Libyan security forces have unleashed a wave of arbitrary arrests and "disappearances" in Tripoli as authorities combat an armed revolt in the east of the country, Human Rights Watch says.
Libyan leader Muammar "Gaddafi and his security forces are brutally suppressing all opposition in Tripoli, including peaceful protests, with lethal force, arbitrary arrests and forced disappearances", HRW's Middle East and North Africa director, Sarah Leah Whitson, said.
Security forces have detained scores of anti-government protesters, suspected regime critics and alleged sources of information to the foreign media and human rights organisations, HRW said, citing Tripoli residents.
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"Given Libya's record of torture and political killings, we worry deeply about the fate of those taken away," Whitson added in a report which said some detainees had apparently been tortured.
HRW said the government crackdown in Tripoli began around February 20 when anti-government protesters took to the capital's central Green Square, a stronghold of Gaddafi supporters.
Three witnesses cited by HRW said security forces fired at a peaceful crowd, killing or wounding an unknown number.
Security forces unleashed a wave of arrests across the capital that same night, focusing the sweep on Tajura and Fashloom, districts perceived as a springboard for protests, according to residents contacted by HRW.
Government forces on February 25 violently cracked down on a peaceful demonstration held after weekly Friday prayers in mosques, wounding scores and arresting participants well into the night, HRW reported.
Residents tapped for information told HRW they were too afraid to continue to communicate as internal security forces scoured for individuals in contact with journalists and rights monitors.
In one case documented by HRW, a man who was a source of information on anti-government protests disappeared together with his son on around February 20 and was still listed as missing on March 12.
The government has released a number of people after brief periods of detention, HRW said. But the location and charges against many others remain unknown as the Libyan government has withheld any such information.
Internal security forces on March 4 allegedly arrested Abdulrahman Sewehli, a retired Libyan academic, and three of his sons, according to a fourth son, Ahmed Sewehli, who lives abroad.
Possible detention facilities in Tripoli include Jdeida, Ain Zara and Abu Salim prison, "a facility notorious for the massacre of some 1200 prisoners after a prison uprising in 1996", the New York-based organisation said.
Three BBC journalists who were held by army and internal security at different military barracks for 21 hours starting on March 7 have provided the "only known eyewitness accounts of the fate of recent detainees", HRW said.
