Erstellt am: 29. 8. 2011 - 13:56 Uhr

"It is the tortured who turn into torturers"

Reality Check: Dealing with war crimes in Libya and the split in the Catholic Church in Austria.

‘The healthy man does not torture others - generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers.’

Carl Jung

Have you seen the news footage? Libyan rebel fighters entering the diverse opulent and luxurious compounds of Muammar Gaddafi and his extended family and finding things like booze worth thousands of dollars, a kinda creepy scrapbook dedicated to ex US foreign secretary Condoleeza Rice, and sofas carved out of gold, featuring the likeness of Gaddafi's eldest daughter.

Charred remains of hundreds of rebel fighters have been among the gruesome discoveries

Lifting the roof off of Gaddafi and Co.'s dwellings has meant other much more gruesome discoveries, a labyrinth of tunnels leading to torture chambers for instance. Blood stained walls and crude instruments of tortures have been found. Victims of torture have been found both dead and alive. The harrowing tale of a woman hired as a nanny for the Gaddafi family defies belief, but if you see the injuries she sustained at the hands of her dissatisfied employers (she was tortured because she couldn’t get a baby to stop crying), you know her experience is real.

These grisly acts of depravity against other human beings aren’t exclusive to Gaddafi and his loyalists. There are accusations of torture and war crimes on BOTH sides of continuously fluid situation in Libya. I wish I didn’t have to say this but I have a feeling that the atrocities unearthed so far represent only the tip of a horrific iceberg.

On today's Reality Check, Claudio Cordoni of Amnesty International told me about the crimes being uncovered, and the way forward for justice to be served.

The split in the Catholic Church

The Catholic Church is divided over reform but, surprisingly, it's the young people who want things to stay as they are, and older churchgoers who are pro-reform. Markus Veinfurter of ORF's religion department explains the debate and what is means.

FM4 Reality Check

Monday to friday from 12 to 14. And after the show via Podcast or fm4.orf.at/realitycheck.