Tuesday, May 17, 2011

New explosions rattle Tripoli as prosecutor seeks Gadhafi's arrest

Crowds in Tripoli gathered Tuesday morning outside two burning buildings -- the aftermath of what a Libyan official said were NATO airstrikes on government facilities.
Spokesman Musa Ibrahim said the buildings housed the ministry of popular inspection and oversight -- a government anti-corruption body -- and the head of the police force in Tripoli. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Earlier, the sounds two explosions and jets pierced through the night sky.

Some people ventured outside in the early morning hours to inspect the damage. Others, inlcuding a crowd of young men carrying a large portrait of Moammar Gadhafi and waving the country's green flag, marched in front of the buildings chanted slogans of support for the Libyan leader.
Documents were strewn all over the grounds of the ministry building. Ibrahim told reporters that in the last few days, the ministry of popular inspection and oversight had put together corruption files against leaders in the Libyan oppostion's Transitional National Council. He said the files "fortunately survived."
The area teemed with security forces, and men in civilian clothing carrying AK-47s shot into the air in a show of anger.
"Is this their (NATO's) protection of civilians or terrifying civilians?" one of the armed men told CNN. "This is a civilian neighborhood ... Residents are terrified."
NATO did not immediately announce whether it had conducted airstrikes in Tripoli early Tuesday.
The damage in Tripoli is one of the latest developments in Libya's see-saw war, which has raged for months with no end in sight.
On Monday evening, five consecutive blasts rocked the Tripoli hotel housing international journalists. The explosions were among the loudest and strongest heard at the hotel during the unrest.
Hours after the explosions, Ibrahim said he had no information on the blasts.
NATO is operating under a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force and any means -- except foreign occupation -- to protect civilians. Allied forces have conducted airstrikes on Gadhafi's resources for almost two months.
Libyan opposition members are demanding freedom and an end to Gadhafi's nearly 42-year rule. But Gadhafi has refused to step down.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court sought the arrest of Gadhafi and two relatives Monday, linking them to "widespread and systematic" attacks on civilians.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo told reporters his office has "direct evidence" linking Gadhafi, his son Saif al-Islam Gadhafi and his brother-in-law Abdullah al-Sanussi to crimes against humanity.
"The evidence shows that Moammar Gadhafi personally ordered attacks on unarmed Libyan civilians," he said. "His forces attacked Libyan civilians in their homes and in the public space, shot demonstrators with live ammunition, used heavy weaponry against participants in funeral processions and placed snipers to kill those leaving mosques after prayers."
Ibrahim, the government spokesman, denied accusations against the regime.
"We have never in any stage of the crisis in Libya ordered the killing of civilians or hired mercenaries against our people," he said. "In fact, it is the rebels who took up arms in the middle of our peaceful cities."
Judges on the international court must now decide whether to issue the arrest warrants Moreno-Ocampo wants.
Meanwhile, security forces in Libya are accused of using sexual enhancement drugs as a "machete" and gang-raping women they stop at checkpoints, according to Moreno-Ocampo.
He told CNN Monday that the court in The Hague will investigate allegations of institutionalized rape in Libya.
"There are rapes. The issue is who organized them," Moreno-Ocampo told CNN's Nic Robertson. "They were committed in some police barracks. Were the policemen prosecuted? What happened?" he asked.
Moreno-Ocampo said the criminal court has information about women who were stopped at checkpoints and, because they were carrying the flag of the rebels, were taken by police and gang raped.
He also said there were reports of the use of male sexual enhancement drugs, which he called a "tool of massive rape."
"There's some information with Viagra. So, it's like a machete," he said.

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