Thursday, October 27, 2011

NTC says Qaddafi’s killers to face trial; Algeria and Mali call for peace in Libya

Muammar Qaddafi, who ruled Libya under a tight grip for 42 years, was killed on Oct. 20, 2011. (File Photo)
Libya’s ruling National Transition Council pledged on Thursday to bring the killers of deposed leader Muammar Qaddafi to trial, Al Arabiya TV said.

“With regards to Qaddafi, we do not wait for anybody to tell us,” NTC vice chairman Abdel Hafiz Ghoga.

“We had already launched an investigation. We have issued a code of ethics in handling of prisoners of war. I am sure that was an individual act and not an act of revolutionaries or the national army,” the top interim official said.

“Whoever is responsible for that (Qaddafi’s killing) will be judged and given a fair trial.”
Global disquiet has grown over how Qaddafi met his end at the hands of NTC fighters who hauled him out of a culvert where he was hiding following a NATO air strike.

Mobile phone videos show him still alive at that point.

In addition to Qaddafi’s killing by his capturers, a Youtube video showed a rebel trying to insert some kind of stick or knife into Qaddafi’s rear end.

Another video, showed Qaddafi’s son, Mutassim, captured, still alive and smoking a cigarette before his killing.

On Tuesday, Qaddafi, his son, and his ex-defense minister, Abu Baker Jaber, were buried in a secret location. The Libyan authorities said the burial was held in a secret location to prevent graves’ vandalism.

Meanwhile, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Wednesday expressed his “disgust” at the global media for its graphic coverage of the ousted leader’s death.

“Almost the entire Qaddafi family was killed. His body was shown on all the world channels. You could not watch without disgust,” news agencies quoted Putin as saying.

“What is that?” Putin exclaimed. “They show a bloodied man, wounded, still alive but getting beaten to death. And they splash that all over the screen.”

Algeria and Mali

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and his visiting counterpart from Mali, Amadou Toumani Toure, on Thursday said they would cooperate with the new Libyan authorities and called for peace there.

Bouteflika and Toure expressed their “readiness to cooperate with the new Libyan authorities” - whom they described as “brothers” – “in the mutual interest of their peoples and as a contribution to the strengthening of peace, security and stability in the whole region,” a joint statement said when Toure left.

The two heads of state “joined in their wishes for a rapid settlement of the crisis in this country, in line with the aspirations of the Libyan people, and respect for unity, integrity and sovereignty,” the text said, according to the APS news agency.

Last week, Algeria was urged by Britain and other foreign powers to cooperate with the Libyan authorities whose forces toppled and killed ousted leader Moamer Kadhafi over members of Kadhafi's family who have fled to Algeria and sought refuge there during the fighting.

Qaddafi’s daughter Aisha fled to Algeria late in August with her brother Hannibal, their mother Safiya – Qaddafi’s second wife − and his eldest son Mohammed. Aisha has since given birth to a baby girl.

Algeria has thus far given them refuge.

Toure’s four-day visit to Algeria was notably marked by the signing of plans for cooperation in several domains, ranging from energy and mines to water management and public works.

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