Aid agency claims detainees tortured

Tripoli: Aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has halted its work in detention centres in a Libyan city because it said its medical staff were being asked to patch up detainees mid-way through torture sessions so they could go back for more abuse.

Rights groups have repeatedly raised concerns about torture being used against people, many of them sub-Saharan Africans, suspected of having fought for Muammar Gaddafi's forces during Libya's nine-month civil war.

The agency said it was in Misrata, about 200 kilometres east of the Libyan capital and scene of some of the fiercest battles in the conflict, to treat war-wounded detainees but was instead having to treat fresh wounds from torture.

"Patients were brought to us in the middle of interrogation for medical care, in order to make them fit for more interrogation," MSF General Director Christopher Stokes said in a statement.

Serious allegation

"This is unacceptable. Our role is to provide medical care to war casualties and sick detainees, not to repeatedly treat the same patients between torture sessions."

The agency said it has raised the issue with the authorities in Misrata and with the national army. "No action was taken," said Stokes. "We have therefore come to the decision to suspend our medical activities in the detention centres."

Reports of the mistreatment and disappearances of suspected Gaddafi loyalists have embarrassed Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC), which has vowed to make a break with practices under Gaddafi and respect human rights.

The allegations are also awkward for the western powers which backed the anti-Gaddafi rebellion and helped install Libya's new leaders.

UN concerned

The concern over torture was also expressed by UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay on Wednesday.

Pillay told the UN Security Council she was extremely concerned about thousands of prisoners, most of them accused of being loyalists of the toppled government of Gaddafi and many from sub-Saharan Africa.

"The lack of oversight by the central authorities creates an environment conducive to torture and ill-treatment," Pillay said. "My staff have received alarming reports that this is happening in places of detention that they have visited."

She said it was urgent that all Libya's detention centres be brought under control of the Ministry of Justice and General Prosecutor's Office and that detainees be screened so that they could be freed or receive a fair trial.

The new Libyan government has been struggling to take control of the detainees held by the revolutionary brigades who did the fighting, but has been hampered by lack of prison staff, UN officials say.