Gaddafi 'gives troops Viagra to encourage them to rape'

Ablaze: Flames billow over the Tripoli hotel used by journalists
12 April 2012

Colonel Gaddafi is to be investigated on charges of giving Viagra to his soldiers to encourage them to rape, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court said.

Luis Moreno Ocampo's office has become "more convinced" that Gaddafi has decided to instill fear into the Libyan population by punishing women with rape.

He said witnesses had confirmed the Libyan government was buying containers of Viagra-type drugs "to enhance the possibility to rape". "We are trying to see who was involved," he said.

"We're getting important information. In some areas we had 100 people raped. The issue for us was, can we attribute these rapes to Gaddafi himself, or is it something that happened in the barracks?"

Western and Arab nations were meeting in Abu Dhabi today to focus on what a US official called the "end-game" for Gaddafi as Nato stepped up the intensity of its air raids on Tripoli.

Ministers from the Libya "contact group", including the US, France and Britain, as well as Arab allies Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan, will press the rebel leaders to give a detailed plan on how they would run the country if Gaddafi stood down.

"The international community is beginning to talk about what could constitute an end game," the official said aboard Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's plane, which landed last night.

"That would obviously include some kind of ceasefire arrangement and some kind of political process and of course the question of Gaddafi and perhaps his family is also a key part of that," he said.

Britain's Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt, who was at the Abu Dhabi talks, said: "The contact group will also reiterate the unequivocal message that Gaddafi, his family and his regime have lost all legitimacy and must go so that the Libyan people can determine their own future."

On the battlefront, Gaddafi's forces were staging a big push on the rebel-held port of Misrata. "He has sent thousands of troops from all sides and they are trying to enter the city. They are still outside, though," said rebel spokesman Hassan al-Misrati.

In Tripoli, a fire broke out early today at the Rixos hotel housing foreign journalists. About 100 people, most of them journalists, were evacuated to the car park. There were no reports of injuries and hotel staff blamed a fire in an electrical room.

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