Revolutie in Libië #112: Waar Gadaffi zijn aanhangers weer toespreekt

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Op dinsdag 13 september 2011 01:25 schreef waht het volgende:

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42 jaar voor Kadaffi. Maar we zullen zien hoe het gaat lopen.

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Op dinsdag 13 september 2011 08:05 schreef Monidique het volgende:
Er is daar geen enkel land dat niet de Islam als juridisch en legaal fundament heeft.

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Nieuwe aanvallen NAVO op Libische steden Sirte en Sabha

De NAVO heeft vandaag een reeks van nieuwe luchtaanvallen uitgevoerd op Sirte en Sabha, twee Libische steden die nog altijd twee bolwerken van Gaddafi’s troepen en aanhangers zijn. Er werden verschillende soorten doelen bestookt.

Het militaire bondgenootschap gaf vanmiddag een verklaring uit waarin het zegt dat het rond Sirte, de geboorteplaats van Gaddafi, een radarsysteem, acht raketsystemen, vijf raketvervoerders en drie militaire voertuigen heeft weten te raken. Daarnaast stelt de NATO zes tanks en twee andere militaire voertuigen bij Sabha, in het zuiden van Libië, te hebben bestookt.

Sirte en Sabha zijn samen met de stad Bani Walid drie weken na de val van Tripoli nog altijd in handen van Gaddafi’s leger. Strijders van de Libische interim-regering openden vrijdag de aanval op Bani Walid, maar zijn er niet in geslaagd de stad, die zo’n 150 kilometer ten zuiden van Tripoli ligt, te veroveren. Enkele honderden troepen van Gaddafi zouden zich hevig verzetten.

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Tawarga: fires blaze and bad blood lingers in Libyan ghost town


Misratans have long accused population of poor dormitory town of murders, rapes and looting in alliance with pro-Gaddafi forces

Columns of dark oily smoke wound up through the still afternoon air on Tuesday from abandoned homes set ablaze in the Libyan rebel-occupied town of Tawarga.

A local police chief, who refused to give his name and ordered journalists out of the town, said the fires were the work of arsonists in the pay of Muammar Gaddafi who were hoping to tarnish the reputation of the new authorities.

Tawarga is a poor dormitory town 20 minutes from Misrata, whose mostly black population fled in August when rebel forces captured it.

Today it is a ghost town, its modest grey breeze block houses empty, the doors broken open, with green flags indicating support for the Gaddafi regime still fluttering from rooftops.

Misratans have long blamed the people of Tawarga for murders, rapes and looting in alliance with pro-Gaddafi forces during fighting in March and April.

It is common to hear Misratans making derogatory remarks about Tawarga's black population, coupled with the hope that the population, who fled to southern Libya, will never return.

On Tuesday homes and shops were set ablaze around the town, some fires starting even as journalists arrived to investigate.

The fires came the day that Amnesty International issued a report accusing rebel forces of crimes against pro-Gaddafi civilians, and urged Mustafa Abdul Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council, to do more to prevent these crimes.

While the report blamed the Gaddafi regime for most of the abuses catalogued, it said reprisal attacks against dark skinned Libyans and foreigners were continuing in rebel-held areas.

The police chief in Tawarga said his forces where hunting for those responsible for the blazes, which raged unchecked.

"They are starting these fires to make the rebels look bad," he said, refusing to give a formal interview or show his credentials. "You must leave. It is dangerous for you. They might shoot you."

He insisted rebel units were combing the town looking for the miscreants. The only rebel units in sight were relaxing outside a shopping precinct that is their base in the town centre, unconcerned by the fires raging around them.

Some may question how arsonists in the pay of the Gaddafi regime could operate in a town nearly 100 miles from the nearest frontline, deserted of all but rebel units, and surrounded by army bases and checkpoints.

Bad blood between Tawarga and Misrata has lingered from before the war, when many Tawarga residents, their families originally from southern Libya, performed service jobs in Misrata. Misratans accuse them of being badly behaved and unruly and frequently make derogatory remarks about the skin colour of Tawargans.

Misrata has a similar gripe at another neighbouring town, Zlitan, which, like Tawarga, failed to rise against the Gaddafi regime while Misrata's streets were pummelled by government artillery. Yet Zlitan's Arab population are being encouraged to return home while Tawarga's remain absent.

Earlier this week, Jalil declared that the new, free, Libya, would be governed by the rule of law. He may need to do more to demonstrate this is the case before Tawarga's population return – that is, if they still have homes to return to.

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Op woensdag 14 september 2011 12:09 schreef zuiderbuur het volgende:
Erdogan zal naast Egypte en Tunesië ook Libië bezoeken. In Egypte is hij onthaald als een soort held, maar ik vraag me af of hij in Libië zo'n goeie beurt zal maken. Zijn land behoorde tot de club van landen die er niet echt vroeg bij waren om de interventie te steunen...

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Hele stad vermist na rebellenoffensief in Libië
14/09/11, 17u34

Voor de Libische burgeroorlog was Tawarga een landelijke stad met zowat tienduizend inwoners, vooral zwarten. Vandaag de dag ligt de stad er verlaten bij en is ze door de rebellen uitgeroepen tot "gesloten militaire zone". Van de inwoners is geen spoor, zo schrijven verschillende media.
De vraag is waar die duizenden mensen naartoe zijn. Een antwoord blijkt moeilijk te vinden. Volgens sommige bronnen werden de bewoners door de rebellen naar vluchtelingenkampen in Tripoli gebracht, maar reporters die op zoek gingen naar de vermisten, troffen de kampen leeg aan.

Een smokkelaar die hen te woord stond, verklaarde dat de mensen "naar Niger zijn gegaan". Enkele omwonenden zeiden dan weer dat de inwoners van Tawarga inderdaad een tijdje in het kamp hebben gewoond, maar dat het kamp op een bepaald moment werd aangevallen door troepen uit Misrata. Die zouden de vluchtelingen vervolgens naar een ander kamp hebben gebracht, eveneens in de buurt van Tripoli, maar ook dat kamp bleek bij aankomst van de reporters leeg.

Loyaal aan Kadhafi
De inwoners van Tawarga waren loyaal aan de gewezen Libische leider Mouammar Kadhafi en stonden daarmee lijnrecht ten opzichte van hun landgenoten in het nabijgelegen rebellenbastion Misrata. Maar er lijken ook racistische motieven mee te spelen. Zo worden al langer in heel Libië met de regelmaat van de klok zwarten als vermist opgegeven en de rebellen lijken mensen te arresteren op basis van hun huidkleur. Maar een hele stad die vermist wordt, roept wel erg veel vragen op.

Het is in ieder geval erg verontrustend dat de rebellen in het verleden al openlijk praatten over het (etnisch) "zuiveren" van de regio, en in juni nog zeiden dat de zwarte Libiërs beter hun boeltje zouden pakken, want: "Tawarga bestaat niet meer, enkel Misrata" bestaat. Drie maanden later blijkt Tawarga plots van de kaart te zijn verdwenen, en op de plaats waar vroeger de stad lag staat nu een bord met het opschrift 'New Misrata'.

Vandalen
Volgens de rebellen zelf hebben ze, na hun overwinning, de mensen van Tawarga dertig dagen de tijd gegeven om te vertrekken. Wie bleef, zou gevangen genomen worden, aldus de rebellen die nu de lege stad bezetten. Volgens The Telegraph zijn de bewoners halsoverkop vertrokken en hebben velen niet eens de tijd gehad om persoonlijke spullen mee te nemen. De lege stad is intussen ten prooi gevallen aan vandalen. (belga/adb)

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'Aanval op Kadaffibolwerk Sirte begonnen'

TRIPOLI - Troepen van de nieuwe machthebbers in Libië hebben de aanval geopend op Sirte, een van de laatste bolwerken van de verdreven dictator Muammar Kaddafi.
Foto: AFP

Zij trekken de stad vanuit het westen en vanuit het zuiden binnen. Dit heeft een correspondent van de Arabische nieuwszender al-Jazeera ter plaatse donderdag gemeld.

Later bevestigden een andere Arabische zender en een verklaring van de nieuwe machthebbers het nieuws. Volgens de strijdkrachten van de Nationale Overgangsraad is een ''massief konvooi'' van militairen de thuisstad van Kaddafi binnengedrongen.

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Former U.S. Congressman Walter Fauntroy, who recently returned from a self-sanctioned peace mission to Libya, said he went into hiding for about a month in Libya after witnessing horrifying events in Libya's bloody civil war -- a war that Fauntroy claims is backed by European forces.

Fauntroy's sudden disappearance prompted rumors and news reports that he had been killed.

In an interview inside his Northwest D.C. home last week, the noted civil rights leader, told the Afro that he watched French and Danish troops storm small villages late at night beheading, maiming and killing rebels and loyalists to show them who was in control.

"'What the hell' I'm thinking to myself. I'm getting out of here. So I went in hiding," Fauntroy said.

The rebels told Fauntroy they had been told by the European forces to stay inside. According to Fauntroy, the European forces would tell the rebels, "'Look at what you did.' In other words, the French and Danish were ordering the bombings and killings, and giving credit to the rebels.

"The truth about all this will come out later," Fauntroy said.

While in Libya, the former congressman also said he sat down with Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi for a one-on-one conversation. Gaddafi has ruled Libya since 1969, when he seized power in a military coup.

Fauntroy said he spoke with Gaddafi in person and that Gaddafi assured him that if he survived these attacks, the mission to unite African countries would continue.

"Contrary to what is being reported in the press, from what I heard and observed, more than 90 percent of the Libyan people love Gaddafi," Fauntroy said. "We believe the true mission of the attacks on Gaddafi is to prevent all efforts by African leaders to stop the recolonization of Africa."

Several months ago, Gaddafi's leadership faced its biggest challenge. In February, a radical protest movement called the Arab Spring spread across Libya. When Gaddafi responded by dispatching military and plainclothes paramilitary to the streets to attack demonstrators, it turned into a civil war with the assistance of NATO and the United Nations.

Fauntroy's account could not be immediately verified by the Afro and the U.S. State Department has not substantiated Fauntroy's version of events. Fauntroy was not acting as an official representative of the U.S. in Libya. He returned to Washington, D.C. on Aug. 31.

When rumors spread about Fauntroy being killed he went underground, he told the Afro in an interview. Fauntroy said for more than a month he decided not to contact his family but to continue the mission to speak with African spiritual leaders about a movement to unify Africa despite the Arab uprisings.

"I'm still here," Fauntroy said, pointing to several parts of his body. "I've got all my fingers and toes. I'm extremely lucky to be here."

After blogs and rumors reported Fauntroy had been killed, the congressional office of Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced on Aug. 24, that she had been in touch with authorities who confirmed Fauntroy was safely in the care of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Inside his home, Fauntroy pulled out several memoirs and notebooks to explain why he traveled to Libya at a time when it was going through civil unrest.

"This recent trip to Libya was part of a continuous mission that started under Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he gave me orders to join four African countries on the continent with four in the African Diaspora to restore the continent to its pre-colonial status," Fauntroy said.

"We want Africa to be the breadbasket of the world," he said. "Currently, all the major roads in every country throughout Africa lead to ports that take its natural resources and wealth outside the continent to be sold to the European markets."

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Op donderdag 15 september 2011 14:26 schreef rakotto het volgende:
Propoganda materiaal denk ik.

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Op vrijdag 16 september 2011 08:59 schreef Monidique het volgende:

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Waarschijnlijker is dat die journalisten opschrijven wat ze gezien hebben en dat deze stad inderdaad bedreigd is en gezuiverd door racistische rebellen en jihadisten. Maar ja, Benghazi is tenminste beschermd.

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Op donderdag 15 september 2011 20:03 schreef Chooselife het volgende:
Walter Fauntroy, Feared Dead in Libya, Returns Home—Guess Who He Saw Doing the Killing

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http://afro.com/sections/news/national/story.htm?storyid=72369

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Moammar Gaddafi's fighters have beaten back an attempt by Libya's new government to crush remnants of the old regime, forcing revolutionary troops into retreat in the mountains and turning Gaddafi's seaside hometown into an urban battlefield of snipers firing from mosques and heavy weapons rattling main boulevards.
The tough defense on Friday of the holdout towns of Sirte and Bani Walid displayed the firepower and resolve of the Gaddafi followers and suggested Libya's new rulers may not easily break the back of regime holdouts. It also raised fears the country could face a protracted insurgency of the sort that has played out in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The Gaddafi loyalists have so many weapons," cried Maab Fatel, a 28-year-old revolutionary fighter on the front lines in the mountain enclave of Bani Walid, 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli.

"This battle is really crazy," Fatel said, his uniform splattered with blood from carrying a wounded comrade.

Revolutionary forces began the day by streaming into Bani Walid but pulled back after intense fighting failed to dislodge pro-Gaddafi snipers and gunners from strategic positions. The two sides traded relentless mortar and rocket fire across a 500-yard-wide desert valley called Wadi Zeitoun that divides the town between north and south.

Mohaned Bendalla, a doctor at a field hospital in nearby Wishtata, said at least six rebels were killed and more than 50 were wounded.

Inside the town, a radio station believed linked to one of Gaddafi's main propagandist kept up a steady stream of appeals to fight and rants that demonized the revolutionaries as traitors who did not honor Islamic values.

"These revolutionaries are fighting to drink and do drugs all the time and be like the West, dance all night," the announcer claimed. "We are a traditional tribal society that refuses such things and must fight it." Ahmed Omar Bani, a military spokesman for Libya's transitional government, dismissed such allegations, saying the revolutionary forces' only goal was "to liberate our people." In Sirte, Gaddafi's birthplace on the Mediterranean coast, his backers rained gunfire down from mosque minarets and high-rise buildings on fighters pushing into the city from the west. In the streets the two sides battered each other with high-caliber machine guns, rockets and rocket-propelled grenades.

At one point, a pickup truck filled with revolutionary forces rushed back to the rear lines, its bed bloodied and strewn with the body parts and mangled face of a fighter who had been manning a machine gun. Other fighters shouting "God is great" pulled out his lifeless remains and comforted his partner, the pickup driver.

NATO warplanes swept overhead, but it was unclear whether there were fresh airstrikes to help the anti-Gaddafi advance. The alliance said it struck multiple rocket launchers, air missile systems, armored vehicles and a military storage facility in Sirte on Thursday when revolutionary units launched the offensive.

Gaddafi's spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, said loyalist forces inflicted a heavy blow Friday on their enemies, killing many and taking many others hostage.

"We have the ability to continue this resistance for months," he said in a phone call to Syrian-based Al-Rai TV, which has become the mouthpiece for the former regime.

Ibrahim said some Gaddafi supporters have infiltrated the revolutionary forces and were working to sabotage them from the inside.

Despite the latest setback, Bani, the military spokesman, said Libya's new rulers hoped to liberate the whole country by the end of this month.

The loyalists still hold a swath of Libya along the central coast and into the southern deserts more than three weeks after revolutionary fighters swept into Tripoli and drove out Gaddafi. The whereabouts of the ousted leader and several of his sons remain unknown.

Hundreds of former rebels have massed deep in the southern desert and were trying to negotiate with villagers in a pro-Gaddafi area to surrender peacefully and avoid bloodshed.

The fighters captured an air base about 45 miles (70 kilometers) north of the loyalist stronghold of Sabha on Thursday. Col. Bashir Awidat, who is from the Wadi Shati region, said they need to secure the area before moving against Sabha.

Awidat said two former rebels and four loyalists were killed in the fighting, and that they had taken 14 prisoners.

He added that the villagers had been isolated and believed Gaddafi's propaganda.

"They think that we'll raid their houses and rob them.

The media coverage here has been bad for 42 years and it has trained people to think a certain way, and that will take time to change," he told The Associated Press at the air base.

The new leadership has been gaining international support in its campaign to root out the rest of Gaddafi's regime and establish authority. French President Nicholas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan all visited Tripoli this week.

Erdogan joined Friday prayers in Tripoli's Martyrs' Square, the heart of the city once known as Green Square where Gaddafi's regime threw rallies of supporters before his fall.

"You have shown the whole world that no one can stand before the power and the will of the people," Erdogan told a cheering crowd of thousands. He predicted the Syrian regime would be next to fall, saying "the era of autocracy is ending." The U.N. General Assembly also voted Friday to give Libya's seat in the world body to the National Transitional Council, which is the closest thing the oil-rich North African nation has to a government.

The vote means that a senior council official will be able to join world leaders and speak for Libya at next week's ministerial session of the General Assembly, and participate in meetings.

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HaraldDoornbos twitterde op zaterdag 17-09-2011 om 23:43:09 uiteindelijk mislukte de rebellenaanval op Sirt vandaag. De khadaffi loyalisten waren simpelweg te sterk. totaal 100 gewonden, min 20 doden reageer retweet

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uiteindelijk mislukte de rebellenaanval op Sirt vandaag

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Op zondag 18 september 2011 16:51 schreef Monidique het volgende:
Maakt allemaal niet uit, Benghazi is een ultra-Rwanda bespaard gebleven.

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The Sunday Telegraph said it had found letters and emails which showed Blair, who left office in 2007, met with Gaddafi in June 2008 and April 2009, once using the then Libyan leader's jets and bringing along an American billionaire.