Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)

The Minister of State will be aware that Amnesty International has published two reports on Libya. The first report was issued along with a UN report in March 2012. It stated that NATO had failed to investigate the deaths of scores of civilians killed in Libya as a result of air strikes carried out by its forces. Mr. Colm O'Gorman of the Irish branch of Amnesty International said this was unacceptable and he accused NATO of refusing to take responsibility for its actions. He said it leaves victims and their families believing they have been forgotten and denied basic justice. If NATO and the United Nations were as enthusiastic now as NATO was in deciding to take sides in the Libyan civil war, it might be possible to alleviate some of the problems. The latest report from Amnesty International published on 4 July and entitled, Libya: Rule of Law or Rule of Militias?, states that nearly a year after Tripoli fell to the revolutionary fighters, ongoing violations including arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, including to death, unlawful killings and forcible displacement are casting a shadow over the country. People from sub-Saharan Africa continue to suffer arbitrary arrest, indefinite detention, beatings which amount to torture in some cases, exploitation at the hands of armed militias. There has been no accountability on the part of NATO with regard to the bombings. The western powers were very keen to become involved in Libya but now they wash their hands of the situation in the country.

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