U.N. Human Rights Office Urges Inquiry into Qadhafi's Death

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GENEVA(Reuters)—The United Nations human rights office called on Friday for a full investigation into the death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and voiced concerns that he may have been executed.

Separate cellphone images showed a wounded and bloodied Gaddafi first alive and then later dead amidst a jostling crowd of anti-Gaddafi fighters after his capture in his hometown of Sirte on Thursday.

"There's a lot of uncertainty about what happened exactly. There seem to be four or five different versions of how he died," U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told Reuters Television in an interview.

"If you take these two videos together, they are rather disturbing because you see someone who has been captured alive and then you see the same person dead.

[See photos of Muammar Qadhafi]

"We are not in a position to say what has happened at this point but we feel that it is very important that this is clarified, that there is some sort of serious investigation into what happened and what caused his death," he said.

Asked whether the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay was concerned Gaddafi may have been executed while in captivity, Colville replied:

"It has to be one possibility when you look at these two videos. So that's something that an investigation needs to look into," he said.

ARRESTED ALIVE, KILLED LATER

It is a fundamental principle of international law that people accused of serious crimes should be tried if possible, he said. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants in June for Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief for crimes against humanity.

[See photos of unrest in Libya]

"Summary executions are strictly illegal under any circumstances. It's different if someone is killed in combat. There was a civil war taking place in Libya. So if the person died as part of combat, that is a different issue and that is normally acceptable under the circumstances," Colville said.

"But if something else has happened, if someone is captured and then deliberately killed, then that is a very serious matter," he said.

Gaddafi was fatally wounded by a bullet in his intestines following his capture, according to a doctor who examined his body, amid conflicting accounts of how the fugitive former Libyan leader met his end at the end of an eight-month uprising against his 42-year rule.

"Gaddafi was arrested while he was alive but he was killed later. There was a bullet and that was the primary reason for his death, it penetrated his gut," doctor Ibrahim Tika told Al Arabiya television. "Then there was another bullet in the head that went in and out of his head."

[Read: Qadhafi's Death Won't Mean End for U.S. Role in Libya]

Earlier, Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, reading what he said was a post-mortem report, said Gaddafi was hauled unresisting from a "sewage pipe," shot in the arm and put in a truck which was "caught in crossfire" as it ferried him to hospital.

Jerky footage showed a man with Gaddafi's distinctive long, curly hair, bloodied and staggering under blows from armed men, apparently NTC fighters.

An international commission of inquiry, launched by the U.N. Human Rights Council, is already investigating killings, torture and other crimes in Libya.

Colville said he expected that the team would look into the circumstances of Gaddafi's death and perhaps make recommendations about the need for a full national inquiry or an international investigation.

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Qadhafi's Death Won't Mean End for U.S. Role in Libya

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The United States has been entrenched in Libya since March 19, when the first airstrikes against Col. Muammar Qadhafi's regime began. But seven months later, even with reports of Qadhafi's death, America's work there is not complete. [Read: 7 Challenges for a Post-Qadhafi Libya.]

This morning, as U.S. officials awaited confirmation of Qadhafi's death, Libyans celebrated the news in the streets of Tripoli and Benghazi. According to Reuters, the Transitional National Council, Libya's interim leaders, claimed Qadhafi died due to injuries sustained during NATO airstrikes on his convoy. Reports suggest he may also have been shot. Just before, according to reports from Libya, TNC fighters took control of Sirte, considered the last major holdout of pro-Qadhafi forces.

The news comes just days after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited with Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril in Tripoli to promise America's commitment to the Libyan people. According to Clinton, the international coalition will continue to protect civilians "until the threat from Qadhafi and those who hang to the past is ended." While that day may now be here, the United States also has a role to play to support what's likely to be a long and difficult democratic transition. [Read: Rebel victory in Libya is a vindication for Obama.]

Already, Clinton said in Tripoli, the administration is working to unlock billions of dollars in the previous regime's frozen assets to help with Libya's recovery. The administration, she said, would also provide $40 million to help Libya "secure and destroy dangerous stockpiles of weapons." In addition, the United States will engage in educational and cultural exchanges with Libyans to encourage economic cooperation between the two nations and to help Libya integrate into world markets. [Check out a roundup of political cartoons on the Middle East uprisings.]

Since the start of the Libyan revolution, President Obama and his administration have been careful to remain on the periphery, making sure that the victory remains in the hands of Libyans themselves. So, apart from economic cooperation and foreign aid, the United States may also have a guiding role to play as the country plans its path toward becoming a democratic nation. "The United States knows something about revolution and liberty. That is how our nation was born more than 230 years ago," Clinton told the Libyans. "And we know that democracy takes time; it will not be easy or quick. But we are filled with admiration for what you have already accomplished and confident in your ability to move forward."

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Disagreement Errupts Over Qadhafi's Burial

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MISRATA, Libya (Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi's body lay in an old meat store on Friday as arguments over a burial, and his killing after being captured, dogged efforts by Libya's new leaders to make a formal start on a new era of democracy. [Read: Rebel victory in Libya is a vindication for Obama.]

With a bullet wound visible through the familiar curly hair, the corpse seen by Reuters in Misrata bore other marks of the violent end to a violent life, still being broadcast to the world a day later on looping snatches of gory cellphone video.

The interim prime minister offered a tale of "crossfire" to explain the fallen strongman's death after he was dragged, still alive, from a storm drain in his home town of Sirte. But seeing him being beaten, while demanding legal rights, to the sound of gunfire, many assume he was simply summarily shot.

Gaddafi's wife, who found refuge in neighboring Algeria while her husband and several sons kept their word to fight to the death, was reported to have demanded an inquiry from the United Nations. The U.N. human rights arm said one was merited. [Check out a roundup of political cartoons on the Middle East uprisings.]

Controversy over the final moments of a man who once held the world in thrall with a mixture of eccentricity and thuggery raised questions about the ability of Libya's National Transitional Council to control the men with guns, and disquiet among Western allies about respect for human rights among those who claimed to be fighting for just those ideals.

The body appeared to be the latest object of wrangling among the factions of fighters who overthrew him -- along with control of weapons, of ministries and of Libya's oil wealth.

Libyans, and the Western allies who backed the revolt that ended Gaddafi's 42-year rule two months ago, have indicated their impatience to begin what the United States declared was a democratic "new era." NATO was expected to agree on Friday to start winding down its seven-month air campaign over Libya. [Read Susan Milligan: Harsh Realities Remain for Post-Qadhafi Libya.]

But regional and other rivalries have been holding up the disposal of the corpse of Gaddafi, who was seized by fighters on Thursday, and a formal declaration of Libya's "liberation."

BURIAL DISPUTE

"They are not agreeing on the place of burial. Under Islam he should have been buried quickly but they have to reach an agreement whether he is to be buried in Misrata, Sirte, or somewhere else," one senior NTC official told Reuters.

Others said talks were under way with members of Gaddafi's tribe to dispose of him in secret, avoiding creating a shrine.

In Misrata, a local commander, Addul-Salam Eleiwa, showed off the body, torso bare, on a mattress inside a metal-lined cold-store by a market. He said: "He will get his rights, like any Muslim. His body will be washed and treated with dignity. I expect he will be buried in a Muslim cemetery within 24 hours."

But amid the rumor and counter-rumor swirling between Sirte, Gaddafi's last bastion, and Misrata, whose siege at his hands made it a symbol of resistance, nothing was certain.

Interim oil minister Ali Tarhouni said he urged colleagues to hold off burying Gaddafi for several days. Dozens of people, many with cellphone cameras, filed in to see that he was dead.

"There's something in our hearts we want to get out," said Abdullah al-Suweisi, 30, as he waited. "It is the injustice of 40 years. There is hatred inside. We want to see him."

In a small triumph for those who were inspired by Arab Spring uprisings elsewhere to launch the rebellion in February in Benghazi, the eastern city was chosen as the venue for NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil to announce that the whole country was liberated. But the planned announcement was delayed from Saturday to Sunday.

That will set a clock ticking on a tentative timetable for a transitional government and for drafting a constitution, under which full elections would, Libyans hope, take place within a year or two.

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Qadhafi's Death Leaves Libyan Oil Industry Uncertain

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The death of Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi marks the end of an era, both for the nation and its once-booming oil industry, choked off by the turmoil of the revolution. And as with prospects for the liberated Libyans to form a united, democratic government, the post-Qadhafi era begins with a sense of cautious optimism in the petroleum fields so essential to the nation's recovery.

Oil exports accounted for more than 95 percent of Libya's export earnings in 2010, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Since the fall of Tripoli in August, Libya's national oil company has moved quickly to restore output, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), but thus far most production—down to around 300,000 to 400,000 barrels per day from a peak of about 1.6 million barrels daily—has been diverted to satisfy domestic demand.

Projections for the country's oil output have been revised slightly upwards, but questions remain about the extent of infrastructure damage caused by fighting, and power struggles within the nascent National Transitional Council could undermine efforts to get Libya's oil industry back online.

[Read: Qadhafi's Death Won't Mean End for U.S. Role in Libya.]

"If this leads to greater political clarity within Libya, and to a more stable operating and investment environment, then it may result in a more rapid restoration of the Libyan oil sector," David Fyfe, head of the IEA's oil industry and markets division, said in a statement. "However, many logistical, operational, and security-related challenges remain in that country, so we are not changing our underlying assumptions on Libyan production recovery for now. We still believe it could take many months for production to regain pre-crisis levels."

[Read: Politicians, World Leaders React to Qadhafi's Death.]

Most of the current oil production is derived from fields in the western and southern parts of the country, largely unaffected by fighting. While restoring production to pre-war levels may prove more difficult as the dust settles and damage is assessed, Libya has many advantages in its efforts to revitalize its oil industry.

For one, damage to the oilfields as a result of clashes between pro-Qadhafi forces and rebels appear to be relatively localized with the most damage affecting terminals and pipelines in the eastern side of the country. Production facilities in the western and southern regions have already started ramping up, according to Sarah Emerson, president of Energy Security Analysis Inc., who expects output to exceed 450,000 barrels by December.

"Now the question is as [production] continues to ramp up in excess of the refining requirements, then [Libya] can begin to export and that's where the money comes in," Emerson says. "[Qadhafi's death] is really incidental to the process. It starts a clock ticking, which says, 'Can you get the political stability together?'"

Emerson predicts conservatively that the country could see production of 800,000 to 1 million barrels by the end of next year, but full capacity very likely won't return until the end of 2013, she says.

[See photos of Muammar Qadhafi.]

The gradual re-entry of Libya—which holds Africa's largest proven oil reserves, according to the EIA—into global oil markets will likely ease pressure on supply and lower prices for refiners around the world.

"It's good news for the Europeans. It's good news for the East Coast United States," Emerson says.

mhandley@usnews.com

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