“It is imperative that the transitional authorities take action to rein in these groups,” Human Rights Watch said. “This latest massacre seems part of a trend of killings, looting, and other abuses committed by armed anti-Gaddafi fighters who consider themselves above the law.”

By Josephine Uwineza, The Hague

The victims were found in a hotel under anti-Gaddafi forces’ control in Sirte. Apparently they were Gaddafi supporters. HRW urged NTC to investigate and bring those responsible to justice. The Hotel Mahari was controlled by anti-Gaddafi forces since the start of the conflict until the fighting ended on 20 October. The bodies were clustered together where they may have been killed, on the grass in the sea-view garden of the hotel, said HRW.

The condition in which the bodies were discovered suggests the victims were killed last week. There are reasonable grounds to believe the people were shot and killed in the location where they were discovered. Bloodstains on the grass underneath the bodies, bullet holes in the ground and the spent cartridges of AK-47 and FN-1 rifles scattered around the site could be identified. They further said most of the victims were residents of Sirte, some of them Gaddafi supporters.

ICC to prosecute anti-Gaddafi forces
At the site where Muammar Gaddafi was captured, 95 people had apparently died that day. The majority are thought to have died in the fighting as well as NATO strikes prior to Gaddafi’s capture. But between 6 and 10 of the dead appear to have been executed at the site with gunshot wounds to the head and body.

The NTC has failed to conduct serious investigations into the killing of the former rebel military commander, General Abdel Fattah Younes. He was killed with two aides on July 28 after being detained by opposition fighters, apparently after NTC officials issued a warrant for his arrest.

The UN Security Council’s referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC) provides for the prosecution of all those liable for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Libya. Under the Rome statute, both NTC officials as well as Gaddafi loyalists may be held responsible - if they fail to prosecute and punish their subordinates for alleged committed crimes.