UN leak: Libyan militias are detaining thousands illegally

REBEL MILITIAS operating in post-Gaddafi Libya are illegally imprisoning thousands of people, including women and children, whom they see as "enemies of the state", according to a report due to be presented by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon next week

Up to 7,000 detainees are being held in what are described as private jails outside the control of Libya's government. Some are suffering torture and maltreatment.

The leaked report, seen by The Independent, says both sides – Col Gaddafi's forces and the rebels who rose against them – have committed acts  amounting to war crimes, especially during the hard-fought battle for control of Sirte, the late dictator's hometown.

Many of the illegally held detainees are sub-Saharan Africans, who may have been migrant workers in Gaddafi's Libya and were accused – rightly or wrongly - of being mercenaries, fighting for Gaddafi. "Cases have been reported of individuals being targeted because of the colour of their skin," says the report.

The report also reflects the concerns of many over the fate of Gaddafi himself, who was captured alive but apparently was put to death by his captors.

As The Independent says, "the report will come as uncomfortable reading for the Western governments, including Britain, which backed the campaign to oust Gaddafi".

Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for The Independent, says news of the detentions is not surprising. "The conflict in Libya was always much more of a civil war between Libyans than foreign governments pretended or the foreign media reported."

Many of the militia groups want to avenge the deaths of friends and family. Someone living in Sirte told Cockburn: "There is a deep and spreading frenzy, particularly among some of the youth militia and the Islamists, to hunt down anyone associated with the former regime."

Cockburn concludes: "The National Transitional Council, whose control is largely theoretical, is not in a position to stop this purge because many of its members are themselves frightened of being accused of links with the old regime." ·