Libya’s new leaders vowed yesterday to bring Muammar Gaddafi’s killers to justice in a sharp break with their previous insistence he was caught in the crossfire with his own loyalists.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council unanimously voted to end the mandate for international military action in Libya, ending another chapter in the war against Colonel Gaddafi’s toppled regime.
“With regards to Gaddafi, we do not wait for anybody to tell us,” Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, vice chairman of the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC), told a news conference in Benghazi.
“We had already launched an investigation. We have issued a code of ethics in handling of prisoners of war. There were some violations by those who are unfortunately described as revolutionaries. I am sure that was an individual act and not an act of revolutionaries or the national army,” the top interim official said.
“We had issued a statement saying that any violations of human rights will be investigated by the NTC. Whoever is responsible for that (Col Gaddafi’s killing) will be judged and given a fair trial.”
Mr Ghoga, who spoke in Arabic and whose remarks were translated by an official interpreter, was responding to specific questions about Col Gaddafi’s death and potential abuses.
Until now, the NTC had ada-mantly claimed that Col Gaddafi was killed in crossfire after he was captured in Sirte, his hometown and final bastion.
Disquiet has grown internationally over how Col Gaddafi met his end after NTC fighters hauled him out of a culvert where he was hiding following Nato air strikes on the convoy in which he had been trying to flee his falling hometown.
Mobile phone videos show him still alive at that point. Subsequent footage shows a now-bloodied but walking Gaddafi being hustled through a frenzied crowd, before he disappears in the crush and the crackle of gunfire can be heard.
In New York, meanwhile, a Security Council resolution ordered the end of the authorisation for a no-fly zone and action to protect civilians from 11:59 p.m. Libyan time (2159 GMT) next Monday.
Security Council Resolution 2016 also eased an international arms embargo, freezes on the assets of the Libyan National Oil Corp and virtually all restrictions on the central bank and other key institutions.
It also ended the ban on international flights by Libyan registered planes. Nato’s decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, is to meet today in Brussels to formally declare an end to its seven-month air war.
Nato weighed a possible new role in Libya following Col Gad-dafi’s death and US State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said discussions had started at Nato headquarters in Brussels and with the NTC about the end of the UN mandate.
She said the NTC “may foresee a future role for Nato,” and that discussions have been held about that as well.
“Some things have been discussed, like support for border security, support for demobilisation, decommissioning of weapons, these kinds of things,” she said.
NTC head Mustafa Abdel Jalil said on Wednesday Gaddafi loyalists in neighbouring countries still pose a threat to his fledgling ad-ministration and urged Nato to continue its Libya campaign.