UN report says former Libyan rebels holding 7,000 detainees

Fighters with Libya’s interim government had celebrated the capture of Bani Walid in October Libya's former rebels are holding some 7,000 detainees, many of them sub-Saharan Africans, without access to due legal process after the country's civil war, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said in a new report . The report stated that some detainees had been tortured, while some were targeted because of their skin color, that women were held under male supervision without female guards and that children were being detained alongside adults.
The UN secretary-general also said there were "disturbing reports" that war crimes had been committed by both the rebels and former government forces in Sirte, where toppled leader Muammar Gaddafi was captured and killed on October 20.
Ban's report, obtained by the Reuters news agency, was prepared for the UN Security Council ahead of a debate on Libya the 15-nation body will hold on Monday, to be addressed by the UN special envoy for Libya, Ian Martin.
The UN chief's report said most courts in Libya were currently "not fully operational" due to lack of security and absenteeism by judges and administrative staff.
Ban, Martin and other UN officials have called on Libyans to respect human rights and refrain from revenge.
But Ban said that "while political prisoners held by the Gaddafi regime have been released, an estimated 7,000 detainees are currently held in prisons and makeshift detention centers, most of which are under the control of revolutionary brigades."
The prisoners had "no access to due process in the absence of a functioning police and judiciary," he said.
Sub-Saharan Africans accounted for "a large number" of the detainees, Ban said, while members of Libya's Tawerga community had faced reprisals, including revenge killings, for their role in attacks by Gaddafi forces on the city of Misrata.
While the ruling National Transitional Council had made some moves to transfer detainees to state control, "much remains to be done to regularise detention, prevent abuse and bring about the release of those whose detention should not be prolonged," he said.
Libya's acting justice minister had handed the UN mission in Libya a draft law on transitional justice, based on pinning down the truth behind human rights violations, reconciling Libyans, trying war criminals, and compensating victims.
The mission, known as UNSMIL, had offered to provide detailed comments on the draft and recommended that civil society be consulted over it, Ban said.
In another embarrassment for the new authorities, it is becoming clear that Gaddafi's right-hand man, Abdullah Senussi, who like Seif Al-Islam is wanted by the ICC on war crimes charges, has not been caught. The Fazzan Brigade, based in the southern city of Sabha, said they had caught him in his sister's house nearby on Sunday.
But they have failed to provide photographs or other confirmation to the central authorities. Mr Moreno-Ocampo said he believed he had not been caught.
A number of Libya's clans said on Wednesday that they would not recognise the new government, after the unveiling of a new cabinet revived regional rivalries which threaten the country's stability, three months after former leader Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule.
The National Transitional Council (NTC) formed a new cabinet featuring several unexpected appointments that suggested the line-up was meant to calm rivalries between regional factions.
"All of Libya is represented," Abdul Rahim El-Keeb, Libya's prime minister, told a news conference on Tuesday night as he unveiled the line-up. "It is hard to say that any area is not represented."
About 150 people protested on Wednesday morning outside a hotel in the eastern city of Benghazi, holding up banners saying "No to a government of outsiders!".
The demonstration was led by members of the Benghazi-based Awagi and Maghariba tribes, who were angry their representatives were not in key posts.
El-Keeb will head a 24-member government which will include such portfolios as the ministry of martyrs, wounded and missing people, and a ministry of civilian society.
The new authorities will have to counter continuing allegations of human rights abuses, including the controversial findings of the UN's human rights report.
Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court's (ICC) chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Campo has reported to have agreed that Libya should be given the chance to put former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi's son, Seif Al-Islam and  former spy chief Abdullah Al-Senussi on trial in Libya under its judicial system.
Libya’s transitional leaders have vowed to work with the ICC and UN in investigating alleged crimes committed by Moammar Gadhafi’s recently captured son and one-time heir apparent, the court’s prosecutor said Thursday.ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told The Associated Press that the court received the formal pledge in a letter from National Transitional Council chairman Mustafa Abdul-Jalil.
Seif is due to be interrogated by a committee established by the attorney-general's office within the next few days.
Mohammed Alaggui, the interim justice minister since the establishment of the National Transitional Council, said that the process of putting him on trial in Libya, which has been approved by the ICC, might be faster than the outside world expected.
"The investigation, run under the proper judicial system, will last a couple of months," he said. "And then he will be put on trial. We are ready."
Moreno-Ocampo said earlier that he had sought no guarantees that the death sentence, which is allowed by Libyan law, would not be imposed.
"A murder is a murder in any country," he said. "He can be tried in Libya under Libyan law."
However, the ICC prosecutor pointed out that this should be done with the help of The Hague court and that the ICC's judges must be involved. Further discussions are needed to find the best way for the Libyans to go about informing the judges and how they could involve them. But a concession is to be made by the ICC despite Libya still having to set up a court system.
Arrest warrants for Seif Al-Islam Gaddafi and Abdullah Al-Senussi were issued by ICC judges on 27 June 2011 for crimes against humanity.
In an interesting development, France said on Monday it wanted to try Al-Senussi over a 1989 airliner bombing in Niger that killed 170 people including 54 French nationals.
In 1999 a Paris court convicted six Libyans, including Senussi, and sentenced them in absentia to life imprisonment for the UTA bombing.