Daily Star Editorial

History may be written by the victor, but both winners and losers do their best to edit out the parts they are the least proud of. Take for example Colonel Moammar Gadhafi, who, as recent grizzly discoveries in Libya appear to have unearthed, had penchant for scarcely imaginable cruelty.

With the rebels warning that there are still up to 50,000 prisoners from Gadhafi’s regime unaccounted for, and international human rights groups pleading for a refrain on looting prison documents, it is unclear if the one-time self-styled chieftain of Libya will ever be fully brought to account for four decades of inhumanity.

It is right, of course, to condemn Gadhafi and the barbarous acts he oversaw. But the world cannot afford to be discriminate when condemning the killings and mistreatment that both sides in the battle for Libya now appear to have been engaged in.

Reports that captured Gadhafi loyalists had been found dead with their hands tied behind their back were apparently sufficiently worrisome – and plausible – that the National Transition Council quickly moved to remind its fighters that even enemy belligerents were in fact human.

There have also been disconcerting accounts that foreigners have been accused of siding with Gadhafi, that these individuals have been subject to street courts and given little chance to plead their case.
As always in times of conflict, reports and ripostes are difficult to absolutely verify, but it is not difficult to totally condemn any acts of inhumanity, regardless of which side has committed them.

It is natural that the prolonged war for Libya has produced some questionable moral scenarios for fighters on both sides. In a sense, those on the side of the ousted leader have less to lose; at least in terms of global opinion, they are fighting for a pariah who has no qualms of violating human rights on a mass scale.

The rebels, however, have a large capital of trust invested in them from world nations and while it is essential that those organizing the offensive against Gadhafi make sure their fighters operate in a humane way, it is equally vital that condemnation is forthcoming when that doesn’t occur.

Nation building doesn’t occur through killing, and although the battle to topple Gadhafi has been military in nature, the NTC needs to prove that it has at least the moral authority to rule Libya during peacetime.
The country needs a monumental shift away from the macabre practices of the Gadhafi regime and a new administration that respects sanctity of life must act accordingly even as the last vestiges of the previous leader’s resistance are dismantled.

Moral standards cannot be applied intermittently. The world cannot condone killings and abuses of one side if it is to condemn those committed by the other.