(MintPress)–A year after the Arab Spring protests mobilized crowds across the world, and the power of the people toppled corrupt leaders like Hosini Mubarak in Egypt and Libya’s Muammar al-Ghaddafi, a number of countries touched by an energy and passion for change are struggling to rebuild and bring their dreams for a fair and just society to fruition.
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Setbacks to a free and open society in Libya
Libya, in particular, has faced a number of setbacks as of late, on its road to creating a free and open society. UK foreign news correspondent Mark Austin wrote in the Sunday Mirror, “But what’s emerging from Libya today is not the beginnings of a civil society intent on reconciliation but rather a much bleaker picture. The country is plagued by rival militias refusing to give up their weapons, battling for power and, in many cases, intent on inflicting a brutal retribution.
Thousands of men – mainly accused of links with the Gaddafi regime – are being held in unofficial detention centres and there’s growing evidence of widespread maltreatment and routine torture.” Reports that many detainees have died after being oppressed by agents of the new regime are also emerging.The news of torture in Libya’s prisons, which has prompted the country’s judicial police to take control of many of its prisons, was decried by human rights watchdog groups, expressing concern regarding the treatment of political prisoners in Libya.
The country’s National Transitional Council has also faced its fair share of problems, from implementing a court system to internal issues. The group rejected the resignationof its number two on Monday, Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, who had stepped down after protests against him due to his defection from the Quaddafi regime. It was unclear whether or not Ghoga would return to his post.
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International groups express concern over human rights abuses
Last week, U.N. Human Rights Commmissioner Navi Pillay told the UN Security Council that she had received “alarming reports” from her staffers that thousands of prisoners in Libya, accused of being Gaddafi loyalists, were being tortured. The U.N. has said that various former rebel groups are holding as many as 8,000 prisoners in 60 detention centers around the country.
Pillay revealed that U.N. teams have found evidence of extrajudicial executions, torture and the rape of both men and women occurring at the prisons. She wrote, “in addition to addressing ongoing human rights concerns, Libyans are faced with the enormous challenge of addressing past abuses. These include violations committed during the former regime, as well as violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law committed during the conflict – as documented in the first report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Libya, mandated by the Human Rights Council.
We must not forget that the Libyan people rose up to remove a tyrannical ruler whose regime committed atrocious human rights violations against its own people. Torture, unlawful killings and enforced disappearances were widely practised. Families of the ‘disappeared’, including over 1,200 prisoners allegedly killed in the 1996 Abu Salim Prison massacre, continue to wait for truth and justice to be done. Acts amounting to the mere exercise of freedom of expression and association frequently resulted in the death penalty, including after unfair trials before the People’s Court and later the State Security Court”.
Another international group, Doctors Without Borders, has announced it will suspended its work in prisons in the Libyan city of Misrata, because it believes torture was so rampant that some detainees were brought in for care only to make them able to undergo further interrogation and abuse.
. U.S. involvement in nation-building?
How nation-building will be carried out in Libya is still unfolding, and what role the U.S. may possibly play in that endeavor is also under speculation. An August press release from the White Housepledged, “The future of Libya is now in the hands of the Libyan people. Going forward, the United States will continue to stay in close coordination with the TNC. We will continue to insist that the basic rights of the Libyan people are respected. And we will continue to work with our allies and partners in the international community to protect the people of Libya, and to support a peaceful transition to democracy.”
Just last month the White House announce the U.S. was rolling back sanctions on Libya,freeing up it’s assets to allow for reconstruction.The U.S. had intervened, freezing the Government of Libya’s assets after the Qadhafi regime’s attacks against the Libyan people. The international financial sanctions were aimed at preventing Libya’s assets from being used by Qadhafi to perpetrate violence. “We look forward to a continued close partnership with the new government of Libya during this transitional period and beyond,” the White House said.There has been some chatter on the web about U.S. troops possibly being deployed to the region, but the rumor is not being confirmed by the U.S. government.
Former U.S. congresswoman and Green Party Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney authored a blog post on her website where she writes that President Barack Obama authorized 12,000 U.S. troops to Malta destined for occupation of Libya. McKinney is critical of the role the U.S. and its allies are taking in Libya, and questions U.S. commitments to nation-building, writing “all of the petroleum platforms are occupied by NATO and that warships occupy Libya’s ports”. McKinney also says that photographs show Italian encampments in the desert, and references an announcement that the French are to follow, while Qataris and Emiratees are the engineers at the oil plants, turning away desperate Libyan workers.
“While long lines exist for Libyan drivers to get their gas, foreign troops ensure the black gold’s export. Libyans lack enough food and the basics, the country has been turned upside down, and contaminated with uranium while the true number of dead and unaccounted for remains high and unknown,” McKinney writes.
Just last week, after a long period of violence and bloodshed, Libyian Prime Minister Abdurrahim el-Keib asked Libyans to assist the government in dealing with the aftermath of one of the « strangest and most complicated regimes in history » according to a report from CNN.
The report further detailed, “Libyans are fed up. They want trust, transparency. And they want to see immediate progress. Their frustration has surfaced in protests in several Libyan cities over the last few days, most notably in Benghazi, the seat of the revolution, where Libyans stormed the National Transitional Council building. There has also been a recent flare-up in violence. Clashes between pro- and anti-Gadhafi forces have turned lethal. And the nation is still struggling to establish rule of law”.