest steps so far on the path to democ­racy, vot­ing Sun­day for a new assem­bly, while Egypt’s par­lia­men­tary elec­tion is set for next month.

Libya’s strug­gle has been the blood­i­est so far in the region. Mass protests quickly turned into a civil war that killed thou­sands and par­a­lyzed the coun­try. Gad­hafi loy­al­ists held out for two more months after the fall of the cap­i­tal of Tripoli in late August. Gadhafi’s home­town of Sirte fell last week, but Gadhafi’s son and one-time heir appar­ent, Seif al-Islam, appar­ently escaped with some of his supporters.

The anti-Gadhafi forces enjoyed strong West­ern polit­i­cal and mil­i­tary sup­port dur­ing their revolt, espe­cially from the U.S., Britain and France, and NATO airstrikes were key to their victory.

Abdul-Jalil paid trib­ute to the Gulf Coop­er­a­tion Coun­cil, a six-nation alliance led by Saudi Ara­bia, the Arab League and the Euro­pean Union. NATO per­formed its task with “effi­ciency and pro­fes­sion­al­ism,” he said.

Pres­i­dent Barack Obama con­grat­u­lated Libyans on the declaration.

“After four decades of bru­tal dic­ta­tor­ship and eight months of deadly con­flict, the Libyan peo­ple can now cel­e­brate their free­dom and the begin­ning of a new era of promise,” he said.

In Brus­sels, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Ras­mussen wel­comed the dec­la­ra­tion and said NATO’s mis­sion in Libya “is very close to com­ple­tion,” refer­ring to the alliance’s deci­sion to end air patrols on Oct. 31.

In Libya, lead­ers have said a new interim gov­ern­ment is to be formed within a month, fol­low­ing by elec­tions for a con­sti­tu­tional assem­bly within eight months. Elec­tions for a par­lia­ment and pres­i­dent would then fol­low in the year after that.

Gadhafi’s body remained on dis­play Sun­day in a com­mer­cial freezer in the port city of Mis­rata, which suf­fered from a weeks-long bloody siege by regime forces in the spring. Peo­ple have lined up since Fri­day to view the body, which was laid out on a mat­tress on the freezer floor. The bod­ies of Gadhafi’s son Muatas­sim and his ex-defense min­is­ter Abu Bakr You­nis also were put on dis­play, and peo­ple wear­ing sur­gi­cal masks have filed past, snap­ping pho­tos of the bodies.

It remains unclear what hap­pened between the time Gad­hafi was cap­tured alive in Sirte on Thurs­day and arrived dead in Mis­rata later that day. Libyan lead­ers say he was killed in cross­fire dur­ing bat­tles for the city, but rev­o­lu­tion­ar­ies who were present for Gadhafi’s cap­ture — and even one who was in the ambu­lance with him — said noth­ing about addi­tional fight­ing in inter­views with The Asso­ci­ated Press.

The New York-based group Human Rights Watch, which viewed the bod­ies, said video footage, pho­tos and other infor­ma­tion it obtained indi­cate that Moam­mar and Muatas­sim Gad­hafi “might have been exe­cuted after being detained.”

“Find­ing out how they died mat­ters,” said Sarah Leah Whit­son of Human Rights Watch. “It will set the tone for whether the new Libya will be ruled by law or by sum­mary violence.”

Mah­moud Jib­ril, the act­ing Libyan prime min­is­ter, said he would not oppose an inquiry into Gadhafi’s death, but added that there is “no rea­son” to doubt the cred­i­bil­ity of an offi­cial report that he died in crossfire.

“Have you seen a video of some­body killing him? I haven’t seen any video tape or mobile film that shows some­body is killing Gad­hafi,” Jib­ril told reporters in Jor­dan, where he was attend­ing the World Eco­nomic Forum.

Address­ing the cel­e­bra­tions around Gadhafi’s body, Jib­ril told the BBC in an inter­view on Sun­day: “You have to appre­ci­ate the agony that peo­ple went through for 42 years.”

Dr. Oth­man al-Zintani, Libya’s chief foren­sic pathol­o­gist, said he per­formed an autopsy that con­firmed that Gad­hafi was killed by a gun­shot to the head. How­ever, that find­ing did not clear up the cir­cum­stances of his death, and al-Zintani said he could not elab­o­rate until a full report has been sent to the attor­ney general.

Al-Zintani told the AP that Gadhafi’s body was removed from the freezer and taken to a secret loca­tion for the autopsy. He said he also exam­ined the body of Muatassim.

The vast major­ity of Libyans seemed uncon­cerned about the cir­cum­stances of the hated leader’s death.

“If he (Gad­hafi) was taken to court, this would cre­ate more chaos, and would encour­age his sup­port­ers,” said Salah Zlitni, 31, who owns a pizza par­lor in down­town Tripoli. “Now it’s over.”

Posted by AP News on Oct 23 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.