GADDIFI TOPPLED!!!!!TRIPOLI CELEBRATING!!!!!!!!

Over to you, LL

Thank you, and a hearty greeting to all you readers from your own Roving Reporter!!

Just to get you in the mood, here is a slightly upbeat video from Misurata:

Al Jazeera:

A fragile peace has descended on the western city of Misurata, and citizens there are attempting to get back to their everyday routines. That's not exactly made easier by the fact that Grad rocket attacks continue on certain neighbourhoods, and pro-Gaddafi forces, while now out of the city, are still only just kilometres away.

Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley filed this report.

http://feb17.info/

New US intelligence indicates that Muammar Gaddafi is “seriously considering” leaving Tripoli
8:30am: The US-based newspaper Wall Street Journal reports that new US intelligence indicates that Muammar Gaddafi is “seriously considering” leaving Tripoli, according to unnamed US officials that the paper spoke to.

There appear to be no indications that he is considering leaving the country, however, the officials said.

According to a senior US national security official quoted in the story, Gaddafi “doesn’t feel safe anymore” in the capital, after a series of NATO airstrikes there have hit command-and-control centres.

7:00am: A former Libyan foreign minister who has defected to the opposition said on Thursday he believed Muammar Gaddafi realise d he c ould no longer stay in Libya and may leave within a few weeks.

Abdurrahaman Shalgam, one of the highest-ranking Libyan defectors, told Corriere della Sera TV he believed Gaddafi was negotiating for asylum with either another African country or Belarus.

“He is manoeuvring for three things — to leave the country, to have money and to be shielded from the International Criminal Court,” said Shalgam, who still serves as Libya’s ambassador to the United Nations.

“He is manoeuvring to go to another African country or even Belarus because the president there is his friend. I think that he will leave Libya in a few weeks, in two or three weeks at the most.”

Gaddafi has said he would fight to the death.

He sounded a new note of defiance with an audio recording on Thursday, broadcast on Libyan television, in which he called NATO states murderers of innocent civilians and said he would avenge their deaths.

Al Jazeera Libya Live Blog:

2 hours 4 min ago - Libya

AFP reports that troops loyal to Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi are using rockets packed with ball bearings to bombard civilians in rebel-held Misurata in the west, Amnesty International charged on Friday.

The rights group said in a statement that at least three civilians - two women and a 14-year-old boy - were killed recently when rockets slammed into a residential neighbourhood of the port city.

"These rockets are indiscriminate weapons which cannot be directed at a particular target and their use may amount to war crimes," the Amnesty statement said. Misurata is the rebels' most significant enclave in western Libya.

"Families in Misurata are once again living in fear of being killed as rockets rain down on their homes and it's impossible for the terrified residents to find safe shelter," said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty's Senior Crisis Response Adviser.

The rights group said that after 14-year-old Ibrahim Ali Boushiba was killed in an attack on June 20, images of the rocket remains examined by Amnesty "show that it had been packed with ball bearings to maximise injuries."

"Such attacks much cease immediately. Colonel Gaddafi and those around him and in his armed forces responsible for ordering and launching indiscriminate rocket attacks on Misurata's residential neighbourhoods know full well that the victims will be civilians not involved in the conflict," Rovera said.

"They must realise that their actions may result in their being made to answer one day to the most serious of charges, of having perpetrated war crimes and crimes against humanity."

From Telegraph Libya Section: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/

Libya News
Libyan rebels holding indirect talks with Col Gaddafi over stepping down
Libyan rebels have admitted they had held communications with Col Muammar Gaddafi through South African and French mediators in an attempt to persuade the dictator to stand down.

Col Gaddafi has threatened retaliation for the first time against Nato.

By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent

7:02PM BST 23 Jun 2011

Mahmoud Shammam, a member of the executive committee of the rebels' National Transitional Council said that the talks were strictly focused on Col Gaddafis departure. However no progress had been made and the content of the exchanges "depended on his mood".

"We are engaging in discussion with some people who have contact with people from the regime," Mr Shammam, the rebel council's spokesman said at a conference in Beirut. "We are contacting them on the mechanism of the departure of Gaddafi. We don't negotiate the future of Libya."

Diplomats said the South African talks had the tacit approval of President Jacob Zuma, who had visited Col Gaddafi twice in Tripoli since the imposition of no-fly zone and air strikes to prevent regime attacks on civilians. French-led talks led by a former head of the DGSE, external intelligence through a Paris-based think tank do not have government backing.

David Cameron, who with Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, was the leading international proponent of action against the regime, yesterday claimed that Col Gaddafi was in his last days, having been weakened by air strikes and opposition advances.

The Prime Minister dismissed suggestions that patience within Nato for continued military operations was running out.

"Time is on our side, time is not on the side of Colonel Gaddafi who's losing his leading military commanders," he said. "The sands of time are running out for him, and so we need to be patient and persistent.

"The alliance taking part in the operations includes some of the richest and most powerful and best equipped nations on the Earth," Mr Cameron said.

"We also have the machinery of Nato, the backing of the United Nations, we have the support of the Arab League, (and) a number of Arab countries are active participants," he added.

However Col Gaddafi threatened retaliation for the first time against the Nato and Arab nations conducting a "crusader's campaign" against his regime.

"What you are doing will rebound against you and against the world with destruction, desolation and terrorism. You are launching a second Crusader war that might extend to Africa, Europe and America," he said in a taped message that was played on Libyan state television. "We will resist and the battle will continue to the beyond, until you're wiped out. But we will not be finished."

"There's no longer any agreement after you killed our children and our grandchildren ... We have our backs to the wall. You (the West) can move back."

In light of Libya's record of waging terrorist attacks on Western targets, including the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 that killed 270 people, the message contained a chilling warning that regime considered its attackers legitimate targets.

"You said, 'We hit our targets with precision', you murderers!" he said. "One day we will respond to you likewise and your homes will be legitimate targets."

Officials at the International Criminal Court yesterday said they will rule on Monday on whether to issue an arrest warrant for Gaddafi

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC prosecutor, opened an inquiry into allegations Col Gaddafi ordered attacks against unarmed civilians and held meetings with his son and intelligence chief "to plan and manage the operations" in March.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo said he expected the NTC to turn over Col Gaddafi for trial if it overturns the regime.

Rebels in Misurata, the only city in Eastern Libya to have repelled Gaddafi's forces warned that the Benghazi-based NTC must not guarantee the Libyan leader's safety in the event he was to flee.

"It is too late for peace talks. Diplomatically he has already lost the fight against his people," said Abdul Basset Salem, member of Misurata council. "He always said he is the King of Africa, a leader of Libya, and that he will kill whoever does not support him. How can you negotiate with a man who wants to kill you?"

Thanks LL. You are a wonderful Roving Reporter. Keep up the good work.

Red Cross ship reunites Libyan families
Hundreds stranded for months in Tripoli, including detainees, return to Benghazi aboard Red Cross-chartered ship.
Last Modified: 24 Jun 2011 15:00

Over 300 people, including 66 detainees released by the Libyan government, have been brought by boat to Benghazi, Libya's eastern rebel stronghold, from Tripoli, the country's capital.

The Ionis vessel, chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), docked amid chaotic scenes on Friday afternoon after a 22-hour journey.

Accompanied by the blaring din of ship horns, the assembled crowd on the quayside chanted anti-regime slogans while trying to find loved ones and associates.


Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reports from Benghazi


"It is a joyful experience, with many people reunited with family members," said Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Benghazi's port.

"These civilians have been cut off from their relatives for four months now, unable to cross frontlines because of the fighting," said Paul Castella, head of the ICRC delegation in Tripoli.

"Most of the people we are transferring are Libyans who were working away from their hometowns or visiting relatives or friends when the conflict broke out. They are very eager to rejoin their families," he added.

Sixty-six rebel fighters who had been detained by government forces had also been on board the ship, returning to Benghazi with harrowing stories of imprisonment.

"They electrocuted us, they tortured us in every possible way," said Yousef al-Fetori, who had been detained in the capital of Tripoli. "They broke my ribs, hand and leg.''

A spokesperson for the rebels' transitional government said five prisoners had previously been sent back to Tripoli, though the rebels had not been aware the Red Cross was returning people to Benghazi, and an ICRC spokesperson denied that there were any prisoners from Benghazi being swapped on board the Ionis.

There was some apprehension among Benghazi residents, some of whom suspected that Gaddafi may have planted spies on the ship.

That suspicion was countered by the ICRC. "The names of the people had been screened and sent to rebels for clearance," said Dibeh Fakhr, a spokeswoman.

The Ionis is scheduled to return to Tripoli with about 110 people who have been stuck in Benghazi, and eventually make three rotations between the rival Libyan cities, the ICRC said.

According to the United Nations, around 243,000 people have been displaced by the war and 650,000 more have left Libya.

Neither side in the months-long conflict between rebels seeking to topple Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and pro-government forces has been able to gain an upper hand, despite NATO air support for the rebels.

Rebels have rejected any peace deal that would leave Gaddafi in power, but a spokesman for the Benghazi-based National Transitional Council hinted on Friday that rebels could be prepared to let Gaddafi stay in Libya.

Mahmoud Shammam, the spokesman, told France's Le Figaro newspaper that indirect contact between the two sides had been established through intermediaries in France and South Africa.

"We consider that he has to resign himself to leaving or accept retirement in a remote part of Libya. We have no objection to him retreating to a Libyan oasis under international control," said Shammam.

But he added: "Our conditions have not changed: Gaddafi and his family members can absolutely not participate in a future government."

How Misurata shaped young Gaddafi
The city which helped propel him into power is now a thorn in Libyan leader's side.
Last Modified: 22 Jun 2011 09:36

Fifty years ago a young Muammar Gaddafi was welcomed into the city of Misurata which became an important part of his life.

The Libyan leader was educated in the city which played a leading role in the coup d'etat which brought Gaddafi to power.

But now Libya's third-largest city is a thorn in Gaddafi's side, remaining steadfastly in the hands of anti-government rebels.

Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley reports on Gaddafi's legacy in the city that has become a key battleground in the fight for control of Libya.

Al Jazeera:

Rebel spokesman Abdelbaset Abumzirig from Misurata describes the situation in the besieged city, where heavy fighting continues.
Evan Hill Last Modified: 24 Apr 2011 00:30

Abumzirig says Gaddafi's troops are treated well when captured by rebels.

Benghazi, LIBYA -- When 41-year-old Misurata resident Abdelbaset Abumzirig called Al Jazeera Arabic during the first days of the uprising against longtime Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, he became the voice of the city's rebels to much of the outside world.

In the months since, Abumzirig has kept journalists informed about the fighting in Libya's third-largest city, which some have begun to call "Libya's Stalingrad". The government has shut down communications in the city: Residents can call out only through satellite phones or one of only perhaps 10 two-way satellite Internet connections left in the city, he said.

Al Jazeera caught up with Abumzirig on Saturday night during a brief visit to Benghazi. He was due to return to his besieged hometown on Sunday.

A lawyer by training, Abumzirig also wrote and directed anti-regime plays. He adapted an Armenian writer's novel into "The General of the Dead Army," which criticized Gaddafi's armed forces, and also wrote "The Night When Ben Ali Escaped,"a reference to the downfall of Tunisia's leader that called for a similar uprising in Libya.

Abumzirig told Al Jazeera that rebels had made significant advances in Misurata in recent days, but he described a violent and bloody conflict on the ground. Around 10 families have reported cases of rape at the hands of Gaddafi's troops, and many more have seen their relatives abducted.

Around 400 people have died, at least 2,000 have suffered injuries - many severe - and 1,000 have disappeared, Abumzirig said. The lightly armed rebel force defending the city numbers only 800 to 1,000 men at any time, though many more stand ready to take weapons from their fallen comrades, he said.

Describe the situation in Misurata.

Gaddafi forces, or brigades, are holding position at the outskirts of Misurata, and they managed to get in Tripoli street, which is about 7 kilometres long. And they positioned snipers over the buildings and tried to shoot at anybody who tried to get closer to that area.

And moreover, there is heavy shooting by Grad missiles, rocket launchers, tanks - randomly at everywhere in Misurata, especially in the residential areas for the purpose of killing people.

[The loyalist troops] tried to reach the area which is close to the Misurata harbour, but the rebels managed to stop them and prevent them from getting into that area again.

What about food and water and other supplies?

In terms of water, they managed to cut off water, but we managed to run the desalination plant close to the Misurata iron plant, so we could partially supply the city with water and even supply the far areas with this water by cars.

They couldn't destroy the high-power [electricity] stations, a little remained, so we managed to run these stations so Misurata, some areas would hold lights for one day, by three. One day and three off. We use different generators for active areas like hospitals, like clinics.

They disrupted all kinds of communication, we are communicating with the world with little stations, two-way Internet connections.

What's happened to the women, children and families in Misurata?

They evacuated families as far as they could away from Gaddafi forces, but they were not safe because of the shelling. So the other residents of the other areas where the families evacuated, they received them in their homes, so every single house has five families, and there was a lot of congestion.

The guys, they evacuated the families, the children, the women, and they stayed at the city, making a fierce resistance as long as they receive ammunition and other weapons.

Do you know of any cases of sexual violence or rape? Are people saying these have occurred?

Some cases have happened. Some families talk about the raping, especially the Arab [non-Libyan] families, from Morocco and other countries, especially in Benghazi Street. Even Libyan families have been subjected to rape. Some have spoken, some others, you know the old traditions, they didn't speak, but it's not a shame. But it was limited actually. Even one Moroccan family talked to the media.

The Gaddafi forces took control of Benghazi Street, parallel to Tripoli Street, before we managed to push them out. They took it when they first entered Misurata, down town, on March 6. We pushed them out the same day, and then they entered again on March 19, when they took control of the city from the side. We pushed them out from Benghazi Street, but they are still in Tripoli Street.

They have been ordered to rape, because this means they are kind of insulting Misurata itself. Some spoke, but not to the media, some talked to the human-rights organisations.

Are you aware of any other potential crimes committed by Gaddafi forces in the city. We've heard about the cluster bombs, but what else?

Yes, there's severe punishment for the kidnapped, we cannot even count the number, because in some families they took 11, 13 individuals, they shot them. Moreover they use children, engage them in war in Misurata. Some of them were born in 1996. We have a captive who is 17. There is a Mauritanian mercenary who is 14 years old. He is still in Misurata, we let him free, but he is living with the families. Al Jazeera Arabic interviewed him.

They were ordinary workers, labourers in Tripoli. [Gaddafi] captured them and put them into the war. Mauritanians and others.

How are the rebels being treated when they are captured by Gaddafi's forces?

I can't describe it. They torture everybody, even those who were kidnapped in the streets or at their homes. They kidnapped children. They are shot, there is psychological torture, some can't even speak [when we recover them], they shoot at their legs. They are beating them, killing their friends before their eyes. Some have escaped and told us this.

Sometimes now they are using captives as human shields. We found some dead bodies handcuffed to the wheel inside tanks.

What's your opinion on the use of foreign soldiers for a humanitarian mission in Misurata?

This is not acceptable in the street, we would not like the deployment of foreign troops. The victory will be hailed for the soldiers, and the regime itself will use it as an example of the colonisation of Libya. The victory will be considered for the soldiers, not by us.

The situation is now in favour of Misurata, especially with the NATO air strikes. The situation is improving in Misurata, rebels are starting to get control of the city. The number of casualties are actually due to shelling from far away, that means even if the foreign soldiers deployed on the ground, it wouldn't make a change, because the shelling is far from Misurata.

Gaddafi is crazy, he might attack the foreign troops.

What's your reaction to the latest news that Gaddafi's troops are supposedly withdrawing from the city?

He is absolutely defeated and pushed back and he cannot get in Misurata again, and all his attempts to control Misurata will fail. What concerns us is the use of Grad missiles against us. Because we are worrying that once he is defeated, he will start using more intensive shelling.

The other surrounding cities will rise up, and together we will pave the way to Tripoli.

How are Gaddafi troops treated when they're captured?

We treat them well, especially the Libyans, but the mercenaries, we find them dead. What we capture is only Libyans. Maybe they use some tactic to kill [the mercenaries]. I saw 15 prisoners with my own eyes, one of them is the Mauritanian child. In the other areas, there are many, but less than 100. Because they tell us, everyone who tries to surrender, [Gaddafi forces] kill them.

From the beginning, we caught Malians with Libyan IDs. I saw seven guys, they didn't even speak Arabic, but the IDs are Libyan.

Anyone who surrenders themselves, we will treat well. In the video Al Jazeera showed of rebels clearing the school, they shouted "surrender yourself, you're safe." They killed about 21 soldiers, among them 15 are mercenaries, Africans.

Telegraph, Libya section: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/

Libyan football stars defect to join rebels
Four members of Libya's national football team and 13 other leading figures in the sport have defected to the rebels.
The defection of leading Libyan football stars to the rebels will be a major blow to is showing no signs of stepping down despite the high profile defections

9:23AM BST 25 Jun 2011

The group include the Libyan national sides goalkeeper Juma Gtat and the coach of Tripoli's top club al-Ahly, Adel bin Issa.

Mr Gtat and Mr bin Issa announced the defection to the BBC during meeting in the rebel-held Nafusa Mountains in western Libya on Friday night.

It comes after a number of military officers also defected from Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces to join the rebels.

Speaking to the BBC at his hotel room in the town of Jadu, Mr Gtat explained why he and his colleagues had chosen to join the rebels. He said: "I am telling Colonel Gaddafi to leave us alone and allow us to create a free Libya. In fact I wish he would leave this life altogether," he added with a laugh.

In North Africa, where football is hugely popular, the defections are major propaganda coup for the rebels and a blow for Colonel Gaddafi. Mr bin Issa, added that he had chosen to come to the Western Mountains "to send a message that Libya should be unified and free. I hope to wake up one morning to find that Gaddafi is no longer there," he added.

Despite the high profile defections, the rebels still face overwhelming military firepower possessed by Colonel Gaddafi's forces. His forces are armed with rocket launchers and tanks while the rebels are mainly armed with rifles and small machine guns. Despite a prolonged bombardment by Nato forces, Colonel Gaddafi's forces still show little sign of collapsing.

In the Western Mountains, the rebels have managed to seize most of the high ground, taking control of a series of towns, but troops loyal to Colonel Gaddafi hold the plains and valleys below. The Gaddafi regime also still holds the capital, its approaches, and large parts of this mainly desert country.

So far, most of the attention has of course been on the heavy fighting for coastal cities, where most of Libya's population live. But Col Gaddafi also has arms caches and military units deep in the Sahara Desert – some of which have not yet been deployed.

Amnesty questions claim that Gaddafi ordered rape as weapon of war
Posted on June 25, 2011 by admin

Human rights organisations have cast doubt on claims of mass rape and other abuses perpetrated by forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, which have been widely used to justify Nato’s war in Libya.

Nato leaders, opposition groups and the media have produced a stream of stories since the start of the insurrection on 15 February, claiming the Gaddafi regime has ordered mass rapes, used foreign mercenaries and employed helicopters against civilian protesters.

An investigation by Amnesty International has failed to find evidence for these human rights violations and in many cases has discredited or cast doubt on them. It also found indications that on several occasions the rebels in Benghazi appeared to have knowingly made false claims or manufactured evidence.

The findings by the investigators appear to be at odds with the views of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who two weeks ago told a press conference that “we have information that there was a policy to rape in Libya those who were against the government. Apparently he [Colonel Gaddafi] used it to punish people.”

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week said she was “deeply concerned” that Gaddafi’s troops were participating in widespread rape in Libya. “Rape, physical intimidation, sexual harassment, and even so-called ‘virginity tests’ have taken place in countries throughout the region,” she said.

Donatella Rovera, senior crisis response adviser for Amnesty, who was in Libya for three months after the start of the uprising, says that “we have not found any evidence or a single victim of rape or a doctor who knew about somebody being raped”.

She stresses this does not prove that mass rape did not occur but there is no evidence to show that it did. Liesel Gerntholtz, head of women’s rights at Human Rights Watch, which also investigated the charge of mass rape, said: “We have not been able to find evidence.”

In one instance two captured pro-Gaddafi soldiers presented to the international media by the rebels claimed their officers, and later themselves, had raped a family with four daughters. Ms Rovera says that when she and a colleague, both fluent in Arabic, interviewed the two detainees, one 17 years old and one 21, alone and in separate rooms, they changed their stories and gave differing accounts of what had happened. “They both said they had not participated in the rape and just heard about it,” she said. “They told different stories about whether or not the girls’ hands were tied, whether their parents were present and about how they were dressed.”

Seemingly the strongest evidence for mass rape appeared to come from a Libyan psychologist, Dr Seham Sergewa, who says she distributed 70,000 questionnaires in rebel-controlled areas and along the Tunisian border, of which over 60,000 were returned. Some 259 women volunteered that they had been raped, of whom Dr Sergewa said she interviewed 140 victims.

Asked by Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s specialist on Libya, if it would be possible to meet any of these women, Dr Sergewa replied that “she had lost contact with them” and was unable to provide documentary evidence.

The accusation that Viagra had been distributed to Gaddafi’s troops to encourage them to rape women in rebel areas first surfaced in March after Nato had destroyed tanks advancing on Benghazi. Ms Rovera says that rebels dealing with the foreign media in Benghazi started showing journalists packets of Viagra, claiming they came from burned-out tanks, though it is unclear why the packets were not charred.

Credible evidence of rape came when Eman al-Obeidy burst into a hotel in Tripoli on 26 March to tell journalists she had been gang-raped before being dragged away by the Libyan security services.

Rebels have repeatedly charged that mercenary troops from Central and West Africa have been used against them. The Amnesty investigation found there was no evidence for this. “Those shown to journalists as foreign mercenaries were later quietly released,” says Ms Rovera. “Most were sub-Saharan migrants working in Libya without documents.”

Others were not so lucky and were lynched or executed. Ms Rovera found two bodies of migrants in the Benghazi morgue and others were dumped on the outskirts of the city. She says: “The politicians kept talking about mercenaries, which inflamed public opinion and the myth has continued because they were released without publicity.”

Nato intervention started on 19 March with air attacks to protect people in Benghazi from massacre by advancing pro-Gaddafi troops. There is no doubt that civilians did expect to be killed after threats of vengeance from Gaddafi. During the first days of the uprising in eastern Libya, security forces shot and killed demonstrators and people attending their funerals, but there is no proof of mass killing of civilians on the scale of Syria or Yemen.

Most of the fighting during the first days of the uprising was in Benghazi, where 100 to 110 people were killed, and the city of Baida to the east, where 59 to 64 were killed, says Amnesty. Most of these were probably protesters, though some may have obtained weapons.

Amateur videos show some captured Gaddafi supporters being shot dead and eight badly charred bodies were found in the remains of the military headquarters in Benghazi, which may be those of local boys who disappeared at that time.

There is no evidence that aircraft or heavy anti-aircraft machine guns were used against crowds. Spent cartridges picked up after protesters were shot at came from Kalashnikovs or similar calibre weapons.

The Amnesty findings confirm a recent report by the authoritative International Crisis Group, which found that while the Gaddafi regime had a history of brutally repressing opponents, there was no question of “genocide”.

The report adds that “much Western media coverage has from the outset presented a very one-sided view of the logic of events, portraying the protest movement as entirely peaceful and repeatedly suggesting that the regime’s security forces were unaccountably massacring unarmed demonstrators who presented no security challenge”.

The rising cost of war

The Nato-led air campaign in Libya will cost the UK at least £260m if it continues for another three months, Defence Secretary Liam Fox said yesterday.

The estimate stands in sharp contrast to the figures predicted by George Osborne in March, when the Chancellor said Britain’s involvement would be likely to cost “tens of millions, not hundreds of millions” of pounds.

Mr Fox told Parliament that the projected cost was “in the region” of £120m, with an additional £140m bill to replace missiles and other weapons. He said attempts to minimise civilian casualties had led to a steeper bill.

Arms caches in the desert? He isn't exactly the Desert Fox.....

“They both said they had not participated in the rape and just heard about it,”

No, of course they didn't
I think we have heard this one before....

bb1 wrote: “They both said they had not participated in the rape and just heard about it,”

No, of course they didn't
I think we have heard this one before....

They are kids, scared, could anyone blame them? And as for Amnesty, they would do better chasing after the child traffikers than sticking their noses into the Libyan problem. LL

I am slightly surprised that Amnesty thinks the rape victims would come forward, LL. Given the culture they are in, they have done well to speak to the psychologist - a woman, I note.
The last thing the victims will want is to be victimized all over again in some international cause celebre, I would have thought.

bb1 wrote:I am slightly surprised that Amnesty thinks the rape victims would come forward, LL. Given the culture they are in, they have done well to speak to the psychologist - a woman, I note.
The last thing the victims will want is to be victimized all over again in some international cause celebre, I would have thought.

There are deep cultural reasons why most rape victims in Libya will not come forward, the main ones being:

1. the disgrace, which is what was intended by Gadaffi's actions
2. ostracisation of the victim by driving her away
3. divorce and the removal of the victim's children by her husband

It is an irreparable insult in Libya, as in other Arabian and Middle East cultures for anyone to 'know' another man's wife, or to have carnal knowledge of an unmarried girl. Look what happens in Iran to unmarried women who dare to sleep with someone not their husband - stoning, though the man goes free. Gadaffi knows exactly what he is doing, and he will continue on this evil path. I hope that, when all comes to light, after he is deposed, that Amnesty will have to admit they were wrong as they have been on other matters over the years. LL

Al Jazeera:

Secret graves found in Libya
Residents in rebel-held Derna say they have found evidence of atrocities committed by Gaddafi's regime.
Last Modified: 19 Jun 2011 04:05

A tip-off from a former secret police officer have led residents in the rebel-held town of Derna in eastern Libya to unravel secrets that were hidden by Muammar Gaddafi's regime for decades.

A mass grave has been discovered in the area, and forensic doctors have found pieces of bone and clothing.

They fear that as many as seven people were buried there.

Al Jazeera's Sue Turton reports from Derna.

I shudder to think what they will find as more and more of Libya is liberated, LL.

Gun runners supply Libyan rebels
Despite an embargo on imports into Libya, rebel fighters receive shiploads of weapons.
Last Modified: 25 Jun 2011 16:15

Since the Libyan uprising began in February, revolutionary forces have been in desperate need of weapons.

An international arms embargo bans imports into the country. But gun runners are finding ways to get supplies to the front line.

Al Jazeera's Sue Turton reports from Misurata, on how the rebels are getting around the ban.

Broadcasting to Libya in Berber.

Berber, a very ancient language, is forbidden in Gadaffi's Libya, only Arabic was allowed. But now things have changed. James Bay of Al Jazeera reports.

That's a new one, LL - banning a language.
Well, it isn't, it is classic dictatorship - I assume Gaddafi doesn't speak Berber?

bb1 wrote:That's a new one, LL - banning a language.
Well, it isn't, it is classic dictatorship - I assume Gaddafi doesn't speak Berber?

Don't know, but I wonder? Here is part of his profile on Wikipedia:

Muammar al-Gaddafi was born in a bedouin tent in the desert near Sirt in 1942. His family belongs to a small tribe of arabized Berbers, the Qadhadhfa, who are stockherders with holdings in the Hun Oasis.

Probably not, thought most tribes do keep their original language even if arabized. Most of the Middle East countries speak Arabic as their main language, but the tribes do usually keep their mother tongue to use in private. LL

Telegraph - now you know you're in trouble when the national footie team defects (or at least some of it!!) plus the latest on the Libyan situation.

Four members of Libya's national football team and 13 other leading figures in the sport have defected to the rebels.

By Nick Meo, Tripoli 9:23AM BST 25 Jun 2011

For 40 years Libya’s footballers have been the pride of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s repressive regime, hailed as heroes of the nation for every victory against a foreign team.

From the moment Libya first qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations in 1982, surprising the continent by making it to the final before losing a penalty shoot-out, to its recent Fifa listing as 58th in the world, its highest ever ranking, every triumph on the pitch has been celebrated across the country.

So enthusiastic was the Libyan leader about the prowess of his country’s players that he installed his son, Saadi, as president of the Libyan Football Federation after a spell as captain of the national football team.

So there must have been cold fury at the top of Gaddafi government on Saturday when 17 footballing figures, including four who said they were members of the national team, turned up unexpectedly in a rebel-held town and declared themselves opponents of the regime.

“I am telling Colonel Gaddafi to leave us alone and allow us to create a free Libya,” said Juma Gtat, 33, who has played as goalkeeper in the national team. “In fact I wish he would leave this life altogether.”

He was speaking in Jadu in Libya’s western mountains, 50 miles south of Tripoli, where rebels have seized a swathe of territory that stretches to the Tunisian border after driving Gaddafi’s forces back towards the capital.

Adding insult to injury he was flanked by Adel bin Issa, the coach of Tripoli’s top club al-Ahly where Saadi Gaddafi used to play, who said he had come to the town “to send a message that Libya should be unified and free”, adding: “I hope to wake up one morning to find that Gaddafi is no longer there.” Others were afraid to be named, in case of reprisals against their families.

A Libyan official in Tripoli poured cold water on the claims, saying: “This is not true. It is just a goalkeeper who has appeared for al-Ahly and a coach, who is from Bayda and has been with the revolution from the beginning. No players from the national team have defected.”

But The Sunday Telegraph has confirmed that, although not listed on the most recent national squad, Mr Gtat has played for Libya on several occasions and was celebrated as the saviour of the team after saving a penalty shot by Tunisia during a qualifying match for the 2009 African Championship of Nations.

Gaddafi had “done nothing for Libya since he took over; there’s no proper infrastructure, no good education, no health care,” he told the BBC. “The young people are not well educated. This is because of the last 42 years.”

The western mountains are now almost wholly in the hands of lightly-armed ethnic Berber rebels who have driven out government forces and fought off counter-attacks.

They lack the weaponry to march on Tripoli — less than an hour’s drive from their positions — but claim to have cut one of the regime’s last oil pipelines and say they are assisting guerrilla fighters in the capital. Rebels claim to be launching more night-time attacks against Gaddafi’s security forces in preparation for a new uprising.

The rebels’ mountain enclave also makes defections much easier.

Saddoun al Misrati, of Misurata council, said: “Just like in England, footballers here are big celebrities. For these men to willingly make the move shows how bad the situation must be in Tripoli, about how much they want to bring change.”

Gaddafi’s son Saadi played one game for the Italian club Perugia before he was suspended for failing a drugs test. He also signed with a Maltese club, but never showed up to play, and was for a while president of the Libyan Football Federation.

Fans in Benghazi once dressed a donkey in the kit of al-Ahly to mock Saadi, a notoriously poor player, provoking a vicious crackdown. Fans believe it was Saadi who ordered their stadium bulldozed and dozens of supporters jailed.

In February he directed the brutal security crackdown in Benghazi at the beginning of the uprising, where he was accused of ordering soldiers to shoot unarmed protesters.

The defection of players from his club comes as 100 days of Nato bombing are reached today . Muammar Gaddafi looked doomed four months ago when the uprising broke out; yet he has survived the initial shock of rebellion, and then the worst that the world’s strongest military alliance could throw at him.

“It has been a glorious victory just to withstand for so long,” Gaddafi declared on state television last week, as a loop of pictures showed burning buildings, gigantic explosions, and dead and wounded children and civilians in Libya’s hospitals.

His voice quivered with emotion as the camera lingered on the dead face of the four-year-old grandchild of one of his oldest comrades. Khoweildi al-Hamidi was a fellow army officer who helped Gaddafi launch his revolution in 1969, then served him loyally for years before taking command of the brutal operation to crush rebels in the town of Zawiyah in February.

Eight Nato bombs released from aircraft three miles high in the sky smashed precisely into Hamidi’s luxurious home 40 miles west of Tripoli, turning it into a field of rubble in which servants and family members were buried as they slept. Miraculously, the man who Nato said used his home as a command and control centre escaped without a scratch.

The attack seemed to mark a new willingness by Nato to target key regime figures, even if that meant a risk of some civilian casualties.

Fifteen more civilians died yesterday when an airstrike hit a bakery and restaurant in the frontline oil town of Brega in eastern Libya, the government claimed — the third reported loss of civilian lives in an airstrike in the past week.

Pictures of civilian casualties have handed a potent propaganda weapon to the hardliners and old revolutionaries who now run things.

“The people still around him have genuine loyalty, and there is an element of wanting to avoid punishment for the crimes they have committed,” said Oliver Miles, a former British ambassador to Libya.

“Muammar Gaddafi himself is very tough and can take a lot of punishment.”

What has heartened the remaining members of the regime is the sense that there are growing fractures within Nato. The US and Italy look less than fully committed and in Britain, military chiefs have publicly expressed doubts about their ability to sustain the fight.

It would threaten the RAF’s ability to carry out future missions if Britain’s intervention in Libya continued beyond the summer, Air Chief Marshal Sir Simon Bryant, the head of combat operations, said last week.

Gaddafi loyalists are clinging to the hope that, if they can only hold on in the current stalemate for a few more weeks, Nato will lose heart - or interest - and some kind of negotiated deal will become possible.

“They are fighting for time now, not land or victory,” said Noman Benotman, a Libyan analyst based in London.

“Their strategy is either to reach a political settlement which includes leaving the Gaddafi family in power, or to split the country.”

The loyalist line in Tripoli, repeatedly endlessly, is that Gaddafi will never go.

“If you think Muammar Gaddafi will step down, you don’t know Muammar Gaddafi,” said Abdul Najid al-Dorsi, a former foreign ministry official, over a cup of mint tea in the seven-star Rixos Hotel, which is now home to foreign journalists, government minders, and gentlemen who sit in chairs in the foyer all day pretending to read newspapers but staring intently at every new arrival.

According to this theory Gaddafi is an Arab hero and a leader who would never let down his tribal supporters by backing away from a fight with foreigners.

Libyan officials, who raise the spectre of civil war if he goes, point out that already 400 of the Warfala tribe have died fighting for Gaddafi, as have 200 of the much smaller Gaddafa tribe to which he himself belongs - making it impossible for him to step down now without betraying the memory of these martyrs.

It is partly for that reason that the rebels mistrust the feelers put out to them by the regime in recent days.

Last week Bashir Hamed, Gaddafi’s personal secretary and adviser for 35 years, quietly travelled to Paris to deliver a message to the French government that the regime was ready to talk about Gaddafi stepping down.

Yet when pressed Mr Hamed could not say when Gaddafi would actually go - making it look like another attempt at stalling by the Libyan leader.

Some in both Benghazi and Tripoli whisper quietly that perhaps Gaddafi might accept internal exile, perhaps in the remote south of the country deep in the Sahara where his greatest popular support lies.

Such an outcome could remove him from political life but leave him beyond the reach of the International Criminal Court, where he would face trial for war crimes if he tried to flee Libya.

The regime’s battle for survival is now based around his sons and a few trusted old comrades like Hamidi, the lieutenant who was targeted in last week’s airstrike. Nearly all the modernisers and reformists have defected from the regime, or are lying low.

As well as the footballer Saadi, three of Gaddafi’s sons have taken prominent battlefield roles fighting against rebels. Moatessem, an army officer, has been reported in the loyalist city Sirte directing operations.

Hannibal, a playboy formerly best known from his troubles with police in various European capitals, has also taken a combat role, but the most prominent of the warrior sons has been Khamis, formerly the obscure youngest son. He is in command of the crack 32 Brigade, one of Gaddafi’s most effective forces, around Misurata and elsewhere in the east.

As Khamis’s star has risen during the course of the crisis, Saif-al Islam’s has waned.

Saif was the English-educated reformist who had been positioned as his father’s likely successor.

His interventions early in the crisis, threatening brutal treatment to rebels, were disastrous miscalculations which ruined his carefully-crafted nice guy image. The regime has however tried again to portray him as the peacemaker; a fortnight ago he surfaced to make an unconvincing offer to hold elections, an offer which was contemptuously rejected by the rebels.

“Saif is finished,” said one regime supporter last week in Tripoli. “He got us into this mess by trying to reform too quickly.” Many of the rebel leaders in Benghazi are former protégés of Saif.

A sixth son, Saif al-Arab, was killed in a bombing attack in May along with three of Gaddafi’s grandchildren, the regime says.

Gaddafi’s pregnant daughter Ayesha was reported to have fled to Tunisia early in the bombing campaign with her husband, a soldier who had been injured, accompanied by her mother Safiya, Gaddafi’s second wife.

But there have been no sightings of them for weeks and so they are believed to have returned home.

The flow of high-level defectors, including men like the former foreign secretary Moussa Kusa, has slowed to a trickle.

Remaining officials, the hard-core of loyalists, remain convinced that somehow they are going to stay in power. They even have an answer for their biggest problem — Nato’s insistence that Gaddafi must step down.

“Gaddafi could accept elections,” one said. “Elections would be regime change, after all. That’s Nato’s exit strategy.”

Additional reporting Ruth Sherlock in Misurata

http://www.asharq-e.com/default.asp

US journalist held in Libya says she was beaten

25/05/2011

NEW HAVEN, Conn., (AP) – A journalist from Connecticut detained in Libya for six weeks said Tuesday she was fired upon and then beaten when she was captured but later treated better as she was moved from prison to a luxurious hotel.

Clare Morgana Gillis was one of four foreign journalists released May 18. She said she's happy to be home in New Haven and grateful to her supporters for campaigning for her release, but upset that a photographer she was with when she was captured was killed.

"I'm just so happy to be alive, given the circumstances of our capture," Gillis said.

The 34-year-old Gillis, a freelance reporter for The Atlantic and USA Today, said she went to Egypt and later Libya to cover the fighting that began in February with only a few hundred dollars she borrowed from her sister and friend. She was excited to pick up work even as she dodged bullets and bombs on the front lines.

On April 5, Gillis and the other journalists were taken by a civilian driver and then by anti-government forces fighting to end four decades of dictatorship. She was skeptical about reports that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces were nearby — until rebels started retreating down a hill.

Suddenly two trucks with Gaddafi's forces came over the hill toward them.

"They were firing directly at us," Gillis said.

Gillis and reporters James Foley and Manuel Varela took cover in a small sand dune as bullets whizzed by.

"Help," photographer Anton Hammerl called out.

"Are you OK?" Foley asked.

"No," Hammerl responded.

Gillis said one of the soldiers hit her in the face, knocking her glasses off. "I got a wicked black eye," she said.

The men were hit with the butts of AK-47s, she said, recalling a bloodied Foley. The journalists were tied up, loaded into a pickup truck and taken to a military camp.

Young soldiers kept their AK-47s trained on them, Gillis said. She grew uncomfortable with her hands tied behind her back but tried not to make any sudden movements.

The journalists decided not to talk about Hammerl's death in front of their captors. After they were freed, they said the 41-year-old Hammerl, who had South African and Austrian citizenships, had been shot and left to die in the desert as Gaddafi's forces took them away.

South Africa charged Friday that Gaddafi provided misinformation about Hammerl's death. Gillis said she wants an investigation into what happened.

Gillis said they were given food, water and even an occasional cigarette by guards. She said her prison cell had a dirty mattress and a blanket.

After a few days at the military camp, the journalists were taken to a detention center in Tripoli. Gillis and Foley, who writes for the Boston-based news agency GlobalPost, shared a cell and were close enough to Varela, a Spanish journalist who works under the name Manu Brabo, that they could talk to him through electrical sockets.

Gillis said she feared she would be raped, but she wasn't. She said she was blindfolded and interrogated into the wee hours of the morning, accused of being a spy, yelled at and forced to sign papers in Arabic.

Gillis said she's not very religious but found herself praying a lot. She could hear bombs drop, shaking the ground, and wondered if they belonged to U.S. forces.

"It would be ironic if I got taken out by an American bomb in Libya while I was in captivity," she said.

More than two weeks after she was captured, Gillis was allowed to call her parents. She knew her mother was worried because she hadn't called on her mother's birthday, a day after her capture.

The journalists were later taken to a luxurious hotel and a guesthouse owned by a retired general that had silk drapes and oriental rugs. During that time, she said she and Foley would pass the time recalling movies in detail.

Gaddafi's 38-year-old son, Saadi, showed up one day in an armored SUV to transport them from prison to the hotel. He was dressed in a white robe.

"Are the rebels crazy?" he asked Gillis.

Gillis said they were not, that they wanted democracy.

"Oh," Saadi said.

`It was bizarre," she said.

Gillis said she would report on a conflict again. But, she said: "Whatever I do next, I do not want to be captured."

That really is bizarre, LL - is it actually possible that it hadn't occurred to Gaddifi's son that the rebels wanted something so basic?