In Libya: a crime against humanity?

If the information is confirmed, and that there has indeed been the use of helicopters or even aviation, firing on the demonstrators in Tripoli or Benghazi, and that the deaths are not counted in tens but in hundreds - which seemed unfortunately, yesterday Monday, to be confirmed as the information (in small quantity) was made public - the calls for the restraint of violence, to open a political dialogue or to respect the right to demonstrate, proclaimed by the European Union (and the rather discreet African Union on the issue) will seem very weak and a bit overwhelmed.

Such a massacre cannot be justified

It's a real "crime against humanity" (words matter*). And it would be time to say it and to condemn it in more energetic terms than by muttering on a sheet of paper a few expertly co-signed standard messages. It will also call a spade a spade, wave the stick and move on to sanctions. No need to procrastinate in this matter. The time is no longer for commiseration or the appeal to rationality. It's not a question of morality. It's a matter of acting fast to avoid any further bloodshed. Kadhafi and his sons must understand that even if they are sitting on a barrel of oil, there are limits that should not be crossed, and that they have crossed.

Legal proceedings must be discussed now

It will also be time to show them the way to justice, with an international court, an ad hoc court or a Libyan court, the foundations of which must be laid now. To show that the troublemakers in power will be prosecuted, to somehow encourage the vacuum around power. We must not wait, as in Croatia or Bosnia, for a few additional massacres to occur.

We must also stop veiling our faces: quickly evacuate European citizens before they serve as hostages or bargaining chips for the Libyan authorities. Open the borders bordering Libya, to temporarily accommodate some refugees; lend assistance if necessary to Egypt and Tunisia. Europe has everything to gain by installing a democratic or quasi-democratic state on its borders. Rather than this monarchy which is revolutionary in name only...

As for the few leaders - like the Italian Franco Frattini or the Czech Karel Schwarzenberg - who still found, until yesterday, much merit in the Libyan leader, they deserve... a few "slaps".

(*) I do not think it is a "genocide" as asserted by Libya's deputy ambassador to the United Nations who resigned from his post, like several of his counterparts throughout the world. But one can also think that there is a violation of the Geneva Conventions and in particular of Protocol No. 2 on non-international armed conflicts (protocol ratified by Libya). And war crimes. This then justifies a lawsuit before any court in one of the signatory countries.

Read also:

• Gaddafi's mercenaries… recruited from all directions?
• 2 Mirage of the Libyan army have taken off… (maj3)
• The evacuation of Europeans from Libya begins (maj2)
• The 27, not very united, pray to Gaddafi to listen... to the "aspirations of his people"