July 7, 2005
Kofi Annan, Secretary-General
The United Nations Headquarters
First Avenue at 46th Street
New York, NY 10017
Dear Secretary-General:
The American Libyan Freedom Alliance (ALFA) was founded
on September 29, 2003, and registered in the State of Virginia
as an American NGO. The declared mission of ALFA is to promote
the following ideals: international awareness of Libyan
culture and tradition, democracy in Libya, rule of law,
human rights, and to hold accountable all abusers of those
rights. Since its inception, the issue of human rights has
been one of ALFA’s highest priorities.
While the current Libyan regime has committed numerous
crimes against other peoples and nations, its primary victim
is the Libyan people. Thousands of Libyans were thrown into
wars in distant lands without justification or cause. Thousands
of others were thrown into jails without ever being charged
with any crime; many of those prisoners have perished because
of intolerable conditions, without ever-receiving medical
care or attention. One of the most heinous crimes committed
by the Libyan regime is the massacre 1200 defenseless political
prisoners in the notorious Abusleem prison, on the outskirts
of Tripoli, on June 29, 1996.
While Gadhafi was forced to admit responsibility for his
crimes against citizens of other nations, and even pay compensations
to the victims’ relatives, no such admission of guilt
or compensation was ever offered to his Libyan victims.
For example, Gadhafi continued to deny that the Abusleem
massacre had ever taken place until recently, due to relentless
efforts by Libyan expatriates living overseas. Toward shedding
light on Gadhafi’s crimes in Libya, ALFA managed to
host an event at Freedom House in Washington, D.C. on the
8th anniversary of the massacre (June 2004), during which
an eyewitness to the Abusleem massacre was presented to
the audience and the international media. Subsequently,
a detailed account of the massacre was taped at the headquarters
of Human Rights Watch in Washington, D.C.
Following Gadhafi’s admission of having secretly
developed biological and chemical weapons (November 2003),
and his subsequent abandonment of such programs, many heads
of states in Europe and the United States, hailed the event
as a genuine conversion by Gadhafi, from a terrorist to
a man of peace. Some spoke of Gadhafi as an example to others
to follow, forgetting that Gadhafi persisted in brutalizing
Libyans inside their country as the international community
celebrated his publicized conversion. This past month (June
2), the mutilated body of a young Libyan journalist, Dhaif
Al-Ghazzal, was discovered in a trash dump on the outskirts
of the city of Benghazi, a few weeks after he was kidnapped
on May 21.
Dhaif Al-Ghazzal had worked for one of Gadhafi’s
newspapers, the Green March, for several years, but prior
to his brutal death, he wrote about his disillusionment
with his working conditions and the widespread corruption.
Dhaif received threats to his life if he continued to write
his critical articles. The young journalist, being true
to his journalistic tradition, continued his writings until
May 21, when two security agents, hustled him into a car
and drove him away under the cover of darkness. His case
remained a mystery until the discovery of his body, bearing
the marks of torture, fingers severed, a stab wound to his
torso, and a bullet in his head.
The question we pose to the United Nations is: How can
such a respected body of nations tolerate the presence of
such a criminal regime amongst its roster? What we are seeking
is justice for the victims of Abusleem prison and the latest
of Gadhafi’s victims, Dhaif Al-Ghazzal, and the many
more who have preceded them. Almost at the same time as
the murder of Dhaif, a similar and almost identical case
had occurred in Beirut, Lebanon, when another journalist
was murdered. However, his murder received immediate international
attention, and a team of UN experts was dispatched to Lebanon
to carry out a thorough investigation and to report back
its findings. We are urging a dispatch of similar investigative
team to Libya to look into the massacre at Abusleem prison
and the brutal murder of Dhaif Al-Ghazzal. We eagerly await
your response.
Sincerely,
Mohamed M. Bugaighis, Ph.D.
Chairman, American Libyan Freedom Alliance (ALFA)
C.C: Chairman of the UN Human Rights Committee
Amnesty International
Human Rights Watch
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Department
of State
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