After Qaddafi: A Harbinger of Things to Come?

A Harbinger of Things to Come?
After Qaddafi
by JOANNE MARINER
Qaddafi's much-abused body 
has finally been laid to rest, in an unmarked grave in the desert.  His 
fate has fallen off the front pages of the U.S. news, eclipsed by the 
European debt crisis, the elections in Tunisia, and the bid by "Joe the 
Plumber" for a seat in Congress, even as ever more horrific videos 
emerge of Qaddafi's tormented last minutes alive.
Was it reasonable to expect that the rebel troops who captured Qaddafi would handcuff him and bring him to jail?  How much 
does it matter that he was treated with the most extreme brutality, 
shoved by the crowd, beaten bloody, and, it now appears, sodomized?  
Should we care that Qaddafi's death makes Saddam Hussein's last moments 
on the gallows seem dignified?
Few in Libya seem bothered.  "You have to bear in 
mind that these young man have seen their friends killed in front of 
them . . . their cities burned . . . their sisters raped. I am amazed at their self-restraint," Libya's interim oil minister reportedly told CBS News, responding to allegations of atrocities.
There was little sign of self-restraint in the fate 
of Qaddafi, his son Muatassim, the head of the loyalist armed forces, 
and their bodyguards.  Nor is self-restraint the word that comes to mind in reading about the hundreds of putrid bodies being discovered in 
Sirte, many with their hands tied behind their backs.  But at least the 
oil minister gave fragments of a convincing explanation, unlike other 
top Libyan officials, who initially asserted that Qaddafi died in a 
"crossfire," and later said that he may have been killed by loyalists 
who wanted to silence him.
Qaddafi was brutally killed in a display of revenge, 
hatred, domination, and fury, and his body was displayed for days as a 
trophy.  This, at least, is what the available evidence suggests.
Whether Libya's interim government wanted Qaddafi 
dead, or whether they were unable to enforce military discipline among 
the Misrata troops, is not entirely clear.  The latter possibility seems more likely, and is perhaps more worrying.  The existence of armed 
groups that are beyond the law and out of the government's control bodes poorly for the country's future stability.
So what is next for Libya, now that the dictator is 
gone?  Sadly, in the wake of Qaddafi's death, the hopeful words of UN 
human rights official Philippe Kirsch are harder to credit:  "The dawn 
of a new era provides an opportunity for the NTC and the future interim 
government in Libya to make a break from [the] past," he suggested, "by 
establishing laws and reconstructing state institutions based on respect for human rights and the rule of law."
Qaddafi is gone but the country's human rights 
problems are not.  While a genuine and impartial investigation of 
Qaddafi's killing would send a strong signal that a new era has arrived, this seems unlikely to happen.  One very much hopes that Qaddafi's 
grisly demise is not a harbinger of things to come.
Joanne Mariner is the director of Hunter College's Human Rights Program. She is an expert on human rights, counterterrorism, and international humanitarian law.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/10/28/after-qaddafi/