View Photo Gallery — As international airstrikes continue against forces loyal to Moammar Gaddafi, rebels face difficult battles.
By Sudarsan Raghavan, Sunday, May 22, 10:27 AM
BENGHAZI, Libya — The men were armed and wore black ski masks. In broad daylight, they grabbed Adil Ali el-Aghouri from in front of his house last month, beat him, took him to a rebel military base and threw him in a prison cell.
Ever since, his relatives say, Aghouri has been held without charge or access to a lawyer. His only crime, they say, was to serve in the feared internal security police under Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi; they insist that he committed no atrocities.
“He’s in prison not because he broke any laws, but by the power of the gun,” said Aghouri’s brother, Muhammad. “This is about revenge.”
With Libya essentially divided in half by conflict, the U.S.- and NATO-backed rebels who control much of the east are carrying out what many view as a campaign of retaliation against those once aligned with Gaddafi, according to relatives and rebel commanders and officials. Such targeting raises questions about the character of the government taking shape in eastern Libya and whether it will follow basic principles of democracy and human rights. Moreover, such acts could further deepen divisions in Libya’s tribal society and diminish the sort of reconciliation vital for stability in a post-Gaddafi era.
Both Egypt and Tunisia, where authoritarian leaders were ousted by popular uprisings, are striving to revise laws and struggling with how to deal with the former members of their regimes. Human rights activists note that Libya’s rebels have had to organize a state, including a new judicial system, in just three months during wartime.
View Photo Gallery — As international airstrikes continue against forces loyal to Moammar Gaddafi, rebels face difficult battles.
But critics fear the Libyan rebels are going down the same path as Gaddafi — whose government is notorious for carrying out arbitrary arrests, torture and executions without trial — months after launching an uprising based in large part on their outrage over such injustices.
Some critics, including top officials working with the rebel council that runs eastern Libya, also point out that countless Libyans worked in Gaddafi’s government, many just for the paycheck. Those who committed serious crimes have probably fled rebel areas by now, they argue.
“There have been a lot of mistakes, even though the intentions are good,” said Jamal Benour, a judge who is in charge of justice issues for the rebel transitional council. “We need to have a proper judicial process, to build trust in law and order. Now, maybe we’ve lost part of the credibility of the revolution. . . . Some might say that what Gaddafi did in his regime is happening now under the revolution.”
Rebel commanders have created a wanted list and placed suspects under round-the-clock surveillance. Secret militia units raid houses without court warrants and often interrogate suspects for hours. Those released have to sign a document stating their loyalty to the revolution.
As many as 30 civilians are being held at various rebel military bases around Benghazi without due process of law, said human rights activists, judges and prosecutors. In recent weeks, at least seven former members of the internal security police have turned up dead, their bodies riddled with bullets. Although it is not known who killed them, many suspect that they died at the hands of rebel-affiliated death squads.
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