Oorlog in Libië #99: Wanneer geeft Gaddafi zich over?

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Apache helicopters to be sent into Libya by Britain

Use of helicopters, which can attack small targets, represents significant escalation of conflict

Britain and France are to deploy attack helicopters against Libya in an attempt to break the military stalemate, particularly in the important coastal city of Misrata, security sources have told the Guardian.

In a significant escalation of the conflict, the Apaches – based on HMS Ocean – will join French helicopters in risky operations which reflect deepening frustration among British and French defence chiefs about their continuing inability to protect civilians in Libya.

Apaches, which are being used in counter-insurgency operations in Afghanistan, can manoeuvre and attack small targets in relatively built-up areas. Heavily armed Apaches and French Tiger helicopters are equipped with night vision equipment and electronic guidance systems. Forces loyal to the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, have shed their uniforms, are using civilian vehicles and hiding armour near civilian buildings, including hospitals and schools.

The decision to deploy the helicopters is a clear recognition that high-level bombing from 15,000 feet cannot protect civilians who continue to be attacked by rocket and mortar shells. It brings the Nato offensive much closer to the ground at a time when Britain and other Nato countries are insisting they have no intention of sending in troops.

However, the helicopters could be vulnerable to handheld rocket-propelled grenades and even rifle fire.

Hospital officials said two people were killed and several wounded during Monday's fighting in Misrata. Later, heavy explosions outside the city were heard, lasting about an hour.

Reuters quoted a rebel spokesman as saying that forces loyal to Gaddafi also shelled the rebel-held town of Zintan and moved troops close to the mountainous region bordering Tunisia, intensifying operations on the war's western front.

On Monday Nato warplanes bombed Tripoli in what appeared to be the heaviest night of bombing since the start of the air campaign against Gaddafi's forces and his sprawling compound. More than 20 airstrikes in less than half an hour set off thunderous booms that rattled windows around the city.

Britain and France clearly hope that the use of attack helicopters, and the fact of revealing the intention to use them, will deter pro-Gaddafi forces and assuage Libyan rebels who have been demanding more effective military action from Nato countries. The sight of Nato forces actually on the ground would be strongly opposed by most countries in the alliance, including the US and also those Arab countries in favour of the air campaign against Gaddafi's forces.

The foreign secretary, William Hague, attending an EU ministerial meeting in Brussels, said: "We are very much behind the intensification of the military campaign and ... so is France." He added: "We certainly agree with France, and indeed with all our partners, including all our partners at the EU meeting here today, that it is necessary to intensify the military, economic and diplomatic pressure on the Gaddafi regime."

Alain Juppé, France's foreign minister, confirmed that Paris has dispatched a dozen helicopters to add greater strike force to the campaign against Gaddafi in Libya. He said that the 12 Tiger and Gazelle helicopters sent from Toulon on 17 May would enable "us to better adapt our ground attack capacity with more precise means of striking".

He added: "Our strategy is to step up the military pressure in the weeks ahead while pushing at the same time for a political solution." According to French sources, the battleship Tonnerre, carrying the helicopters, left Toulon last week. The vessel combines the roles of helicopter carrier, hospital ship, and troops transporter.

Juppé said the helicopters would not be used to deploy ground forces in Libya and that the decision to send them was fully in line with the UN security council resolution mandating attacks in Libya.

The French newspaper Le Figaro said the helicopters would be assisted by target identification from French special forces who have been on the ground in Libya since the start of the allied operation there. The Ministry of Defence does not comment on special forces' operations.

Jim Murphy, the shadow defence secretary, said: "This is a significant development. It is right that the alliance is intensifying military pressure on Gaddafi's forces, but the British government needs to be clearer about a political strategy for Libya and whether the military commitment to Libya is an open-ended one."

The first international stabilisation response team has arrived in Libya, the international development secretary Andrew Mitchell has confirmed . He said Britain would continue to provide medical and emergency food supplies, adding that "the international community also needs to start thinking strategically about what is needed now to help lay the foundations for a stable, secure Libya".

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More evidence has emerged in Libya of troops systematically raping women and girls linked to the uprising against Moamar Gaddafi.

Two soldiers have admitted taking part in mass rapes in the town of Misrata.

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Op dinsdag 24 mei 2011 14:12 schreef houda het volgende:

Die stammen zijn al zo oud en helemaal met elkaar vergroeid. Niemand heeft het ooit nog over wie bij welke stam hoort.

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Op dinsdag 24 mei 2011 22:11 schreef Monidique het volgende:

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Dat is heel wat anders dan de verhalen van de oppositie aan het begin van de opstand, toen werd gemeld dat stam X meedeed en stam Y zich tegen Khaddafi had gekeerd. Kennelijk waren de stammen toen nog wel van dergelijke invloed.

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Op dinsdag 24 mei 2011 22:16 schreef Athlon_2o0o het volgende:

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Je hebt wel milities die Kadhafi of de oppositie steunen, maar die stammen zijn niet echt relevant daarvoor.

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Op dinsdag 24 mei 2011 22:18 schreef Monidique het volgende:

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Aan het begin van de opstand werd heel wat anders gezegd.

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Refugees from Libya attacked in Tunisian desert

Hundreds who fled Gaddafi regime left without shelter as locals ransack and burn down refugee camp

More than 1,000 migrants who fled fighting in Libya have been left without shelter in the Tunisian desert after locals burned down and looted a refugee camp on the country's border, witnesses have claimed.

At least five people were wounded when Tunisian soldiers opened fire on migrants fleeing Tuesday's attack on the UN-managed Choucha camp near the main crossing with Libya at Ras Ajdir, said Alganesc Fessaha, an Eritrean doctor who treated the victims.

The attack, which left around 1,500 residents without shelter, reflected growing resentment among locals against the migrants, mainly foreign workers from Eritrea, Somalia and the Ivory Coast.

Tensions between the two groups came to a head after refugees blockaded the road to the border to protest against being held in the camp, 4 miles from the border.

Locals then attacked the protesters with clubs and iron bars before Tunisian troops fired tear gas and warning shots in attempt to break up the fighting.

But a mob of about 300 Tunisians then attacked the camp, burning down about half the tents, Fessaha told the Guardian.

"Eritreans fleeing from the camp as it burned were beaten by locals lined up and waiting with iron bars," said Fessaha, who was also attacked as she entered the camp.

Fessaha was treating the gunshot wounds of five Sudanese men who said they had been shot by Tunisian soldiers.

"The soldiers shot at us as we fled the camp," said Abu Bakr Osman Mohammed, 39, who spent three years working in Libya and two in jail for illegal immigration before escaping as the conflict started.

"It is a miracle no one was killed," said Father Sandro De Pretis, an Italian priest based in Tripoli who is involved in the aid operation.

"They came in daylight, well organised, and army did nothing to protect the camp dwellers and may have even provided an escort as the locals burned what they could not steal. Something has to be done now for these migrants stranded in the sand."

De Pretis said the attack marked a change in the mood of Tunisians, who have hitherto offered hospitality to refugees streaming over the border , even as they struggle to rebuild their own economy after this year's popular uprising.

After first hosting Pakistanis and Bangladeshis who have now been repatriated, Choucha is now home to 3,300 Africans – including dozens saved from a leaking boat as they tried to make the perilous sea crossing to Italy earlier this month.

"At first the Tunisians brought food to the refugees but yesterday they were out of their minds," said De Pretis.

Father Mosés Zerai, the head of an asylum seekers organisation in Italy, said tensions in the camp had risen after a group of Sudanese men tried to rape an Eritrean woman last week.

"The Eritreans defended the girl and the Sudanese burned down their tents in revenge," he said.

Four Eritreans died on Sunday night as 21 tents burned down, triggering demonstrations over conditions in the camp.

Zerai said the road block was led by West Africans, including Nigerians, who are less likely to be granted asylum status and feared they would be repatriated. "They were already unhappy but after the first fire their anger exploded," he said.

Two people reportedly died in the first clashes with locals on the road on Monday.

"The protest was very stupid, since it halted commercial activity," said De Pretis. "The army did nothing and the locals took the law into their own hands."

Threats by the West Africans then prompted the UN to withdraw all its staff from the camp on Monday with one UN official describing a "general atmosphere of lawlessness in the camp."

"When the Tunisians came, the UN wasn't there," said De Pretis.

On Wednesday, officials were counting the wounded and rounding up families without shelter as apparent calm returned to the camp. Tunisian defense minister Abdul-Karim al-Zubaidi toured the camp as the police and military presence was beefed up.

"On Tuesday night, all the 3,000 or so people in the camp, even those who still had shelter, slept outdoors because they were terrified of being burned alive in their tents," said Fessaha.

Staff from the UN's refugee agency who were touring the camp on Wednesday could not be reached for comment. In Geneva, spokeswoman Sybella Wilkes said "There is a large group of refugees in the camp who have gone through hell and that is now being compounded by their insecure position there."

But according to De Petris, the return of UN staff had done little to reassure the camp's inhabitants.

"There are plenty of women and children here and we are out in the desert," said Fessaha. "You just have to say hello and you get a kilo of sand in your mouth."

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Libische regering pleit weer voor staakt-het-vuren

De Spaanse regering heeft een boodschap van de Libische regering in Tripoli ontvangen waarmee het regime daar om een wapenstilstand vraagt. Dit hebben bronnen in de regering vandaag tegen het Spaanse persbureau EFE gezegd.

De Libische premier, Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, vraagt om een onmiddellijk staakt-het-vuren. Dat zou de weg vrij moeten maken voor vrijlating van politieke gevangenen, onvoorwaardelijke onderhandelingen met de oppositie en de opstelling van een nieuwe grondwet. Al-Mahmoudi zou dit aanbod naar verscheidene regeringen hebben gestuurd.

Het Britse dagblad The Independent berichtte vandaag dat de premier namens het regime naar een uitweg zoekt. De laatste dagen zijn veel meldingen van oorlogsmoeheid in Tripoli. De Zuid-Afrikaanse president Jacob Zuma zou begin volgende week in Tripoli met de Libische leider Muammar Kaddafi over een 'exit strategy' spreken.