Libya’s new leaders pledged “moderate” Islamic rule even as their fighters were accused by Amnesty International yesterday of possibly committing war crimes.
The defiant ousted Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, meanwhile, vowed from hiding to battle on until victory as his forces launched surprise fightbacks on three fronts.
Interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil received a hero’s welcome when he made a public speech in Tripoli’s main square late on Monday.
Thousands celebrated last month’s fall of the Qaddafi regime in Martyrs’ Square, two days after Abdel Jalil, the head of the National Transitional Council (NTC), arrived in Tripoli from Benghazi in the east.
Moderate Islam would be the main source of legislation in post-Qaddafi Libya, he told the crowd.
“We will not accept any extremist ideology, on the right or the left. We are a Muslim people, for a moderate Islam, and we will stay on this road,” he said.
In a new report released yesterday, Amnesty International accused Qaddafi’s regime of crimes against humanity, but also said NTC fighters may have committed war crimes.
While the London-based rights group’s report consisted mainly of damning examples of violations by Qaddafi’s regime, it said the NTC appeared unwilling to hold its fighters accountable for human rights violations.
Amnesty that said in the first days of the uprising against Qaddafi’s rule groups of protesters killed a number of captured soldiers and suspected mercenaries.
“Some were beaten to death, at least three were hanged, and others were shot dead after they had been captured or had surrendered, said the report, The Battle for Libya — Killings, Disappearances and Torture.
“The NTC is facing a difficult task of reigning in opposition fighters and vigilante groups responsible for serious human rights abuses, including possible war crimes, but has shown unwillingness to hold them accountable,” it said.
However, Amnesty said that the war crimes allegedly committed by the now governing opposition were of a “smaller scale” than those carried out by Qaddafi’s regime, which it says may be responsible for crimes against humanity.
Qaddafi in a statement read out on Syria-based Arrai Oruba television vowed to defeat those behind the “coup” that ousted him.
“It is not possible to give Libya to the colonialists again,” the one-time strongman said.
“All that remains for us is the struggle until victory and the -defeat of the coup,” said the former leader, who has gone underground since Tripoli fell to rebel fighters late last month.
On the battlefield, Qaddafi’s remaining forces launched ferocious counterattacks on Monday on the oil refinery town of Ras Lanuf in the east, on the road toward Qaddafi’s hometown of Sirte and at Bani Walid, southeast of Tripoli.
Striking deep behind enemy lines, Qaddafi fighters killed at least 12 NTC soldiers at Ras Lanuf, an NTC military spokesman said.
The oil infrastructure along the Mediterranean coast between Sidra and Brega was a key battleground of the seven-month uprising against Qaddafi, as the mainly rebel-held east and mainly government-held west fought it out.
However, since Tripoli’s fall, NTC forces have advanced dozens of kilometers west toward Sirte, which remains in Qaddafi’s hand, moving to secure the vital oil infrastructure on which its post-war reconstruction plans depend.
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