Human rights violations during the Gaddafi regime
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During Muammar Gaddafi's rule over Libya, multiple crimes against humanity were committed by government forces against the Libyan population. This included extrajudicial killings, public executions, ethnic cleansing, and the torture of civilians. During the Libyan Civil War in 2011, Gaddafi's forces killed allegedly unarmed protestors and indiscriminately bombed civilian areas, drawing condemnation from human rights organizations.[1]
On April 7, 1976, university students throughout Libya protested against human rights violations and authoritarian military control over all aspects of civilian lives. Protesters called for free and fair elections to take place and a more democratic system to be implemented in Libya. These protests were then violently suppressed by government forces through shootings and beatings, with many of the students being captured and detained. Universities and secondary schools were then all raided by Gaddafi in order to "silence and eliminate" the protesters.[2][3]
The detained students were kept in prisons until April 7, 1977, the anniversary of the event, which Gaddafi called "The Day of Judgement". On this day, the students were publicly executed by hanging in Benghazi with thousands of people in attendance and watching the event live on television.[4] April 7 then became an anniversary that was celebrated by publicly executing civilians as well as defected government officials. This lasted until the late 80s-early 90s.[5]
War with Chad
Gaddafi's war with Chad did not only have a negative impact on Chad, it had a detrimental impact to the Libyan economy and the army. In the Toyota War alone, Libya had lost over US$1.5 Billion and a large amount of military equipment. This war was widely condemned by the Libyan population as they felt they had no right to invade another country that didn't belong to them.[6]
During this war, thousands of underage Libyan high school students were stolen from schools (in Benghazi, Tripoli, and the South) by the government without the consent or knowledge of their parents. After these boys were forcefully taken out of their schools, they were loaded onto busses and sent to Chad. Some of them were killed in battle, and some were deserted in Chad by the Libyan army. Thousands of families were left confused and unaware as to what happened to their sons, with most never hearing from them ever again.[7][8]
Executions
The Gaddafi regime was notorious for its common use of public executions as a sentence for Libyans who either spoke out against the regime, or lived abroad and were victims of Gaddafis "physical liquidation" against Libyan diasporas. These would come in the form of public hangings as well as gunfire.[9]
Sadek Hamed Shuwehdy
One of the most notable Libyan executions was the execution of Al-Sadek Hamed Al-Shuwehdy. Sadek was a Libyan student and aeronautical engineer that had returned from America where he had been studying, and participated in peaceful protests against the Gaddafi regime.[10] He was arrested and detained for several months before his sentencing was made. The regime labeled him as "a terrorist from the Muslim Brotherhood" in order to justify his sentencing.[11] He was then executed in a large basketball stadium with thousands of people watching him from the stands, mostly children who were forced to attend as a school trip.[11]
2010
On May 30, 2010, 18 people were executed by firing squad in Libya, 14 in Tripoli, and the other 4 in Benghazi. Many of those executed were foreign nationals from Chad, Egypt and Nigeria. Cerene, a Libyan newspaper affiliated with Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam, stated the men were executed after being convicted of premeditated murder.[12] The European Parliament condemned the executions, and requested that those who were executed be named, with those still in detention given a fair trial and humane treatment.[13]
Amnesty International also condemned the executions, noting their opposition to the death penalty and that foreign nationals were at a disadvantage to getting their sentences commuted due to their financial limitations and lack of family connections. Amnesty's director of Middle East and North Africa, Malcolm Smart, also stated that it was believed by the organization that those sentenced to death were not given fair trials under international law.[12]
Ethnic cleansing
The Gaddafi regime was notorious for its persecution of many ethnic groups, such as the Amazigh, Toubou, and the Tuareg people. The persecution was in the form of ethnic cleansing, which involved banning all Indigenous languages and the demolition of many Berber villages to replace them with Arabs. Gaddafi frequently described these minorities as "the Children of Satan".[14][15]
Banned languages and cultures
The Amazigh language was entirely banned by the regime since Gaddafi saw it as an "Imperialist Invention". He declared that anyone who was studying the Amazigh language was drinking "poisoned milk from their mother's breast". Berber activists and people who publicly spoke the Amazigh language were rounded up and jailed.[16] Singing traditional Berber songs landed them in trouble. Those attempting to promote Amazigh culture, heritage and rights were persecuted, imprisoned and killed.[17] Following Gaddafi's "cultural revolution" in 1973, Berber names were entirely banned by the regime, and many were forced to instead take Arabic names.[18]
In 1984, legislation was introduced that de facto banned the language in its promotion of Arabic. Law No. (12) on prohibiting the use of foreign languages and numerals in all transactions mandated the use of only Arabic in the public sphere. Later on, the Gaddafi regime passed an even more restrictive language law: Law No. (24), which prohibited the entire usage of the Amazigh language, which included banning Berber street names, writing on vehicles, buildings, posters, medical prescriptions, and the names of institutions.[19][20][21]
In 2012, the Amazigh language became a part of the school curriculum in Zuwara and many other small berber towns, and then was added to the official Libyan school curriculum in 2023.[22]
Persecution and Imprisonment of Berber Activists
Berber activists were heavily persecuted and suppressed by the Gaddafi regime. Many activists were either arrested and tortured or had assassination attempts carried out against them. Many were even detained for owning books that were written in Tamazight.[23]
Said Mahrooq, a well known Berber activist from the city of Jadu was subject to many incidents of police harassment and torture. He was permanently paralyzed from the waist down and left with a broken skull after being run down by a car on the 21st of February 1979. Many Berber activists accused the regime of purposefully coordinating this attack, because he was followed by the Libyan intelligence on a number of occasions leading to the assassination attempt.[24]
Torture
In 2011, secret documents discovered in Tripoli in the office of Gaddafi's former intelligence chief Moussa Koussa by Human Rights Watch confirmed that the CIA and MI6 had sent terrorism suspects to Libya, where they were tortured.[25][26][27][28] In 2012, Human Rights Watch published a report based upon the interviews of 14 former Libyan detainees that detailed how opponents to Gaddafi's rule were unlawfully rendered to Libya, where they faced torture in Libyan prisons after being tortured at CIA sites, through methods such as waterboarding. This included members of the Libyan Islamist Fighting Group.[29]
According to the leader of the Libyan Islamist Fighting Group, Abdel-Hakim Belhaj, he and fellow leader Sami al-Saadi were tortured in Abu Salim Prison by Libyan interrogators. Belhaj had been kidnapped in Bangkok in 2004 alongside his pregnant wife, Fatima Boudchar, and their four children, and claimed a tip-off from MI6 had led to their capture. Saadi's wife and children were also abducted.[30] They were questioned by British agents, who used information gained under torture to imprison Libyans in the UK.[31][32] Belhaj stated he was tortured and imprisoned for 6 years, and his wife was also tortured before her release four months after being captured.[33][34]
During the Libyan Civil War in 2011, Libya's security forces allegedly tortured both rebels and civilians after rebel forces struck the northwest.[35] According to The Observer, Gaddafi was alleged to have given the order to torture Libyans during the war.[36]
