| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa North |
| Andrew Malone: Back to bloody anarchy |
| 2012-07-08 |
| On a baking hot day this week, the people of Libya's most prosperous city flocked to the beach and splashed in the cooling waters of the Mediterranean. Such happy scenes were unthinkable in Misrata a year ago, when the world watched in horror as Muammar Gaddafi's forces encircled and besieged this port city, unleashing what he called the 'forces of Hell'. Today, a year on from the horrors endured by ordinary Libyans, Misrata's buildings remain riddled with holes from bullets and tank shells. But shops and cafes are open. There are funfairs for children. And there are those families enjoying the beach. Yet there is one stretch of sand where no soul ever ventures. This is an area of scrub and dunes just back from the sandy coves. Called Funduq Al-Jannah - Arabic for Heaven Hotel - it is an execution ground where up to 1,000 of Gaddafi's fighters were taken by the victorious rebel army, then slaughtered in cold-blooded vengeance. Many of the victims were from Tawerga, a town 30 miles from here, where some 50,000 black Libyans once lived in happy co-existence with their neighbours in Misrata. But since Gaddafi fell, the rebels have been targeting its black population in indiscriminate revenge attacks for the despot's deployment of thousands of African mercenaries recruited from outside the country against them. Some Tawergans undoubtedly took money to join Gaddafi's forces. But vast numbers never joined in the fighting - and are being attacked simply because their skin colour is associated with Gaddafi's mercenaries. Today, Tawerga has been ethnically cleansed of its black Libyans, and largely destroyed. Militia fighters regularly drive out there from Misrata to make sure none of the population have sneaked back in. Signs bearing the town's name have been painted over. What remains of the shattered homes, shops and restaurants have been daubed with vile graffiti: 'Black dogs! No blacks.' Some 25,000 Tawergans have now been placed in 'refugee camps', which are, in effect, little more than prisons.The people in these camps do not dare leave: Misrata militias scour the country for anyone from Tawerga and regularly kidnap and torture black Libyans suspected of helping Gaddafi. And even in the camps, fortified with barbed wire and watched by armed guards, the refugees are not safe from the marauding militias. A report from Amnesty International this week warns the country is in the 'stranglehold' of hundreds of militias acting above the law. Medical charities now refuse to work in Misrata. They pulled out after accusing rebels of bringing torture victims in for treatment - only to take them back for more torture once their wounds had recovered sufficiently for their bodies to cope. In recent days, one Libyan journalist was abducted by Misrata militias from the seafront in Tripoli, the capital, after saying these armed groups are out of control and need a 'stick taken to them'. The killings highlight the bitter divisions and violence in Libya as its people vote today in their first election for a 200-member national assembly that will name a prime minister, enact legislation and appoint a committee to draft a constitution. For the truth is that, since Gaddafi fell, Libya has been run by a National Transitional Council which has overseen a descent into anarchy. With the country descending into a spiral of lawlessness and revenge, and with no national army to impose order, people all over this vast country are stock-piling weapons. So bad has the situation been that some want the Nato-backed rebels to be tried for war crimes. The tragic irony is that Britain, France and the U.S. imposed a no-fly zone and helped overthrow Gaddafi to stop him committing war crimes. For [the] election, thousands of police have been ordered on to the streets to show the world that Libya is safe. But the police are the only people in this country without guns: the militia fighters who overthrew Gaddafi with the help of British-backed Nato airstrikes say they cannot be trusted with weapons. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #2 I agree with Bman. The new black panthers might learn the difference between American whites and their "friends" in the third world. Al |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2012-07-08 11:33 |
| #1 Holder needs to send in the new black panthers to protect his people. |
| Posted by: bman 2012-07-08 10:23 |