Edward McMillan-Scott: Revolution and retribution... how can justice be done for the Libyan people?

WHEN William Hague announced five months ago that Muammar Gaddafi was on a plane to Venezuela, most of us rejoiced that selective air strikes had worked – until the ranting brute appeared on state television that evening.

However, the extraordinary Arab Spring and particularly the Libyan crisis have forced politicians the world over to rethink the way the world works.

A few days ago, there was talk of a bolt hole for the Libyan dictator in Equatorial Guinea. Why the African backwater? Because it has not signed the treaty setting up the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has issued arrest warrants for Gaddafi, his son Saif and his security chief, so they would be more likely to accept the idea.

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Now the talk has shifted to the prospect of Gaddafi staying in Libya, perhaps in what the Soviets called “internal exile” or more likely in luxurious seclusion.

Either way, it is for the Libyan people to judge his fate, but they do so against the background that he has been charged with crimes against humanity.

July 17 marked International Criminal Justice Day, the anniversary of the setting-up of the ICC. The most visible impact of the ICC comes from its power directly to investigate and prosecute political and military leaders.

The arrest of Slobodan Milosevic marked the beginning of a new era in which it is now possible to arrest high-level figures, setting the stage for the ICC to issue arrest warrants for Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, and Gaddafi.

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The Hague court is partly funded from the EU’s Democracy and Human Rights Initiative, which I founded after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The court currently has 114 participating countries and its primary objective is to end the sense of impunity which has allowed tyrants a free rein for too long.

A few days ago, I took part in a debate about the Arab Spring, but focused on Libya, organised by York Against the War. I assumed that I would get a rough ride. The event was held in the Friends Meeting House and was billed as a public discussion between myself, as someone who knows the Arab world – I am a relation of Lawrence of Arabia – and has supported the Nato action, and York University’s amiable professor of electronics, Mohamed El-Gomati. The professor is of Libyan origin and has family there.

The discussion largely turned on the question “is there a case for military action?” To the despair of the chairman, both speakers agreed that there was, and about much else besides in the extraordinary evolutions across the Arab world.

One aspect cropped up repeatedly, which turned on “should we not have tried persuasion and diplomacy?”

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This theme is insistent across this country and Europe too. When the British-drafted resolution 1973 came before the United Nations Security Council calling for the use of all necessary means to protect civilians, Germany abstained.

I know from discussions in the European Parliament, which is monitoring the situation across North Africa and elsewhere, that opinions range from the interventionists like former Belgian premier Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the liberal group, to the much more reticent socialist leader, Martin Schultz – a German.

The most active air forces have been ours and the French. Indeed, it was a French air strike against Gaddafi’s forces moving on Benghazi which started the rescue of the city.

This action grew out of the international community’s increasing support for another evolution in the arsenal of human rights, the UN concept of “responsibility to protect”, including by military means.

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Recently, the 40-nation Libya Contact Group gave long overdue recognition of the “rebel” Transitional National Council (TNC) in Benghazi, whose acting premier is Mahmud Jebril.

I was the first European politician to meet Jebril, at the beginning of March. He was starting a tour of capitals seeking recognition and political support and began in the European Parliament at the invitation of the liberal group.

A quiet and deliberate man, he explained why he had abandoned Gaddafi – he was a former trade minister. Jebril said that Libyans had lost their sense of fear and sensed that there was a chance of real citizenhood, as had happened in neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia. “But Libyan history will be written by Libyan hands,” he insisted, arguing against “foreign boots on Libyan soil”.

It has taken the international community four months to recognise the TNC, although the EU long ago opened an office in Benghazi to liaise with it and to organise the distribution of the 120 million euros of humanitarian aid Brussels has so far committed.

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The government of Tunisia is the first in North Africa to sign up to the ICC. But leading politicians in Egypt, which I have visited three times since the fall of Mubarak – and he is still lurking in Egypt – are also considering it too, in order to deal with crimes against humanity.

The question for Libya, if Gaddafi stays, would be how to avoid the tyrant being strung up by his enraged people. After all, it is their revolution that we have been encouraging.

Edward McMillan-Scott is a Lib Dem MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber. He is Vice-President of the European Parliament for democracy and human rights.

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