UN rights chief warns Libya of “crimes against humanity
The U.N. Security Council will meet Tuesday to discuss the crisis in Libya, as the U.N. rights
chief ordered an international probe into the Libyan massacres, while Washington and Europe urged Libya to stop the “unacceptable bloodshed” of protesters. “I urged him that the human rights and freedom of assembly and freedom of speech must be fully protected,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said of his 40-minute telephone conversation with the man who has ruled Libya for 41 years. “I forcefully urged him to stop the violence against demonstrators and I again strongly underlined the importance of respecting human rights of those demonstrators,” he said ahead of a closed-door meeting set for 1400 GMT in New York.
“Crimes against humanity”
The U.N.’s human rights chief, meanwhile, warned Libyan authorities that systematic and widespread attacks against the civilian population could amount to “crimes against humanity”.
“The authorities should immediately cease such illegal acts of violence against demonstrators,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a statement.
“Widespread and systematic attacks against the civilian population may amount to crimes against humanity,” she said.
The U.N. rights chief urged a halt to the violence.
“The callousness with which Libyan authorities and their hired guns are reportedly shooting live rounds of ammunition at peaceful protestors is unconscionable,” she noted.
“I am extremely worried that lives are being lost even as I speak.”
“The international community must unite in condemnation of such acts and make unequivocal commitments to ensure justice is rendered to the thousands of victims of this repression,” she said.
Pillay called for the “immediate cessation of the grave human rights violations committed by Libyan authorities and urged an independent international investigation into the violent suppression of protests in the country,” the statement said.
Aspiration of people
The U.N. chief stressed that “the aspirations and concerns of the people should be fully respected and heard by the authorities of the countries concerned.”
He spoke to a small group of reporters in Los Angeles shortly after issuing a statement saying he was “outraged” over reports that Libyan security forces fired on demonstrators from war planes and helicopters.
“Such attacks against civilians, if confirmed, would constitute a serious violation of international humanitarian law and would be condemned by the secretary-general in the strongest terms,” U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
Ban “once again calls for an immediate end to the violence,” added the statement, which said he has been in close touch with key states over the crisis.
In his conversation with Gaddafi, Ban also called on the longest-serving Arab ruler to “immediately” halt violence in the North African country and launch a broad-based dialogue with the opposition.
Protesters meanwhile took control of several Libyan cities and a growing number of regime figures defected. International rights groups estimate the unrest has left up to 400 people dead.
Gaddafi, in his first comments since protests erupted last Tuesday in the east of the oil-rich nation, denied he had fled his country amid claims of a “massacre” in the capital Tripoli.
Ban stressed the need to “ensure the protection of the civilian population under any circumstances,” Nesirky said.
“Unnecessary bloodshed”
The United States told Libya on Monday to stop shedding the blood of protesters seeking to end Gaddafi’s 41-year rule and announced plans to evacuate some U.S. diplomats from the oil-exporting nation.
“Now is the time to stop this unacceptable bloodshed,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a written statement in which she stressed Libya had a responsibility to protect its citizens’ rights, including freedom of speech and assembly.
The son of Libyan leader Gaddafi said that air raids targeted ammunition depots and not populated areas in Tripoli and Benghanzi, state television said.
“There is no truth to information about a raid by the armed forces against Tripoli and Benghazi,” Libyan television quoted Saif al-Islam Gaddafi as telling the official Jana news agency.
“The raid targeted ammunitions depots in areas remote from inhabited areas,” Saif al-Islam said
The United States said earlier on Monday it was ordering nonessential U.S. diplomats as well as all embassy family members to leave Libya, a country with which it only recently restored diplomatic relations after years of estrangement.
The improvement in ties began in late 2003, when — after the U.S.-led war that toppled former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein — Gaddafi gave up Libya’s weapons of mass destruction programs and settled claims stemming from the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and other alleged terrorist acts.
In a brief written statement, Clinton minced no words.
“The world is watching the situation in Libya with alarm,” she said. “We join the international community in strongly condemning the violence in Libya.”
“The government of Libya has a responsibility to respect the universal rights of the people, including the right to free expression and assembly, she added. “We are working urgently with friends and partners around the world to convey this message to the Libyan government.”
In a travel warning issued to U.S. citizens earlier, the State Department advised Americans to defer all travel to Libya and told those in the country to limit their movements, especially after dark, and to prepare “to shelter in place.”
“Spontaneous demonstrations, violence, and looting are possible throughout the next several days,” it added.
Worldwide condemnations
NATO, the European Union, Britain, France, Italy, Australia and New Zealand all called for a halt to the violence.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, visiting neighboring Egypt, called the crackdown “appalling.”
“The regime is using the most vicious forms of repression against people who want to see that country – which is one of the most closed and one of the most autocratic – make progress,” he said.
Italy put all military air bases on maximum alert after the fighters landed, ANSA news agency reported, and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he was “alarmed” by clashes in the former Italian colony.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called on Tripoli to stop the deadly crackdown, saying in a statement: “I am shocked by the indiscriminate use of violence against peaceful protesters in Libya.”
Libya’s airspace over the capital Tripoli has not been closed, the Austrian Army announced late Monday after earlier reporting its closure.
The army has been able to evacuate 62 European nationals on a military plane from Tripoli to Malta, it said.
“One of our sources said that initially that it (airspace) was closed, but another later confirmed otherwise. Our plane was able to leave,” defense ministry spokesman Michael Huber told AFP.
Australia and New Zealand strongly condemned Libya’s use of force against protesters and lifted their travel advisories.
Australia raised its advice to “do not travel”, the highest level, and explored evacuation options for about 80 citizens.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the use of the military against peaceful protesters. There is no excuse and no tolerance from the Australian government for violence being wreaked against peaceful protesters, Prime Minister Julia Gillard told reporters.
New Zealand, which has about 25 people in the country, raised its travel advice to “extreme risk” and called reports coming from the country “deeply disturbing”.
“New Zealand supports the right of the Libyan people to peacefully protest and seek greater democratic freedoms,” said Foreign Minister Murray McCully.
“This is deeply disturbing and unacceptable. We call on the government to refrain immediately from the excessive use of force.”
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