BENGHAZI, LIBYA – 27 March 2011 – The Foreign Secretary of the Interim National Council of Libya condemns in the strongest terms the brutal and horrifying treatment and violence committed against our sister Eman Al-Obaidi. Her ordeal both during her detention and the violence committed against her by Gaddafi’s thugs at the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli yesterday (26th March 2011) in front of the world’s media was criminal, barbaric, and an unpardonable violence against her dignity, the dignity of the Libyan people, and all of humanity.
We demand the immediate release of Eman Al-Obaidi.
We also demand the immediate release of all children, women and men kidnapped and arrested by Gaddafi and his regime. Thousands of innocent civilians have been forcibly kidnapped and arrested by Gaddafi, his thugs and mercenaries. They must all be released now. We shall pursue every infringement of human dignity and human rights, and every act of violence and brutality against the innocent people of Libya to Libyan courts and the International Criminal Court and use all legal mechanisms at our disposal to bring the perpetrators to local and international justice.
We also demand the immediate release of all Libyan and foreign journalists and media personnel held by Gaddafi and his regime.
We urge all foreign journalists to continue to hold true, and witness, to their media vocation and expose the lies, deception and crimes against humanity committed by the Gaddafi regime, his thugs and mercenaries. We urge all journalists and their agencies to put pressure on the Libyan regime to stop restraining the foreign press at the Rixos Hotel and allow them freedom to travel and report.
We urge the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Mr. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, to immediately issue international arrest warrants against Gaddafi, his family, and all associates who are guilty of War Crimes. The world has now witnessed incontrovertible evidence of the level of brutality committed by Gaddafi and his security apparatus across the Libyan country, sufficient for the International Criminal Court now to act to save innocent civilians.
We promise no respite for Gaddafi, his thugs and mercenaries, who for 42 years have systematically terrorised, kidnapped, raped, tortured, and killed the innocent children, women and men of Libya.
