Libya: Despite denial, Al Quds dedicates editorial to ‘US forces in Malta’

The Maltese government has categorically denied the presence of 12,000 US troops on its soil in preparation for deployment to Libya

Πηγή: Maltatoday
By Karl Stagno-Navarra
Jan 18 2012

Despite an official denial by Malta, influential UK based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper insists with Washington to ‘come clean’ on its military intentions with Libya.

In an editorial entitled "US Forces Heading to Libya?" published yesterday by Al-Quds al-Arabi, the influential Arab newspaper relayed the question raised by former US Congresswoman Cinthia McKinney who alleged the 'stationing' of 12,000 US troops in Malta in preparation for deployment to Libya.

McKinney's remarks however were categorically denied by the Maltese government.

But Al-Quds al-Arabi stressed that the "US administration did not deny reports that it dispatched 12,000 soldiers to Malta as a prelude to moving them to Libya in an attempt to put the deteriorating situation there under control."

In its editorial, Al-Quds al-Arabi laments how Arab satellite channels have decreased their interest in Libya and, consequently, coverage of the situation in Libya after NATO's mission succeeded in toppling the former regime.

"Information from Libya, according to numerous reports published in Western newspapers, say that resistance to the National Transitional Council [NTC] is receiving growing support among a segment of the Libyan people, and the powers of the NTC chairman, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, are quickly eroding against increasing influence of armed militias and their field commanders," it said.

The armed militias are the main source of apprehension for the people of the capital Tripoli in particular, and all Libyan territories in general.

"People now fear for their lives and the lives of their sons because of this phenomenon. Most Libyan cities have turned into a jungle of guns, while rival armed militias share the neighbourhoods of cities. There are four main militias, notably Al-Zintan regiments, the regiments of the Tripoli military council, led by Abd al-Hakim Bilhaj, the Misrurata regiments, and the Libyan national army, led by Chief of Staff Khalifah Haftar."

The editorial said that Usamah al-Juwayni, the defence minister in Prime Minister Abdul Rahim el-Keib, promised and set more than once dates for withdrawing and dissolving the militias and assimilating them in the army. "However, these promises have not been followed through, and none of these dates have been complied with, while chaos continues to reign supreme."

It added: "Western nations are not worried, as required, about this situation, for as long as Libyan oil continues to flow to their ports, they are happy with their achievement of toppling the regime. The chaos in Libya does not concern them unless an armed resistance emerges and threatens the Libyan oil industry and strikes at the pipes leading to the ports of export."

According to Western statistics, Libya's oil output is approaching the rates that Libya had produced before NATO's military intervention, namely 1.5 million barrels per day.

"This is a good development for consumer nations like France, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, and others, because Libyan oil is sweet and light [last three words in English] and fits the European refineries, which were designed to refine Libyan crude oil that contains light gas fit as fuel for aircraft.

"The Libyan people rose up against the former regime, and the majority of Libyans supported NATO's intervention to topple it in the hope that they will enjoy security and stability and their estimated US$60 billion annually in revenue. However, declining security and aggravating conflict among militias may drive them to despair and frustration," the editorial said.

Al-Quds al-Arabi said that according to "certain Western reports, Libya is currently subject to another kind of colonialism, for NATO forces are still indirectly deployed on the ground, and some reports say that most Libyan oil wells and ports of export are under the protection and control of these forces."

The paper expressed its hope for the arrival of Arab and foreign monitors in Libya "to present a real picture of what is happening on the ground amid current media blackout, and to answer numerous questions about such things as the reasons for the clashes in Ghiryan in the past week and earlier in Tripoli. And what of the cities in the eastern part of Libya and Al- Jabal Al-Akhdar, and what of Misurata. Above all, what is the fate of the thousands of Libyans, particularly black nationals, in militia jails, who are charged with supporting the former regime and fighting under its green flag?"

The editorial concluded: "the overthrow of the dictatorial regime is a good step, but it may turn into a disaster if the alternative is chaos, lack of security, fighting among militias, and masked or unmasked Western occupation."

‘Inhuman’ to return immigrants to Libya

Πηγή: Times of Malta
Dec 1 2011

Two Somalis win €10,000 each from the government in landmark case.

They survived beatings, torture and being left in the Libyan desert for two weeks without food or water as others died around them.

The way the case was handled by the Maltese authorities was tantamount to inhuman and degrading treatment

Now, two Somali men have been awarded €10,000 each by a Maltese court for a violation of their human rights when they were forcibly sent back to Libya, a country known to practise torture.

The way they were dealt with by the Maltese authorities was tantamount to inhuman and degrading treatment, the court ruled in a landmark judgment.

The decision was handed down by Mr Justice Raymond Pace following a constitutional application filed by Abdul Hakim Hassan Abdulle and Kasin Ibrahim Nur against the Minister of Justice and Home Affairs and the Principal Immigration Officer.

The court heard that Mr Nur had left Somalia in 2003 after losing all his family in the war, and made it across the desert to Libya.

Mr Abdulle’s own nightmarish bid for freedom started a year later when he left Somalia to escape the persecution of his Madigan tribe by militant Islamists.

After first traversing the Sahara desert into Libya he attempted to cross the Mediterranean on a boat with 30 other persons. They did not get far. The boat sank and his son drowned but Mr Abdulle managed to swim back to the Libyan coast.

He was not one to give up easily. In September 2004, he boarded another boat headed for Europe and one of the migrants on board was Mr Nur.

Their boat was intercepted by a Maltese patrol craft and they were brought to Malta, taken to police headquarters and given an immigration number. Neither of them, however, was given the opportunity to apply for asylum in Malta nor were they assisted by an interpreter, the court heard.

Twenty days later, the two men, together with four other illegal immigrants, were taken, handcuffed, to the airport and put on a plane to Libya against their wishes.

Both men asked to speak to a representative of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Malta but their request was refused.

Back in Libya they were arrested, beaten, tortured and kept in prison for a week. They were transferred to another prison and, three months later, they were tried without an interpreter. The two were found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment for a year. During their time in prison they were again beaten and tortured.

In November 2005, the two men, together with a few of their compatriots, were taken on a three-day drive into the Sahara where they were abandoned with no food or water.

The rest of their company died in the desert but after 14 days Mr Abdulle and Mr Nur were rescued by Berber bedouins.

Tenaciously, they made their way back to Libya and, six months later, in June 2006, they returned to Malta.

In their constitutional application, they claimed that their right to freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment had been violated when they were forcibly repatriated to a country known to practise torture.

They further claimed that their fundamental human right to an effective remedy had been violated because the authorities in Malta had not allowed them to apply for asylum.

Mr Justice Pace pointed out that, in terms of law, an immigrant into Malta had to be informed of his right to seek asylum in a language he understood. This had not been done in their case.

He said it was “very worrying” that the two men had been given no explanation by the authorities and had been detained at police headquarters rather than being taken to a detention centre.

The court added that the two men were not alleging that they had been subjected to torture in Malta. Their application was based upon the fact that they had been forcibly repatriated to Libya against their wishes. Libya was known to be a country that lacked the rule of law and where torture was practised, Mr Justice Pace said.

A state was to be found guilty of inhuman and degrading treatment if it extradited a person to a country where he faced a real risk of being subjected to torture.

United Nations documentation at the time stated that asylum seekers and immigrants faced xenophobic acts of violence in Libya. Asylum seekers in Libya did not benefit from the international protection afforded by the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees, which Libya had not ratified.

Reports also stated that hundreds of African migrant workers in Libya had been subjected to racial violence and killings.

The court, therefore, found that Mr Abdulle’s and Mr Nur’s fundamental human rights had been violated and awarded them €10,000 each by way of compensation.

Malta's parliament set to give go-ahead to eurozone bailout fund

Alfred Sant had campaigned heavily against Malta's European Union membership.

Πηγή: M&C
Oct 10 2011


Valletta, Malta - Malta's parliament was Monday set to vote on whether to approve extending the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) - a rescue fund for the eurozone's 17-member nations.

The vote was expected at around 8 pm (1800 GMT).

Last week, a scheduled debate and vote was postponed due to an objection by a former Maltese prime minister and current opposition centre-left Labour Party backbencher, Alfred Sant.

Sant, who campaigned against Malta's joining of the European Union in 2004, said the centre-right National Party government had not followed proper procedure in presenting legislation to extend the EFSF.

However, the government's proposal which would authorize the island nation to contribute 704 million euros (930 million dollars) to the fund, is also backed by the majority of Labour lawmakers and is expected to win final approval.

Malta and Slovakia remain the only eurozone countries which have yet to ratify extending the EFSF's lending capacity to 440 billion euros (594 billion dollars).

Extending the EFSF requires the approval of all the eurozone states. The move is deemed necessary by the EU to save financially-troubled Greece from default.

US embassy cables | Malta’s near-miss in Cyprus munitions explosions

The journey of the Monchegorsk from Iran to Cyprus.

Πηγή: NATIONAL

July 13, 2011

Ammunitions that exploded this week in Cyprus could have arrived in Malta under US-Cyprus-UK proposal.

The high explosives that exploded at a naval base in Cyprus this week, killing 12 and injuring 62, were nearly destined for Malta under a proposal by the Cypriots to get rid of the explosives.

A Wikileaks cable reveals that the ammunition arrived in Nicosia in 2009 on the Monchegorsk, a ship that was caught breaking UN sanctions by illegally carrying arms from Iran to Syria. The cargo of high explosives was later offloaded in Limassol in February 2009 and stored in shipping containers – which exploded on Monday at the Evangelos Florakis base. The explosion caused another fire at Vassiliko electricity plant, one kilometre away from the base, collapsing its fuel tankers and cutting power supply to main parts of the island.

According to two US embassy cables, released just weeks ago by Wikileaks, US ambassador Frank Urbancic demanded that Cyprus – unhappy about having to detain the ship because of its proximity to Syria – does not allow the Monchegork to depart.

On its part, Cyprus wrote to the United Nations’ Iran Sanctions Committee to put the ship in the possession of the UN and asked the Russians to support its tack in New York.

“[Presidential diplomatic coordinator Leonidas] Pantelide called back at 1300hrs, a touch frazzled and with a completely different message. ‘We want to find a way through this mess,’ the Cypriot diplomat insisted… Now Cyprus wanted to explore a third-country transfer option.”