Gaddafi accused of ordering rapes by soldiers

International Criminal Court (ICC) investigators state that there is evidence linking the Libya leader to the policy and say they may bring charges on the issue.

They said there are thought to be hundreds of victims in some parts of the country.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo requested arrest warrants on May 16 against Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and the country’s spy chief on charges of crimes against humanity committed in their bid to crush the country’s rebellion.

The allegations were yesterday dismissed by Gaddafi’s government.

The accusation of troops raping female opponents is not new, but evidence linking Gaddafi to the policy is.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo said previously the question was whether he could be associated with the rapes “or is it something that happened in the barracks?”.

He said that evidence had emerged of Gaddafi authorising the crimes “and this is new”.

He went on: “It never was the pattern he used to control the population. The rape is a new aspect of the repression. Apparently, he decided to punish using rapes.”

Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s investigative team had found “some elements” confirming the purchase of “Viagra type of medicaments”.

He said there was evidence of Libya acquiring “containers” of such drugs “to enhance the possibility to rape women”.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said the ICC was looking at the evidence of the rape allegations, although he had not seen the details.

He added: “The attacks on the civilian population have continued, although I think we have greatly reduced those attacks by the actions we have taken, but I haven’t myself yet seen the documentary evidence.”

The allegations were made as Gaddafi’s regime issued a robust denial of accusations by Western nations that its forces have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Libyan diplomat Mustafa Shaban told the United Nations Human Rights Council it is the government that is “the victim of a widespread aggression” and blamed the media, opposition and African and foreign mercenaries for human rights violations and even “acts of cannibalism”.

He said the Libyan government “denies and reaffirms its denial of the existence of widespread and systematic violations of human rights, done with the knowledge of the authorities, by order of the Libyan authorities or covered up by them”.

“We also deny indications of widespread and systematic attacks against civilians, or extrajudicial killings, or arbitrary arrest, detention and torture, or other abuses indicated in the report,” he said.

He blamed international condemnation of his government on “fabricated and erroneous information reported by media that is hostile to my country, giving a wrong picture of the situation”.

The three-member panel of UN investigators also said they found evidence that rebel forces had committed some acts that would constitute war crimes in a civil conflict estimated to have killed between 10,000 to 15,000 people.

The opposition to Gaddafi’s government is backed by an air campaign led by Nato pounding his regime’s command compound and a wide range of other targets.

The UN panel also investigated allegations that Nato air strikes in Libya have caused large numbers of civilian casualties. The alliance has conducted thousands of air strikes as part of its UN mandate to enforce a no-fly zone and protect civilians in Libya.

Former Libyan diplomat Ibrahim Aldredi, who defected to the opposition, said the Benghazi-based rebels accepted the findings of the UN panel and would help prosecute and punish any perpetrators of human rights abuses.

Even if there were violations by rebels “they are not going to be as systematic as those committed by the regime,” he said.