Tripoli, December 13: Libya is making some progress on freedom of speech but a climate of repression remains in the country, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Saturday.
“Limited improvements are under way in Libya, including expanded freedom of expression and proposed reform of the penal code,” HRW said in its report “Libya: Truth and Justice Can’t Wait.”
It added, however, that “repressive laws continue to stifle speech and abuses by the Internal Security Agency remain the norm.”
The New York-based HRW presented its report for the first time in Tripoli, at a conference attended by journalists, Western diplomats and families of the victims of a 1996 massacre by security forces of at least 1,200 prisoners.
Tom Malinowski, the HRW’s Washington advocacy director, said security forces had stopped other families from travelling to Tripoli from Benghazi, east of the capital, and questioned them for one hour before releasing them.
The rights watchdog said the justice ministry took “an important step in the right direction” when it ordered the government in July 2008 to reveal the fate of the Abu Slim prisoners.
Libyan authorities have since issued death certificates and offered each family 200,000 dinars (around 164,000 dollars) in compensation.
But most families of victims, many of whom were from Benghazi, have refused compensation and are demanding a probe into the massacre, with those responsible for the killings brought to justice.
Abdessalem Laaribi said his brother was killed in Abu Slim prison but the authorities only informed the family of his death “15 years later.”
“We have not received his remains,” he said, calling for justice to be done.
Sarah Leah Whitson, the HRW director for the Middle East, agreed.
“Money is not enough,” Whitson said. “The Libyan people have a right to a full public accounting and punishment for those responsible for killing 1,200 prisoners on a single day in 1996.”
She also called on the Internal Security Agency to immediately release 500 prisoners it is holding.
According to HRW, the Internal Security Agency “retains full control” over Abu Slim and the Ain Zara prison “which are notorious for the arbitrary detention of political prisoners.”
Whitson reserved, however, some praise for Libya.
“A public assessment of Libya’s human rights record in Tripoli would have been unthinkable a few years ago and reflects the expanded space for public discussion in Libya,” she said.
“The government should revise its penal code to allow all Libyans the freedom to have such public discussion without fear of criminal sanction and stop jailing those who express criticism of the government.”
HRW also urged the European Union — which is negotiating a framework agreement with Libya — “to set measurable benchmarks for Libyan reform on key issues” of human rights abuses before the deal goes through.
The report came two days after a foundation run by Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam catalogued an array of cases of torture, wrongful imprisonment and other abuses in a report for 2009.
The Gathafi Foundation also called for a “transparent, just and fair” probe into the 1996 massacre at Abu Slim prison.
The younger Gathafi has become a prominent voice for reform in Libya, advocating a freer press, a mixed economy and greater cultural rights for the country’s Berber minority.
He has also been a leading figure in Libya’s slow rapprochement with the West.
—Agencies