GENEVA:
The United Nations and human rights groups called for a full investigation into the death of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and voiced concerns that he may have been executed, a war crime under international law.
Images filmed on mobile phones before and after Qaddafi’s death showed him wounded and bloodied but clearly alive after his capture in his hometown of Sirte on Thursday, and then dead amidst a jostling crowd of anti-Qaddafi fighters.
“If you take these two videos together, they are rather disturbing because you see someone who has been captured alive and then you see the same person dead,” UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told Reuters.
Asked whether Qaddafi may have been executed, he said: “It has to be one possibility when you look at these two videos. So that’s something that an investigation needs to look into.”
“If Colonel Qaddafi was killed after his capture, it would constitute a war crime and those responsible should be brought to justice,” Claudio Cordone, senior director at Amnesty International, said in a statement.
Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch, interviewed by CNN in Sirte, said: “We are calling for an autopsy and an investigation. This is a blemish on the new Libya that he died under suspicious circumstances,” he said.
Meanwhile, Qaddafi’s body lay in an old meat store on Friday as arguments swirled over his burial and the circumstances of his death.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 22nd, 2011.
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the man was murdered, why do they need his corpse? They should of buried him within 24 hours, according to his religion. Everyone has the right to a proper burial!
If Qaddaffi was murdered, the people that killed him was no better than him and should be brought to justice and held accountable.
According to New York Times, the Nato’s strike destroyed at least 11 of the vehicles, and apparently contributed to Colonel Qaddafi’s capture. The convoy was leaving town, wasn’t engaged in a combat, hence it didn’t pose any security threat to civilians. This airstrike on the convoy last Thursday was an act of targeted killings. Nato had overstepped its mandate provided by the UNSC Resolution 1979 and should be held to account. The fugitives could have been captured by the rebel fighters. Fateh Bashagha, who was the link man for the NTC between Nato and the Misrata rebels. They arrived soon on the spot and “described a scene of mass destruction, with as many as 50 bodies scattered about and the charred remains of victims still sitting in the driver’s seats of the destroyed vehicles”.
According to New York Times, the Nato’s strike destroyed at least 11 of the vehicles, and apparently contributed to Colonel Qaddafi’s capture. The convoy was leaving town, wasn’t engaged in a combat, hence it didn’t pose any security threat to civilians. This airstrike on the convoy last Thursday was an act of targeted killings. Nato had overstepped its mandate provided by UNSC Resolution 1973 and should also be held to account. The fugitives could have been captured by the rebel fighters. Fateh Bashagha, who was the link man for the NTC between Nato and the Misrata rebels. They arrived soon on the spot and “described a scene of mass destruction, with as many as 50 bodies scattered about and the charred remains of victims still sitting in the driver’s seats of the destroyed vehicles”.