See Also, Syria, Libya (and Beyond) Liveblog: Cracks in the Regime
There are fresh allegations that Libya's opposition fighters have rounded up black Africans and placed them in detention camps, on the suspicion that they are former Qaddafi mercenaries, just on the basis of their skin color. As other reports of chaos surface after the fall of Qaddafi's government in Tripoli, we ask two questions:
Are these abuses systematically executed by Libya's new government, and when will law and order be restored to Libya?
The Associated Press is running a story about how opposition forces have been gathering thousands of black Africans and placing them in detention centers, under suspicion that they are fighters for Colonel Muammar Qaddafi.
The NTC, for its part, maintains that it is calling for the people of Libya to resist vengeance:
The rebels' National Transitional Council has called on fighters not to abuse prisoners and says those accused of crimes will receive fair trials.There have been little credible evidence of rebels killing or systematically abusing captives during the six-month conflict. Still, the African Union and Amnesty International have protested the treatment of blacks inside Libya, saying there is a potential for serious abuse.
Aladdin Mabrouk, a spokesman for Tripoli's military council, said no one knows how many people have been detained in the city, but he guessed more than 5,000. While no central registry exists, he said neighborhood councils he knows have between 200 and 300 prisoners each. The city of 1.8 million has dozens of such groups.
Justice Minister Mohammed al-Alagi told reporters this week that he'd visited several detention centers and found conditions "up to international standards."
"We are building a Libya of tolerance and freedom, not of revenge," he said.
There are other reports that crime is high, migrant camps have suffered from robbery and rape, and the situation is less than stable, especially in Tripoli and other recently captured cities. Scott Lucas tempers these reports, arguing that there is little evidence of systemic abuses, but what is important is that the NTC establish law and order quickly in the aftermath of battle:
"The leap in the AP story is the implication that 1) most of the 5000 are black Africans suspected of being mercenaries --- the story has no evidence for that because its cases are specific anecdotes.
2) The round-up is a deliberate move against black Africans.
There is bound to be chaos and suspicion in the aftermath, so people get lifted, black or otherwise --- What matters is how quickly the NTC can establish a proper system to handle these cases.
James Miller adds that he is highly concerned about the humanitarian crisis in Tripoli. On the other hand, the NTC is less than 6 months old, and he thinks that even the opposition fighters are surprised to already be in Tripoli. He also notes that when a small group of Qaddafi fighters were executed (near Misurata, if memory serves), the NTC condemned the move and ordered its commanders to halt such actions immediately. Since then, very few credible reports of such violence.