Libya: legacy or lunacy?

Πηγή: Al-Ahram
By Gamal Nkrumah
Issue No 1093, 12-18 April

Few will take issue with the international human rights organisations' decision to bring to account perpetrators of human rights violations in Libya against black Africans and Libyans of black African descent.

It has been a deceptively mild end to a winter of discontent in Libya. No bountiful showers of sorely needed funds for reconstruction, rehabilitation and development materialised. Libya's infrastructure is in shambles. In short, Libya is fast sliding into chaos.

Amnesty International released a 24-page report entitled "Detention Abuses Staining the New Libya". The report urged the authorities in Libya to halt arbitrary arrests and acknowledge their legal obligation to prevent extra-judicial executions and vicious attacks against black Libyans especially from the city of Tawergha, suspiciously viewed as a city of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi loyalists. The Amnesty International report was highly critical of the legal maze that encourages hate crimes and vengeful killings including the mass murder of innocent children of Gaddafi's supporters in Bani Walid, Sirte and Tawergha.

Racial undertones aside, non-Arab Libyans are going through an especially difficult time. The Amazigh, the original inhabitants of the country, or Berbers as they are sometimes referred to, were not particularly favoured under Gaddafi. He himself was ambiguous about their status, and it is true that in Libya many tribal groups are of mixed Arab and Amazigh stock. Moreover, there are certain tribal groups in the south of the country that are neither Arab nor Amazigh.

One such tribal group is the Tebu, or Toubou people. They were among the first African people to become Muslim soon after the Arab conquest of North Africa, but the proud desert people have remained largely immune to Arabisation campaigns, much like the Tuareg or Imuhagh as they prefer to call themselves of south and western Libya. The tribal clashes between Arab tribesmen and Toubou in the southern city of Sebha last week was an ominous signal of racial and tribal conflict typical of the post-Gaddafi Libya. The control of tribal militias has become of over-riding concern to a majority of the population in the country.

The ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) is equivocal on the subject. The ethnic rioting in Sebha and the southeastern Libyan oasis town of Al-Kufra, inhabited mainly by ethnic Toubou, was resolved peacefully. However, simmering racial tensions prevail and could explode again at any moment.

Hushed café talk about the restlessness of Libya's largest tribal conglomeration, the Warfellah representing two million people, a third of the country's population, is rife. The Warfellah also inhabit a large swathe of territory in central, eastern and western Libya that includes urban centres and, more importantly, key oil installations.

The NTC is a divided gaggle of disparate political and tribal groupings, many with Islamist leanings. A video released on YouTube graphically depicted black Libyans forced to eat Gaddafi's green flag, flogged, and hurled at with racial abuse.

Fighting also broke out at the border crossings of Ras Djedir and Dhiba on the Libyan-Tunisian frontier between rival militias. Libyan Prime Minister Abdel-Rahim Al-Keib chided his compatriots for insubordination, but Al-Keib's admonition fell on deaf ears.

Human rights groups have singled out the militias of Misrata and Zintan for retribution. "A key focus of our work has been conditions in detention facilities, of which there are at least seven in Misrata run by official government bodies and others by armed groups and militias," the Amnesty International report extrapolated.

The report deplored "physical maltreatment, in some cases leading to death. None of the 3,000 detainees in Misrata have had a proper judicial review and therefore appear to be arbitrarily detained."

Amnesty International urged the "provision of prompt judicial reviews". The past months have brought riots and ethnic and tribal clashes. And, above all there is palpable agitation among Libyans against unfulfilled promises and anticipated aspirations. Still, NTC rule looks assured for a while yet. "Human rights violations should be investigated," the report concluded.

How then does one explain the persistent grouchiness among Libyan militias? They waste energy inventing excuses for their excessive criminal activities.

On the economic front Libya is also probing oil contracts. Any such plan by the NTC must include measures that can have an immediate impact on the Libyan people. Widespread corruption leads to further agitation and popular unrest.

This makes sense. The Green Resistance of Gaddafi loyalists is gaining ground politically and is a force to be reckoned with. It is against this backdrop that the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, requested that the Libyan authorities hand over Gaddafi's son Seif Al-Islam. The NTC has officially declined the ICC's request maintaining that the former heir apparent of Gaddafi will stand trial for rape, mass murder and other war crimes. Still, the ICC insists that Libya comply with its international obligations to enforce the ICC warrant arrest of Seif Al-Islam.

The ICC notes that UN Security Council obliges Libya to do so. Libyan Justice Minister Ali Ashour, however, bluntly rejected the ICC order adding that Seif Al-Islam is treated reasonably well. "He eats with the people who guard him and he is in a good physical condition," Ashour assured reporters in Tripoli. Seif Al-Islam is under the custody of the Zintan militia that arrested him as he was supposedly trying to flee the country and seek refuge in neighbouring Niger.

"Libya must act on the ICC's decision and surrender Seif Al-Islam without further delay. An unfair trial before a Libyan court where the accused could face the death penalty is no way to guarantee justice," Amnesty International expounded.

The 22 March coup in neighbouring Mali was prompted by ethnic Tuareg militias, namely the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA) that was funded largely by Gaddafi. After the Malian authorities foil their bid at statehood, a distinct likelihood, it is highly probable that the disgruntled Tuareg elements will escape to Libya to seek refuge with their kith and kin there.

The Tuareg, like other ethnic groups have their own tribal militias, and will if targeted trounce their persecutors. In apparent reprisal for the Tuareg's siding with Gaddafi during the civil war, the NTC has largely excluded them from the decision-making process in post-Gaddafi Libya. Meanwhile the world looks on impotently.

Libya: Fresh reports of deaths of detainees amid widespread torture

According to Doctorts Without Borders report Libya detainees were tortured and denied medical care

Πηγή: Amnesty International UK
Jan 26 2012

"It is horrifying to find that there has been no progress to stop the use of torture" - Donatella Rovera

Several detainees have died after being subjected to torture in Libya in recent weeks and months amid widespread torture and ill-treatment of suspected pro-al-Gaddafi fighters and loyalists, Amnesty International said today.

Amnesty delegates in Libya have met detainees being held in and around Tripoli, Misrarah and Gheryan, who showed visible marks indicating torture inflicted in recent days and weeks. Their injuries included open wounds on the head, limbs, back and other parts of the body.

The torture is being carried out by officially recognised military and security entities as well by a multitude of armed militias operating outside any legal framework.

Detainees, both Libyan and foreign nationals from sub-Saharan African countries, told Amnesty they had been suspended in contorted positions, beaten for hours with whips, cables, plastic hoses, metal chains and bars and wooden sticks, and given electric shocks with live wires and Taser-like electro-shock weapons. The patterns of injury observed by the organisation were consistent with their testimonies. Medical reports seen by Amnesty also confirmed the use of torture on several detainees, a number of whom died in custody.

The majority of detainees being targeted are Libyans believed to have stayed loyal to Colonel al-Gaddafi during the recent conflict. Foreign nationals, mostly sub-Saharan Africans, also continue to be randomly detained, including in connection with their irregular legal status, and some are tortured.

The organisation found that detainees were usually tortured immediately after being held by local armed militias and subsequently under interrogations, including in officially recognised detention centres. To date detainees have not been allowed access to lawyers. Several told Amnesty they had confessed to crimes they had not committed just to end the torture.

Speaking from Libya, Amnesty International Senior Crisis Response Adviser Donatella Rovera said: “After all the promises to get detention centres under control, it is horrifying to find that there has been no progress to stop the use of torture.

“We are not aware of any proper investigations into cases of torture, and neither the survivors nor relatives of those who have died in detention have had any recourse to justice or redress for what they have suffered.

“While many detainees have described their experiences of torture to us, some have proved too scared to speak - fearing harsher torture if they speak out - and just showed us their wounds.”

In Misratah, detainees continue to be tortured in an interrogation centre run by the National Military Security (Amn al-Jaysh al-Watani) and in the headquarters of armed militias. On 23 January, Amnesty delegates interviewed detainees in Misratah who had been tortured only hours earlier. One man, still in detention, told Amnesty:

“This morning they took me for interrogation upstairs. Five men in plain clothes took turns beating and whipping me… They suspended me from the top of the door by my wrists for about an hour and kept beating me. They also kicked me."

Another detainee told Amnesty he was beaten on wounds which he had sustained the month before at the hands of the militia. He said:

“Yesterday they beat me with electric cable while my hands were cuffed behind my back and my feet were bound together. They threatened to send me back to the militia who captured me, who would kill me."

Deaths in custody

Several detainees have died in the custody of armed militias in and around Tripoli and Misratah in circumstances that suggest torture.

Relatives of a former police officer and father of two from Tajura, east of Tripoli, told Amnesty that he was detained by a local armed militia in October 2011 and they had been unable to obtain any information about his fate for about three weeks, until he was allowed to call his wife. A few days later his family was informed by a hospital in Tripoli that his body had been brought in. Images of the body seen by Amnesty show extensive deep bruising all over the body and limbs, as well as open wounds on the soles of the feet apparently caused by falaqa (beating on the soles of the feet), a torture method frequently reported in Libya.

The most recent death in custody as a result of torture known to Amnesty was ‘Ezzeddine al-Ghool, a 43-year-old army colonel and father of seven, who was detained by an armed militia based in Gheryan, 100 km south of Tripoli, on 14 January. His body was returned to the family the following day covered in bruises and wounds. Doctors confirmed he had died as a result of the injuries he sustained. Several other men who were detained at the same time were also reportedly tortured. Eight sustained serious injuries which required hospital treatment.

Amnesty has also received reports of other similar cases which it is investigating.

Lack of investigation

Despite repeated requests by Amnesty since May 2011, the organisation believes at the Libyan transitional authorities - both at the national and local level - have failed to conduct effective investigations into cases of torture and suspicious deaths in custody.

The police and the judiciary remain dysfunctional across the country. While in some areas courts are reportedly processing civil cases, so-called “sensitive” cases related to security and political issues are not being addressed. Instead a range of mostly unofficial bodies, with no status in law, including so-called “judicial committees”, have been carrying out interrogations in various detention centres, outside the control of the judiciary.

Donatella Rovera said: “So far there has been a complete failure on the part of those in power to take concrete steps to end torture and other ill-treatment of detainees and to hold accountable those responsible for such crimes.

“We don’t underestimate the challenges faced by the Libyan transitional authorities in establishing control over the multitude of armed militias operating throughout the country, but we must see them taking decisive action on torture. In the interests of building a new Libya based on respect for human rights, this issue cannot be left at the bottom of the pile.”

Amnesty called on the Libyan authorities to urgently:

• Order the closure of all unofficial places of detention and establish mechanisms to bring all places of detention under the control of the authorities and to ensure effective oversight over detention procedures and practices;
• Ensure that prompt investigations are carried out into all known or reported cases of torture and other ill-treatment, immediately remove suspected perpetrators from any functions dealing with detentions pending the outcome of the investigations; where there is sufficient admissible evidence, bring suspects to justice in fair trials and without the possibility of the death penalty;
• Ensure that all detainees are allowed access to lawyers;
• Ensure that detainees undergo regular medical examinations and that medical certificates describing any injuries possibly resulting from torture are provided to the detainees and to the judicial authorities.

In October 2011 Amnesty published “Detention Abuses Staining the New Libya”, a report revealing a pattern of beatings and ill-treatment of captured Gaddafi soldiers, suspected loyalists and alleged mercenaries in Libya.

The human rights “success” in Libya

In this March 29, 2011 file photo, a Libyan rebel urges people to leave, as shelling from Gadhafi's forces started landing on the frontline outside of Bin Jawaad, 150 km east of Sirte, central Libya.

Πηγή: The Salon
BY GLENN GREENWALD
Jan 25 2012

It quickly became ossified conventional wisdom that NATO’s war in Libya to aid rebel factions in overthrowing Moammar Gaddafi was a clear human rights victory. But the reality in post-Gaddafi Libya has long been in tension with that claim, and that’s true today more so than ever:

Doctors Without Borders is halting work in detention centers in the Libyan city of Misrata because detainees are “tortured and denied urgent medical care,” the international aid agency said Thursday.
The agency known by its French acronym MSF said it has treated 115 people with torture-related wounds from interrogation sessions.
Some of the patients treated were tortured again after they were returned to detention centers, according to the agency.
“Some officials have sought to exploit and obstruct MSF’s medical work,” said Christopher Stokes, the agency general director.
“Patients were brought to us for medical care between interrogation sessions, so that they would be fit for further interrogation. This is unacceptable. Our role is to provide medical care to war casualties and sick detainees, not to repeatedly treat the same patients between torture sessions”. . . .
Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, voiced similar concerns about torture in Libya.

This is not the first report of serious, systematic abuses in Libya. In July, Human Rights Watch accused NATO-backed rebels of widespread looting, arson and abuse of civilians. Throughout the latter part of 2011, there were numerous reports of black migrant workers being detained without charges, tortured and even executed en masse. In October, a U.N. reportdetailed widespread lawless detentions and torture; the same month, an Amnesty International report documented “a pattern of beatings and ill-treatment of captured al-Gaddafi soldiers, suspected loyalists and alleged mercenaries in western Libya. In some cases,” the report continued, “there is clear evidence of torture in order to extract confessions or as a punishment.” The incoming President of the U.N. Security Council, South African U.N. Ambassador Baso Sangqu, accused NATO of exceeding the scope of the U.N. Resolution on Libya and called for an investigation into human rights abuses by all sides, including NATO bombers and rebel forces.

The situation is quite redolent of the celebratory claim that Freedom was brought to Iraq by the U.S. invasion and overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Yesterday, the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders released its annual ranking of worldwide press freedom, and the Liberated and Free Iraq came in 152nd place (in 2002, the year before The Liberation, Iraq ranked 130th, albeit with fewer nations ranked). This week, Human Rights Watch issued a report detailing that “Iraq cracked down harshly during 2011 on freedom of expression and assembly by intimidating, beating, and detaining activists, demonstrators, and journalists” and that“Iraq is quickly slipping back into authoritarianism as its security forces abuse protesters, harass journalists, and torture detainees.” It further explained that “Iraq’s Shiite-led government cracked down harshly on dissent during the past year of Arab Spring uprisings, turning the country into a ‘budding police state‘ as autocratic regimes crumbled elsewhere in the region.” Indeed, reports ofsystematic human rights abuse and torture by the Malaki government have been legion for some time.

Obviously, the Gadaffi and Saddam regimes were horrible human rights abusers. But the point is that one cannot celebrate a human rights success based merely on the invasion and overthrow of a bad regime; it is necessary to know what one has replaced them with. Ironically, those who are the loudest advocates for these wars and then prematurely celebrate the outcome (and themselves) bear significant responsibility for these subsequent abuses: by telling the world that the invasion was a success, it causes the aftermath — the most important part — to be neglected. There is nothing noble about invading and bombing a country into regime change if what one ushers in is mass instability along with tyranny and abuse by a different regime: typically one that is much more sympathetic to the invading regime-changers.

That last point underscores the other key lesson from these types of invasions. They are almost always sold by appeal to human rights concerns — Iraqi babies pulled from incubators and Saddam’s rape rooms — but that is very rarely their actual objective. When the West invokes human rights concerns to justify an attack on a dictator whom it has long tolerated (and often even supported), that is rather compelling evidence that human rights is the packaging for the war, not the goal. The fact that it is not the goal means more than just another war sold deceitfully based on pretexts: it means that human rights concerns will not drive what happens after the invasion is completed. The materials interests of the invaders are highly likely to be served, but not the human rights of the people of the invaded country. It is still early in the post-Gaddafi age, but those who supported the war in Libya — which (like the war in Iraq) included numerous people who did so out of a genuine, well-intentioned desire to see a vile tyrant vanquished — have a particular responsibility to ensure that the same tyranny is not replicated by the forces supported by the invading armies.

All of these points are particularly worth keeping in mind with the mounting sanctions regimes and other forms of attack aimed at the two countries that just so happen to be those which most thwart the interests of the U.S. and Israel in that region: Iran and Syria (indeed, some of the most vocal supporters of the Libya intervention are now calling on the sameto be done in Syria). Obviously, the regimes in both of those countries are serious human rights abusers, but no more so

The situation is quite redolent of the celebratory claim that Freedom was brought to Iraq by the U.S. invasion and overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Yesterday, the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders released its annual ranking of worldwide press freedom, and the Liberated and Free Iraq came in 152nd place (in 2002, the year before The Liberation, Iraq ranked 130th, albeit with fewer nations ranked). This week, Human Rights Watch issued a report detailing that “Iraq cracked down harshly during 2011 on freedom of expression and assembly by intimidating, beating, and detaining activists, demonstrators, and journalists” and that “Iraq is quickly slipping back into authoritarianism as its security forces abuse protesters, harass journalists, and torture detainees.” It further explained that “Iraq’s Shiite-led government cracked down harshly on dissent during the past year of Arab Spring uprisings, turning the country into a ‘budding police state‘ as autocratic regimes crumbled elsewhere in the region.” Indeed, reports of systematic human rights abuse and torture by the Malaki government have been legion for some time.

Obviously, the Gadaffi and Saddam regimes were horrible human rights abusers. But the point is that one cannot celebrate a human rights success based merely on the invasion and overthrow of a bad regime; it is necessary to know what one has replaced them with. Ironically, those who are the loudest advocates for these wars and then prematurely celebrate the outcome (and themselves) bear significant responsibility for these subsequent abuses: by telling the world that the invasion was a success, it causes the aftermath — the most important part — to be neglected. There is nothing noble about invading and bombing a country into regime change if what one ushers in is mass instability along with tyranny and abuse by a different regime: typically one that is much more sympathetic to the invading regime-changers.

That last point underscores the other key lesson from these types of invasions. They are almost always sold by appeal to human rights concerns — Iraqi babies pulled from incubators and Saddam’s rape rooms — but that is very rarely their actual objective. When the West invokes human rights concerns to justify an attack on a dictator whom it has long tolerated (and often even supported), that is rather compelling evidence that human rights is the packaging for the war, not the goal. The fact that it is not the goal means more than just another war sold deceitfully based on pretexts: it means that human rights concerns will not drive what happens after the invasion is completed. The materials interests of the invaders are highly likely to be served, but not the human rights of the people of the invaded country. Those who supported the war in Libya — which (like the war in Iraq) included numerous people who did so out of a genuine, well-intentioned desire to see a vile tyrant vanquished — have a particular responsibility to ensure that the same tyranny is not replicated by the forces supported by the invading armies.

All of these points are particularly worth keeping in mind with the mounting sanctions regimes and other forms of attack aimed at the two countries that just so happen to be those which most thwart the interests of the U.S. and Israel in that region: Iran and Syria (indeed, some of the most vocal supporters of the Libya intervention are now calling on the same to be done in Syria). Obviously, the regimes in both of those countries are serious human rights abusers, but no more so (and, compared to Iran, less) than some of the U.S.’s closest allies in that region. Although it will be easy to sell, the U.S. is not interested in regime change in those two countries because of human rights or democracy concerns; its steadfast support for the regimes of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and other repressive tyrants conclusively proves that. That’s not an argument against opposing the regimes in Syria and Iran, but it is an argument for separating fact from fiction about what the real aims are. Convincing well-intentioned people to support a war in order to depose a wretched tyrant is an easy thing to do — alas, it’s probably too easy to do, since it’s usually what leads to great mischief, human suffering, and even more tyranny under a new name.

* * * * *

In that just-released Reporters Without Borders ranking, the United States — the Land of the Free — ranked 47th: tied with Romania and Argentina, just ahead of Latvia, and behind El Salvador, Tanzania, and Slovenia, among others. That 47th ranking is 11 spots below where the U.S. finished in 2008. The organization cited the many arrests of journalist covering Occupy Wall Street protests” as most responsible for this decline, and in prior years has cited U.S. treatment of journalists in war zones as well as the imprisonment of journalists at Guantanamo.

‘Libya’s like Somalia’

Somali asylum seekers who fled Libya by boat and were rescued at sea by the Armed Forces of Malta and an Italian cargo ship last weekend are seen here at Lyster Detention Centre 

Πηγή: Indepth Africa Magazine

Jan 22 2012

Somali asylum seekers who fled Libya by boat and were brought to Malta last weekend tell Patrick Cooke that Africans still risk beatings and even death in post-Gaddafi Libya.

Zakaria and a fellow Somali were exhausted after carrying out back-breaking manual labour for a Libyan man who had picked them up in ‘Krimea’, an area of Tripoli where the city’s underclass of sub-Saharan Africans congregate in the hope finding work.

At the moment all Libyans have guns… there is no security and no stability

“When we finished, he told us ‘you are a friend of Gaddafi so I will not pay you, you killed our brothers’. Then he beat us with sticks and threatened us with a gun,” Zakaria tells The Sunday Times.

“Africans are being beaten and killed in Libya and no one there cares,” he adds to nods from his companions inside Lyster Detention Centre, where the 68 Somali asylum seekers rescued at sea last weekend are being housed.

A crowd gathers to share or listen to stories of life in post-revolution Libya for dark-skinned Africans, which are articulated into English by Zakaria and another asylum seeker, Abdul Karim.

‘Murtazaka’ – meaning ‘mercenary’ in Arabic – is a word they all know too well.

“Even now they all call us murtazaka. We cannot say anything because we have nothing and all Libyan men have guns. They say we are the brothers of Gaddafi,” says Abdul Karim.

Libya’s large population of sub-Saharan migrants came under suspicion from the beginning of the Libyan revolution last February, when it was widely reported that Muammar Gaddafi was using dark-skinned mercenaries to brutally suppress protests against his regime.

As the tide gradually swung in favour of the revolutionaries, reports emerged from human rights groups and the media of the killing and arbitrary detention of thousands of dark-skinned Libyans and sub-Saharan Africans accused of supporting Gaddafi, often with no corroborating evidence beyond their skin colour. “Many Somalis were killed and even now they are killing Somalis. We had to stay in our homes as much as possible,” says Zakaria.

Others tell stories of how men came to their homes and demanded money and mobile phones. One man says the most common word he heard directed at him in Libya was a vulgar Arabic word also used in Maltese.

The UNHCR were told similar stories by the new arrivals.

“They told of widespread looting and breaking into houses where sub-Saharan nationals are residing. Men are robbed and beaten; women have been raped – also in recent months. They explained that smugglers provided them with the only possible way out,” a UNHCR spokesman said.

Zakaria believes the main problem is the omnipresence of guns.

“At the moment all Libyans have guns, it is becoming like Somalia – no security and no stability. They have to collect the guns,” he says.

Efforts to unite the former militias under a single military command have so far failed and sporadic fighting between rival factions has continued. Libya’s interim leader warned this month the country risked sliding into civil war if militias were not disarmed.

Alarmingly, both Abdul Karim and Zakaria claim that they paid armed Libyan militiamen $400 each to facilitate their crossing of the Mediterranean.

The Sunday Times asked for clarification: did they pay the money to revolutionaries? “Of course, they were militia from the revolution. All of them are militia now, and there is much corruption,” says Abdul Karim.

“Many Libyan men wear uniforms now like that one (he points at a soldier in the room), even children wear them,” he adds.

Sub-Saharan Africans made similar claims in an article published by AFP on December 6. After their Europe-bound boat was intercepted by Libyan forces following its departure from Libya, they accused the former rebels of “organising this set-up”.

Last Thursday, AFP reported the Libyan Interior Ministry’s claim that 260 irregular migrants had been intercepted as they tried to enter Libya with three armed Libyans.

But Malta’s new arrivals prefer to look to the future.

“Our only hope is to live a safe life,” says Zakaria. “At least here we feel safe.”

Tunisia Must Stop Returning Asylum-Seekers to Libya

Πηγή: Common Dreams
By Amnesty International
Dec 14 2011

The Tunisian authorities must allow asylum-seekers to enter the country through Libyan border crossings and give them access to UN officials to establish their refugee status, Amnesty International said today, after another group of asylum-seekers was returned across the Libyan border.

In the latest in a series of such incidents, on 10 December Tunisian security forces returned a group of sub-Saharan African asylum-seekers to their point of entry along the Libyan border.

The group of more than 10 Somalis and Eritreans included a family with newborn babies, and had arrived at the Choucha refugee camp in Tunisia during the previous night after being stranded for weeks on the Libyan side of the Ras Ajdir border crossing.

“These asylum-seekers had informed the Tunisian authorities of their claim to asylum and have a right to be granted access to the UN refugee agency to determine their status,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director.

“Returning them to languish in Libya - where there is no mechanism for recognizing or protecting refugees - is not an option.”

Libya currently lacks any procedures to formally register asylum-seekers and recognize refugees. It also lacks sufficient guarantees to protect refugees against forcible return to their countries of origin.

In recent months, Tunisian security forces have repeatedly returned groups of asylum-seekers who entered Tunisia from Libya, citing a lack of valid entry visas as the reason for the forcible returns.

But since the individuals have informed the Tunisian authorities that they intend to apply for asylum, their need for international protection must be assessed. Amnesty International believes there is a credible risk that many of the asylum-seekers would face serious human rights violations in their home countries.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is managing Choucha refugee camp in Tunisia, where it can carry out refugee status determination (RSD) procedures for asylum-seekers.

Amnesty International is aware of others who are still at the Ras Ajdir border crossing, in hopes of being allowed entry into Tunisia.

International law prohibits countries from rejecting asylum-seekers at the border if it would result directly or indirectly in their return to a country where they risk serious human rights violations.

Refugees who have recently crossed into Tunisia have told Amnesty International that on the Libyan side of the border, armed men have been forcing sub-Saharan Africans to carry out unpaid labour.

During the recent armed conflict in Libya, sub-Saharan Africans were particularly vulnerable to arbitrary arrest and violent attacks on account of their skin colour, following reports that troops loyal to Colonel Mu'ammar al-Gaddafi were using “African mercenaries”. Many had their homes raided, were arrested and were beaten or otherwise ill-treated by anti-Gaddafi forces.

“The new Libyan authorities must protect all migrants, refugees and asylum seekers from harassment, attacks and exploitation, regardless of their countries of origin,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.

“Libya must take immediate steps to develop safeguards for refugees and allow the UNHCR to determine the refugee status of asylum-seekers within Libya.”

Amnesty International also calls on the international community to offer places to resettle refugees and asylum-seekers who fled the conflict in Libya, in order to meet their protection needs.

Cornered in Free Libya: Black Refugees Say "We Are Being Treated Like Dogs"

Πηγή: Alternet
By Karlos Zurutuza

Nov 7 2011

"We’ve walked all the way here to tell everybody that we are being treated like dogs," said 23-year old Hamuda Bubakar, among a couple of hundred black refugees protesting at Martyrs Square in Tripoli. "I’d rather be killed here. I wouldn’t be the first, or the last."

The refugees came to protest early this week from the barracks of Tarik Matar, a makeshift camp on the outskirts of Tripoli. "We’ve already spent more than two months in those horrible barracks," said Aisha who preferred not to give her full name.

A few days back, she said, "guerrilla fighters from Misrata (90 kilometres east of Tripoli) entered our place and took seven young guys with them. We still know nothing about them." Several women at the camp have been abducted and raped in recent weeks, she said.

"Raise your head, you're a free Libyan", the group chanted before a stage set up for the recent celebrations. That’s the very slogan that became almost an anthem for the rebels who rose against Gaddafi.

Tempers flared amid the group of armed soldiers guarding the central square. "I should kill you all for what you did to us in Misrata," shouted a young man in camouflage fatigues. The protesters are from Tawargha, 60 km south of Misrata, that was known as a Gaddafist base.

The armed men at the square, and angry honking soon split up the group.

"Not only do they call us Gaddafists, they hate us for the colour of our skin," said Abdulkarim Rahman. "All blacks in Libya are going through very hard times lately."

Abdurrahman Abudheer, a volunteer worker at one of the barracks that used to house construction workers for new apartment blocks, and that are now home to refugees, estimates there are about 27,000 Tawarghis scattered between Tripoli and Benghazi.

"Just in this camp there are over 200 families, all from Tawargha," said Abudheer. A flashy billboard at the entrance to the camp in the ghostly district Fallah still advertises the "upcoming construction of 1187 houses" by a Turkish company. But now even the grey rows of corrugated iron shacks look more comfortable than those naked and incomplete concrete structures.

The number of refugees is growing by the day, but so is the number of Tripolitanians like Abudheer who show up to help.

Amnesty International expressed concern in September over "increasing cases of violence and indiscriminate arrests against the people from Tawargha." It said tens of thousands of former residents of Tawargha may be living in conditions similar to those in Fallah, or worse.

"Many families arrive after spending days living on the beach," said Abudheer. "Most of them are afraid to even walk down the street."

The scene is similar in Tarik Matar, five minutes drive from Fallah. The most recent census at this camp figures 325 families from Tawargha.

From the room she shares with eight members of her family, Azma, a refugee from Tawargha, showed a portrait of her brother. On Sep. 13 Abdullah was taken from the car he was travelling in with his three children and his sister at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Tripoli.

The last they know of what happened to him is in the autopsy report Azma keeps with her: "Died from several injuries caused by solid and flexible objects throughout the body, especially in the forehead and chest."

Inevitably, the families of the seven young men recently dragged away from this camp fear a similar fate for them.

"We are asking for more security and for those from Misrata to be able to return to our houses without fear of reprisal," said Mabrouk Mohammed, a former physical education teacher who coordinates entry of food and supplies to the complex, mostly from private initiatives. But return to Tawargha is a forgotten dream for most.

Abdullah Fakir, head of Tripoli’s Military Council, had told IPS they would increase security at camps where the Tawarghis are staying. But with militias from Misrata showing up at the camps often, nobody feels secure.

Tensions, Suspicions Divide Libya After Gaddafi

In this Sept. 25, 2011 photo, a boy plays with a pre-Gadhafi flag next to destroyed computers in the Tareq Bin Zeyad school, allegedly attacked by revolutionary forces taking revenge, at Al-Shegaiga village, 160 Km south of Tripoli, Libya. Libyan villagers in the western mountains accused of being Gadhafi loyalists say they are being punished by rogue revolutionary forces trying to terrorize the residents, raided their homes and schools and stole private property

Πηγή: Common Dreams
By Simba Russeau

Oct 24 2011

CAIRO - The long-time dictator who ruled Libya for nearly four decades with an iron fist may be gone, but racial hatred surfaces increasingly now by the day.

Libyans now set their sights on building a viable democracy, drafting a new constitution and organising the country’s first free parliamentary and presidential elections.

However, since the toppling of Gaddafi’s 42-year regime, the country’s interim leaders of the National Transitional Council (NTC) have struggled to find a common voice.

This reality was echoed by acting prime minister Mahmoud Jibril, during an announcement Oct. 22 that he was stepping down, where he acknowledged that with their common enemy disposed of, unity remained a key challenge for Libyans going forward.

"Removing weapons from the streets, establishing law and order and uniting the disparate factions of the NTC are the main priorities following Gaddafi’s death," he said in a statement to the press at the World Economic Forum’s annual regional meeting in Jordan.

With more than 140 tribes and clans, Libya is considered one of the most tribally fragmented nations in the Arab world. Despite modernisation, tribalism remains a prominent force in a country now awash with weaponry.

In the aftermath of Gaddafi’s reign, nearly 40 different independent militias that reportedly emerged during the rebellion remain at large.

Raising questions as to whether the NTC has the ability to rein in all the various groups, many of which have competing interests and look to settling scores from the past.

For Libyans from the far south this daunting picture has already become a reality. Tawergha - which lies some 40 miles south of Misurata along the western coast of the Gulf of Sirte - was home to an estimated population of over 20,000 people. Now it’s become a ghost town.

According to some Libyans, the name Tawergha was given to the town’s black population because they had dark-skinned features like the original Tuareg.

The Tuaregs, who inhabit the border area of Libya, Chad, Niger and Algeria, were historically nomads that controlled trans-Saharan trade routes and had a reputation for being robbers.

During the seventies, Gaddafi assembled the Tuaregs and other African recruits into his elite battalion known as the Al-Asmar. Al-Asmar means ‘The Black’ in Arabic.

Under Gaddafi’s supervision, these militias were often sent on military expeditions into neighbouring countries. At the onset of the country’s revolt in February of this year, many Tuaregs were unleashed on protestors.

As a result, racial hatred fuelled by unconfirmed rumours that African mercenaries had been hired by Gaddafi to squash discontent created another common enemy - dark-skinned Africans.

In the eyes of Misuratans, Tawerghans were the perpetrators of some of the worst human rights abuses during Gaddafi’s siege on Misurata in March and April.

On Aug. 15, in what human rights groups are calling reprisal attacks, rebel forces going by the name of ‘The Brigade for Purging Slaves, Black Skin’ have reportedly detained and displaced hundreds, while other Tawerghans have disappeared without a trace.

"If we go back to Tawergha, we will then be at the mercy of the Misurata rebels," a woman, who has been living in a makeshift camp with her husband and five children, told UK-based Amnesty International.

"When the rebels entered our town in mid-August and shelled it, we fled just carrying the clothes on our backs. I don't know what happened to our homes and belongings. Now I am here in this camp, my son is ill and I am too afraid to go to the hospital in town. I don't know what will happen to us now."

Also caught up in the crossfire of vengeance are economic migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers from sub-Saharan Africa. Many of them have sought refuge in neighbouring Tunisia or Egypt.

For some, Libya was a transit country, but for others it had become a place of rebuilding.

"Fearing for their life, my parents who are from Al-Fasher city in Darfur fled to Tripoli in 1998. I had never lived outside Libya before the conflict started. My father worked as a cook and my mother was domestic worker. Before fleeing I was in my third year of university pursuing a degree in the medical field," 20-year old Eiman told IPS.

"Unfortunately the uprising in Libya took a bloody turn because people no longer respected the law and started raping women, taking hostages and killing people. For two months my family remained trapped in our house.

"They were accusing and killing all black males caught on the street of being mercenaries, which meant that our mother had to try and gather food but there were many days that we starved."

In an article last month, the Wall Street Journal quoted Jibril as saying, "regarding Tawergha, my own viewpoint is that nobody has the right to interfere in this matter except the people of Misurata. This matter can't be tackled through theories and textbook examples of national reconciliation like those in South Africa, Ireland and Eastern Europe."

Calls by human rights groups urging the NTC to protect black Libyans in the newly liberated Libya seems to have fallen on deaf ears, and this could set a precedent for what is to come.

Black Libyans Make Their Stand in Sirte and Bani Walid

Πηγή: Black Agenta Report
By Glen Ford
Oct 11 2011


A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“Black soldiers are fighting for survival against the world’s biggest lynch mob, armed to the teeth by the United States and Europe.” When it comes to Blacks – whether Libyans or immigrant workers - NATO-backed rebels have shown no respect for the rules of war, or for women and children. If surrender means torture and debasement or summary execution at the hands of racist killers, the only option is a battle to the bitter end.


Black Libyans Make Their Stand in Sirte and Bani Walid


“The Black defenders of Sirte and Bani Walid fight like lions because they have no choice.”

Both NATO and their Libyan rebel surrogates express wonder at the fact that loyalist forces continue to fight so fiercely in the contested cities of Sirte and Bani Walid, despite being vastly outnumbered on the ground and unceasingly pummeled from above by the world’s largest air armada. But one look at a picture of Gaddafi loyalist prisoners, captured at a hospital in Sirte, tells the story: they are all Black. The assault on Libya has largely devolved into a race war, and the Black soldiers are fighting for survival against the world’s biggest lynch mob, armed to the teeth by the United States and Europe.

Where are the people of Tawurgha, the mostly Black Libyan city that was wiped from the face of the earth by the rebels? Many of those who were not killed or captured have clearly made their way to Sirte and Bani Walid, to make a last stand against the racist killers that westerners like Amy Goodman, of Democracy Now! call “revolutionaries.” The rebels are brazen – absolutely without shame – in their determination to cleanse Libya of its Black population. They are like Arab Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, backed by a European and American air force, a racist militia whose fighters have vowed to “purge Black skin” and who scrawl the Arabic equivalent of “nigger” on the homes of their vanquished Black countrymen. Their rationalizations for ethnic cleansing and summary executions of Black prisoners are quite familiar to the American ear, identical to our own practitioners of White Terror. The Tawurghans raped women, the rebels claim, even as international observers report that it is the rebels and the riff-raff that surrounds them who have systematically raped captured Black girls and women. The Tawurghans, say the rebels, tried to “slaughter all the Misuratans” – and “this is something they have to answer for.”

“Many of those who were not killed or captured have clearly made their way to Sirte and Bani Walid, to make a last stand against the racist killers.”

Of course, the town of Tawurgha, with only 30,000 mostly Black Libyan citizens, could not possibly have terrorized Misurata, the third biggest city in the country, 25 miles away. But racists always claim to be the victims of crimes in which they, themselves, specialize. So, the Tawurghans – standing in for all Blacks – are labeled rapists, to justify the racist rampages of the Misurata Brigade.

According to a report by none other than the Voice of America, one-third of all prisoners of the rebels are Black. And they appear to be the lucky ones. The captured Tuwarghan men are nowhere to be found, an indication that the rebels don’t give them a chance to surrender, or keep them long after they do. Wounded Blacks that have made their way to hospitals are snatched from their beds, to an unknown fate.

NATO says it will keep bombing until the last resistance to their Libyan rebel surrogates, is crushed. That appears to mean, until the last free Black men in Libya are captured or killed, their families caged at the mercy of racist brutes and sexual marauders. Black civilians are clearly not the kind of people that the Euro-Americans had in mind, when they claimed to be on a mission to protect civilians.

No wonder, then, that the defenders of Sirte and Bani Walid fight like lions, against all odds. They are heroes, but they also have no choice. The racist death squads will have no mercy. Black skin will be purged, Black women raped and then killed. The First Black President of the United States has unleashed a hell on Black Libya. No decent person can ever forgive him.

HRW: 'Thousands Arrested Without Review in Tripoli'

Πηγή: Human Rights Watch
Sep. 30 2011


(Tripoli) – The National Transitional Council (NTC), the de facto authority in most of Libya, should work to stop militia groups from making arbitrary arrests and abusing detainees in prisons and makeshift detention facilities across western Libya, Human Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch visited 20 detention facilities in Tripoli and interviewed 53 detainees. The detainees reported mistreatment in six facilities, including beatings and the use of electric shock, and some of them showed scars to support the claims. None had been brought before a judge.

The NTC, with the help of its international supporters, urgently needs to set up a justice system able to provide prompt judicial review of all detainees, a task that has not been given sufficiently high priority, Human Rights Watch said.

“After all that Libyans suffered in Muammar Gaddafi’s jails, it’s disheartening that some of the new authorities are subjecting detainees to arbitrary arrest and beatings today,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The NTC owes it to the people of Libya to show that they will institute the rule of law from the start.”

Since the fall of the Gaddafi government in late August, 2011, local brigades, militias, and other security groups aligned with the NTC have arrested thousands of people and held them without proper legal review, Human Rights Watch said. Those suspected of the most serious crimes, such as killing and rape, have received some of the worst treatment by arresting forces and prison guards, some of which may amount to torture.

Many of those arrested are dark-skinned Libyans and sub-Saharan Africans accused of having fought for Gaddafi. In some cases, guards at detention facilities have illegally forced sub-Saharan Africans to perform manual labor.

A key problem is the array of security forces operating in Tripoli and western Libya without effective oversight or experience, Human Rights Watch said. Some appear to have performed well, with one apparently issuing arrest warrants, but others have abused detainees and used unnecessary force at the time of arrest.

Mahmoud Jebril, the de facto prime minister and head of the NTC executive committee, told Human Rights Watch on September 23 that he and the NTC believed the detainee situation required urgent attention. “Prisoner abuse of any kind is not acceptable,” he said. “We joined the revolution to end such mistreatment, not to see it continue in any form.”

Jebril’s commitment to end prisoner abuse is encouraging, and he and the NTC should implement the commitment quickly, Human Rights Watch said. Bringing the various neighborhood militias and security brigades under a unified command, and setting clear standards for their conduct, should be a top priority, Human Rights Watch said.

Between August 31 and September 29, Human Rights Watch inspected eight prisons in Tripoli and twelve smaller detention facilities, among them two private homes where local security forces were holding detainees. The sites included the two wings of Jdeida prison, as well as Tajoura prison, Moftuah prison, and several facilities located on the Matiga air base. Detainees previously detained in four other Tripoli facilities described their treatment in those places. Ayn Zara and Abu Salim prisons remain empty following the late-August escape of detainees held there by the Gaddafi government.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 37 Libyans and 16 sub-Saharan Africans. The 53 people included 16 women, 4 children, and 5 people considered “high value” because of their positions in the Gaddafi government. Eight of the interviewees had been previously detained in Tripoli by brigades and militias aligned to the NTC. In all but a few cases, officials gave Human Rights Watch unrestricted access to speak with detainees in private.

The detainees who reported abuse said guards had beaten them, sometimes on a daily basis. Seven prisoners in two facilities, including women, said guards had subjected them to electric shock. Two detainees who had been at one facility reported beatings on the soles of their feet – a torture technique commonly used during Gaddafi’s rule. The names of facilities where mistreatment was found are being withheld to protect detainees from possible reprisals.

The detainees accused of rape and killing appear to have suffered the worst treatment while their interrogators pressed them to confess.

In one of the six facilities, detainees said that the treatment was improving. In another, abusive guards had been arrested and a new group placed in charge, detainees and officials said.

Sub-Saharan Africans in detention said that prison guards forced them against their will to perform manual labor, including carrying heavy materials, cleaning, and renovation jobs around Tripoli or on military bases.

Fewer than half of the 53 interviewed detainees said they had been questioned, and none had been investigated by the police or brought before a judge. None said they had been able to speak with a lawyer.

No NTC official with whom Human Rights Watch spoke was able to provide an estimated number of detainees held in Tripoli, or a list of the city’s many detention facilities. As of September 27, the two wings of Jdeida prison alone held approximately 1,500 detainees.

In recent weeks NTC authorities have attempted to concentrate the detainees arrested by the various security forces in the main prisons, such as Jdeida and Tajoura. They have closed or downsized some makeshift facilities, but military brigades and neighborhood militias still hold captives in some local facilities, Human Rights Watch said. The brigades also transferred some detainees out of Tripoli to facilities in Zintan, Misrata, and Zawiya. Families often do not know how to find their relatives who have been detained.

Most of the prisons and makeshift detention facilities in Tripoli visited by Human Rights Watch appeared to be overcrowded and undersupplied, especially the prison cells holding sub-Saharan Africans.

NTC authorities in Tripoli attribute detention problems to the chaos that followed the takeover of the government and the need to build security after four decades of Gaddafi’s rule. The delays in forming the interim government have compounded the shortcomings, Human Rights Watch said.

The NTC has been running eastern Libya since March, but the criminal justice system is still not functioning well enough even there to give detainees a prompt judicial review, Human Rights Watch said.

Only 50 percent of investigators and prosecutors who worked under the Gaddafi government in Tripoli have returned to work, the NTC says, and the new government has yet to define their priorities. Few of those who have returned to work have begun processing cases.

“The NTC leadership needs to solve this problem together with the military brigades, local authorities, the police, and justice ministry,” Stork said. “Governments and international organizations supporting Libya’s transition should make a functioning criminal justice system a top priority.”

Jebril said the NTC is working to ensure the humane treatment of all prisoners and to establish a judicial process to review their cases. “In the meantime, we will step up our efforts to communicate with all parties about the need to respect the rights of detainees, and to uphold the values that distinguish us from the Gaddafi regime,” he told Human Rights Watch.


Abuses in Detention

Detainees from six detention facilities reported mistreatment at the hands of guards and investigators, including beatings and the use of electric shock.

Because the detainees expressed fear of reprisals, including some who said they might face beatings for talking with a Human Rights Watch researcher, Human Rights Watch is withholding their real names.

A dark-skinned Libyan, Abdulatif, said that guards in one Tripoli detention facility used electric shock to force him to confess to crimes he said he had not committed:

Pregnant U.S. woman found in Libyan mosque as Sirte battle rages

An American woman and her Libyan husband were found seeking refuge in a mosque right on the frontline in Muammar Qaddafi’s hometown of Sirte

Πηγή: Al Arabiya News
By AFP Sirte
Sep. 26 2011


She’s an American who grew up in Illinois, she’s three months pregnant, and she’s not quite sure how she and her Libyan husband got to be holed up in a mosque right on the frontline in Muammar Qaddafi’s hometown of Sirte.

“I just want to get out of here, it’s dangerous,” she said Sunday, as NATO warplanes bombed the city a day after fighters for the country’s new regime engaged in deadly street battles with troops loyal to the ousted dictator.

The street fights continued on the eastern edge of the city, but fighters withdrew on the western side to a bridge just a hundred meters (yards) from the mosque compound.

It was there that the U.S. woman and around 150 others sought refuge.

The woman, who gave her name but asked for it not to be published, said the group had left the town of Tawarga − where she was living with her husband and three children − back in March to escape NATO bombing.

The residents of Tawarga are accused by the people of nearby Misrata of having played a major role in the months-long siege that city suffered. Misrata held off Qaddafi’s forces, but at the cost of 1,400 lives.

As fighters loyal to the National Transitional Council (NTC) advanced towards Sirte in the late summer, those still left in Tawarga fled.

Many Misratans say they will never let their neighbours return, blaming them for a wave of killings and rapes.

Tawarga had the distinction of being the only town on the Libyan coast where most of the inhabitants were as dark-skinned as sub-Saharan Africans.

It is now a ghost town, its 25,000 residents dispersed around the country, fearful of revenge attacks by fighters of the NTC, which now controls the whole country except for Sirte and Bani Walid.

In the Imam Malik mosque on the edge of Sirte, the U.S. woman was one of the few fair-skinned people in the group that has been hiding there for a week after spending months inside the city.

The men sleep and socialize in the mosque itself while the women and children live packed into a small one-story building in the compound.

The American said her father was a Libyan and that she had met her husband while he was working as a laborer in the United States. They decided to move to Libya and settled in his hometown, Tawarga.

When they fled their home they took only a few possessions with them, even leaving their U.S. passports behind them in their haste to escape.

They now have only a slim chance of retrieving them as many of the houses in Tawarga have been looted, and it could be dangerous for them to try and return there.

The woman appeared to know little about what has been happening in Libya since the anti-Qaddafi uprising began in February. She was skeptical when told that the NTC was now in power in the capital Tripoli.

The fighters − all from Misrata − manning the frontline nearby bring them food and water, and the ambulances that park under the bridge, waiting to ferry those wounded in battle to field hospitals, give them medical aid.

“The thwar (fighters) treat us well,” she said.

She and her husband said they wanted to go and stay with relatives in the south of Libya but did not know how they would get there as they have no transport.

Ultimately they plan to reach the United States and wait there until things settle down in Libya before returning one day to Tawarga.

“When we have peace and quiet we will come back,” she said.

Libya Promises Inquiry Into Abuse Claims

Πηγή: rferl
Sep. 24 2011


Libya's acting prime minister has promised an investigation into the mistreatment of foreigners by forces loyal to the country's new rulers.

Mahmoud Jibril says some foreigners have been abused since the rebels took control of the country after the fall of Muammar Qaddafi.

Human Rights Watch has said there have been widespread arrests and frequent abuse of migrant workers since the rebels seized Tripoli late last month.

Some foreign workers have been accused of supporting Qaddafi during the fighting.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the National Transitional Council, (NTC), said Libya's interim rulers will announce a "crisis" government within the next few days.

Analysts say it remains unclear whether the NTC, still based in the eastern city of Benghazi, can unify a country split along tribal and regional lines.

Libya: 'The Fall and Purge of Tawergha'

Πηγή: libyancivilwar
Sep. 18 2011


The City

Tawergha (Arabic: تاورغاء)‎ lies about 30-40 miles south of Misrata/Misurata, along the western coast of the Gulf of Sirte. Its population is unclear (10,000?) and recently changed (to zero?). From the Wikipedia entry (which uses a different and common spelling - "Taworgha" - and the Arabic cited), it's a town that's occupied by an unstated number of people of unknown type. [1] A Euronews dispatch filming a clash there in May called it a "no man's land" between rebel and loyalist areas. [2]

Wiki says its name means "the green island" in Berber." [1] But another source, the rebel outreach site Free Misurata says rather "the name of Taworgha was used by Misrataies to describe the black population in that area, because of the dark skin they have just like the real ancient Tuareg." [3] Indeed, it's inhabited mostly by black-skinned people originally from further south, apparently a remnant of the slave trade, a significant factor considering known anti-black sentiments in the rebel camp. As they explain:

The origin of this black population in North Africa gos back to the roman empire days , when the slavery trade was a good businesses by bringing the blacks from meddle Africa to export them from Misratah port ( was known as Kayvalai Bromentoriom )* to old Rome.

The sick who can not make it to the port and the long trip by ship was left behind at that spot, which is known for its swamps and jungles ( Libya was called the “Bread Basket of Europe”, because of the moderate climate and fertility of soil during the Roman time, and was one of the main exporters of grains to Rome ) [3]
Otherwise, the Wikipedia entry desribed Tawergha as "a city in Libya that followed the public administrative jurisdiction of the city of Misrata [...] during the rule of Muammar Gaddafi." It also noted that "control of Taworgha helped the Romans coordinate control of Libya." [1] By this, Tawergha is strategically important, and that's basically part of Misrata/Misurata anyway, fit to be done with as the people in charge there like.

Misrata - the nation's third largest city and a major regional port - had been under at least partial rebel control since February. But loyalist elements hung on in and around the city, putting it famously under a state of deadly prolonged siege. Some of this came from the black "Taureg" town that also served as a "green island" of government support.

The Preludes / Priming the Hate Machine

Now, there is a danger in examining this of placing too much emphasis on race. The tactical threat alone is cited, and does seem compelling. But racism emerges, time and again, in unsettlingly blatant ways. Free Misurata explains the back-story of how the black Tawerghans became a wicked race (again, [sic] implied throughout. It's perfectly readable):

... Gaddafi started to give them power by using them as personal body guards and brain wash them so they over estimated them selves ,their resources and abilities. [...] because Gaddafi just used them and never improved their live style, there was always some kind of jealousy when they compare them selves to prospers Misratah. [3]Patronizing suspected jealousy is nothing new for lynch mob types. As Misratan rebels see it, this envy, the regime brainwashing, and whatever other factors led to a fall from grace by their neighbors. This was testified to repeated rocket attacks from their hamlet, occasional raids into the city with their black troops featured, sometimes re-taking portions of Misrata in bloody battles. This is to be expected as the government tried to restore order, but as it was remembered anyway, the Tawerghans' actions stepped far beyond the norm. Again, Free Misurata:

When Gaddafi asked them to attack Misratah……they did what evil is ashamed to do. [...] When Gaddafi forces entered Misratah from the eastern part with the help of residents of Taworgha , whom are of a black descent, they made what evil is ashamed to do, killing, loathing, rape, and destroying the homes by bulldozers.

After they entered the eastern part of Misratah they have forced the families to flee eastward but not to westward, because they want to use them as a human shield.

”Taworgha stabbed Misratah in the back”It might seem understandable to many - you can't leave crimes like that unanswered. The systematic mass rape aspect in particular is frequently called on, supported by various evidence like alleged cell phone footgae seized from Gaddafi troops. But the only evidence shared with the outside world was the clearly coerced verification of two young captives taken, apparently, on one of their raids on Tawergha.

It was in late May this was broadcast by the BBC, from prisoners still wearing "the same filthy, bloodstained army fatigues they were captured in two weeks ago." [4] Amnesty international's team spoke with both of these kids and found their stories inconsistent and unreliable, so probably coached by their captors. [5] Going out of one's way to create a myth that will enrage the fighters in advance and encourage war crimes, if that's what happened here, is highly unethical to say the least.

The Misratans also suspected the invaders from the south had help from within their walls, and their revenge started close to home. A neighborhood was purged, as the Wall Street Journal reported

Before the siege, nearly four-fifths of residents of Misrata's Ghoushi neighborhood were Tawergha natives. Now they are gone or in hiding, fearing revenge attacks by Misratans, amid reports of bounties for their capture. [6]In early-to-mid-May, they started making public vows against Tawergha itself. Sam Dagher reported for the Wall Street Journal, in a now-famous and rare article, how regional rebel Commander Ibrahim al-Halbous eerily said that "Tawergha no longer exists. There is only Misrata," while encouraging the residents who oppose them to all leave. With less authority but greater menace Dagher noted some rebel graffiti left out on the road to Tawergha - "brigade for purging slaves, black skin." [6]


A mid-May discussion between rebel fighters and tribal elders was filmed in the desert, posted later by VSMRK. Elderly black men in traditional garb listened with worry and muted disgust as young Arab thugs in baseball caps explained things [in Arabic of course, so I can't follow], with hand gestures of leveling and totality indicating that Halbus' prescription was for real. At the end, an ominous dust storm blew in and the video stopped. [7]

Would they help the people "liberate themselves," or purge the whole town? A bad sign was the NATO bombings of reported Gaddafi sites around Tawergha in the following weeks, likely phoned in by Misrata rebels. In late June one strike at least killed many civilians in the usual unconfirmed way. According to some reports, sixteen were killed, including a whole family, when a NATO bomb hit the public market. Video shared there shows at least one baby was among the dead. [8]

But still the question of the town's continued life was allowed to hover through July and beyond, as Misrata both absorbed and dished out more attacks.

Libya: Democracy by design

It was meant to be done.

The spirit of freedom and democracy won again a harsh battle against a blood-thirsty dictator. The West powers including US and NATO have implemented their obligation of preventing a massacre of innocent civilians who faced death from tanks, helicopters operating heavy machine-guns, chemical weapons, snipers, battle planes, anti- aircraft machines, rapes after usage of Viagra and well paid mercenaries.

Well, not exactly... It seems that some of those threats were rather a part of propaganda.
The (in)famous Viagra usage and the subsequent rapes were a "404 error" screen shot as Amnesty Internationa testified, the usage of chemical weapons is rather dismissed and the actual indiscriminate air-bombing of protest civilians being the most crucial element for the imposition of the regime change to protect civilians operation remain largely unproved. Even the thousands mercenaries lastly is believed that there were not so many...

But lets have a glimpse at the future. Ironically, Sharia will be the new law foundation in the democratic Libya, while back in US, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is striving to convince people that the Sharia law is not a threat to the US secular legal system.

Meanwhile, the democratic rebels have already twice brutally abused by any means every dark skinned African move around betraying a well established racism that was suppressed under the regime's iron fist.
Now that Gaddafi elapsed, there is no unifying element as a common cause between the rebels. Obviously there are many different views and conflicting interests inside the self-appointed interim government and the final outcome is unknown.

There are many different armed militia and one can safely assume that most of them are youngsters at the age of 23 which are not hesitant to use the power of gunpoint for looting. Finally there are two issues that have already disappeared form the news spot-light, namely the number of civilians that have died under the UN operations combined with the rebels' retaliations as the fate of the regime's supporters. 

Experience shows that in identical situations the accusation of "regime supporter" is often used to serve personal interests or antagonisms. On top of this the possibility of random unauthorized executions covered under the smoke screen of the dark skinned Africans sufferings should not be excluded. Squeakers are plenty after a war.

Black life is cheap in Libya

Πηγή: Time
By Justice Malala

Sep. 19 2011

They are killing black people in Libya. They are killing them in the street, they are killing them in hospitals, they are killing them in transit camps, they are killing them in their houses.

They are not killing any old African. They are killing black Africans, the dark, sub-Saharan Africans. Skin tone, the darkness of one's skin, has become for many blacks in Libya the difference between prison and freedom, death and life.

The rebels who gunned for the toppling of the dictator Muammar Gaddafi have for the past six months been killing anyone who looks dark. Given that there are between a million and two million black Africans in Libya, a slow and under-reported massacre is unfolding in that country.

No one is saying anything. When African leaders such as President Jacob Zuma speak, they speak for Gaddafi but not for the people who are now being routinely murdered at the hands of the rebels - the people who are today in power across large swathes of Libya.

African newspapers and television channels report on the conflict as if they are European, Chinese or American. We never write about the fact that over the past few months anyone with a dark skin has been stopped in the streets of Libya and searched. It is almost like the days of apartheid. These people are then either arrested, tortured or murdered.

No one cares about their fate. They are black after all, and black life is cheapest among Africans. That is why we are not up in arms.

The killings in Libya have cover. Gaddafi, at the beginning of the conflict, used his considerable wealth to hire mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa to terrorise locals and push back the rebel advance. The mercenaries were from everywhere. There were Nigerians, there were veterans from the wars in Ivory Coast and word is that there were even South Africans among them.

These were some of the hired guns of Gaddafi's regime.

These mercenaries would be the ones staging shows of force as Gaddafi shook his fist at the free world. They drove around in Jeeps, shot into the air and pretended that all was fine in the world.

It was not. Now Gaddafi has fallen. Many of the mercenaries have returned home, their hundreds of thousands of dollars stashed away. What is left in Libya are the ordinary black people, the ones who have been cleaning for the Libyans all along, building the roads and doing the menial jobs that the rich Libyans would not do.

They are the ones who are dying now. On August 31 an Amnesty International team reported that black Libyans and sub-Saharan Africans "are at high risk of abuse by anti-Gaddafi forces".

"An Amnesty delegation visiting the Central Tripoli Hospital last Monday witnessed three thuwwar revolutionaries (as opposition fighters are commonly known) dragging a black patient from the western town of Tawargha from his bed and detaining him. The men were in civilian clothing.

"The thuwwar said the man would be taken to Misratah for questioning, arguing that interrogators in Tripoli 'let killers free'. Two other black Libyans receiving treatment in the hospital for gunshot wounds were warned by the anti-Gaddafi forces that 'their turn was coming'."

Amnesty International is being extremely diplomatic with its language. Human rights activists are reporting that black people have been disappearing all over Libya over the past nine months as the rebels started taking out Gaddafi forces. As rebels arrived in towns, they merely sought out blacks and either killed them on the spot or arrested them. Many have died of starvation in those "prisons".

Wherever alleged Gaddafi forces are found to have been executed, most of those murdered have been black. Video footage of ordinary black men who have been working in Libya being executed is available on the internet. Their sin is that some black mercenaries worked for Gaddafi, and their sin now is that they are black.

The US and Nato, after helping the rebels bomb Libya, have been quiet on this issue. They have blood on their hands. Would they be so quiet if whites were being murdered in such large numbers in Libya?

And where are the Africans? The AU is petulant, refusing to speak or intervene, while their brothers and sisters are being murdered.

What a courageous bunch.

Libya conflict: Black African migrants caught in backlash

There are probably fewer mercenaries than the anti-Gaddafi fighters suspect

Πηγή: BBC
By Ian Pannell

Sep. 18 2011

A BBC investigation has found allegations of abuse against African migrant workers in Libya by fighters allied to the new interim authorities.

Hundreds of men have been imprisoned, accused of being mercenaries for Col Muammar Gaddafi, and there are claims that homes have been ransacked and looted, and women and girls have been beaten and raped.

It was a visit the Nigerian family had been dreading.

They had been hiding in their tiny slum home in a Tripoli suburb since Col Gaddafi had been swept from power, fearing the knock at the door. Earlier this month 20 rebel fighters came, demanding to be let in, shouting "murtazaka".

It is the word every black African in Libya knows too well. Murtazaka is Arabic for "mercenary", the armed men allegedly employed by the former regime to carry out some of the worst excesses of the conflict.

The fighters forced their way into the Nigerian family's home. They beat the couple living there. They stole their possessions and money, abducted the father of the house and turned on his 16-year-old daughter. She told us what happened:

"A group of armed men came to our house. They started knocking, they came in saying 'murtazaka'. They locked my mother inside a toilet. Six of them raped me. They took our belongings and money. My father tried to stop them but they hit him and carried him away."

That was nearly three weeks ago and she has not seen or heard of her father since.

Violent campaign


This is the African continent, I am an African, this is my land - is it because of my colour, because I am a black man?”Alleged victim

When rebel fighters moved into Tripoli last month, an immediate hunt began for former regime loyalists and African mercenaries accused of working for Col Gaddafi.

Evidence has emerged in a series of interviews that suggests that some engaged in a violent campaign of abuse and intimidation against the black immigrant community in Tripoli.

Hundreds of men have been arrested with little or no evidence, homes have been pillaged and people beaten up. Most victims are too afraid to be identified but they contacted the BBC to air their grievances.

One man showed us around another home that had been ransacked. A thick iron bar in the corner of the dark room had been used to beat the men and the women there as the rebels made off with their money and few possessions.

He told us he was glad when Col Gaddafi was overthrown, expecting a better life. Instead he and hundreds of others black Africans have become victims, a soft target.

"This is the African continent, I am an African, this is my land. Is it because of my colour, because I am a black man? We don't have a voice. Who would you to turn to?"

On the outskirts of the city we were invited to film a truck-load of men from Niger who had just been picked up. They too were accused of being mercenaries while being made to chant anti-Gaddafi slogans by leering fighters before being put to work hauling boxes of documents and weapons found in the woods.

This man said 20 men raided his house

Casual manual labour

There are no figures for how many foreign mercenaries Col Gaddafi employed.

It is almost certainly far fewer than the rebel fighters suspected. Most black Africans in Libya have been living here for years doing casual manual labour.

But just as it was easier to suspect foreigners (rather than Libyans) of doing the Colonel's bidding throughout the course of battles for cities like Benghazi and Misrata, so it is now easier to round up those who can be easily distinguished by the colour of their skin.

The transitional council has told its fighters to avoid revenge attacks and there has been far less violence than many had feared. But the city's jails are still full of men detained with little or no evidence, with no access to lawyers or even their families. One woman showed us the black eye she received for arguing with the fighters as they dragged her husband away:

"There has been no communication. I am scared of everything happening in this country. I am now begging them to just leave my husband, he's innocent, he's very quiet, he couldn't even fight me," she said.

The leadership of the National Transitional Council has repeatedly called for restraint from its fighters, urging them to avoid revenge attacks. But it is clear that some appear to have ignored this.

Libya's new leaders will have to distinguish themselves in many ways, not least how they guarantee the freedom, dignity and justice that so many have fought and died for.

But if it is to mean anything it must apply to all.