GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A face-to-face meeting between US government officials and representatives of Muammar Qaddafi’s Libyan regime did not constitute “talks” and there were no negotiations, according to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Tuesday 19. Rather, the US met with Qaddafi envoys to state that the US has now recognized the rebels fighting Qaddafi as the legitimate representatives of the country and to repeat the American demand that Qadaffi leave.
The meeting reportedly took place 16 July, a day after the US and several other governments meeting in Istanbul, agreed to recognize the rebels, based in the east of the country.
Links to other sites: Alarabiya, Reuters, Sky News, US State Department briefing 15 July
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee late Tuesday 28 June authorized the use of limited Nato air strikes in Libya, but said no to the use of ground troops. The Senate remains divided over the legality of President Barack Obama’s call for the US to actively participate in Nato’s Libyan campaign and the committee’s 14-5 vote is now likely to prompt a full debate in the Senate this week. At issue: whether the president needs the permission of Congress, under a 1973 law, the War Powers Resolution, that requires a president to obtain permission from Congress for hostilities lasting more than 60 days.
The Senate’s actions come a few days after the House refused to support Obama’s Libya programme.
Links to others sites: AFP, Times of India, Washington Post
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Muammar Qadaffi is back in the headlines, with the International Criminal Court in the Hague issuing an arrest warrant for him on charges of crimes against humanity, Monday 27 June, and US Senator Mike Turner sparking debate by telling Foreign Policy magazine that Nato is trying to kill the Libyan leader. South African leader Jacob Zuma has objected strongly, reports allAfrica: “The intention of the United Nations Security Council authorizing military action against Libya was ‘to protect the Libyan people’ and ‘not to authorize a campaign for regime change or political assassination,’ President Jacob Zuma of South Africa has told fellow members of an African Union panel on Libya.”
Geneva-based IOM (International Organization for Migration) reports that while 44,000 Chadians have managed to flee Libya since the fighting began, scores are currently stranded in the desert after six weeks, with little access to food or water and an emergency effort to try to get supplies to them got underway Tuesday 28 June.
“Thousands of stranded migrants, including large numbers of women and children, are in desperate need of immediate food, water, shelter and medical assistance after having spent many weeks living in the open in the southern Libyan desert, an IOM assessment team has found as the Organization looks into ways to evacuate them to safety. So far, more than 2,000 Chadian migrants have been discovered by IOM in Gatroun and Sebha, though these figures could grow as the team continues with its assessment in the area.”
The head of the assessment team says that conditions for the group “are brutal in the desert heat with no protection from the sun, wind or sand and no access to water, food or sanitation.”
Unusually large numbers of women and children, elderly signals long-time labourers fleeing
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Concern over Libya’s use of landmines in the conflict that began in February, and praise for Nigeria, which has destroyed its last landmines, have been part of the agenda at meetings in Geneva of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention’s Standing Committees.
The meetings are taking place from 20 to 24 June and constitute one of the largest annual gatherings of landmines experts and diplomats. Over 400 delegates representing more than 100 States and dozens of international and non-governmental organizations are taking part.
A new publication was launched 22 June as part of the meetings, “Assisting Landmine and Other ERW Survivors in the Context of Disarmament, Disability and Development”. It points out at the start that “the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention set a precedent in incorporating a legal obligation to assist victims and survivors, no matter how tentative, into an international instrument governing conventional weapons”.
Libyan use of AP mines spotted in March
“New use of anti-personnel mines in Libya was first reported in March and condemned by the Nobel Peace Prize-laureate International Campaign to Ban Landmines”, the AP Mine Ban Convention’s secretariat said in a statement.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Geneva and the Bangladesh government have worked out a programme to reimburse the country’s workers who fled Libya, with help from the IOM. Each of the 36,500 workers forced to return to Bangladesh will be allocated $680 in repatriation funds, the IOM says.
More than one million people have fled Libya since February, when the conflict began there.
The IOM to be reimbursed $12.6m
“The agreement, financed by a $40 million World Bank loan to Bangladesh signed in May, will also reimburse to IOM $12.6m – the repatriation costs of 10,000 of the nearly 31,000 Bangladeshi workers that IOM flew home during the early days of the crisis, mainly from Tunisia and Egypt,” the IOM announced 13 June.
The IOM is currently finalizing its database. The grants will be disbursed starting in mid-July, with the IOM responsible for establishing a database of all those returning, verifying their documents and transferring money to their banks.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – China’s Xinhua news agency is reporting, based on an eyewitness report, that a major fire has broken out in the Qaddafi compound in Tripoli, without further details. The agency’s reporter in Tripoli earlier reported that several major explosions rocked the city Tuesday afternoon 7 June after Nato warplanes flew over the city.
Nato 6 June said that early in the day “aircraft struck a command and control target in Tripoli, specifically a key Qadhafi regime intelligence headquarters building.
Rachid Hamdani and Max Goeldi, kidnapped by Libya after all, says Switzerland (photo: Amnesty International)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss government decided Monday morning 6 June to allow its federal public prosecutor to bring criminal charges against Libya for kidnapping, extortion and blackmail, in relation to the 2008-2010 case of two Swiss businessman nabbed by the Qaddafi regime.
Switzerland for a period avoided using the word “kidnapping” to describe the case of Max Goeldi and Rachid Hamdani, who were held for several months by Libya starting in 2008. Once the pair was released, Hamdani in 2009 and Goeldi 14 June 2010, just short of two cases in Goeldi’s case, the Swiss government’s cautious language became firmer, but it stopped short of accusing Libya of crimes.
The two were working for Swiss companies when they were pulled in by Libyan authorities, held for several months without being charged, then eventually charged for visa irregularities although both had been legally working in the country for months. Amnesty International took up their cause, and the Swiss government went through painful negotiations to obtain their release. In recent months some of the behind-the-scenes dealings have come to light, making Libya’s role appear more capricious than was previously apparent.
Updae 20:15 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Two Geneva UN agencies working with survivors of the latest shipwreck linked to the Libyan exodus have provided figures from local authorities about the number lost at sea. UNHCR said Friday evening that those figures have been withdrawn by officials and the Geneva agencies are checking furthers.
UNHCR’s revised details of the situation are as follows:
“At least 150 people have drowned and scores remain missing following a boat capsizing off the Tunisian coast on Wednesday afternoon. This appears to be one of the worst and the deadliest incidents in the Mediterranean so far this year. The overcrowded boat carried an estimated 850 people mostly from West Africa, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It set sail on Saturday afternoon from the Libyan capital Tripoli and was headed for Lampedusa in Italy.
“UNHCR’s team in Tunisia spoke to some of the survivors who said that the boat was manned by people with little or no maritime experience. It ran into difficulties soon after departure and experienced problems with its steering and power. Effectively lost at sea, by the third day of the journey the passengers ran out of food and water. The boat ultimately ran aground on Wednesday on a sandbank near the Kerkennah islands, some 300 km north-west of Tripoli. It capsized as desperate passengers rushed to one side, seeking rescue by the Tunisian coast guard and fishing boats that had approached the vessel. Many fell into the water. Women and children are among the missing.
“Seven people, including two pregnant women, are in intensive care in hospitals in Sfax on mainland Tunisia, about 40 km west of the Kerkennah islands. The rescue operation by the Tunisian navy and coast guard is still continuing. Yesterday, 195 survivors were transferred to the IFRC camp near Ras Adjir close to Tunisia’s border with Libya. Today, another 383 are scheduled to be transported to this and other nearby camps where they will receive counseling and other help.”
The International Organization for Migration in Geneva says that 453,000 of the 900,000 people who have fled Libya since the start of the conflict have escaped to neighbouring Tunisia.
Ed. note: GenevaLunch, like most businesses in Switzerland, is taking a four-day weekend. Our news today is brief headline stories.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Nato forces pummeled the centre of Tripoli and the area around the Qaddafi compound early Tuesday 24 May, with 20 strikes in less than an hour, reports The Guardian. The attacks are being described by observers as the heaviest in the two months since Nato began hitting Libya. The extent of the damage is not yet clear, although one person was reportedly killed and a dozen people injured. France confirmed Monday that it will, along with Britain, send attack helicopters to help better target the air strikes. Nato says that since operations began in mid-March it has launched more than 3,000 strikes.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, Guardian, Nato on Twitter
(GenevaLunch) – Nato air strikes targeted the Qaddafi compound in Tripoli Thursday 12 May, just hours after Muammar Qaddafi appeared on television for the first time in two weeks. Reports of two men killed by the latest attacks are coming from foreign journalists in the city, with several others injured, mainly suffering smoke inhalation.
Qaddafi met with government officials in a Tripoli hotel, where the TV show was filmed, but journalists staying at the hotel said they did not see him, a contrast to well-heralded past appearances, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, control of the Misrata airport appears to be confused, with both rebels and government troops claiming they hold it.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Tamoil’s controversial refinery on the cantons Vaud and Valais border, is set to begin operating again. The refinery is owned by Dutch group Oilinvest, which is owned by a Libyan government investment fund. The refinery at Collombey, near Lausanne, has been plagued by political problems because of its Libyan links as well as accusations from locals and nature groups including WWF of dirtying the nearby Rhone River.
The refinery closed for repairs in March but is now scheduled to gear up fully by the end of May.
AP reports that the 50,000 barrel-a-day refinery accounts for 42 percent of fuels produced in Switzerland, with Petroplus Holdings’s Cressier plant able to process 68,000 barrels of oil daily.
Details of drama gradually coming to light, Europe may see more refugees
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A boat carrying 600 people fleeing Libya foundered shortly after leaving the country’s capital Friday 6 May and the number of people lost is still unknown, according to UNHCR‘s (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) chief spokesperson, Melissa Fleming. Almost 2,400 people, including many women and children, arrived on five boats at the Italian islands of Lampedusa and Linosa the weekend of 7-8 May. The IOM (International Organization for Migration) has also been monitoring the situation closely, and the two Geneva-based humanitarian agencies say details remain murky for now.
Survivors and family members reported to UNHCR before Friday’s disaster that other vessels fleeing Libya have been running into problems, and there are as many as 800 people unaccounted for.
Europe is new goal for those desperate enough to escape by sea
Since the Libyan crisis started, Europe has received fewer than 2 percent of those escaping the conflict, with most people escaping to Egypt and Tunisia, but this latest in the long string of unsafe sea crossings highlights a shift – an increasing number of people risking the dangerous journey by sea.
More than 11,000 migrants of various nationalities have arrived in Italy from Libya since the crisis started in mid-February.
“All five boats needed rescuing by the Italian coastguard and maritime police, with one boat running aground close to the Lampedusa shore. Yesterday three bodies washed ashore, thought to have been passengers from the boat that ran aground,” says Fleming.
Migrants who witnessed the accident Friday and who were waiting on land changed their minds about getting to Italy by sea, but Libyan soldiers and officials fired their guns indirectly to force them onto a waiting boat, the IOM reports.
The vessels used by people fleeing Libya are often not seaworthy and overloaded. UNHCR first appealed in early April to European countries to establish more reliable and effective mechanisms for sea rescue.
“We reiterate that call today,” Fleming says. The UNHCR is also calling for all Mediterranean shipmasters to provide aid to people in distress. “UNHCR urges states, commercial shipping companies and others present in the Mediterranean to consider that all boats leaving Libya for Europe are likely to require assistance.”
The IOM hopes to continue evacuating migrants from Misrata to help prevent more disasters. With funding from the Australian, British, German, Irish and US governments, and the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civilian Protection Office, the IOM says it has already evacuated more than 6,000 people from Misrata to Benghazi.
ICRC has started clearing unexploded munitions around Libyan cities; reports of children injured
Misrata, Libya evacuations led by the IOM: six shiploads have carried out civilians, but refugees are also fleeing overland, across the desert (©2011 IOM)
Update 14:55 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A disturbing new picture is emerging of the desperate straits of those fleeing Libya overland to Chad, says the IOM (International Organization for Migration).
The Geneva-based organization in its latest media update, 6 May, on efforts to evacuate civilians from the strife-torn country, says that five people have died after arriving in Faya, in northern Chad and some 100 are hospitalized.
“The temperature here in the Sahara is above 50 degrees centigrade. Those who manage to arrive are extremely dehydrated and physically exhausted by such a demanding journey. They have just made a two week trip across the desert without food and water on an open and crammed vehicle in the full sun. There are no towns along the route to stop at and get supplies. There are no roads here, just desert sand,” says IOM’s chief of mission in Chad, Qasim Sufi.
The IOM reports that the journey “has been too much for some, with”more than 100 migrants including children . . . currently hospitalized in Faya with severe dehydration, respiratory, gastro-intestinal infections and injuries.”
The number of people fleeing overland, across the desert, appears to be rising dramatically, with 14 trucks, arriving in Faya this week and another 14 said to be en route. The IOM estimates, based in part on reports from those arriving, that “40,000 Chadians in the southern Libyan town of Gatroun, mostly women and children [are] reported to be in a desperate and pitiful condition. ‘People are telling us that these migrants have no food, water, shelter or sanitation. After many weeks like this, and in these temperatures, they cannot survive for much longer,” says Sufi. ‘We have to be able to access them to help them otherwise they could just die.’”
The IOM has to date taken more than 6,000 people from Faya to final destinations in Chad, but 3,700 await transport, in a transit camp designed for 900 people.
International Red Cross working closely with Libyan Red Crescent Society to find unexploded munitions
The ICRC in Geneva says it began 3 May to clear unexploded munitions in areas in Libya where the fighting has been heavy, notably around Ajdabiya, Misrata and Benghazi. Several children have reportedly been injured and the ICRC is working with the Libyan Red Crescent Society both to identify likely contaminated areas and to education the population to the danger.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The US Mission in Geneva announced Thursday 5 May that the US government is providing an additional $6.5 million to help the International Organization for Migration evacuate civilians and people who have been wounded by the fighting in Libya, from the port in Misrata. The new funds bring to $53.5m the amount the US has contributed for humanitarian aid in the region since the fighting began in Libya.
Mark Toner, acting deputy spokesperson, said in a statement that “the United States condemns the Qadhafi regime’s continued brutal attacks on the Libyan people in violation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which calls for a stop to all attacks on civilians and an immediate ceasefire. In particular, we urge the Qadhafi regime to cease hostilities in Misrata port and to allow the International Organization for Migration and other organizations to provide much needed relief and evacuation services to civilians caught up in the Libyan conflict. This includes taking all measures to facilitate international efforts to evacuate third-country nationals and wounded Libyans from the port city of Misrata.”
The IOM said Thursday that it had completed its sixth evacuation since early April with the Red Star One ship, but was able to carry out only 800 instead of the planned 1,000 persons after it had to leave the port quickly to avoid shelling. GenevaLunch reported earlier that according to the IOM those leaving are now facing not only shelling but landmines.
The IOM’s humanitarian evacuation programme out of Misrata has until now been funded by the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civilian Protection Office (Echo), Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID), Germany, Ireland and Australia.
“We did our best and took everyone we could in a very short time, including Libyan women and children whose relatives had been wounded,” an IOM staff person told the Geneva office by satellite phone from the ship Wednesday morning. Geneva staff reported that the sound of continuous gun fire could be heard in the background during the satellite communication.
The group delivered 180 tons of humanitarian aid comprising food, non-food and medical supplies before the boat departed for Benghazi. To date 2,000 tons of aid have been delivered to the port and nearly 6,000 people have been evacuated during the lifesaving missions, says the IOM.
This is the sixth life-saving rescue mission to Misrata successfully carried out by IOM since early April. In that time, the Organization has delivered almost 2,000 tons of humanitarian aid to the besieged city and safely brought back to Benghazi about 6,000 stranded migrants, wounded civilians and their families.
IOM’s humanitarian evacuation programme out of Misrata is funded by the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civilian Protection Office (ECHO), Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID), Germany, Ireland and Australia.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The IOM (International Organization for Migration) and other Geneva-based humanitarian aid groups, including the ICRC (International Red Cross), say the situation has worsened for civilians and the injured trying to flee the fighting around Misrata, Libya.
The IOM mentions that civilians are facing not only shelling but landmines laid in the area around the port, their lifeline to liberty.
The latest Red Star One rescue boat left Misrata Wednesday with only 800 people aboard, including a group of 20 journalists and doctors, instead of the 1,000 that IOM hoped to pick up:
“Heavy shelling of Misrata in addition to mines having been laid had prevented the IOM boat from docking for five days. The fighting had forced at least 1,000 migrants who had been waiting at the port to be evacuated to flee the area.
IOM had been hoping to rescue about 1,000 stranded migrants in addition to evacuating the most serious medical cases . . . the IOM team leader on the boat Othman Belbeisi reported that hundreds of Libyan civilians had also tried to board the ship in desperation to get out of Misrata. But with a limited capacity, the ramp of the boat had to be pulled up so that the ship could pull away from the dock in safety.”
The Norwegian Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre in Geneva says that at least 106,000 Libyans are now internally displaced by the fighting inside the country, many of them having been forced to move several times since the war broke out in mid-February.
Attacks on embassies and United Nations offices in Tripoli, Libya, are prompting international staff to leave: Turkey closed its embassy Monday, the New York Times is reporting, the British embassy was ransacked and burned according to the BBC, and the United Nations says it has told all its staff to leave the country.
The attacks in the past day are being linked by diplomats to the death of the youngest son of Muammar Qadaffi, Saif al-Arab, and three of Qadaffi’s grandchildren, in a Nato-led bombing attack Saturday 30 April.
Britain Sunday expelled the Libyan ambassador in protest against the Qadaffi regime’s failure to protect the British embassy in Tripoli.
Links to other sites: Ria Novosti, Tripoli Post, UN News Centre
Critically injured French journalist part of 935 rescued Wednesday from Misrata
Update 17:35 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The IOM (International Organization for Migration) and the International Red Cross (ICRC) say the Red Star One, a ship that left Benghazi, in eastern Libya late Tuesday 26 April for Misrata to deliver medical supplies and pick up 1,000 refugees, was forced to wait offshore until Wednesday morning, due to heavy fighting in the area. Reuters reported Wednesday morning that one migrant from Niger was killed by the shelling and up to 20 people reportedly injured.
IOM says in a statement issued Wednesday evening that the ship is safely en route to Benghazi and is expected to land there Thursday morning. “Among the 935 evacuees are 848 Nigeriens and small groups of Sudanese, Egyptians and Tunisians as well as 30 Libyan medical cases and 50 accompanying family members. Also on board are a group of journalists being taken out of Misrata, including a French journalist who had been shot in the neck and now in intensive care.”
Fifth ship with migrants makes it out of Misrata
The ship was making its fifth refugee pickup at the port city. The IOM warns that another 500 are waiting for help near the port and that people in the area say the number may be closer to 1,500 when those who ran from the area, as shelling started, return.
It had been loaded with 160 tons of food and medical supplies, according to the IOM, including two new ambulances to help transport casualties to Misrata’s Ras Touba hospital and from the hospital to the port area for medical evacuation.
A specialized medical team of 11, including personnel from the International Medical Corps, was on board the Red Star One to take care of up to 25 war-wounded, including 4 patients requiring intensive care.
More than 625,000 have fled Libya since March
Wednesday’s statement notes:
“So far, IOM has rescued 5,512 people, the vast majority stranded migrant workers from more than 21 nationalities, including Nigeriens, Bangladeshis, Ghanaians, Nigerians, Egyptians and Tunisians as well as hundreds of Libyans, many of them war-wounded.
From Benghazi, IOM provides the migrants onward land transportation to the Egyptian border at Sallum. Since it began a land evacuation from Benghazi to Sallum on 3 March, IOM has evacuated more than 8,000 migrants from Benghazi to the Egyptian border before taking them to their home countries.
IOM’s humanitarian evacuation programme out of Misrata is funded by the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civilian Protection Office (ECHO), Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID), Germany, Ireland and Australia.
Nearly 626,000 people have fled Libya and crossed into Tunisia, Egypt, Niger, Algeria, Chad, and Sudan with some of them putting their lives in great danger to reach the shores of Italy and Malta.”
Two Geneva-based organizations at centre of Libyan aid and evacuation say more funds needed
The UNHCR is appealing for $160 million or the Libyan evacuation. It has to date received $68 million.
The ICRC earlier in April opened an appeal for $24 million for the Libya crisis, mainly for food, water, medical care, sanitation and hygiene, for 100,000 people inside the country and another 100,000 crossing the border into Tunisia. Its director-general, Yves Daccord, is interviewed on the ICRC site about the funding crunch, as state donors are providing less and the needs are growing.
The embattled port city of Misrata in Libya has been under heavy attack late Tuesday and Wednesday 27 April, possibly the worst attacks to date, but the picture remains unclear. CNN reports that government troops appear to have shelled areas near the port where refugees are camped, and Nato bombs are being used to fight back pro-Qadaffi forces. Some witnesses have told CNN the shelling was actually 21 miles away, at Tawargha. Reuters reports that Qadaffi forces lost 31 military vehicles to Nato strikes and retreated from the port area during the night but had regrouped in an area 10 miles north of Misrata Wednesday.
The United Nations agency for children affairs, Unicef, appealed for a ceasefire in Lybia saying at least 20 children had been killed in attacks by government forces.
Anthony Lake, Unicef’s Executive Director said at least 20 children have been killed and countless others have been injured in the city of Misrata in Libya.
“Reports of the use of cluster munitions are particularly alarming,” saysLake.
According to Unicef, the situation is also critical in Yemen, where at least 26 children have been killed and more than 800 have been injured since early February.
In Syria, Unicef reports,nine children were killed and many injured over the last few weeks.
Links: Unicef, GenevaLunch
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The situation in Misrata, Libya is “desperate” says officials at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Geneva, which has oversaw the evacuation Sunday 17 April, between bombardments and shooting, of some 1,000 civilians. The IOM says that of the 100 Libyans on board, some were wounded in the fighting that is raging in and around the city: one person is an amputee, and another is a five-year-old child shot in the face.
The group had 650 Ghanaians but also included various other migrant nationalities including Filipinos and Ukrainians, says the IOM.
The organization is pleading urgently for more resources and help, with an additional 4,000 people stranded, waiting by the docks but trapped by the fighting in Misrata.
“‘We wanted to be able to take more people out but it was not possible. Although the exchange of fire subsided while we were boarding with an eerie silence at one point, we had a very limited time to get the migrants and Libyans on board the ship and then leave,’ says Jeremy Haslam, who is leading the IOM rescue operations on the boat,” the IOM notes in a press release issued Monday morning.
“The boat, the Ionian Spirit, is now en route to the eastern Libyan port city of Benghazi, where it should arrive later today. In the coming days, those migrants able to travel will be taken by IOM by road to the Libyan-Egyptian border at Salum from where they will be assisted to return to their home countries.”
A group of ministers met Wednesday 13 April to discuss plans for Libya’s future, and they are set to meet monthly for the foreseeable future. The so-called ‘contact group’ discussed the possibility of creating an international fund to aid Libya’s eastern rebels, and the status and future of the international military aid to the country. Conspicuously absent from the meeting was former Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa.
Some ministers are pushing for increased air-strikes to impose a swift and decisive change to the situation in Libya, amid fears of an expensive and bloody stalemate developing. It is British and French forces who are taking the front seat in terms of air strikes, since the recent stepping back of the US. State Department spokesman Mark Toner is quoted by Reuters as saying, “We feel like we’ve contributed a great deal to the success of this operation thus far. Our role has receded in this mission.”
Libyan rebels have recently rejected attempts from the African Union to negotiate a peace deal, declaring that they will not accept any peace deal terms that include a role for Muammar Qaddafi. According to Reuters, the eastern Libyan rebel national council are having little to no success thus far in ousting Qaddafi, despite international backing.
Links to other sites: Reuters Africa, The Guardian, CNN
Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi has appealed to US President Barack Obama in a letter to end what he called “an unjust war”, but the White House is shrugging off the appeal, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying at a press briefing that Qaddafi “knows what he has to do”.
The deputy foreign minister of the Qaddafi regime told reporters in Tripoli that British planes had attacked a major oilfield Wednesday, killing civilians and workers, but the Guardian says the information has not been confirmed by the British Defence Ministry. The reported hits follow complaints from rebel that Nato was not giving them adequate support to take over the oilfield.
Links to other sites: BBC, Guardian, Reuters, White House briefing,
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Some 250 people are feared dead, 40km off the Italian island of Lampedusa, after rough seas sank a badly overloaded boat filled with refugees fleeing Libya, reports Geneva-based IOM (International Organization for Migration). The accident occurred in the early hours of Wednesday 6 April.
The boat was carrying about 300 people. The Italian Coast Guard rescued 47 people and a fishing boat three. Only two of the 40 women on board survived. Five children were also on board, but their fate is unclear.
IOM officers working on Lampedusa say those rescued told them that “when rescuers arrived, the boat was already sinking. Survivors managed to swim towards the approaching Coast Guard ship. Many drowned because they couldn’t swim or were dragged down by desperate fellow passengers.”
Lampedusa has taken in 20,000 refugees from Libya since the start of February, causing severe problems of overcrowding. More than 2,000 arrived in the past week alone.
A debate is heating up over who will serve as the new Libyan envoy to the United Nations, as defections from the Qaddafi regime mount up.
Two figures whose names were put forwarde as the next envoy have both resigned: former Libyan Foreign Minister Abdessalam Treki and recent Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, who is now in the UK and facing questioning over his involvement in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. Recent reports suggest that the ex-foreign minister of Nicaragua, Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, may take up the position. However, it is uncertain whether Brockmann, who has only a tourist visa for the US, would be allowed to fill the role.
Libya’s deputy UN ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi claims, “We know that most of the high Libyan officials are trying to defect, but most of them are under tight security measures and they cannot leave the country.”
Links to other websites: CNN, Aljazeera, Wall Street Journal
Situation becoming desperate as funds to evacuate dry up, human smugglers find victims
Some 84,000 migrants evacuated from Libya have been sent home, but another 75,000 will need help
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The International Organization for Migration, at its weekly Friday briefing in Geneva, has asked for “donor stamina” in the face of fresh appeals for funding to help thousands of migrant workers to escape the conflict in Libya.
The group is making a fresh appeal for $160 million to ensure that evacuations can continue. The $44 million pledged until now falls “far short” of what is needed, says the IOM, and human smugglers are starting to take advantage of the situation to offer to take those fleeing the fighting to Europe.
Some 84,000 migrants have been helped by the IOM, the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) and other humanitarian groups, to reach their homes after fleeing the fighting.
In total, more than 410,ooo people have fled Libya in the past month.
Another 75,000 migrants are expected to need help getting home in coming days, according to the IOM. Caring for and organizing their repatriation will cost an additional $160,000, says the Geneva organization.
The IOM notes in a statement 1 April:
“[New funds] would also enable the continued provision of humanitarian assistance such as food and medical attention at the border areas, travel health checks for all those being evacuated and health referrals for particularly vulnerable people in addition to providing reintegration assistance to some of the returning Tunisian and Egyptian migrants.
“This is the third IOM appeal since the Libyan crisis began. So far, the Organization has either been pledged or received US$44 million, far short of what is required.
“As a result, funding for IOM operations have now dried up. IOM has been forced to dramatically reduce the number of people it can evacuate on a daily basis from more than 6,000 a day at the height of its operations to a bare minimum.
“This is despite the fact that at least 6,000 people are fleeing Libya each day towards Egypt and Tunisia alone and thousands more towards Chad and Niger.”
More than 12,000 migrants still remain stranded on Libya’s border with Tunisia and Egypt with more migrants in need of help in Niger, Algeria and Chad.
Those waiting for help in Tunisia and Egypt have become increasingly impatient to return home and are now looking to alternatives out of their situation.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Libya has been laying new landmines, says Geneva-based International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL).
The group said in a statement issued Thursday 31 March that it strongly condemns “the reported use of antipersonnel mines by the Libyan Armed Forces in recent fighting with rebels in eastern Libya.”
More than 50 antipersonnel and antivehicle mines were discovered 28 March near power pylons outside the town of Ajdabiya, by electrical technicians says ICBL. A Human Rights Watch investigation reported that the mines had recently been laid. The Libyan Armed Forces controlled the area from 17–27 March.
The only other country to lay new mines in recent years has been Myanmar/Burma.
International meeting ends without further decisions on aiding Libyan rebels
Qaddafi forces push back rebels
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss Federal Council Wednesday 30 March formally adopted the UN Security Council’s measures against Libya, taken 26 February, as well as the European Union’s decisions concerning Libya, 28 February and including EU complementary actions. The move by the Swiss cabinet Wednesday cancels Switzerland’s own moves 21 February to unilaterally block funds that may belond to the Libyan leader and those close to him.
The EU’s decisions in particular duplicate Switzerland’s own actions in the financial area: the EU has voted to forbid supplying any materials that could be used for internal repression in Libya, and the list of people affected by financial sanctions and travel restrictions has been lengthened, from Switzerland’s original list.
The move by Bern also brings to a halt criticism from some corners that Switzerland acted too soon and alone in blocking Qaddafi assets.
US fighter jet crashes in Libya due to technical problems
Four journalists who work for the New York Times were freed Monday and recounted their five-day ordeal, after being captured by Libyan soldiers 15 March. Turkey was instrumental in freeing the four, one of whom is a woman and who said she was constantly groped by soldiers while held captive.
A US Air Force jet crashed over Libya Tuesday due to technical failure. The two pilots are safe. The Pentagon announced the news: “Two crew members ejected from their US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle when the aircraft experienced equipment malfunction over northeast Libya, March 21, 2011 at approximately 10:30 p.m. CET. Both crew members ejected and are safe.
The aircraft, based out of Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, was flying out of Aviano Air Base in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn at the time of the incident. The cause of the incident is under investigation. The identities will be released after the next of kin have been notified.”
Links to other sites: New Yorker, Yahoo News
Seat of Swiss federal government in Bern
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The neutral Swiss had a very rare glimpse of a foreign military power on home territory Monday 21 March, as 20 British military vehicles, escorted by the Swiss army, crossed the country from Basel to Chiasso in canton Ticino.
The passage, details and the path of which were not divulged by the federal government, would only have appeared remarkable to those who spotted the soldiers because of the type and markings of the vehicles: Swiss military vehicles and soldiers from the citizen militia are a common sight in Switzerland.
The British government requested the right of passage of aeronautic equipment as part of its commitment to prevent the Qaddafi regime in Libya from using force against the civilian population there.
Saturday morning pro-Qaddafi troops appeared to have taken tanks inside Benghasi, where the rebels are based, and journalists report seeing a fighter jet downed.
Libya Friday called an immediate ceasefire to protect civilians in the country, in line with the UN resolution passed late Thursday night, news agencies reported Friday afternoon, but fighting was reportedly heavy just before the announcement.
