An estimated 7,000 detainees are still being held without due process by Libyan revolutionaries, according to a UN report made public Nov. 28. The report to the UN Security Council, by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, says that most of the prisoners are being held in facilities maintained by independent brigades not under the control of the government, and that there have been allegations of abuse of prisoners. The report says that many of the prisoners are Black Africans suspected of being mercenaries for former Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi. Among the alleged abuses of prisoners there have been allegations of torture, targeting individuals based on race, detaining women in facilities with all-male guards, and detaining children in facilities alongside adults. Ban urged immediate action to end the abuse of prisoners:

International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Nov. 23 that the ICC would allow Libya to conduct the trial of Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, son of late Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi. Despite concern from human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, about whether Saif al-Islam Qaddafi can receive a fair trial in Libya, Ocampo said he trusts the new Libyan government will be able to try him fairly and maintained that the ICC will not intervene as long as it does not stray from ICC standards. The ICC issued a statement clarifying that, "[s]hould the Libyan authorities wish to conduct national prosecutions against the suspect, they shall submit a challenge to the admissibility of the case before Pre-Trial Chamber I... Any decision on the admissibility of a case is under the sole competence of the Judges of the ICC." On the issue of the trial of Moammar Qaddafi's former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, Ocampo denied reports by Libya's National Transitional Council that he had been captured.

Saif al-Islam Qaddafi was captured Nov. 18 in Libya's southern desert near the city of Sabha—reportedly in an attempt to escape to neighboring Niger. Libyan state TV reported that Saif al-Islam arrived uninjured at a base in the town of Zintan, 90 miles southwest of Tripoli, after being captured by Zintan fighters, part of a regional militia that recognizes the National Transitional Council (NTC). Saif al-Islam is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, but many in Libya want him tried locally. The militia fighters have stated that it is up to the NTC to decide where Saif al-Islam will be tried, but that until the new Libyan government is formed they will hold him at Zintan. ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he will travel to Libya to discuss Saif al-Islam's fate. (Jurist, Nov. 19)

NTC forces based in the western city of Zawiya have for the past days been clashing with Wershifanna tribal fighters in the nearby Hashan area. Rumors maintain that Saif al-Islam Qaddafi is being harbored by the tribal fighters. AFP tells us Warfalla tribesmen are "thirsting for revenge" after their bastion Bani Walid was "looted and pillaged" by anti-Qaddafi fighters. The Washington Post in its Nov. 13 report of the clashes notes that fighting also broke out two weeks ago when fighters from the city of Misrata and the mountain town of Zintan attempted to "settle old scores" at Tripoli's central hospital. There have also been at least three shoot-outs between a local Tripoli brigade in the upscale Hay al-Andalus district and a group of Zintanis who have taken up residence in the plush Regatta compound where Qaddafi cronies lived. Zintan is in the Berber area of western Libya, but a very pessimistic National Post analysis of Oct. 29 notes that Zintan is also the name of an Arab tribe from the area, also called the Megrahi, which is allied with the Warfalla tribe in opposition to the NTC. As we have written, these tribes are traditional enemies of Qaddafi's own tribe, the Qadhadfa, and joined the rebellion against him, but seem to have suffered reprisals by NTC forces nonetheless.

Niger's military clashed Nov. 7 with a heavily armed convoy travelling though the desert from Libya. Thirteen of the convoy's gunmen were killed and several captured. Authorities said they believed the convoy is made up of fleeing Qaddafi loyalists escorted by local Tuareg fighters, and headed for Mali. A huge weapons cache, including machine guns and rockets, was seized in the clashes in the Arlit area. Northern Niger's Radio Nomad reported that local traffickers are selling Libyan arms to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). (BBC News, Nov. 9)

All war crimes allegations against NATO, National Transitional Council (NTC), and pro-Qaddafi forces committed during the recent conflict will be investigated "impartially and independently" according to a statement (PDF) by the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo. In his statement to the UN Security Council, Ocampo gave an update on the events in Libya regarding the ICC investigation. According to the statement, after obtaining the required documents confirming Moammar Qaddafi's death, the case against him (PDF) will likely be dropped. The statement continued by detailing the cases against Saif al-Islam Qaddafi (PDF), Moammar Qaddafi's son, and Abdullah al-Senussi (PDF), Libya's head of intelligence, and what is being done to secure their capture.

Two days after two Spanish aid workers and one Italian were abducted by suspected al-Qaeda militants at the Sahrawi refugee camps of Tindouf in western Algeria, Spain on Nov. 1 called for a UN investigation to evaluate the security situation in the camps, and to probe possible corruption in the distribution of international aid there. "We have asked the United Nations to send a mission to Algeria to assess the security situation in the camps of Tindouf," Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez told reporter after talks in Rabat with her Moroccan counterpart Taieb Fassi Fihri. The camps are under the control of the Polisario Front, which seeks the independence of neighboring Western Sahara from Morocco. Algeria, which traditionally backs the Polisario Front, has reportedly deployed both ground and air forces in an "urgent" operation in the remote Saharan region to prevent the escape of the kidnappers. (Al-Arabiya, Oct. 25)

Abdurraheem el-Keib, a dual US-Libyan citizen, was elected prime minister of Libya by leaders of the National Transitional Council who voted in a televised event Oct. 31, dropping ballots into a transparent box. Keib, described favorably as a "technocrat" by the Washington Post, attended the University of Tripoli in 1973, earned his MS at the University of Southern California in 1976, and his Ph.d. at North Carolina State University in 1984. He has taught at the University of Alabama and the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Most recently, he served as chair of the Electrical Engineering Department at the UAE's Petroleum Institute before joining Libya's interim council in the spring. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the US Department of Energy (DoE), Southern Company Services (SC), and the Alabama Power Company (APCO). (AntiWar.com, Nov. 1; WP, Oct. 31; The Petroleum Institute)