UN worries over Libya's 'revolutionary brigades'

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UN envoys on Wednesday raised growing fears over 'revolutionary brigades' in Libya accused of causing a surge in post-Gaddafi unrest and holding thousands of people in secret detention centers.

But UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay said NATO should disclose what measures it took to avoid civilian deaths in the airstrikes it carried out before the downfall of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi last year.

Pillay and the UN special representative in Libya, Ian Martin, expressed concern about the revolutionary brigades that fought Gaddafi's troops but have not been brought under control by the interim government.

Martin said fighting in the Libyan town of Bani Walid this week - at one stage blamed on Gaddafi loyalists - had been caused by a clash between local people and a revolutionary brigade unit.

He said the brigades were also responsible for fatal clashes in Tripoli and other towns this month.

"Although authorities have successfully contained these and other more minor incidents that continue to take place across the country on a regular basis, there is the ever present possibility that similar outbreaks of violence could escalate," Martin told a UN Security Council meeting on Libya.

The government is struggling to reintegrate tens of thousands of militia fighters from the anti-Gaddafi revolution into the army and police.

Pillay also raised fears about the brigades because of the light and heavy weaponry they have built up.

The UN human rights chief said she was ‘extremely concerned’ about thousands of detainees held by the brigades, many of them from other African countries who are accused of being Gaddafi loyalists.

Libya's UN envoy Mohammed Shalgham admitted at the meeting that the government did not know where all the detention centers are.

Pillay said her department had received ‘alarming reports’ of torture and ill-treatment in the centers that UN staff had been able to visit.

Russia and China have accused NATO of over-stepping UN resolutions on Libya with their airstrikes last year and called for a UN-mandated inquiry into the attacks.

While the western powers who carried out the attacks insist they were legal and NATO made every effort to avoid civilian casualties, Pillay said there were "outstanding questions regarding possible civilian deaths resulting from NATO operations."

She said a UNHCR inquiry was investigating allegations "and any findings it reaches will be important in shedding light on the extent to which NATO forces took all feasible measures to protect civilians in all their military operations.

"Information so far indicates that NATO made efforts to keep civilian casualties at a minimum but where civilians have been killed and injured, the alliance should disclose information about all such events and about remedial actions undertaken," Pillay said.

The New York Times said this month that its investigations had shown that there were at least 40 civilian deaths from NATO air attacks, and possibly more than 70.