UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council unanimously voted Thursday to end the mandate for international military action in Libya, closing another chapter in the war against Moammar Qaddafi’s regime.
The 15-member council ordered an end to authorization for a no-fly zone and action to protect civilians from 11:59 pm Libyan time on Oct. 31. The mandate was approved in March after Qaddafi launched a deadly assault on opposition protests.
NATO, which carried out the airstrikes that played a key role in the downfall of Qaddafi, says it is studying new ways to help the National Transitional Council, which had asked for an extension to the mandate.
The alliance’s decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, is due to meet Friday in Brussels to formally declare an end to its seven-month-old air war.
Security Council Resolution 2016 also eased an international arms embargo so that the NTC can acquire weapons and equipment for its national security.
It ended an assets freeze on the Libyan National Oil Corporation and virtually all restrictions on the central bank and other key institutions. It completely ended the ban on international flights by registered Libyan planes.
Meanwhile, Libya’s new rulers said on Thursday they would prosecute the killers of ousted dictator Moammar Qaddafi following the international outcry over the circumstances of his death.
"With regards to Qaddafi, we do not wait for anybody to tell us," said Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, vice chairman of the ruling National Transitional Council at a news conference in Benghazi.
"We had already launched an investigation. We have issued a code of ethics in handling of prisoners of war. There were some violations by those who are unfortunately described as revolutionaries. I am sure that was an individual act and not an act of revolutionaries or the national army," the top interim official said.
"We had issued a statement saying that any violations of human rights will be investigated by the NTC. Whoever is responsible for that (Qaddafi’s killing) will be judged and given a fair trial."
Ghoga, who spoke in Arabic and whose remarks were translated by an official interpreter, was responding to specific questions about Qaddafi’s death and potential abuses.
Global disquiet has grown over how Qaddafi met his end at the hands of NTC fighters who hauled him out of a culvert where he was hiding following a NATO air strike.
Mobile phone videos show him still alive at that point.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Wednesday expressed his "disgust" at the global media for its graphic coverage of the ousted leader’s death.
"Almost the entire Qaddafi family was killed. His body was shown on all the world channels. You could not watch without disgust," news agencies quoted Putin as saying.
"What is that?" Putin exclaimed. "They show a bloodied man, wounded, still alive but getting beaten to death. And they splash that all over the screen."
