Celebrations Rage in Rebel Territory After Call for Arrests of Libyan Leader, His Son and Spy Chief
↓By JOHN W. MILLER in Brussels and SAM DAGHER in Misrata, Libya
JUNE 28, 2011
![[GADHAFI]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/WO-AG079_GADHAF_G_20110627180538.jpg)
Associated PressLibyans in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi took to the streets on Monday to celebrate news of arrest warrants issued for Col. Gadhafi.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Col. Moammar Gadhafi, his son and Libya's intelligence director for crimes against humanity, triggering jubilation in rebel territory and formally marking the Libyan leader as an outlaw.
The ICC judges charged the three men with "murder" and "persecution" after prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, ordered by the United Nations in February to investigate, presented the court with evidence that Col. Gadhafi had, with his son Saif al-Islam Gadhafi and Intelligence Director Abdellah al-Senussi, personally coordinated attacks on Libyan civilians.
International Criminal Court issue arrest warrants for Moammar Gadhafi and two other Libyan leaders. Video courtesy of Reuters.
The warrants guarantee that Col. Gadhafi won't take part in any power-sharing arrangement in the future, analysts and diplomats said.
The Hague-based ICC was set up after the 1990s Balkan wars to punish war crimes, especially in developing countries with weak legal systems. Its 114 signatories, which don't include some major powers, such as the U.S. and China, depend on each other to carry out arrest warrants.
Such warrants don't always lead to arrest. Serbia only recently turned over Ratko Mladic for alleged crimes during the Balkan wars, on a warrant issued in 1996 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, a similar but separate body to the ICC.
"The Mladic case shows that these things don't go away," said Anthony Dworkin, a senior fellow at the European Council for Foreign Relations. "It confirms that Gadhafi is an outlaw figure and won't be part of any settlement."
On Monday, three ICC judges concluded that Libyan security forces "carried out throughout Libya—and in particular in Tripoli, Misrata and Benghazi as well as in cities near Benghazi such as al-Bayda, Derna, Tobruk and Ajdabiya—an attack against the civilian population taking part in demonstrations against Gadhafi's regime or those perceived to be dissidents, killing and injuring as well as arresting and imprisoning hundreds of civilians."
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North Atlantic Treaty Organization officials applauded the warrants but said their forces wouldn't arrest Col. Gadhafi because that isn't part of the organization's mandate and NATO doesn't have troops on the ground.
The decision "reinforces the reason for NATO's mission to protect the Libyan people from Gadhafi's forces," said alliance Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. "NATO is more determined than ever to keep up the pressure until all attacks on civilians have ended."
The White House said the decision was another indication that the Libyan leader had lost his legitimacy.
Libyan officials in Tripoli rejected the move, calling the ICC an illegitimate body.
Some members of the international community criticized the U.N.'s referral of Libya to the ICC, saying it would encourage Col. Gadhafi to fight for as long as possible rather than turn over power and risk arrest.
News of the arrest warrants triggered displays of jubilation in rebel-controlled areas. In the rebel capital of Benghazi in eastern Libya, thousands of people took to the streets to celebrate. Chants of "judgment day" reverberated through the city.
The leader of the rebels' governing body, the National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, called on Gadhafi associates to abandon him or face the consequences. Mr. Abdel-Jalil also said any diplomatic solution to the conflict now hinged on Col. Gadhafi's arrest. "There are laws that guarantee the prosecution of anyone who aids a wanted man to escape," he said.
In the western coastal city of Misrata, rebel fighters roamed the streets in pickup trucks for hours, firing celebratory gunfire into the air.
Children flashed victory signs from car windows and sunroofs, and waved the rebels' red, black and green banner and flags of countries taking part in the campaign against Col. Gadhafi, including France, Italy and Qatar.
People gathered for a rally at a square in the city center that served as a taxi terminal before the uprising in February and has since been renamed "Freedom Square."
Battle-scarred buildings nearby bore testimony to weeks of close-quarters fighting earlier this year between rebels and the regime's forces.
Aisha Omar, 42 years old, was tearful at the news. Ms. Omar lost her pregnant sister and three nieces on March 25 when they were blasted by an artillery shell fired at the entrance of their apartment building. "I am crying not only for my sister, but for all the crimes committed by this regime," she said.
Associated Press
Libyan Leader Moammar Gadhafi reaches out to shake the hands of supporters as he arrives to speak in Tripoli in March.
Residents in Misrata accuse Col. Gadhafi's forces and pro-regime fighters of committing atrocities that include rape, indiscriminate shelling of residential neighborhoods and kidnapping of rebel sympathizers and their families.
Misrata has been under siege by Col. Gadhafi's forces since early March. Salha al-Keesh, who has a 16-year-old son fighting with the rebels in the farmland area of Dafniya west of Misrata, worried that the arrest warrants could trigger a violent backlash from Col. Gadhafi. She said Western powers should send commando teams to arrest the Libyan leader.
"He's like a wounded wolf," Ms. Keesh said.
Col. Gadhafi has amassed soldiers as well as loyalists and their families around Misrata to keep rebels hemmed in and complicate NATO's task. The strategy also has been employed around the other rebel-controlled enclaves in the mountains southwest of the capital, Tripoli, and the eastern front near the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
Regime-controlled TV channels ignored news of the warrants and broadcast songs and programs glorifying Col. Gadhafi and vilifying the rebels and their Western allies.
The warrants arrived as international bodies and various countries made plans for a post-Gadhafi Libya. On Tuesday, the U.K. will announce the findings by a group from several Western countries that looked at how the international community can help with security, infrastructure, oil exports and other matters once Col. Gadhafi has gone.
The report, by the International Stabilization Response Team, won't address planning for the deployment of an international peacekeeping force, according to people familiar with the matter. Some U.S. officials have said they don't think the international community has prepared to deploy forces needed to secure critical infrastructure and maintain law and order.
The U.S. has said it won't provide troops, and British officials have ruled out the use of U.K. forces. Some countries have called for deployment of African Union peacekeepers.
—Muneef Halawa in Benghazi contributed to this article.Write to John W. Miller at john.miller@dowjones.com and Sam Dagher atsam.dagher@wsj.com
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