Death of a Tyrant

‘I am not going to leave this land. I will die as a martyr at the end. I shall remain, defiant.’ 

Muammar al-Gaddafi’s prophecy can hardly be described as eerily unforeseen. Rather, the choices he has made (all 42 years of them) seemed to point his prediction towards inevitability. 

While death should never be celebrated, the blood on Gaddafi’s hands have left few to mourn his violent departure. Nevertheless, the National Transitional Council's handling of Gaddafi’s capture has left them open to accusations of breaching international law. Though little is precisely known about the circumstances of the former dictators death, it is widely believed that NTC rebels executed Gaddafi following a NATO led air strike. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has been the voice of criticism, and declared that under international law, ‘a captured participant of an armed conflict should be treated in a certain way. And in any case, a prisoner of war should not be killed’ (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/gaddafis-death-breached-the-law-says-russia-2374250.html). As well as this, the discovery of 53 bodies believed to be pro Gaddafi supporters draw frightening parallels with atrocities against the NTC that happened only weeks before. Rights groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have been documenting the atrocities of both sides, including several mass killing sites found in August (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15428360) and no doubt will prove to be a check on the emergence of a new dictatorship with the same disregard for human rights as the previous one.

However, the Chairman of the NTC and the new Head of State for Libya Mustafa Abdul-Jalil has ordered an inquiry into the circumstances of the death following international pressure. While this inquiry is unlikely to yield negative implications for any pro-NTC supporter, particularly as the theory that the dictator was killed accidently in an instance of crossfire between sides gathers momentum, it is important that the new government goes through the motions and is seen to be upholding human rights. Libya is in a fragile position at the moment and can stray down a number of paths. If the former rebels are seen to endorse liberal rights it is a step in the right direction towards democracy, particularly as the alleged summary execution of Gaddafi seems in stark contrast to the ideals of the NTC.

Mustafa Abdul-Jalil has called for an end to revenge killings and has been eager to promote the new Libya as being ‘one national flesh’ allowing a unity that has been alien to the North African state. But as with any civil war, bitterness between old enemies will inevitably come to the surface. Now the country is free from an age old tyranny, Libya must now start the long road towards stability.