UN says current system to protect prisoners' rights inadequate as Libyan fighters and foreign mercenaries captured in Sirte
Ian Black in Tripoli
guardian.co.uk,
A man (centre) suspected of being a fighter loyal to Muammar Gaddafi is taken prisoner by rebel fighters in Sirte. Photograph: Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters
Libyan and foreign fighters captured in the dramatic final battle for Sirte will be detained and interrogated as the western-backed National Transitional Council sorts out its often prickly relations with the different battalions that have been fighting the war for the last eight months.
The record suggests that the prisoners are likely to be badly treated.
No official figures have been released about those being held after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi's hometown, but scores of regime loyalists and foreign mercenaries, including sub-Saharan Africans from neighbouring countries, had maintained fierce resistance for weeks, raising fears of a prolonged insurgency that could destabilise the revolution. The five bodyguards who were killed with Gaddafi on Thursday were from Niger and Chad.
Human rights monitors have gathered evidence that thousands of Gaddafi fighters are being held in makeshift prisons and subjected to beatings, torture and other mistreatment. According to a UN delegation that recently visited Libya, the NTC, whose control over the national army does not extend to the katibas, or rebel brigades, has been trying to ensure the rights of prisoners are protected. But the delegation warned that "the system currently in place is not adequate".
Amnesty International reported that some of an estimated 7,000 captured Gaddafi soldiers and loyalists were being tortured into making confessions.
Russian and Serb mercenaries, as well as many from sub-Saharan Africa, are also said to have been captured. Prisoners seized during the battles for Sirte and Bani Walid, another loyalist stronghold southeast of Tripoli, provided vital intelligence to rebels about enemy weapons and dispositions –including the existence of concealed tunnels being used by Gaddafi's men
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