Mercenary Witch Hunt Detains Many Innocents in Libya

By Jasper Fakkert
September 4, 2011

The mercenaries were the most feared and hated men in Libya. Mainly flown in from Chad and Sudan, former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has used them against his own people since February to fight for his crumbling regime.

In the recent battle for Tripoli, where Libya’s rebel army laid siege on the capital, mercenaries were notably deployed as snipers to prevent the rebels from taking full control over parts of the city.

But with Libyan rebels now controlling most parts of the country, including Tripoli, the anger and bloodshed at the hands of the mercenaries has led to a witch hunt for dark African men. Amidst this, rebel fighters are not only to target those who were paid to kill, but also migrant workers and other immigrants who have lived in Libya for decades.

In a report published on Sunday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC), which is now in control of the country, to “stop the arbitrary arrests and abuse of African migrant workers and black Libyans assumed to be mercenaries.”

According to the human rights organization many black Africans are arrested solely because of their dark skin color. “It’s a dangerous time to be dark-skinned in Tripoli,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at HRW, in a press release.

“The NTC has legitimate concerns about unlawful mercenaries and violent activity, but it can’t simply arrest dark-skinned men just in case they think they might be mercenaries,” she said.

Although HRW is condemning the broad crackdown on dark African men, it has confirmed evidence that the Gadhafi regime was recruiting mercenaries from Chad and Sudan. It also discovered a large base that has been used by hundreds of African mercenaries since 2011.

Over the past week hundreds of dark African men, including migrant workers, have been arrested by the rebel forces that are mainly young, armed Libyan men.

The dark Africans are being held in makeshift detention facilities across Tripoli, including a soccer field, according to HRW.

One of them in the detention center, a 60-year-old man from Chad named Othman, was allowed by the rebel security forces to talk to a HRW researcher. He said close to 200 men were being held at the soccer field.

Othman himself said he had been in Libya for 30 years, and had become a Libyan citizen in 1991.

Before the start of a popular uprising in Libya in February this year, there were an estimated 1 million to 2 million African migrant workers in the country. Many of them fled the country after the violence erupted when rebel forces in Eastern Libya took up arms against Gadhafi’s regime.

“African migrants have worked in Libya for many years, often carrying out the most unpleasant jobs, and this is no way to treat those who stayed put during the uprising,” said Whitson.

The reprisal arrests of African men have caused migrant workers to seek safety. The men stay in private homes in large groups, allowing only women to go out to buy food and water.

The HRW researcher visited one such house where 30 Nigerian migrant workers were staying. In one instant last week, armed Libyan men had come into the home searching for weapons. Unable to find anything, they instead took their mobile phones, and money worth the equivalent of $252.

Having overthrown Gadhafi’s rule, and now ruling most parts of the country, Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) is faced with the daunting task of rebuilding the country—including putting judicial processes in place.

Keen to avoid losing its legitimacy, leaders of the NTC have on different occasions urged their fighters not to resort to violence in revenge.

According to HRW, however, the judicial system still falls short. “A prosecutor’s office has apparently assumed control of the Maftuah prison and begun investigations. However to Human Rights Watch’s knowledge no detainees in Tripoli have been brought before a judge to review the legality of their detention,” it states.

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/mercenary-witch-hunt-detains-many-innocents-in-libya-61157.html.

Talks on surrender of Libyan town fail

Mon Sep 5, 2011

Spokesman for Libyan revolutionaries has announced the failure of negotiations aimed at the peaceful surrender of forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi in the town of Bani Walid.

Talks were held on Sunday outside one of Gaddafi's last strongholds of Bani Walid, southeast of the capital Tripoli, AFP reported.

"They (Gaddafi's negotiating team) demanded that the revolutionaries enter Bani Walid without their weapons," said Abdullah Kenshil, a Bani Walid native and the chief negotiator for the Transitional National Council (TNC).

Libyan fighters say loyalists of Gaddafi in his bastion are a small but heavily armed minority group that stokes fear to keep other people in the town from surrendering.

Negotiations with tribal leaders in the besieged town of Bani Walid started several days ago with the aim of capturing the town without bloodshed.

Revolutionary forces say they are now waiting for a green light from their leadership to launch a final attack on the town.

Kenshil said that Gaddafi forces in Bani Walid, numbering between 30 and 50 men “well-armed, with machine-guns, rocket-launchers and snipers,” had been assured they would be treated well if they surrendered.

On Saturday, revolutionaries, having moved within 15 to 20 kilometers of Bani Walid, set a deadline of 0800 GMT Sunday for pro-Gaddafi forces to give up.

The interim leadership has announced a temporary truce until September 10 for forces in Bani Walid as well as in Gaddafi's hometown of Sirt to lay down their arms.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/197450.html.

Egyptians urge expulsion of Saudi envoy

Mon Sep 5, 2011

Hundreds of Egyptians have gathered outside Saudi Arabia's embassy in Cairo to demand the expulsion of the Saudi ambassador.

The demonstrators staged the rally on Sunday to protest against the alleged mistreatment of Egyptians pilgrims in the kingdom, Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Alyoum reported.

“We demand the expulsion of the Saudi ambassador to Egypt,” read a large banner posted in front of the Saudi Embassy in Cairo.

Thousands of Egyptian pilgrims were stranded at Jeddah airport in Saudi Arabia. They accused the Saudi authorities of failing to arrange enough flights to get them home after the Umrah pilgrimage at the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Some Egyptian pilgrims complained of being left outside the airport building in the heat of the sun for hours without access to any water.

A female pilgrim claimed she had been slapped in the face by a Saudi policeman while she was performing rituals in the city of Mecca.

Riyadh has denied the allegations, saying flight delays did not take place only for Egyptians.

Some pilgrims said the reason for the mistreatment by Saudi airport officials and security forces was that they were angry at Egyptians for their historic revolution that toppled the US-backed regime of Honsi Mubarak, who had close ties with Saudi Arabia.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/197463.html.

'Blackwater stayed in Iraq despite ban'

Sun Sep 4, 2011

Leaked US diplomatic cables show that hundreds of notorious US security contractor Blackwater's employees continued to operate in Iraq despite Baghdad having revoked the firm's license.

“There are many former Blackwater employees at other private security companies in Iraq," said a January 4, 2010 cable, leaked by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, AFP reported on Sunday.

Another cable from January 11, 2010, which was similarly exposed by the website, said, "The [US] embassy understands that Triple Canopy (another US security firm) currently employs several hundred former Blackwater employees."

Blackwater, which has changed its name to Xe Services, LLC, is notorious for misusing its US State Department-issued gun license as an excuse for committing atrocities.

On September 16, 2007, guards hired by the company opened fire in Baghdad's Nisoor square, killing 17 Iraqi citizens in an act of aggression, which Iraqi officials have described as 'unprovoked.'

In January 2009 and in response to the bloodshed, the Iraqi government said it would not renew the company's license to operate.

Reports say the company also continues to be extensively involved in Afghanistan, where Washington has deployed thousand of forces.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/197405.html.

Yemenis call for intensified protests

Sun Sep 4, 2011

Yemeni protesters have held demonstrations in several cities across the country, calling for intensified anti-regime protests until victory is achieved, Press TV reports.

Demonstrators took to the streets on Sunday, one day after the chairman of the Yemeni National Council rejected a deal initiated by the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Mohammed Basindwah warned on Saturday that the Yemeni opposition would accept the deal unless Ali Abdullah Saleh resigns first.

“We have a plan of escalating peaceful protests to stave Yemen off bloodshed, chaos and civil war that is being plotted by Saleh's regime, “ Basindwah said in a meeting of the 143-member National Council in the capital, Sana'a.

On Saturday, Yemenis once again rallied against the US and Saudi interference in their country's internal affairs. Demonstrators accused Riyadh and Washington of making efforts to save Saleh's ailing regime.

Saleh and five other high-ranking officials fled to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment following a rocket attack on the Yemeni presidential palace in Sana'a on June 3.

The Yemeni opposition also demands the exclusion of granting Saleh and his family immunity from prosecution from the [P]GCC-brokered deal.

Hundreds of people have been killed and many more injured in Yemen since January as a result of the brutal crackdown on anti-government protests by military forces and thugs loyal to Saleh.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/197407.html.

Gaza school children plagued by siege

Mon Sep 5, 2011

Hamas Deputy Minister of Education Mohammed Abu Shkeir says Israel's siege on the Gaza Strip has caused troubles for school children in the enclave, Press TV reported.

"There are about 400,000 school children in Gaza schools, including governmental, UN-run, and private schools," he told Press TV.

"There are shortcomings in classrooms and students have to study in two shifts due to lack of schools, which is a direct result to the blockade," the Hamas official added.

More than 80 percent of public and UN schools work double shifts in the morning and evening due to lack of classrooms, according to figures released by UNICEF.

Israel's blockade, which has been imposed on the sliver since 2007, has caused poverty among families and put children at risk of school dropout and psychological distress.

Tel Aviv's restrictions on importing construction material into Gaza has forced schools to place students in cramped rooms and cut the class time by third.

Private school owner Umaima Abulkheir said families, who could afford private schools in previous years, are not able to enroll their children in these schools this year because of high cost of living and unemployment.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/197469.html.

Bahraini teen's family to sue Manama

Sun Sep 4, 2011

The family of a teenage boy killed by the Saudi-backed regime forces in Bahrain plans to file a lawsuit against the Manama regime, Press TV reports.

Ali Jawad's family has decided to lodge their complaint with an international court.

The 14-year-old boy died on Wednesday after a tear gas canister fired by Bahraini forces struck his head during an anti-government protest after the Eid al-Fitr prayers.

Meanwhile, a Bahraini physician working at Salmaniya Hospital told Press TV that the authorities have jailed 20 doctors for treating anti-regime protesters.

Ebrahim al-Araadi, who is now in Europe, said 12 of the medical personnel are on an open-ended hunger strike, adding that at least two of them have slipped into comas.

Al-Araadi said Bahrain's medical society is going to take legal action against the regime.

On Saturday, tens of thousands of anti-regime demonstrators attended the third and final day of Jawad's funeral ceremonies in the Bahraini city of Sitra. Several protesters were injured when Saudi-backed regime forces opened fire on them.

Jawad was killed just three days after a televised speech by Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on August 28, in which he announced a decision to pardon the demonstrators arrested during the popular uprising that began in February.

Immediately after the speech, demonstrations were held by Bahrainis, who deemed the remarks an insult to the hundreds of political activists held in regime prisons and the majority of the Bahraini people, who have turned against the Al Khalifa dictators.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/197431.html.