I was really uncomfortable about the circumstances surrounding Qadhaffi's death. He was a terrible, terrible man and deserved whatever he had coming. The individual who killed him was most likely overcome with emotions and determined to inflict revenge on the guy who killed/tortured/raped his friends/family/countrymen. Completely understandable reaction; to be honest, had I been the dude who first happened upon OBL in Abbottabad I probably would have shot him in the face as well).
That was before his disfigured body was put on display in a freezer in a strip mall in Misrata, where people came to snap cell phone photos with his corpse.
But, I thought, what kind of country will be created if its defining moment was the sodomization (caution: link is graphic) and extrajudicial assassination of its previous leader? What kind of national narrative will that create? The chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo of the ICC even said the circumstances around his death "may have been a war crime."
Unfortunately, my concerns panned out. There have been reports of prisoner torture of supporters of the deposed Brother Leader at the hands of the new Libyan government. MSF (Doctors Without Borders) suspended its work in Misrata because of an alarming rise of torture cases.
According to the BBC, international human rights groups say such incidents are widespread in Libya. Amnesty International is one such organization, whose spokesman recently said, "The torture is being carried out by officially recognized military and security entities as well as by a multitude of armed militias operating outside any legal framework."
Just this morning, Halah al-Misrati, the former anchorwoman made infamous by her on-air call for jihad against the Libyan rebel forces, was found dead in her prison cell. The National Transition Council made no comment.
In December 2011, a video was released of her with what appeared to be her tongue cut off.
As Condi said, to much derision, there are always "growing pains." But if these allegations prove to be true, it is worth considering what kind of regime replaced that of Qadhaffi.
That was before his disfigured body was put on display in a freezer in a strip mall in Misrata, where people came to snap cell phone photos with his corpse.
But, I thought, what kind of country will be created if its defining moment was the sodomization (caution: link is graphic) and extrajudicial assassination of its previous leader? What kind of national narrative will that create? The chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo of the ICC even said the circumstances around his death "may have been a war crime."
Unfortunately, my concerns panned out. There have been reports of prisoner torture of supporters of the deposed Brother Leader at the hands of the new Libyan government. MSF (Doctors Without Borders) suspended its work in Misrata because of an alarming rise of torture cases.
According to the BBC, international human rights groups say such incidents are widespread in Libya. Amnesty International is one such organization, whose spokesman recently said, "The torture is being carried out by officially recognized military and security entities as well as by a multitude of armed militias operating outside any legal framework."
Just this morning, Halah al-Misrati, the former anchorwoman made infamous by her on-air call for jihad against the Libyan rebel forces, was found dead in her prison cell. The National Transition Council made no comment.
In December 2011, a video was released of her with what appeared to be her tongue cut off.
As Condi said, to much derision, there are always "growing pains." But if these allegations prove to be true, it is worth considering what kind of regime replaced that of Qadhaffi.
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