Public Libya Monitor - coming soon

As always in armed conflicts the issue of atrocities or mass crimes committed by parties involved is highly political and more often than not instrumentalised in the public and international arena. The ongoing conflict in Libya is no exception. 

On 27 June judges of the International Criminal Court granted arrest warrants for Muammar Gaddafi, Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, and Abdullah Sanussi on charges of crimes against humanity (but not war crimes) brought forward by the ICC-Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo. 

Along with the investigations of the ICC-Prosecutor a fact-finding mission of the UN Human Rights Council took place. Cherif Bassiouni, the head of the mission, presented a report emphasising to objectively having looked into possible wrongdoing by each of the parties involved in the conflict, including NATO. 

However, as known from other examples, e.g. the war in the former Yugoslavia, it is quite complicated to produce an objective presentation of facts on human rights violations or international crimes which is, in principle, shared by all actors and third parties. 

Two critical examples for the Libya situation show already how crucial it is to monitor ALL serious presentations of facts from a non-partisan perspective: 

Firstly, the example of "rape claims 'hysteria'" (see Herald Sun, 10 June 2011) shows that there are serious doubts even about the approaches taken by Ocampo who was - in the view of Bassiouni, according to Herald Sun - part of a "massive hysteria". Even if these allegations were proven to be true at a later stage, for the time being questions have been arising in regard to the objectivity of the ICC-Prosecutor. 

Secondly, a complaint with war crimes charges was filed against NATO for the bombing of a civilian home in Tripoli, killing a son and grandchildren of Muammar Gaddafi, which according to Luc Brossollet, one of the attorneys representing Aisha Gaddafi, constitutes a war crime (see Helium News, 9 June 2011). However, to the contrary the Bassiouni-report states "The commission has not, however, seen evidence to suggest that civilians or civilian objects have been intentionally targeted by NATO forces, nor that it has engaged in indiscriminate attacks." The report does not refer to the bombing incident which happened on 30 April 2011 and was therefore known during the time of the missions' investigation. 

IJA-Forum is aware of and keeps receiving other information which could provide useful details for a balanced picture on the Libyan situation. 

The Public Libya Monitor, to be launched very soon on the IJA-Forum Internet platform, will present analysis and databases on the situation in Libya. If you have any comments or advice, please don't hesitate to contact us via the form below or using the Contact Tab.