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36 Fletcher F. World Aff. 15 (2012)
How Mass Atrocities End: An Evidence-Based Counter-Narrative

handle is hein.journals/forwa36 and id is 15 raw text is: How Mass Atrocities End:
An Evidence-Based Counter-Narrative
ALEX DE WAAL
JENS MEIERHENRICH
BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC
On October 20, 2011, the battered body of the deposed Libyan
leader, Muammar Qaddafi, was paraded through the streets of Sirte and
Misrata. Although the details of his final hours are in question, some
facts are clear. There were at least two bullet holes in the 69-year-old's
dead body, one to the head and one to the stomach. He was shot after
forces loyal to the National Transitional Council beat him, leaving him
cut and bruised. It is also possible that some of his wounds were the result
of a NATO air attack on his 100-car convoy as it fled Sirte, the site of his
final stand. While a complete official version of his death has yet to be
pronounced, journalists located several eyewitnesses whose testimony, in
addition to the brutal video that surfaced first on AI-Arabiya,1 indicate that
he was executed after being taken into custody. Reuters journalist Rania El
Gamal quoted a local commander who asserted that while the leaders of
the Interim Transitional National Council (NTC) wanted to keep Gaddafi
alive, over-enthusiastic young fighters executed him.2
And thus ended the 2011 Libyan Civil War, as well as NATO's mission,
Unified Protector. It is not shocking that a civil war would conclude with
a furious, over-enthusiastic, and young armed force finishing off a leader
who had reigned for more than forty years; there are many such examples
throughout history and across the globe. But it ought to give pause for
reflection on why an international intervention authorized by UN Security
Alex de Waal is Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher
School. Jens Meierhenrich is Senior Lecturer of International Relations at the
London School ofEconomics and Political Science. Bridget Conley-Zilkic is Research
Director at the World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School

VOL. 36:1 WINTER 2012

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