Jalil vows to uphold Islamic law

Benghazi: Libya's new rulers declared the country freed from Muammar Gaddafi's 42 years of one-man rule yesterday, saying the "Pharaoh of the times" was now in history's garbage bin and a democratic future beckoned.

Tens of thousands who until this year's revolt had known only Gaddafi's all-powerful police state packed a square in the second city Benghazi to hear the interim National Transitional Council (NTC) announce Libya had liberated itself fully. NTC chief Mustafa Abdul Jalil kneeled in prayer after taking the podium and promised to uphold Islamic law.

Jalil set out a vision for the post-Gaddafi future, saying that Sharia law would be the "basic source" of legislation in the country and that existing laws that contradict the teachings of Islam would be nullified.

"All the martyrs, the civilians and the army had waited for this moment. But now they are in the best of places ... eternal heaven," he said, shaking hands with supporters.

Some fear Jalil, a mild-mannered former justice minister, will find it difficult to impose his will on his fractious revolutionary alliance, pointing to the insistence of the city of Misrata on displaying the body of the former strongman three days after his death, in apparent breach of Islamic practice.

International disquiet

And there is international disquiet about increasingly graphic and disturbing images on the internet of abuse of a body that appears to be Gaddafi's following his capture and the fall of his hometown of Sirte on Thursday.

But the immediate reaction to yesterday's announcement was jubilation.

"We are the Libyans. We have shown you who we are Gaddafi, you Pharaoh of the times. You have fallen into the garbage bin of history," said lawyer Abdul Rahman Al Qeesy, who announced the creation of a new government portfolio to deal with victims of the conflict.

"We declare to the whole world that we have liberated our beloved country, with its cities, villages, hilltops, mountains, deserts and skies," said an official who opened the ceremony in Benghazi, the place where the uprising erupted in February and which has been the headquarters for the NTC.

Cheering crowds waved the tri-colour flag.

Gaddafi, who had vowed to fight to the end, was found hiding in a drain after fleeing Sirte, the last bastion of his loyalists. He died in chaotic circumstances after video footage showed him bloodied and struggling at the hands of his captors.

Prosperity

With big oil and gas reserves and a six million population, Libya has the potential to become very prosperous, but regional rivalries fostered by Gaddafi could erupt into yet more violence that would undermine the authority of Jalil's NTC.

"There is a yawning security and political vacuum in which brewing political disputes, factionalism and security problems pose a serious risk of derailing or prolonging transition," said Henry Wilkinson of Janusian security consultants in London.

In Misrata, people queuing for a chance to see Gaddafi's body saw no reason for a rapid burial, apparently not moved by concern in Tripoli about how the NTC is perceived overseas.