CAIRO: Human Rights Watch (HRW) said over the weekend that despite efforts by Libyan leader Moamar Gaddafi, the country continues to lag behind in terms of human rights. In a rare press conference inside Libay, the New York-based rights group announced the release of the new report that says Libya still has a ways to go. Shockingly, political detainees were in attendance at the announcement, along with local journalists, a move that many observers say reflects the growing tolerance of public debate by the government as Tripoli continues its efforts to re-enter the international scene after years of isolation. HRW said the country's rights record, however, languishes despite Gaddafi's efforts to bring the country onto the global stage. A main reason for Libya's turnaround was a 2003 move by the leader to abandon a weapons program, the renouncement of terrorism and compensation for a 1986 German club bombing and the 1988 Lockerbie plane crash in Scotland. Relations with Europe and the United States immediately began to improve following these moves. “This transformation in Libya's foreign policy has not galvanized an equivalent transformation of Libya's human rights record, which remains poor despite limited progress in recent years,” Human Rights Watch said in its 76-page report. The rights group focused much of its criticism on laws still on the books restricting freedom of expression and association. It pointed to the Internal Security Agency, which it said is still responsible for systematic rights violations, including the detention of political prisoners, enforced disappearances and deaths in custody. “Every Libyan knows that the true reform in the country will not be possible so long as the Internal Security Agency remains above the law,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. The report followed a 10-day visit to Libya in April, where researchers met with senior security and judicial officials and interviewed prisoners in one of Libya's most notorious prisons, Abu Salim. “Libya's reintegration into the international community means that its human rights records has and will come under increasing scrutiny,” the group's report said. Human Rights Watch said Libya has still failed to provide a public account of what happened during prison riots in 1996 in which 1,200 prisoners were killed. It has also not prosecuted anyone, though the government has begun to pay families compensation. “Money is not enough,” Whitson said. BM
