Gaddafi: A penchant for war crimes

[tabatha]

The world is well aware of the atrocities committed by Colonel Gaddafi on his own people both in recent weeks and over his 40 year reign in the North African country. Yet, it is the sight just outside the city of Benghazi where his World Revolutionary Centre (WRC) was located that saw the start of some of his worst crimes across the continent and the globe.

The centre, at its height in the 80’s when Gaddafi was at his, was a training ground for violent dissidents who have gone on to wreak havoc, predominately across West Africa. The subversive activities, and the deadly and pernicious atrocities committed by the centre’s alumni in several countries still wreak division and political instability. Douglas Farah, senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Centre in Virginia, USA, described the WRC as the ‘Harvard and Yale of a whole generation of African revolutionaries, many of them the continent’s most notorious tyrants.’

Charles Taylor, Foday Sankoh, Blaise Compaoré, Ibrahim Bah and Idriss Deby were just a few to graduate from the WRC. They formed a powerful association that relied on the backing of Gaddafi to carry out their baneful activities. It was a criminal network that was centred on the exploitation of minerals including diamonds for the personal wealth of these individuals.

...........

His and Gaddafi’s support for Sankoh’s RUF, which committed grave atrocities as they slaughtered, maimed and mutilated hundreds of thousands in a bid to control the diamond mines throughout the decade long Civil War, is indisputable. Nicholas Kumjian, the prosecuting lawyer in Charles Taylor’s trial at The Hague for his involvement in the Sierra Leone conflict admits; ‘the involvement of Moamer Kadhafi and Blaise Campaore (in Sierra Leone) has been proven.’

http://newafricaanalysis.co.uk/index.php/2011/03/gaddafi-a-penchant-for-war-crimes/

[gratuitous]

1. There was a time when the U.S. had some credibility on this subject

But thanks to WHISC (aka School of the Americas), GWOT and other continuing atrocities, our hands are far too dirty to be apprehending a former ally (or at least a business partner) for anything he might have done. I sure hope that the current situation in Libya isn't just the cashiering of one strongman for another.

[markpkessinger]

2. Exactly. We forfeited our moral voice on this issue...

... especially when President Obama made the decision, in essence, to sweep the whole affair under the rug.