Gaddafi killing maybe a war crime: UN

[Saifullah Sani]

Gaddafi killing maybe a war crime: UN​

NEW YORK: The United Nations, Amnesty International, International Committee of the Red Cross, and US have called for a full investigation into the death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi amid concerns that he may have been executed, a war crime under international law.

Images filmed on mobile phones before and after Gaddafi's death showed him wounded and bloodied but clearly alive after his capture in his hometown of Sirte, and then dead amidst a jostling crowd of anti-Gaddafi fighters.

"If you take these two videos together, they are rather disturbing because you see someone who has been captured alive and then you see the same person dead," UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told Reuters Television.

Asked whether Gaddafi may have been executed, he said: "It has to be one possibility when you look at these two videos. So that's something that an investigation needs to look into."
Under the Geneva Conventions which lay down the rules of conduct in armed conflict, it is prohibited to torture, humiliate or murder detainees.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which upholds respect for the 1949 pacts, said it had no information on Gaddafi's death. "In general, a captured person must be treated correctly," an ICRC spokesman said.

With suggestions, including from Russia, that the deposed dictator may have been summarily executed after his capture on Thursday, Moscow and Amnesty International called for an investigation.

On the other hand the United States has also urged Libya's interim leaders to provide "a transparent account" of the death of strongman Moamer Kadhafi.

The National Transitional Council "has already been working to determine the precise cause and circumstances of Kadhafi's death and we obviously urge them to do so in an open and transparent manner as we move forward," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

"We also continue to urge them, as we have been over the past months, to treat prisoners humanely," Toner added.

Gaddafi killing maybe a war crime: UN

 

[roadrunner]

Even if it was a war crime, what's the UN going to do about it? It's been made irrelevant from the Iraq war onwards.

though I would agree the savagery of the rebels was of a high level. the argument will probably be made... "but Gaddafi was not in uniform at the time", or something stupid like that.