CONFIDENTIAL
LIBYA
Report by HM Embassy, Tripoli
General Observations
Amnesty International recently visited Libya and they told us that it was harder to get facts about political detainees in Libya than in any other Arab country, including Iraq or The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. On paper Libya scores badly because nearly all the tenets of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights are ignored. But paradoxically, their human rights performance is probably far better than that of a number of countries which profess to play by the rules.
Right No.
(i) Estimates vary around the figure
of 150 imprisoned without trial at any one time, including those under fairly loose house arrest (0.007% of the population). There is no perceptible trend to reduce or increase this number.
(ii)
(iii)
There is no evidence that prison- ers are tortured, although there are occasionally rumours of rough handling, particularly by the military.
Comment by Planning Staff
Amnesty International's report
Rating suggested by Post
(passed in confidence to the Embassy) stated that: "It is a common practice for those arrested to be systemati- cally beaten and tortured according to the more sophisticated methods in addition to other local methods invented by Qadhifi's torturing corps. When stating that "There is no evidence that prisoners are tortured", the Embassy were aware of this report, but assessors may wish to have it drawn to their attention.
Slavery is not found in Libya, although foreign (Arab and African) children are sometimes 'bought' from their families to work in conditions akin to slavery.
3
2
2
CONFIDENTIAL
/(iv)