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

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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.

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War takes psychological toll in Libya's Misrata
<sub>* Children showing signs of mental trauma
* Number of people seeking counselling has surged</sub>

MISRATA, Libya, May 26 (Reuters) - Four-year-old Moayyed Ali often wakes up at night screaming, a legacy of living through weeks of shelling and gunfire that reduced his home in the Libyan city of Misrata to rubble.

Buildings across the city are peppered with bullet and rocket holes after a siege which saw some of the fiercest fighting between forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi and rebels who rose up against him in February.

Less obvious than the physical damage is the impact on the mental health of children, women and men who endured weeks of earth-shaking blasts and terrorising sniper fire.

Moayyed's mother, now living with four other displaced families in a special needs school, despairs at the psychological problems she says she now sees in her children.

As well as Moayyed's sleeping difficulties, she says they suffer paroxysms of fear after hearing loud noises, and more disturbingly, play nothing but war games all day. Schools in Misrata have been closed for months.

"Look at them now, they're all playing with pretend guns. They didn't used to be like this. There's two teams outside. The rebels and the Gaddafi soldiers," says Moayyed's mother, 37-year-old Mariam Omar.

"Before their play was light hearted. Now they have a war mentality," she adds.

The war games' realism is heightened by the use of empty bullet casings and ammunition tins.

Battle detritus litters much of Misrata after the rebels, backed by NATO airstrikes, pushed Gaddafi loyalists out of the city earlier this month.

In the war game, one boy has a rifle fashioned from a table leg and the casings of large calibre bullets, while another boy has a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher made from a broom handle.

An overturned chair with a bandolier section containing empty bullet casings taped to one of its legs functions as a heavy machine gun. A boy holds the chair and makes juddering motions while mimicking the sound of gunfire.

The children, no more than 11 years old, stalk each other round corners, duck for cover, take prisoners and pretend to shoot each other dead.

A group of boys takes girls prisoner at gunpoint and shuts them in a room. "I'm afraid for their future when I see them playing like this," says Omar.

"I bought them building blocks and they built guns. I bought them drawing books and they drew guns. I've given up. They've grown old before their time."

GROWING WITH HATE

Misrata psychologist Amal Saleh says the children's games are more sinister than common childhood play fights.

"When we were children we'd see these kind things on TV, but we never lived it. It was distant or fictional. When it's nearby it affects them in a more profound way. They become more war-like," she says.

"That will affect them negatively. They will grow up to hate others."

At Saleh's clinic, Aisha Suleiman, 26, sits in a wheelchair and constantly wrings her hands while she speaks. She stammers and her speech is so fast it is difficult to understand.

"I was nine months pregnant at the time, and I was sat in a tiny room hearing the bombs day and night, falling, falling, everywhere. For four days it didn't stop for a minute. I thought I would lose my baby," she says.

The baby was born healthy, but Suleiman says that after the fighting her stammer appeared and she lacked the energy to walk. Her hands shake and her eyes flit around the room.

Saleh says the number of people coming to her clinic has surged since the fighting began.

Gaddafi's troops are still near Misrata's outskirts, and the distant rumble of artillery fire can still be heard most days.

"We have depression, hysteria, shell shock. Some fighters blame themselves for a friend's death. Some are so hysterical they break things and lash out, and must be restrained. Some people are now afraid, and have lost all confidence," she says.

Back at the school where Moayyed Ali is staying with the other displaced families, the children wind down their war game. Parked outside is a family car with shrapnel holes in its side.

A boy ties a noose around a rag doll's neck and strings it up from a metal frame. "That's Gaddafi," he says.

A group of girls yank at the doll's legs and throw wild punches at its head. (Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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Libyan regime makes peace offer that sidelines Gaddafi

Ruler not mentioned in ceasefire plan but rebels and Nato powers want his unequivocal departure from office

Libya's battered regime has made its most plaintive plea yet for a ceasefire, offering to talk to anti-government rebels, move towards a constitutional government and compensate victims of the three-month conflict.

The plan represents an advance on previous ceasefire bids, which had focused largely on implementing a proposal by the African Union that calls for international monitors to observe a negotiated truce.

It was pre-empted by a letter sent to European leaders by Libya's prime minister, Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, in which he acknowledged that the revolt that has paralysed Libya was "part of a series of events that are taking place throughout the Arab world".

"We understand this," he wrote. "We are ready and we know what is required of us."

Libyan officials had previously linked the rebel groups who control the east of the country to al-Qaida and foreign backers, and had steadfastly refused to acknowledge that a pro-democracy current existed among the rebels.

Asked about the new willingness to talk to rebels, Mahmoudi said: "We are ready for dialogue with all structures that represent the whole of Libya. Any Libyans can sit on the round table. But as for these so-called dissenters, it is they who said they wouldn't talk to the Libyan state. And remember many of them were former members of the Libyan government."

The plan was greeted with skepticism by the US and some European states.

The deputy US national security adviser Ben Rhodes said the Libyan government was not complying with a UN resolution that authorised a military operation to protect the Libyan people from forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.

Gaddafi's name was again conspicuously absent from the new discussion about a ceasefire. Libyan officials have been trying to recast the despot as a figure who will not play a prominent role in the country's affairs after the fighting stops.

He has been presented as a potential Castro-like figure with no executive input into a new Libyan society.

Gaddafi has maintained a low profile since the death of one of his sons and three grandchildren a month ago. Envoys representing him have contacted European leaders. The lead powers in the Nato bombing campaign, France and Britain, whose jets target sites in the centre and west of the country most nights, have said they will not agree to a ceasefire until Gaddafi leaves office.

The umbrella group that represents the rebels, the Interim Transnational Council, has won preliminary backing from the White House and Downing Street. It is refusing to talk with the Libyan government until Gaddafi relinquishes power.

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Op vrijdag 27 mei 2011 10:31 schreef Hans_van_Baalen het volgende:
NRC gebruikt nu ook een handige map:

http://www.nrc.nl/interac(...)de-arabische-wereld/

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Cameron and Sarkozy plan Libya visit as G8 says Gaddafi must go

French president lets Benghazi plan slip at summit where leading countries will say Libyan ruler must step down

David Cameron and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, are planning a joint visit to Benghazi, the Libyan rebel stronghold, Sarkozy has disclosed.

He was speaking at press conference at the end of the G8 summit of rich western nations where all countries agreed that Muammar Gaddafi had lost legitimacy and must step down. The Russians agreed to back this decision but David Cameron rejected suggestions the Russians had offered to mediate towards Gaddafi's exit.

Cameron said only one message needed to get to Gaddafi: that it was time to go.

British sources would not confirm details of the planned trip to Benghazi and Cameron parried the question by saying: "Nicolas Sarkozy is full of good ideas."

Reflecting a hardening of the Russian line on Libya, the draft communique from the group of leading industrial nations – due to be issued shortly – goes further than merely stating there needs to be a negotiated settlement.

The statement from national leaders meeting in Deauville, France, will use unusually simple language to state: "Gaddafi and the Libyan government have failed to fulfil their responsibility to protect the Libyan population and have lost all legitimacy. He has no future in a free, democratic Libya. He must go."

It is due to add: "We welcome the work of the international criminal court in investigating crimes in Libya and note the chief prosecutor's request on 16 May for three arrest warrants."

If such language remains in the final communique, it will be seen as a victory for the Sarkozy and Cameron following their decision to provide ground attack helicopters for use by Nato.

The tough stance comes amid a hardening of the Russian position amid signs that the country's leaders have lost patience with Gaddafi and are willing to act as mediators to speed his exit from power.

The Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said: "Colonel Gaddafi has deprived himself of legitimacy with his actions, we should help him leave."

The communique also says: "We are committed to supporting a political transition that reflects the will of the Libyan people.

"We recall our strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and national unity of Libya."

On other issues, the G8 leaders claim "the world economy is recovering" even if more needs to be done to reduce global imbalances and deficits.

The communique also discusses the role of the internet, nuclear safety after the Fukushima disaster and concedes that the G8 nations have collectively failed to meet their pledges on aid to Africa.

Regarding the internet, the communique treads a fine line between advocating governmental regulation and allowing so-called "wild west" free rein.

It states: "The effective protection of personal data and individual privacy on the internet is essential to earn users' trust.

"It is a matter for all stakeholders: the users who need to be better aware of their responsibility when placing personal data on the internet, the service providers who store and process this data, and governments and regulators who must ensure the effectiveness of this protection."

It adds: "We encourage the development of common approaches taking into account national legal frameworks, based on fundamental rights and that protect personal data, whilst allowing the legal transfer of data.

"We will also work towards developing an environment in which children can safely use the internet by improving children's internet literacy including risk awareness, and encouraging adequate parental controls consistent with the freedom of expression."

In response to the demands of internet companies to be left alone, the communique adds: "Flexibility and transparency have to be maintained in order to adapt to the fast pace of technological and business developments and uses. Governments have a key role to play in this model."

On the state of the world economy, the communique admits there are strong headwinds that could slow growth.

"The global recovery is gaining strength and is becoming more self-sustained. However, downside risks remain and internal and external imbalances are still a concern.

"The sharp increase in commodity prices and their excessive volatility pose a significant headwind to the recovery."

Both Europe and the US are asked to do more to address structural problems.

The communique says: "The United States will put in place a clear and credible medium-term fiscal consolidation framework, consistent with considerations of job creation and economic growth.

"In Japan, while providing resources for the reconstruction after the disaster, the authorities will also address the issue of sustainability of public finances.

The communique offers little progress on climate change but reasserts the now firm G8 position "to limit effectively the increase in global temperatures below 2 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels, consistent with science."

The bulk of detailed work on climate change now takes place in the context of the G20, allowing China, Brazil and India, the new carbon economies, to set out their demands.

In a step change for the G8 there is a frank admission of a collective failure to reach the aid targets set six years ago at Gleneagles.

It states: "In 2005, the OECD estimated that official development assistance (ODA) from the G8 and other donors to developing countries would increase by around $50bn (£30bn) by 2010 compared to 2004.

"There is a gap of $19bn in constant dollars or $1.27bn in current dollars, relative to OECD estimates for 2010."

The communique does claim that, despite this shortfall: "G8 aid has been increasing from $82.55bn to $89.25bn in current dollars between 2009 and 2010.

"This represents 70% of global overseas development assistance, which reached $128.73bn in 2010, representing a 7.27% increase in current dollars compared to 2009."

On transparency, an issue on which charities and aid groups have been pressing the G8 for years, there is a commitment to do more to spell out in detail how well the G8 is doing in meeting its pledges.

It states: "We will make further efforts on publishing information on allocations, expenditure and results. Information will be provided in accessible formats that deliver on the needs of partner countries and citizens."

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Commandocentrum Gaddafi getroffen

De NAVO heeft een commando- en controlecentrum getroffen waar de Libische leider Moammar Gaddafi nu en dan zou verblijven. Of Gaddafi op het moment van de aanval ook in het complex aanwezig was, is niet bekend, zei het bondgenootschap vandaag.

Het Bab al-Aziziyah-complex in Tripoli werd vanochtend vroeg getroffen. Hetzelfde gebouw werd 25 jaar geleden al eens zwaar beschadigd door Amerikaanse gevechtsvliegtuigen. Destijds ging het om een vergeldingsactie vanwege een bomaanslag op een disco in Duitsland, waarbij twee Amerikaanse militairen om het leven waren gekomen.

Ook werd vanochtend een garage in hetzelfde gebied bestookt.

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‘Geheim overleg Groot-Brittannië en Libië over staakt-het-vuren’

De regeringen van Groot-Brittannië en Libië voeren geheime besprekingen die moeten leiden tot een staakt-het-vuren tussen de coalitie en het regime van Gaddafi. Dat heeft de Libische viceminister van Buitenlandse Zaken tegen Al Jazeera gezegd.

Abdelati al-Obeidi, die sinds het opstappen van minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Moussa Koussa het buitenlandbeleid van Libië voert, vertelde aan een verslaggever van de Arabische zender dat hij met Britse regeringsfunctionarissen over een staakt-het-vuren heeft gesproken. Hij gaf verder geen details over de inhoud van de besprekingen.

Voor het Libische regime is het vertrek van Gaddafi onacceptabel, maar het regime is volgens Al-Obeidi wel bereid om gesprekken te beginnen met de opstandelingen in de oostelijke stad Benghazi. “We willen deze oorlog snel beeïndigen”, aldus de plaatsvervangend minister.

Aan het Libische front was vandaag nog niets te merken van een mogelijk staakt-het-vuren, want de NAVO bombardeerde vanochtend vroeg een commandocentrum in Tripoli waarin Gaddafi geregeld zou verblijven. Op de G8-top in Frankrijk zeiden Obama en de Britse premier Cameron gisteren dat de aanvallen door zullen gaan tot Gaddafi aftreedt.

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Small signs suggest waning support for Gadhafi

Associated Press= TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Young men waved their assault rifles in the air, spraying celebratory gunfire. Others let off fireworks. Drivers honked and leaned out of their cars waving green flags and chanting in support of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

The shaking cacophony of bangs and bullets one recent evening all served to camouflage the thin turnout at a pro-Gadhafi demonstration in his stronghold, the capital of Tripoli. Only several hundred showed up, and many seemed more interested in having fun than in showing solidarity with the regime.

On Friday, nearly two dozen Libyan soldiers, including a colonel and other officers, fled their country in two small boats and took refuge in neighboring Tunisia, where thousands of Libyan refugees have settled.

They fled rebel-held Misrata, arriving at Ketf port, near Ben Guerdane, on the Tunisian side of the border, said a person who met with some of them Saturday, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.

The official TAP news agency said 22 military, including ranking officers, arrived Friday in boats carrying a dozen civilians, two with bullet wounds.

Gauging the views of Tripoli's 1 million residents is difficult because of restrictions placed on journalists. But small signs, such as dwindling attendance at pro-regime demonstrations, suggest that support in the capital for Gadhafi's four-decade-long rule is on the wane.

Fewer appear willing to be human shields to protect Gadhafi's compound from NATO strikes. Brief gunbattles break out in some neighborhoods. There are whispers of dissent.

Authorities violently quelled protests in Tripoli against Gadhafi's rule early in the three-month-old rebellion. Soldiers, police and other armed men shot and killed demonstrators. They detained suspected protesters, and intelligence agents continue to keep a close watch on residents.

Rebels have had more success so far elsewhere in the country. They have seized swaths of eastern Libya, setting up a de facto capital in Benghazi. In western Libya, the rebels have a toehold in the port city of Misrata and cling to towns along a mountain range.

Tripoli has remained fairly quiet since the initial protests were crushed. Most residents seem focused on surviving through the rebellion, rather than taking sides.

If Tripoli ultimately falls, the cause of the regime's collapse may have less to do with advancing rebel armies than with NATO bombing raids and popular anger over rising food prices and long lines at the pump.

Since the uprising began in mid-February, food prices have soared. Vegetable oil rose from less than one Libyan dinar to four dinars. Pasta, a Libyan staple has risen from half a dinar to 2 dinars.

Oil production at Libya's major refineries is down to a trickle because of the fighting.

Outside gas stations in the capital, drivers wait two or three days on lines stretching for miles.

"Protest? People are too busy trying to get fuel," said a taxi driver of pro-Gadhafi demonstrations.

In some cases that anger is bubbling over.

In the coastal town of Zawiya, an hour's drive from Tripoli, crowds waiting for days for fuel attacked a minibus carrying journalists this month on a state-supervised trip to the Tunisian border.

A knife-wielding attacker pushed and slapped a government official in an attempt to board the minibus. The journalists were unharmed, but violence against a government official would have once been unimaginable in Libya.

In the first few weeks of the Libyan crisis, state television filmed thousands of demonstrators, and highways clogged with beeping cars in support of the leader.

Nowadays, far fewer show up at pro-regime gatherings.

In the mid-May demonstration in the center of Tripoli, car owners waiting in a miles-long line for gas at 3 a.m. barely paid attention to the drivers of a few dozen cars beeping and waving their green flags.

The scenes of maniacal devotion at the rally seemed to be a result of young men wanting to have fun rather a deeply felt commitment to the regime. They rushed wherever they saw bright television camera lights, wildly belly dancing, chanting and pumping their fists.

Another group of young men strutted past.

"Tell the truth!" one of them yelled at reporters, then adjusted his baseball cap.

"Hey!" he yelled at his buddies, "lets go chant against Al-Jazeera!"

They giggled and ran away.

There were similar scenes after NATO bombs struck two buildings on a residential Tripoli street days ago.

Some two-dozen men chanted, clapped and danced in support of Gadhafi around the burning buildings. Close by, hundreds of residents stood and stared at the damage, ignoring the loud demonstrators.

Text messages sent to Libyan mobile phones earlier this month informed residents that a funeral would be held for seven Muslim clerics who were slain in a "barbarian crusader attack" — a NATO airstrike — on a guest house in the oil port town of Brega.

Only a few hundred people, many of them soldiers, attended.

In the early days of the uprising, hundreds flooded to defend Gadhafi's compound, where human shields live in tents.

Night after night, state television broadcasts live from the compound, known as Bab al-Aziziya, showing people singing and dancing in a main square. But they rarely appear to number more than a few dozen.

Elsewhere, small signs of defiance are emerging.

Some Libyans, all on condition of anonymity, speak out against Gadhafi when government officials are out of sight.

"The regime is like a palm tree that has grown crooked," said an elderly Tripoli merchant, referring to a Libyan proverb. "All its dates have landed elsewhere," the merchant said. That was a reference to the country's wealth, which many here complain hasn't been distributed fairly.

One man pointed to his one-dinar note, sporting Gadhafi's face.

"No good," he said before quickly tucking the bill away.

On an outing for journalists last week, the owner or manager of a cafe quietly switched his television from blaring Al-Arabiya — a Saudi-owned news channel despised by the regime — to Libyan state TV when he saw the reporters approaching.

Presumably he thought government minders weren't far away.

Few pro-government Libyans cite adoration of Gadhafi to explain their stance. Instead, they say they worry about the country's stability.

A pharmacist said she lived well and thought the rebels were tearing the country apart. She was angry at NATO for the bombing raids that crash and boom almost every night in Tripoli. Speaking at the recent demonstration, a 28-year-old computer engineer who only gave his first name, Sufian, said he wanted security.

Another man, Riad Mansour, 35, said he feared Libya would "turn into another Palestine" — wrecked by occupation and internal instability.

But it seems many others in the capital hope Gadhafi will go, even as they sit on the sidelines.

"We have not seen the wealth of our land," said the elderly merchant. "We are poor and we should be wealthy. And it's his fault."

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Gaddafi to be told to stand down or face Apache attack

If South African president Jacob Zuma's peace mission fails, Nato will deliver its heaviest blow to Libyan leader's forces

Nato has only one question as it prepares to unleash Apache helicopters against the forces of Muammar Gaddafi this week, and Captain Ali Mohammed, one of the defenders of the besieged rebel city of Misrata, can supply the answer.

If, as most pundits predict, tomorrow's peace mission to Tripoli by South African president Jacob Zuma fails, Nato will hit the Libyan leader harder than it has ever hit him before.

British Apaches, together with French Tiger attack helicopters, will launch surgical strikes on Gaddafi's forces besieging Misrata. They have the ability to destroy individual gun positions in the town of Zlitan, west of Misrata, with less risk to the civilian population kept there as human shields.

But there is a problem. This kind of war takes time, and time is the commodity Nato does not have as critics complain it has extended the original United Nations no-fly zone mandate into what is regime change in all but name.

The big question is whether the defenders will crumble under the onslaught, or fight with the same tenacity shown by their rebel enemy in Misrata. "If you use Apaches, it is sure they will run away," said Mohammed. "There is a big difference between Gaddafi's men and ourselves. I am defending my home, my family, my city. But Gaddafi's forces do not believe in what they are doing."

The captain has led a band of fighters in this shell-scarred city, not just surviving the onslaught but pushing pro-Gaddafi forces back to the outskirts.

Yet Gaddafi's troops continue to rain death on the city outskirts, which shuddered under a bombardment of hundreds of mortars and missiles on Friday, fired from launchers too far back for the rebels to counter.

To respond, they need the Apaches, four of which are on the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean, cruising somewhere beyond the horizon visible from Mohammed's position. A second vessel, the French amphibious assault carrier Tonnerre, has four equally ferocious Tiger attack helicopters, plus a dozen of the more elderly Gazelles.

All are armed with Hellfire missiles which have the ability to be launched from five miles off with pinpoint accuracy, precisely destroying gun positions and machine gun nests, leaving the local civilians unharmed. It is these weapons that the alliance hopes will finally break the will of Gaddafi's forces.

Fast jets continue pounding targets in both Tripoli and behind the front lines. In the skies across Libya, British and American Reaper drones, which can stay on patrol for 14 hours, circle endlessly. They watch the few highways out of Tripoli day and night, using their own Hellfire missiles to destroy any vehicle they see, in effect making it impossible for Gaddafi to reinforce or supply his units at Misrata and those further west near Benghazi.

But his firepower has its limits. The UN resolution mandating Nato's action prohibits the use of ground troops, leaving the alliance needing to win with only the lightly armed rebel troops to actually take and hold ground.

Additionally, Apaches are vulnerable; slow and ponderous, they dare not venture over enemy territory for risk of being shot down by machine gun fire. Instead they are likely to linger over rebel lines, engaging only Libyan positions in the immediate vicinity.

Given enough time, the Apaches can take out gun positions one by one, but time is not on Nato's side. Many members, notably Germany and Turkey, were reluctant partners from the start and at the United Nations China and Russia have complained that the western alliance did not consult over the extension of a mandate designed to protect civilians into what is a full-scale war. Nato needs victory quickly by breaking the will of Gaddafi's troops.

"Sixty per cent of Gaddafi's army do not want to fight," says Abdulla Ali, a rebel army spokesman in Misrata. "They are forced there. If they do not fight they are shot."

Mohammed says Nato has instructed his forces to stay behind a "red line" marked out along the Misrata front, allowing Nato to kill anything it sees west of that line. It is an instruction he intends to obey.

His dark eyes betray the strain of fighting through the streets of his city for the past 70 days. He stands, clad in a green shirt, pale jeans and black sandals amid a sand-encrusted checkpoint of corrugated iron and a few battered plastic chairs.

Around his chest is the shoulder strap of a battered AK-47 machine gun, on his shirt a small badge with the picture of Ramadan Swehli, hero of the city's resistance against Italian occupation nearly a century ago, superimposed over the rebel red, green and black tricolour.

However, before the Apaches are unleashed, Nato has decided to give diplomacy a final shot. The key part of this plan fell into place on Friday when Russia's president Dmitry Medvedev announced – possibly through gritted teeth – that he now supported Nato's demand that Gaddafi step down immediately and unconditionally.

That message will be delivered by Zuma in Tripoli tomorrow, coupled with the threat that if the Libyan leader refuses, Nato will unleash what will be the heaviest attack the alliance has mounted. Yesterday brought a clear sign of its increasing impatience with the regime as a rare daytime air strike was launched on the capital of Tripoli.

For diplomats, the problem is not with Zuma's negotiating skills, but with the fact that the message he conveys to Gaddafi offers no carrots, only sticks. Capitulation means he faces certain death if he stays in Libya. If he flees, any country willing to take him will shortly receive demands from the UN to hand him over to the International Criminal Court, whose judges are expected to issue an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity within weeks. The chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, has already called for one of his sons, Saif, to be indicted, and more charges against three more members of the regime are expected to follow later this year.

In Misrata, few rebels expect the Libyan dictator to agree to step down, even in the face of Nato's bolstered firepower.

"He will not listen – he will stay and fight," said Osama Alfitory, a fighter from Benghazi who volunteered to come and help in Misrata, for him a brother-city. "This guy is insane. I think he believes he will win in the end."

Nato hopes that if its renewed assault begins – which could happen as early as Tuesday night – Gaddafi's army will start to think differently.

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Libya's Misrata rebels face tough new fight

Associated Press= MISRATA, Libya (AP) — Fighting on their home turf, Misrata's rebels overcame the heavier firepower of Moammar Gadhafi's forces in punishing street battles that expelled them from the western Libyan city. They now face what could prove a far tougher task — defeating a better-armed military in open terrain.

Opposition forces have expanded the territory under their control over the past month, pushing the front lines 15 miles (25 kilometers) in a sweeping arc around the port city and putting Misrata out of range of Gadhafi's heavy weapons.

But the rebels face new challenges as they shift from street battles to fighting in the olive groves, wheat fields and sandy desert that surround the city.

"It is a different scenario. Now it's more difficult," said Salaheldin Badi, a senior rebel commander. "It demands more equipment. Supplies, logistics and communications are an issue."

Misrata's rebels, around 3,000 active fighters in all, according to Badi, are now spread over three fronts outside the city: to the west, south, and east. For now, the rebels say they are content to hold onto the territory they've won, allowing some breathing room to civilians in Misrata, on the eastern and southern fronts.

But the western front, focused along the main road to the capital, Tripoli, 125 miles (200 kilometers) away, is simmering. In the farmland and dusty tree-lined fields around the hamlet of Dafniyah, rebels and Gadhafi forces engage in daily firefights, using heavy machine guns and mortars.

In a daylong gunbattle on Thursday, bullets zipped overhead as rebels fired AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades behind sandy embankments at government troops attacking through the olive groves. Three rebels were killed and 20 wounded in the fighting.

The rebels in Dafniyah have dug in and are using a winning tactic from their battles for the city center, blocking the main road west with shipping containers and sand berms, and coordinating their defense behind them.

They've also dug 12-foot trenches through main roads and access points to fend off tanks, and set up strings of small outposts along the front lines, using two-way radios to communicate.

Wary of overextending, the rebels have held tight at the current line for two weeks. But the goal ahead, commanders say, is Zliten, 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Misrata.

Badi and other senior opposition military leaders say they're hesitant to push hard for the city. Instead, they want to allow the opposition in Zliten to rise up and secure the city themselves before advancing.

"Revolutionary forces in Zliten are determined and prepared to cleanse Zliten of Gadhafi forces," said Misrata military spokesman Ibrahim Beatelmal. He estimated there are more than 2,000 government troops in Zliten, but declined to comment on the number of opposition fighters.

He said he expects "good news from Zliten" in the next few days, but did not elaborate, and it was not immediately possible to verify whether fighting was taking place inside the city.

The main problem for the rebels on all three of Misrata's fronts, according to fighters and commanders, is a familiar one: a lack of ammunition and arms, especially heavier weapons.

For weeks rebels have had to make do with the guns they've captured from Gadhafi's forces, homemade weapons they've outfitted themselves and the trickle of ammunition and arms that have come in on fishing boats from Benghazi, the de facto rebel capital in the east.

In street fighting, the rebels could improvise with hit-and-run tactics using machine guns and gasoline bombs. Not so in the countryside. Now, long-range weapons like Grad rockets and mortars are in demand.

"There are shortages of heavy weapons," said Mustafa al-Wakshi, a 24-year-old fighter in Dafniyah. "We even have some issues with ammunition for AK-47s."

Khalil al-Shibli, a former colonel in the Libyan army now leading a reconnaissance unit on Misrata's southern front, said 10 of his 30 men don't even have guns.

"We have more people than weapons," al-Shibli said. He estimated that the rebels have only 30 percent of the arms they need. "Heavy weapons are the most important."

A lack of longer-range arms has plagued rebels in eastern Libya, who have struggled against Gadhafi forces in the vast stretches of open desert. Government troops there used the longer reach of their Grad rockets, mortars and artillery to pound opposition fighters, who have fled in the face of such barrages.

Commanders in Misrata say they've learned from the mistakes of rebels in the east.

"We are different. They went to war in open land, and their advance wasn't planned," al-Shibli said over coffee in a tent nestled in the sand dunes on Misrata's southern front as he hashed out positions with another rebel commander over a Google Earth map on a laptop computer.

His group of around 30 fighters makes forays into the flatlands south of its base, a smattering of tents, water tanks and pickup trucks on high ground overlooking the surrounding plains.

"We're not planning to go after Gadhafi's forces," he said. "We have a defensive line here to prevent him from getting into Misrata."

They are taking their time, weighing each move.

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Britain steps up mind games against Muammar Gaddafi

Libyan leader's departure 'inevitable' says defence secretary Liam Fox as psychological and military pressure mounts

Britain has stepped up the psychological and military pressure on Muammar Gaddafi by claiming his departure is inevitable as it prepares to deploy bunker busting bombs, helicopters and to introduce regular daytime air raids on Tripoli.

British military and intelligence think they are close to a tipping point in Libya with Gaddafi unable to run an effective government and increasingly troubled by his diplomatic isolation, including the loss of Russian support last week

It is "inevitable" that Gaddafi will go, Liam Fox, the defence secretary, said.

The coalition government is preparing to use four Apache helicopters to increase pressure on Gaddafi, and the Ministry of Defence confirmed that the RAF will be given 2,000lb enhanced Paveway III bombs, capable of penetrating roofs of reinforced buildings.

Nato said it had conducted daytime air raids on the Libyan capital, Tripoli, for five days running. The towers of Gaddafi's main compound were destroyed at the weekend.

Fox said: "We are not trying to physically target individuals in Gaddafi's inner circle on whom he relies, but we are certainly sending them increasingly loud messages. Gaddafi may not be capable of listening, but those around him would be wise to do so."

The pressure is designed to coincide with a peace visit to Tripoli by the South African president, Jacob Zuma.

Britain has been putting pressure on Zuma and the African Union to send Gaddafi an unequivocal message to stand down, but the African Union has so far declined and has instead concentrated on proposing a ceasefire, in which the west and the rebels based in Benghazi have shown little confidence.

South Africa will be aware that not siding with the rebels could be a major diplomatic error, some British sources suggested.

Few are expecting Zuma's visit to lead to a big breakthrough, which in part explains David Cameron's decision to take a brief holiday.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed the Paveway bombs, which are the largest in the RAF's arsenal, have been dispatched to Gioia del Colle in southern Italy where RAF Tornado and Typhoon jets are based.

While the Apache's cannon and Hellfire missiles are used against small or moving targets, the heavy Paveway bombs are expected to be used against bunkers beneath Gaddafi's Bab al-Azizia compound in Tripoli and elsewhere.

The MoD said on Sunday that the enhanced Paveway III bombs are designed "to punch through the roof or wall of a hardened building".

The bombs join smaller laser or satellite-guided Paveway bombs, Brimstone missiles, and Tomahawk submarine-launched cruise missiles, with which the army and navy have been attacking targets in Libya for more than two months.

Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, Fox said: "We're trying to degrade his [Gaddafi's] ability to control his armed forces and those who are repressing the civilian population."

He added it was inevitable that Gaddafi would go.

Fox accepted that using helicopters constituted an increased risk for British airmen, saying: "It is quite right that if we use attack helicopters there is an increased risk. They fly at far lower heights than the fast jets would, obviously at lower speeds than the fast jets would."

He insisted it was legitimate for the UK to target Gaddafi's compounds, saying: "There are a lot of facilities which are being used partly as accommodation but also largely for military control. And we will continue to degrade that."

He welcomed the results of the G8 summit last week as revealing complete international unanimity, including from Russia, that Gaddafi must go.

It was reported that the former British defence minister Lord Trefgarne had met with the Libyan foreign minister over the weekend, but the Foreign Office emphasised that he was not acting as a diplomatic intermediary. He is vice chairman of the Arab-British chamber of commerce.

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Op zondag 29 mei 2011 23:50 schreef Eyjafjallajoekull het volgende:
Jammer dat het allemaal een beetje dood bloed kwa nieuws. Ik zit even wat overzichten te lezen en kwa geweld gebeurd er een stuk meer dan een paar maanden geleden. Toch horen we er maar weinig over... Na de val van Mubarak was iedereen (ik ook) erg optimistisch over de snelheid waarmee dictaturen zouden vallen. Maar helaas is de werkelijkheid een stuk stugger.

Het is een soort midden-oosten moeheid ofzo. Ik kan me er ook wel iets bij voorstellen. Landen als Syrie en Jemen zeggen de meeste mensen vrij weinig.

quote:

Op vrijdag 27 mei 2011 13:44 schreef zoefbust het volgende:

[..]

slecht mapje
Ze noemen de vreedzame ineens zeer gewelddadige protesten ,terwijl de demonstranten zich verdedigen tegen de troepen van Gaddafi. Alsof de agressie bij de demonstranten vandaan komt .

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Al-Jazeera footage captures 'western troops on the ground' in Libya


Report claims soldiers may be British, possibly SAS – which would break UN resolution over any 'occupation force'

Libyan rebels continue to struggle

An al-Jazeera report appears to show western special forces on the frontline in Libya, in what the TV channel said was "evidence for the first time of allied boots on the ground".

A group of six westerners are clearly visible in the report by al-Jazeera from Dafniya, described as the westernmost point of the rebel lines west of the town of Misrata. Five of them are armed and wear informal sand-coloured clothes, peaked caps and cotton Arab scarves.

The sixth, apparently most senior of the group, carries no visible weapon and wears a pink, short-sleeved shirt. It is possible he is an intelligence officer. The group is seen talking to rebels and then quickly leaving the scene on being spotted by the al-Jazeera television crew.

The reporter, Tony Birtley, a veteran war correspondent, said: "Here a group of armed foreigners, possibly British, are seen liaising with the fighters. It could be to facilitate forthcoming helicopter attacks." In the report, first broadcast on Sunday, Birtley did not say why he thought the soldiers were British.

There have been numerous reports in the British press that SAS soldiers are acting as spotters in Libya to help Nato warplanes target pro-Gaddafi forces. In March six special forces soldiers and two MI6 officers were detained by opposition fighters when they landed on an abortive mission to meet rebel leaders in Benghazi, in an embarrassing episode for the SAS. The group were withdrawn soon afterwards and a new "liaison team" was sent in their place.

In April William Hague, the foreign secretary, announced that an expanded military liaison team would be dispatched to work with the National Transitional Council in Benghazi. Hague said the team would help the rebels improve "organisational structures, communications and logistics" but stressed that: "Our officers will not be involved in training or arming the opposition's fighting forces, nor will they be involved in the planning or execution of the NTC's military operations or in the provision of any other form of operational military advice."

There were unconfirmed reports at the time that Britain was planning to send former SAS soldiers and other experienced soldiers to Libya under the cover of private security companies, paid for by Arab states, to train the rebel forces.

In the past few days there have been British press reports that SAS soldiers would be flying in British Apache helicopter gunships now being deployed off the Libyan coast. Their job would be to help the pilots identify pro-Gaddafi targets on the ground.

Asked for comment on Sunday, a Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said: "We don't have any forces out there."

The subject is sensitive as the March UN security council resolution authorising the use of force in Libya specifically excludes "a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory".