UN: Libya former-rebels still hold 7,000 prisoners

UN: Libya former-rebels still hold 7,000 prisoners

The United Nations has urged the new Libyan government to act fast to deal with the prisoner situation.

UN said: “former Libyan rebels are still holding about 7,000 prisoners.”

The detainees are being held without access to legal process because the police and courts are not functioning, and some may have been tortured.

Many are sub-Saharan Africans suspected of being mercenaries hired by the Gaddafi’s regime.

The UN said the new Libyan government had responded positively when pressed to deal with the issue.

Reports say this was the first UN assessment of the situation in Libya since the end of the eight-month civil war.

Call for respect of human rights

The report, by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the prisoners are currently held in prisons and temporary detention centres, most under the control of revolutionary brigades.

According to observers, while the National Transitional Council has taken some steps toward transferring responsibility for the detainees from brigades to proper state authorities, much remains to be done to regularize detention, prevent abuse and bring about the release of those whose detention should not be prolonged.

Mr Ban said: "I believe that the leaders of the new Libya are indeed committed to building a society based on the respect for human rights.

"Achieving this requires the earliest possible action, however difficult the circumstances, to end arbitrary detention and prevent abuses and discrimination, against third country nationals as well as against any group of Libya's own citizens," he added.

The UN's Libya envoy, Ian Martin, welcomed last week's appointment of an interim government in Tripoli.

Mr Martin said "It is indicative of the difference from the attitudes of past regime that there is no denial that human rights are being violated and in most cases international organisations are granted access to detainees".

Challenges

But whatever the attitudes of the new government members, Mr Martin told the Security Council that the interim government faced enormous challenges.

• disarming and integrating revolutionary fighters who have now taken over law and order functions in the absence of a police force
• securing weapons stockpiles and stopping the proliferation of arms
• Building from scratch an electoral system able to hold elections by June.

BBC/ Waziri/Williams