Libya: Human Rights Abuses and Reform

AFP reports that a foundation run by Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, son of  Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, has catalogued an array of cases of torture, wrongful imprisonment, continuing state domination of the media, and “several flagrant violations” of human rights during 2009.  The report condemned such abuses, demanded full liberalization of the Libyan media, and called for a “transparent, just and fair” probe into the 1996 massacre at Abu Slim prison.

AP reports that Human Rights Watch followed with their own report claiming “Libyan dissidents continue to face arbitrary detention and unfair trials, despite a limited expansion of freedoms since the country began to shed its pariah status several years ago.”  While Gadhafi’s decision to abandon weapons of mass destruction opened the country to warmer relations with the West, HRW argues “this transformation in Libya’s foreign policy has not galvanized an equivalent transformation of Libya’s human rights record” and that “every Libyan knows that the true reform in the country will not be possible so long as the Internal Security Agency remains above the law.”

Lastly, Dana Moss and Ronald Bruce St. John gave speeches at a policy forum about Libya’s rapprochement with the U.S.  Moss believes that Gadhafi’s work to reconcile with the West over WMD’s does not represent a change in Libyan outlook, but rather should be seen as a shift in policies to follow the same ” irrational and erratic” decisions, “perhaps to prove his independence to his hardline domestic constituents, or else to increase his leverage.”  St. John argues that rapprochement has benefited Libya, but the country’s inherently flawed political system will continue to hamper all manner of reforms and as a result “it is likely that social and political change will be on hold until Qadhafi leaves power.”