The world called Moammar Khadafy a dictator; he called himself Africa’s king of kings. But the UN Human Rights Council has a new name for him: victim.
Khadafy was murdered by a mob in his hometown of Sirte last week, bringing his 42-year reign of terror to an abrupt end.
Good riddance, said most of the world.
The UN response? “Very disturbing.”
After a stream of cellphone videos showed Khadafy alive in rebel hands but kaput thereafter, the UN fell into a swoon.
“There is a need for an investigation and more details are needed to ascertain whether he was killed in the fighting or after his capture,” said a spokesman for the High Commissioner on Human Rights.
Why are these defenders of the International Way trying to turn Khadafy into a martyr after death? Truth is, they’re simply scratching their old colleague’s back.
The Human Rights Council, which never condemned Khadafy while he lived, actually elected him to a three-year term in 2010, offering Libya a seat on the UN panel dedicated to “promoting . . . human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.”
Face it: Khadafy wasn’t destined to die in bed. Surely there was no doubt about what that mob would do once it got its hands on him.
Yet this week, Libya’s transitional government ordered an investigation of Khadafy’s death. “Whoever is responsible for that will be judged and given a fair trial,” said one top official, quietly laughing up his sleeve.
Two thousand years ago, Virgil described Libyans as “a people rude in peace and rough in war.”
That’s putting it mildly.