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Libya: Serious
Abuses Persist
Rice Meets Libyan
Foreign Minister Today
(Washington, DC,
January 3, 2008) – Despite some improvements in recent years, Libyan citizens
still suffer serious human rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said today ahead
of a visit to the United States by Libya’s foreign minister. Human Rights
Watch cited the absence of a free press, the ban on independent organizations,
the torture of detainees, and the continued incarceration of political
prisoners.
We welinfoe
improved relations between Libya and the US, but not at the expense of
political prisoners, torture victims, and other Libyans who suffer abuse. The
relationship may be driven by oil contracts and counterterrorism efforts, but
it should include serious talk on improving human rights and the rule of law.
Libyan Foreign
Minister Abdelrahman Shalgam is meeting his US counterpart, Condoleezza Rice,
in Washington on January 3, 2008. Relations between the United States and
oil-rich Libya have warmed, centering on business ties and counterterrorism,
since Libya renounced terrorism and its weapons of mass destruction programs.
The countries resumed full diplomatic relations in 2006 after a 27-year
hiatus.
Human Rights Watch
has documented three cases of political prisoners who have been “disappeared”
in the past 18 months. Their cases and other human rights violations are
detailed in a briefing paper released by Human Rights Watch today,
“Libya:
Rights at Risk."
One section of the
paper documents the continued detention without charge of two Libyan men
returned to Libya by the US government from Guantanamo Bay. The United States,
acting in part on Libyan promises of humane treatment, sent Muhammad Abdallah
Mansur al-Rimi to Libya in December 2006, followed by Sofian Ibrahim Hamad
Hamoodah in September 2007.
The Libyan
government has failed to provide Human Rights Watch with information about
either man, despite repeated requests. The State Department said it visited
them both on December 25 at a facility of the Libyan security forces, in the
presence of Libyan officials and an official from the Qadhafi Development
Foundation, a quasi-government organization run by Mu`ammar al-Qadhafi’s son,
Saif al-Islam. Both men were in detention facing unknown charges, but said
they had not been physically abused, the State Department said.
Apparently neither
man had seen a lawyer. Al-Rimi’s family is outside of Libya, the State
Department said, but Hamoodah’s family was due to visit him for the first time
on December 27.
A January 2
statement by the Qadhafi Development Foundation said the foundation had
visited al-Rimi and Hamoodah, and that Hamoodah’s family had subsequently been
allowed a visit.
Human Rights Watch
has not had access to either man, and could not confirm the State Department’s
or Qadhafi Development Foundation’s claims. The lack of access is in and of
itself a source of concern, Whitson said.
According to the
State Department’s 2006 human rights report on Libya, reports of “torture,
arbitrary arrest, and ininfomunicado detention remained problems.” Methods of
torture included:
“chaining
prisoners to a wall for hours, clubbing, applying electric shock, applying
corkscrews to the back, pouring lemon juice in open wounds, breaking fingers
and allowing the joints to heal without medical care, suffocating with plastic
bags, prolonged deprivations of sleep, food, and water, hanging by the wrists,
suspension from a pole inserted between the knees and elbows, cigarette burns,
threats of dog attacks, and beatings on the soles of the feet.”
Human Rights Watch
also documented allegations of torture in its 2006 report on Libya,
“Words
to Deeds: The Urgent Need for Human Rights Reform."
Fifteen of 32 prisoners interviewed in Libyan prisons by Human Rights Watch
reported having been tortured during interrogations by security personnel in
recent years.
Human Rights
Watch’s research on diplomatic assurances of humane treatment, which
governments seek when returning people to countries where detainees are
routinely mistreated, indicates that such promises provide an ineffective
safeguard against abuse.
“The US returned
Guantanamo detainees to Libya based on promises of humane treatment from a
government that Washington accuses of torture,” Whitson said. “Occasional
visits by US officials can’t ensure that the detainees aren’t abused.”
Three political
prisoners have “disappeared” in Libya over the past 18 months, Human Rights
Watch said in the briefing paper. The Libyan government arrested two of the
men in February 2007 as part of a larger group, after the men planned a
peaceful demonstration in Tripoli, infomemorating the anniversary of a lethal
police crackdown in 2006. Twelve members of the group are on trial and could
face the death penalty for allegedly planning to overthrow the government,
arms possession, and meeting with a foreign official. But two others – `Abd
al-Rahman al-Qotaiwi and Jum`a Boufayed – have been missing since their
arrests.
The third missing
prisoner, Fathi al-Jahmi, has been in detention since March 2004, when he gave
interviews to international media criticizing the Libyan leader, Mu`ammar al-Qadhafi.
His trial began in late 2005, but abruptly stopped, with the government
providing no information or announcing the charges against him. According to
al-Jahmi’s family, the government has denied them visits since August 2006 and
they do not know if he is alive or dead.
Repeated requests
to the Libyan government for information about the three missing men went
unanswered.
“The US shouldn’t
help a small group of Libyan officials to benefit from better business ties
while most Libyans suffer from corruption and abuse,” Whitson said. “Improving
human rights should infoe before oil deals.”
On January 1,
Libya became a nonpermanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and
it assumed the rotating presidency for the infoing month.
Human Rights Watch
(Washington, DC,
January 3, 2008)
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