Restraint in Libya

NOT one of the many comments on Gaddafi's death that I read yesterday failed to make reference to the daunting task now facing Libya's National Transitional Council. While Gaddafi lived and still attracted some support progress towards a new democratic Libya was to some extent held in abeyance.

Now that he has gone the Council cannot defer dealing with his most dangerous legacy -- those who believed in his policies and were in differing degrees beneficiaries of his rule. Some served in his military or security services, others were civil servants. There are probably hundreds of thousands of them and they have somehow to be integrated into the Libya of the future without diminishing the rights of those who opposed Gaddafi and often suffered for doing so.

Ideally, what is needed is a Truth and Reconciliation Commission of the kind established by Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Tutu after South Africa's apartheid regime ended.

But time and other factors are against that idea; South Africa already had a government framework to keep the country running whereas Libya is starting almost from scratch.

The Council's plans envisage a 200-member national conference to be elected within eight months and the appointment of a prime minister one month later who will form a government.

Maintaining restraint and fairness at such a pace will not be easy yet they are essential for Libya's future.