International Prosecutor to Seek Warrants for 3 Libyan Officials
By MARLISE SIMONS and NEIL MacFARQUHAR
Published: May 4, 2011
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague said Wednesday that he would seek arrest warrants for three senior officials in Libya on charges of crimes against humanity, providing no names but saying that the three were “the most responsible of the crimes committed.”
Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the prosecutor, appeared in a briefing before the United Nations Security Council. On Feb. 26, the Council called unanimously for a criminal investigation of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s use of force against civilians and asked the prosecutor to report back within two months.
Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said that the evidence in support of charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity included shooting peaceful protesters, and following up with weeks of systematic persecution, including murder, imprisonment and torture. “War crimes are apparently committed as a matter of policy,” the prosecutor said.
He went on: “The evidence shows that events in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia prompted Libyan security forces to begin preparations for the possibility of demonstrations in Libya. As early as January, mercenaries were being hired and brought into Libya.”
Other violations, he said, included preventing the wounded from receiving medical care; arresting, torturing and raping perceived opponents of the Qaddafi government; and the use of cluster bombs, mortars and other heavy weapons in crowded urban areas.
The prosecutor said that “efforts to cover up the crimes” — removing dead bodies from hospitals and preventing doctors from documenting the dead and injured, have made it difficult to establish the number of victims. But he said 500 to 700 died from shootings in February, before full-fledged fighting broke out between the government and hastily assembled rebel forces. “Shooting at protestors was systematic,” he said.
Lawyers familiar with the investigation said that the first arrest warrants were likely to focus on the initial violent clampdown of protestors.
The prosecutor made no mention of NATO, which has also killed civilians since it began its bombing campaign on March 19. But he cited violence by angry mobs in Benghazi and other rebel-held cities against sub-Saharan Africans seen as pro-Qaddafi mercenaries, who had been “unlawfully arrested, mistreated and killed.” Some of the Africans, he said, were said to have been arrested by “the new authorities in Beghazi,” and their fate was not clear.
At the United Nations, the Russian ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said Moscow was concerned by the mounting toll of civilians which he said was the responsibility of all parties involved, including NATO.
“Actions by NATO-lead coalition forces also lead to civilian casualties,” he told the Security Council. “It is clear that violence can only be halted through an immediate cease fire and political settlement.” Other ambassadors noted that the prosecution of war crimes carried out in Libya would also send a message to the rest of the region, particularly Syria, that attacks on civilians are unacceptable.
Western diplomats had said in recent weeks that they hoped that the moves by the prosecutor would lead to defections from officials and military of the Qaddafi government.
On Wednesday, Ambassador Susan E. Rice of the United States said the potential for prosecution from the court should serve as a warning to those around Colonel Qaddafi about the perils of tying their fate to his.
In Misurata, Libya, the coastal city besieged by Qaddafi forces, an international aid ship risked attack to enter the port and evacuate migrant workers who have been trying to leave Libya since the uprising began.
Colonel Qaddafi’s military has vowed to prevent ships from entering the port, and both tried mining the approach to the harbor and shelling the port with artillery and ground-to-ground rocket barrages.
At roughly the same time as the ship — a Panamanian-flagged ferry chartered by the International Organization for Migration — arrived, more rockets struck near the port, striking African migrant workers waiting to board.
The barrage killed a man, a woman and small boy and girl. The dead had no documents, and their names and nationalities were not immediately clear.
Dr. Hassan Malitan, who worked at the clinic in the Qasr Ahmed neighborhood, where their bodies awaited burial, vented his anger. The neighborhood has been struck repeatedly by rocket fire, and civilians have been repeatedly killed.
“This is the real Qaddafi,” he said.
The ship departed quickly, taking hundreds of frightened workers out of the city and on the beginning of the passage to the rebel capital, Benghazi.
After two nights of relative quiet, the Qaddafi forces resumed more shelling in Misurata, and skirmishes between rebels and loyalists continued near the airport, the scene of the one of the city’s front lines.
Marlise Simons reported from Paris, and Neil MacFarquhar from the United Nations. C.J. Chivers contributed reporting from Misurata, Libya.
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Trước mắt tại Bắc Phi và Trung Đông, những tên cầm quyền ĐỘC TÀI và tay sai đã và đang bị dân của chúng LẬT ĐỔ và XỬ TỘI .
Những tên cầm quyền độc tài SÁT NHÂN không sớm thì muộn cũng PHẢI ĐỀN TỘI .
Chừng nào thì đến phiên bè lũ phản quốc CƯỚP NƯỚC DIỆT CHỦNG BÁN NƯỚC csVN ???
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog"
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
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CSVN là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
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