The Daily Beast: Libya Struggles With Mass Gaddafi-Era Rape Crimes

[tabatha]

The absence of a state structure to address sexual violence exacerbates the situation. According to Islamic laws, four witnesses are required for persecution. The head of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, confirms the rape campaign that took place in Libya, and reports that often the evidence has to be based on a soldier’s confession and not on a victim's testimony.

Until now, there have been only a few cases of women who have stood up to their husbands and families and gone public with their stories. Now they have no choice but to live abroad, and none of the perpetrators have been prosecuted so far. The real test for the international community is whether we will overcome the common belief that rape is an inevitable and unpunishable part of every conflict.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/02/15/libya-struggles-with-mass-gaddafi-era-rape-crimes.html

No wonder the evidence was difficult to come by. And those, who say that "we know" that rape did not occur - typical holier-than-thou cr@p.

[TheWraith]

1. No one seems to care.

Somehow in this case, mass war crimes are less notable.

[riderinthestorm]

4. No, it just doesn't fit the DU meme that post-Gaddafi Libya's problems are "normal"

post revolutionary, newly "independent" actions, and thus "worth" the pain since it's all normal doncha know.... Anyone who tries to imply or even outright state that something's seriously wrong here gets slammed down pretty hard by the pro-Nato intervention group.

I'm Irish with a lot of first hand knowledge of post-independence history, and I'll be the first to say that some of these societies are not handling things well at all with the hideous crimes waves convulsing the country.

[TheWraith]

5. Are you serious?

You respond to an article talking about investigation of Ghaddafi-era war crimes by insinuating that those crimes are happening in, and the fault of, the POST-Ghaddafi Libyans? And therefore it's an argument for why we should have stood by and let Ghaddafi slaughter people and conduct these kind of systematic campaigns of brutality?

Do you realize that you're basically saying we shouldn't care about war crimes?

[riderinthestorm]

6. My point was that these post revolutionary war crimes are not some kind of "required" transitional

phase that must occur on the way to a civil society, as some DUers suggest.

Honestly, I don't think NATO or the US had any good idea who they were backing in that conflict. It's quite possible we just ushered in a regime change that will be deeply anathema to human rights, perhaps even on the same scale as Gaddafi. The thing is, we just don't know. The EU wanted Libyan oil imho, and so we jumped. Without real understanding.

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. The head of the ICC does NOT "confirm the rape campaign"...

at least not in the link cited in the article you linked to. That link goes to a November Reuters report:


The International Criminal Court prosecutor said on Wednesday he may charge Muammar Gaddafi's spy chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, and others suspected of involvement in hundreds of rapes in Libya during this year's conflict. The Hague-based court has already indicted Senussi on charges of crimes against humanity and other war crimes.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he was close to completing an investigation into the use of rape by Gaddafi's forces as they battled an eight-month insurgency.

"I am finishing the rapes investigation; we will see if there are new charges for the same people, or for new people," he told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in The Hague.

Earlier this month, Moreno-Ocampo told the U.N. Security Council he was investigating whether the former Libyan leader, now dead, and his spy chief ordered mass rapes.

"We have indications that Senussi was involved in organising the rapes, but not Saif," Moreno-Ocampo told Reuters, referring to Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam, who has also been charged with crimes against humanity and is on the run.

---------

That report says Moreno-Ocampo was investigating the charges and "whether" Ghaddafi ordered mass rapes. I haven't seen any reports that the ICC has actually charged anyone with a mass rape campaign. Is the ICC investigation over? Is it still going on? I don't know, but the article in the OP appears to be very tendentious.

[tabatha]

3. Moreno-Ocampo has stated that rapes were committed.

It is easy to find by googling.

No charges have been filed by ICC against anyone in Libya. None.

The person responsible for ordering the rapes, Senussi, has not been captured yet.

EDIT
http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE7A80CK20111109