Migrants forced to fight for Gaddafi

-- Al Jazeera --
Anna Branthwaite
09 Apr 2011 16:14


Among the reports of atrocities occurring in Libya are claims from African migrants that they were abducted and forced to fight with Gaddafi's forces.

Nearly all migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, who arrive at the desert refugee camp in Tunisia, have fled in fear of violent reprisals by Libyans who accuse them of being mercenaries. The extent to which Gaddafi's military has used foreign mercenaries, or press-ganged migrants into fighting, remains unclear.

A former Nigerian police officer, who had worked in Libya for eight years as a technician, alleges he was abducted in mid-March at a military checkpoint in Tripoli, along with other men from Ghana, Mali and Niger, before being taken to a military centre.

"There was up to 100 people in the courtyard and military trucks were arriving and leaving with more people. They started beating people, I saw them shoot one Ghanaian in front of me. The atmosphere was very intimidating," he explained. "They put us into a vehicle and we were driven into the desert. I saw an oil refinery, there was evidence of bomb strikes, burnt out vehicles and a strong smell. I think it was Ras Lanouf."

A Ghanaian worker claimed to have been abducted by Libyan military when they stormed his house in Sirte.

"They asked us why we were trying to leave the country and that we must stay to fight for when the Americans come," he explained. "We were taken to a police station and then to an underground hospital which they ordered us to clean."

Importing mercenaries

Reports of foreign mercenaries being shipped into Libya and shooting protesters emerged within the first weeks of the uprising.

"There's certainly evidence that Algeria sent pilots in before the no-fly zone and provided military transporters to move people, possibly mercenaries, maybe even equipment… but it is difficult to get them into the country," explains Jeremy Keenan, a professor specialising in the Maghreb who suggests that between 5,000 and 10,000 mercenaries may have entered Libya during this uprising, but that there is no concrete evidence.

"If you've got a million migrants milling around in Libya, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, all paperless with no ID, I suspect he's using them, not Libyans, as human shields… the key thing is he (Gaddafi) has got them over a barrel, they can't leave," said Keenan. "I think the opposition people, when they bump into anyone fighting against them who is speaking another language and looks black, irrespective of how they got into Gaddafi's hands, they are using the word mercenary. There is a lot of confusion there."

Gaddafi has supported past Tuareg rebellions and allegedly backed candidates in recent elections in Niger, who may be beholden to support him.

Local African media have recently reported the recruitment and movement of young men into Libya, but others indicate that Tuaregs were recruited by the Libyan military several years beforehand. What is certain in recent weeks is that more people are leaving Libya than entering.

"Certainly Gaddafi uses mercenaries from abroad and from the foreign community in Libya. In Misurata, there are reports that the Africans are on the frontline, but the snipers are foreigners, mostly from Belarus, Eastern Europe," says Sliman Bouchuiguir, secretary-general of the Libyan League of Human Rights. "He has already used poor Africans as a political weapon against Europe saying he will let this African population go to Italy and Europe."

In an interview with French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, in February Gaddafi warned, "You will have the immigration of thousands of people who will invade Europe from Libya, and there will be nobody to stop them."

One million sub Saharan migrants, among them political refugees, are estimated to live in Libya, but there is virtually no documentation of the population. Many make the treacherous journey through the desert into Libya, either en route to Europe or to settle in oil rich Libya.

On entering Libya, thousands of migrants have been arrested and held in detention centres. Many of them are now escaping Libya and can speak openly about the appalling living conditions in the centres, torture resulting in scores of deaths, corruption, lack of legal and medical aid, all of which corroborates with earlier reports made by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Global Detention Project.

Libya has never signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, and after allowing the UNHCR to provisionally re-open its office in Tripoli last year, the UNHCR has only ever been allowed to visit a few centres.

"There are 27 centres known to us. We can't even find out where the detention centres are, there is so little information. I would have little confidence that the treatment of detainees would be to EU standards," explains Michael Flynn, a researcher at the Global Detention Project based in Geneva.

Italy and other EU countries have made it policy to manage immigration from the source of its origins, and in recent years have collaborated with Gaddafi in stemming the flow of African migration – following the 2008 Friendship Pact, Italy has provided Libya with funding to build detention centres and surveillance equipment; the European Commission offered Libya up to 50 million Euros in aid last year to stop the flow of immigration.

"I don't know to what extent there were benchmarks built into these agreements between EU countries and Gaddafi, many of these were verbal agreements," explains Flynn. "There may have been some sort of reporting requirements on conditions, but I would have very little confidence that these requirements would have been met in Libya."

'I need to start again'

With the violence continuing in Libya, journalists and independent observers unable to access many parts of the country, the blight of Libyan and non-Libyans civilians remains largely unknown, but events inside Libya will have far reaching consequences beyond its borders.

As thousands of migrant workers return to their respective countries, Mediterranean and Western countries wrangle over their obligations to the displaced and refugees, neighbouring African states may face the migration of armed mercenaries crossing their desert borders, if, or when, they are no longer required in Libya.

Back in the desert camp in Tunisia, over 60,000 people have been evacuated by the UNHCR and the IOM to their respective countries, with on average of 2,000 flown out each day.

Others nationalities - Somalians, Eritreans, Sudanese, Iraqis and now Ivorians - with no safe country to be returned to, know they will be here for weeks if not months and attempt to make their desert camp as bearable as possible whilst awaiting to told where they will be resettled. Nearly all the families with young children belong to this group.

Waiting his turn to be told when he will be allocated a seat on a flight to Nigeria, the former police officer speaks of his future: "I left everything behind in Libya, all my clothes, savings, property and now I don’t even have one dinar with me. I need to start again. If I can go home I will start to look for a job."

He currently shares a tent with five other men, all facing the same predicaments. "But even though I should be relieved to be going home, I’m still very worried about the people who are trapped inside Libya, the ones who can't get out and have been left behind. I have a bad feeling about what will happen to them."

Anna Branthwaite worked at the Choucha transit camp in Tunisia, taking photographs and interviewing case studies as a freelancer for the Office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees UNHCR.

Melee at Tripoli hotel after woman claims she was raped
March 27, 2011 - 10:27AM
--smh.com.au--

“They say that we are all Libyans and we are one people,” said the woman, who gave her name as Eman al-Obeidy, barging in during breakfast at the hotel dining room. “But look at what the Qaddafi men did to me.” She displayed a broad bruise on her face, a large scar on her upper thigh, several narrow and deep scratch marks lower on her leg, and marks from binding around her hands and feet.

Dramatic footage has emerged of western journalists caught up in a hotel brawl in Tripoli after a Libyan woman burst in announcing she had been raped by government troops. The woman was tackled by waitresses and government minders as she sat telling her story to the press. In a state of distress, she had rushed into the restaurant at the Rixos hotel, where a number of journalists were eating breakfast on Saturday. She told them troops had detained her at a checkpoint, tied her up, abused her, then led her away to be gang-raped - an account that could not be independently verified. She claimed she was targeted by the troops because she is from the eastern city of Benghazi, a rebel stronghold.

In response, a hotel waitress brandished a butter knife, a government minder reached for his handgun and another waitress pulled a jacket tightly over her head. The waiters called her a traitor and tried to stop her talking. The scene descended into chaos when the journalists tried to intervene to protect the woman and were pushed out of the way by the government minders. A British television reporter was punched and a CNN camera was smashed on the ground by the minders.

A gun was pulled out in front of a Sky News crew but was not pointed at anyone. Meanwhile, the cameras continued to roll and journalists tried to smuggle the footage out but said attempts were made to prevent this. Sky News foreign affairs correspondent Lisa Holland was among the reporters caught up in the melee, but Sky said none of its staff were injured. The fracas culminated in the minders overpowering the woman, leading her outside and shoving her into a car that sped away. At a hastily arranged press conference after the incident, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim addressed the incident.

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/world/melee-at-tripoli-hotel-after-woman-claims-she-was-raped-20110327-1cbki.html

The UN Security Council has approved a no-fly zone over Libya to protect civilians.
--bbc.co.uk--

The resolution allows for all necessary measures , short of a foreign occupation force, to defend civilians who are under threat of attack. France has indicated that air-strikes against Col Gaddafi's forces could begin within hours. UK Prime Minister David Cameron has briefed his cabinet at an emergency meeting, and is answering questions in the House of Commons about the overnight developments at the UN in New York.

U.S. pushing for air strikes, no-fly zone in Libya
Thu Mar 17, 2011 4:49pm GMT
--REUTERS--
* U.S. now pushing for air strikes against Gaddafi forces

* U.S. wants Arab League to play active role in any plan

* Burns: Actions short of boots on the ground (Adds more details)

By Steve Holland and Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON, March 17 (Reuters) - The United States, in a sharp shift in tone, wants the United Nations to authorize not just a no-fly zone to aid Libyan rebels but also air strikes against Libyan tanks and heavy artillery, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

The move toward a tougher stance in favor of military action comes after an extended internal debate within the Obama administration over how to stop Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's battle to put down a rebellion that has threatened his 30-year reign.

The Libyan opposition has appealed for immediate assistance to prevent the rebel capital of Benghazi from falling to forces loyal to Gaddafi, and the question facing President Barack Obama and other world leaders was whether the action they planned to take would come in time. [ID:nLDE72G0UF]

The U.S. Defense Department voiced concerns about a military engagement in Libya, echoing recent comments from Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

"I think you could safely say there would be a concern about conducting military operations inside Libya," said Colonel David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman. [ID:nN17220104]

U.S. officials said the United States has concluded a no-fly zone should be adopted and other measures that go well beyond a no-fly zone, should be taken, including air strikes against Libyan tanks and heavy artillery.

The United States is also seeking U.N. authorization for other steps under consideration, including diverting frozen Gaddafi assets to Libyan rebels for buying weapons and tightening a Libyan arms embargo.

U.S. officials believe the measures could be implemented rapidly to have an immediate impact.

NO "BOOTS ON THE GROUND"

The United States supports international measures in Libya that are "short of boots on the ground," Undersecretary of State William Burns said on Thursday.

Burns also told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that a no-fly zone over Libya could have "an important, positive, practical" effect, but it was still necessary to consider other measures.

He said Washington is concerned Gaddafi could "return to terrorism and violent extremism" and create turmoil in the Middle East.

Pentagon officials have made clear their wariness of instituting a no-fly zone with U.S. forces already engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan and a massive relief operation under way in Japan.

Any military plan adopted must have active participation by Arab League nations.

"They have to do more than just support it," a senior official said.

Obama has been under pressure from Britain and France to join together in taking tough action against Gaddafi before the moment to do so slips away.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said on Twitter that urgent negotiations were continuing at the U.N. Security Council about a Libya resolution.

"US view -- need to take steps beyond no-fly zone to protect civilians," she wrote.

Separately, the U.S. mission to the United States said on its Twitter account that the vote would likely come at 3:30 p.m. EDT (1930 GMT). A council diplomat said that the vote could come later.

French U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud had said he wanted a vote by 6:00 p.m. EST (2200 GMT) on Thursday.

The former Libyan ambassador to the United States, Ali Aujali, who backs the rebels, appealed for immediate help in a CNN interview.

"President Obama, please, I am asking you for the second or third time, you know Gaddafi, you know what he will do," he said. (Additional reporting by Jackie Frank and Andrew Quinn; Editing by Jackie Frank and Eric Beech)

© Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved

U.S. backs Arab states' call for Libya no-fly zone
Sun Mar 13, 2011 4:42am GMT
--reuters--
By Michael Georgy and Tom Perry
RAS LANUF, Libya/CAIRO (Reuters) - The United States backed a call by the Arab League for a United Nations no-fly zone over Libya, as government troops backed by warplanes fought to drive rebels from remaining strongholds in western Libya.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said the League, meeting in Cairo Saturday, had decided that "serious crimes and great violations" committed by the government of Muammar Gaddafi against his people had stripped it of legitimacy.

Washington, which would play a leading role in enforcing any no-fly zone, called the declaration an "important step"; but it stopped short of commitment to any military action and made no proposal for a swift meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

It was not clear if the League's call for a no-fly zone would provide the unequivocal regional endorsement NATO required for military action to curb Gaddafi.

Diplomats in New York said they could not rule out a weekend meeting of the U.N. Security Council to vote on the issue, but added it was unlikely.

On the ground, Gaddafi marshalled his forces to defy a tide of reform that has led to the overthrow of autocratic rulers in Tunisia and Egypt and unprecedented protest elsewhere.

However, a mutiny slowed the advance of a crack Libyan brigade commanded by Gaddafi's son Khamis as it advanced on Misrata, with 32 soldiers joining the rebels holding the city, a rebel there said. He said one defector was a general.

Rebel spokesman Gamal added that the brigade, stalled about 10-15 km south of the city, broke out in a fire fight after dozens of troops balked at the idea of killing innocent civilians in the impending attack.

The events could not be confirmed independently. Journalists have been prevented from reaching the city by the authorities.

Earlier Saturday, the feared 32nd Brigade tried but failed to take Misrata, the last major rebel holdout in western Libya.

ZAWIYAH SCENARIO

Mussa Ibrahim, a government spokesman in Tripoli, could neither confirm nor deny a military operation was under way in Misrata.

"There is a hard core of al Qaeda fighters there," he said. "It looks like a Zawiyah scenario. Some people will give up, some will disappear ... Tribal leaders are talking to them. Those who stay behind, we will deal with them accordingly."

It took a week of repeated assaults by government troops, backed by tanks and air power, to crush the uprising in Zawiyah, a much smaller town 50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli.

The death toll in Zawiyah was unknown but much of the town was destroyed, with buildings around the main square showing gaping holes blown by tank rounds and rockets. Gaddafi's forces bulldozed a cemetery where rebel fighters had been buried.

The rebels in Misrata were heavily outgunned.

"We are bracing for a massacre," said Mohammad Ahmed, a rebel fighter. "We know it will happen and Misrata will be like Zawiyah, but we believe in God. We do not have the capabilities to fight Gaddafi and his forces. They have tanks and heavy weapons and we have our belief and trust in God."

Further east, Gaddafi's troops pushed insurgents out of Ras Lanuf, a day after making an amphibious assault on the oil port and pitting tanks and planes against rebels armed with light weapons and machineguns mounted on pick-up trucks.

Dozens of soldiers waved posters of Gaddafi and painted over rebel graffiti at a deserted housing complex for oil industry workers as foreign journalists arrived from Tripoli on a government-run visit to the recaptured city.

Smoke billowed from an oil storage facility near the refinery east of the town. Local officials brought to meet the media party said the retreating rebels had bombed it.

Libya's flat desert terrain favours the use of heavy armour and air power. The Libyan army is also better trained and more disciplined than the rag-tag, though enthusiastic, rebel force.

ALL CONTINGENCIES

Moussa told a news conference after the Arab League meeting in Cairo talks: "The Arab League has officially requested the U.N. Security Council to impose a no-fly zone against any military action against the Libyan people."

It was not immediately clear how Russia and China, who have veto rights in the Security Council and have publicly opposed a no-fly zone, would react.

The White House responded by welcoming League decision, calling it and "important step" and saying it was preparing for all contingencies.

"The international community is unified in sending a clear message that the violence in Libya must stop, and that the Gaddafi regime must be held accountable," it said.

Britain, in the forefront of states advocating preparation for a possible no-fly zone, welcomed the Arab League appeal as significant, but not enough by itself to trigger action.

"We've said all along that one of the conditions for a no-fly zone must be broad support in the region," Foreign Secretary William Hague told BBC television.

"Clearly this is one indicator that there is broad support in that region," he said. "It's not the only condition, it's also necessary to have even broader international support and it's also necessary for it to be clearly legal."

The terms of any no-fly zone would have to be agreed carefully and time may be working against the rebels. Its aim would be to stop Gaddafi using his air force in attacking rebel forces and civilians, transport and reconnaissance.

Arab League asks for no-fly zone over Libya
By DIAA HADID Associated Press © 2011 The Associated Press
March 12, 2011, 12:12PM

CAIRO — The Arab League asked the U.N. Security Council Saturday to impose a no-fly zone over Libya to protect civilians from air attack by forces of Moammar Gadhafi's embattled government, giving crucial backing to a key demand of the rebel forces battling to oust the Libyan leader.

Foreign ministers from the 22-member Arab bloc, meeting in Cairo, also left the Libyan leader of more than 40 years increasingly isolated, declaring his government had "lost its sovereignty."

They also appeared to confer legitimacy on the rebel's interim government, the National Libyan Council, saying they would establish contacts with the umbrella group and calling on nations to provide it with "urgent help."

"The Arab League asks the United Nations to shoulder its responsibility ... to impose a no-fly zone over the movement of Libyan military planes and to create safe zones in the places vulnerable to airstrikes," said a League statement released after the emergency session.

League Secretary-General Amr Moussa stressed in remarks afterward that a no-fly zone was intended as a humanitarian measure to protect Libyan civilians and foreigners in the country and not as a military intervention.

That stance appeared meant to win over the deeply Arab nationalist government of Syria, which has smarted against foreign intervention into Arab affairs.

The Arab League cannot impose a no-fly zone itself. But the approval of the key regional Arab body gives the U.S. and other Western powers crucial regional backing they say they need before doing so. Many were weary that Western powers would be seen as intervening in the affairs of an Arab country if they began a no-fly zone without Arab approval.

Still, the Obama administration has said a no-fly zone may have limited impact, and the international community is divided over the issue.

Backing the rebel's political leadership, the League statement said it had faced "grievous violations and serious crimes by the Libyan authorities, which have lost their sovereignty."

The League's decision comes hours before the European Union's policy chief is set to arrive in Cairo to meet with the Arab bloc's leaders to discuss the situation in Libya.

Catherine Ashton said she hoped to discuss a "collaborative approach" with Arab League chief Moussa on Libya and the rest of the region.

Ashton said it was necessary to evaluate how effective economic sanctions imposed on Gadhafi's regime had been so far and that she was "keeping all options moving forward" regarding any additional measures.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle welcomed the EU's "very cautious" stance on possible military intervention.

"We do not want to be drawn into a war in north Africa — we should have learned from the events in and surrounding Iraq," Westerwelle said.

"It is very important that the impression doesn't arise that this is a conflict of the West against the Arab world or a Christian crusade against people of Muslim faith."

Libyan invasion possibility
--arabnews.com--
“Let’s just call a spade a spade. A no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defenses ... and then you can fly planes around the country and not worry about our guys being shot down,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a congressional hearing.

(cont...)

Two Libyan pilots defect, say ordered to bomb protesters
1:54pm EST --Reuters--

BY Christopher Scicluna, Diana Abdallah

VALLETTA - Two Libyan Air Force fighter pilots defected on Monday and flew their jets to Malta where they told authorities they had been ordered to bomb protesters, Maltese government officials said.

They said the two pilots, both colonels, took off from a base near Tripoli. One of them has requested political asylum.