A/HRC/17/44 that, under the direction of Abdullah al-Senusi, some 1,272 persons were killed by machinegun fire by prison guards. Only many years later were family members informed of the deaths. One witness who spoke to the Commission indicated being notified only 10 years after the events. In the intervening years, families of many victims had come on a weekly basis to the prison to bring food and clothing. The guards would accept the provisions, leaving relatives with the belief that their relatives were alive. In 2007, after receiving information from the Government of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya that a commission was inquiring into the events at Abu Salim, the Human Rights Committee in its concluding observations expressed concern “that some eleven years after the event, the State party was unable to provide information on the status of the work of the Commission responsible for the inquiry into the events at Abu Salim prison in 1996” (CCPR/C/LBY/CO/4, para. 14). The second case reported to the Commission as having particular resonance related to the public hanging of university students accused of directly or indirectly opposing the regime at the university, with other students forced to watch. The Commission was told that one such hanging took place in Tripoli at the Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Fateh University, and another in Benghazi at the Faculty of Law, Ghar Yunis University, in 1985. 25. It is against this background of repression of rights that one has to assess the pent-up demand for democracy and the rule of law in early 2011. B. The events from February 2011 26. The events which prompted the convening of the fifteenth special session of the Human Rights Council and the subsequent establishment of the Commission began with mass demonstrations in Libya in February 2011, in which participants called for democratic reform and the toppling of the Qadhafi regime. Such uprisings seem to have been inspired in part by similar popular uprisings in neighbouring countries which had culminated in Tunisia with the resignation of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and in Egypt with the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. The protestors claim that these demonstrations were peaceful. The Government of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya has disputed this claim, a matter further examined by the Commission in chapter III, section A. The Government response to these demonstrations was to use significant force. This caused an escalation of the use of force until, by late February, a situation of civil war had developed in Libya. For present purposes, the major developments can be summarized as follows: Phase 1 (demonstration phase) and Phase 2 (armed conflict). 1. Phase 1 27. Libyan authorities appear to have been keen to prevent mass demonstrations in Libya, taking steps such as arresting persons who called for such action.9 The arrest on 15 February of Fathi Terbil, a well-known lawyer and human rights defender (who was representing many of the families of inmates killed in the Abu Salim prison)10 by Libyan internal security forces (Jihaz al-Amn al-Dakhili) sparked a mass protest in Benghazi. On 16 February, protests spread to Al-Bayda, Al-Quba, Darnah and Tobruk. Authorities sought to scatter the protestors, utilizing various methods, including teargas and batons. Significant casualties were reported. Protests intensified on 17 February, the “Day of Rage”, commemorating the five-year anniversary since a Government crackdown on an Abu 9 10 In addition to the arrest of Mr. Terbil, the Commission also notes some other high-profile arrests such as of Jamal al Haji on 1 February 2011, and Farag, Al-Mahdi, Sadiq and Ali Hmeid in Tripoli on 16 February 2011, all of whom had called for public demonstrations. As to the Abu Salim incident, see paragraph 24 of the present report. 11