February 28, 2011
The New York Times
By LAURA KASINOF
SANA, Yemen — Yemen’s political opposition rejected an
invitation from President Ali Abdullah Saleh to form a national unity government
and instead threw its support for the first time behind street protests calling
for an immediate end to his authoritarian rule.
The proposal — and its immediate rejection — came ahead of what organizers have
dubbed a “day of rage” on Tuesday, a title chosen for its resonance with
protests in Egypt that led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.
“I stress that this invitation comes too late and is no longer feasible,” said
Mohammed al-Qubati, a spokesman for the Joint Meetings Parties, a umbrella
coalition of opposition parties. “What is required now to meet the people’s
demands is the regime leaving and for authority to meet the will of the people.”
Mr. Saleh suggested including opposition party members in main leadership
positions in an effort to quell weeks of sustained protests in several major
cities, but the details were left vague and open to negotiation.
Directly calling for Mr. Saleh to step down is a shift in the official rhetoric
of the opposition, which had focused on extracting concessions and reforms. Mr.
Saleh has promised not to run for president again when his term expires in 2013,
but the protesters who have taken to the streets day after day — mostly students
and other young Yemenis — have continued to demand his immediate departure.
If opposition parties join the street protests on Tuesday, as they have
indicated, it would signal a more permanent shift in the nature of the protests.
The strength of the Yemeni youth movement that began after the Egyptian
revolution put the established opposition parties in a tough place, said Abdul
Karim al-Eryani, a former prime minister and presidential adviser.
“If they start producing a series of logical steps that will lead the country
peacefully during the transition, they think that the youth will not accept,” he
said in an interview. “At the same time, they carry on with the youth while
knowing they are carrying the country practically to nowhere. The only place
they are leading the country to is civil war.”
Further deepening Yemen’s political crisis, 13 members of Parliament from both
opposition and ruling parties announced Monday that they would not attend
parliamentary activities in order to “hold accountable those responsible for
these abuses and bring them to trial” for attacks against protesters in the
south, where clashes with security forces have been more violent than those in
the capital, Sana.
At least 20 protesters have been killed in the southern port city of Aden since
mid-February, including eight on Friday when, according to reports, snipers
fired on demonstrators.
At least 10 other members of Parliament have resigned from the ruling party over
the past week, and on Saturday, a main tribal leader, Hussein al-Ahmar, left the
party and advocated a change in government in front of thousands of tribesmen in
the northern Amran Province.
February 28, 2011
The New York Times
By NADA BAKRI
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Demonstrators blocked roads and held rallies
on Monday in Oman, a normally quiet oil-rich country along the southeastern
coast of the Arabian Peninsula, as three-day protests calling for political
reforms and better living conditions spread to Muscat, the capital.
The protests in Oman, the latest country to join the wave in the Arab world,
highlight the depth of discontent against long-serving dictators and monarchs.
It also suggests that demonstrations could spread to other Persian Gulf
countries.
In the northeastern port city of Sohar, where the protests originated,
demonstrators blocked roads to the port, Oman’s second biggest, and to an
industrial area that includes a refinery and an aluminum factory, two witnesses
in Sohar and news agencies said. They also set a supermarket on fire and clashed
with the police.
Protesters have also been camped out for three days in the city’s main square,
called Kurra Ardiyah Roundabout, despite efforts by the police and army to push
them out, a resident in Sohar said by e-mail.
Television images showed a small number of protesters gathered in Muscat. The
demonstrations there appeared peaceful.
In an attempt to ease tensions, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who has ruled for four
decades since seizing power from his father, sent delegates to Sohar on Monday
to negotiate with the protesters, but the outcome of those meetings remained
unclear. He also promised to give more powers to the legislative council,
according to ONA, the state news agency.
Oman’s ruling council issued a statement on Monday condemning “sabotage” while
saying peaceful demonstrations were within “the legal rights of citizens.” A
YouTube video showed several hundred men marching toward Kurra Ardiyah
Roundabout and chanting “No to sabotage” and “Long live Oman.”
The clashes on Monday came a day after a deadly confrontation between protesters
and the police in Sohar. There were conflicting accounts about the toll.
Reuters, citing a local doctor, said six people had died Sunday. The state news
agency said Sunday that two protesters had died but revised that to one on
Monday.
On Sunday, protesters held banners demanding better pay, lower prices and the
abolition of all taxes. They are also calling for an end to corruption and the
trial of all ministers, residents said.
Shortly after the violence, Sultan Qaboos gave orders on Sunday to create 50,000
jobs, ONA reported. He also ordered that the equivalent of $386 a month be given
to every job seeker.
Governments in several gulf countries have announced reforms and financial aid
in recent days to try to curb public anger amid calls on social networking sites
for demonstrations.
In Oman, protest organizers set up a Facebook page called “March 2 Uprising for
Dignity and Freedom” to urge demonstrations across the country beginning
Wednesday. It has attracted more than 2,300 users.
At the same time, some in Oman say that they were not challenging Sultan
Qaboos’s rule but simply sought improved living conditions. “The Omanis love the
Sultan and respect and consider him a father to them,” one Facebook commentator
wrote.
Another said in a Facebook post: “We don’t live in fear. All we want are jobs,
better salaries and economic reforms.”
J. David Goodman contributed reporting from New York.
February 28, 2011
The New York Times
By NADA BAKRI
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Demonstrators blocked roads and clashed with
police on Monday in Oman, the normally quiet oil-rich country along the
southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, as three-day-old protests calling
for political reforms and better living conditions spread to Muscat, the
capital.
In the northeast port city of Sohar, where the protests originated,
demonstrators blocked roads to the port, Oman’s second biggest, and an
industrial area that includes a refinery and an aluminum factory, according to
two witnesses in Sohar and news agencies. They also set a supermarket on fire
and clashed with the police. Protesters have also been camped out for three days
in the city’s main square, called Kurra Ardiyah Roundabout, despite efforts by
police and army to push them out, a resident in Sohar said by e-mail.
Television images showed a small number of protesters also gathered in Muscat;
the demonstrations there appeared peaceful.
In an attempt to ease tensions, Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, who has ruled for four
decades since seizing power from his father, sent delegates on Monday to Sohar
to negotiate with the protesters, but the outcome of those meetings remained
unclear. He also promised to give more powers to the legislative council,
according to ONA, the state news agency.
The clashes on Monday came a day after a deadly clash between protesters and
police in Sohar. Reuters, citing a local doctor, said that six people had died
on Sunday, but there were conflicting accounts about the precise toll. ONA said
Sunday that two protesters had died but revised it to one on Monday.
On Sunday, protesters held banners demanding better pay, lower prices and the
abolition of all taxes. They are also calling for an end to corruption and the
trial of all ministers, according to residents there.
Shortly after the violence, Sultan Qaboos gave orders on Sunday to create 50,000
jobs, ONA reported. He also ordered that the equivalent of $386 a month be given
every job seeker.
Governments in several gulf countries have announced reforms and financial
assistance in recent days in an attempt to curb public anger amid calls for huge
demonstrations on March 4 on social networking sites.
In Oman, protest organizers set up a Facebook page, called “March 2 Uprising for
Dignity and Freedom” to urge demonstrations across the country beginning on
Wednesday and continuing until their demands are met. The page has attracted
more than 2,300 users.
At the same time, some in Oman say that they were not challenging the rule of
Sultan Qaboos but would like simply to improve their living conditions. “The
Omanis love the Sultan and respect and consider him a father to them,” one
commenter on the Facebook page. “This is only about a few demands and not a coup
against the Sultan.”
Another said in a Facebook post: “We don’t live in fear. All we want are jobs,
better salaries and economic reforms.”
J. David Goodman contributed reporting from New York.
February 28, 2011
The New York Times
By MONA EL-NAGGAR and SHARON OTTERMAN
CAIRO — The public prosecutor of Egypt imposed an
international travel ban on former President Hosni Mubarak and his immediate
family on Monday, as well as a freeze on their Egyptian assets, as part of the
first publicly announced investigation into the first family’s considerable
wealth.
The move represented an escalation of government actions against the former
president, who was ousted from power on Feb. 11 after weeks of public protest.
Last week, Egyptian officials asked foreign countries to freeze the family’s
international assets, believed to be in the millions, or even billions, of
dollars.
Mr. Mubarak, 82, who has vowed to die in the country he led for 30 years, is
believed to be in Sharm el-Sheik, the Red Sea resort where he has spent much of
his time in recent years. But the precise locations of him and members of his
family have been closely guarded secrets of the military authorities who have
been in control of Egypt, along with a caretaker cabinet, since his government
fell. The announcement of the investigation raises questions about the extent to
which the army will be able to continue to shield him.
Omar Suleiman, the vice president whom Mr. Mubarak appointed as one of his final
acts in power, has also not been heard from or seen since Feb. 11. There are
widespread suspicions here that both men continue to exert some degree of
authority behind the scenes.
According to the prosecutor’s office, the new order means that Mr. Mubarak; his
wife, Suzanne; and his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, and their families cannot
transfer assets or property — whether money, stocks or bonds, or holdings in
banks and companies. The office of the prosecutor, Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, also
said they would not be permitted to leave Egypt until the conclusion of the
investigation.
While travel bans and asset freezes directed against other officials had already
been announced, judicial authorities had only announced lesser steps against Mr.
Mubarak until Sunday, when an independent weekly Egyptian newspaper, Al Osboa,
went to the public prosecutor with evidence that Mr. Mubarak and his family had
created a series of secret bank accounts. Roughly $3.5 million was in an account
registered to Suzanne Mubarak and $16 million was under the control of each of
their sons, said Mahmoud Bakry, the newspaper’s executive editor.
Mr. Bakry — who runs the newspaper along with his brother Moustafa, an outspoken
Mubarak critic and former member of Parliament — said that the accounts were
hidden by security procedures from the average bank employee, and that Mrs.
Mubarak’s account was registered under her maiden name, Thabet. Alaa Mubarak, he
said, had used his middle name, el-Sayyid, as his last name. The accounts were
opened at a branch of government-owned bank, Al Ahly, near the Mubarak residence
in Heliopolis, a neighborhood of Cairo.
Mr. Bakry also asserted that Mrs. Mubarak had control over an account that
contained $147 million in assets of the national library in Alexandria, a
showplace along the Mediterranean Sea whose operations she helped to direct. He
said that his brother, who had pressed the charges, was summoned by the public
prosecutors office early Monday, then informed that the investigation into the
allegations would proceed.
Al-Ahram, the largest state-owned newspaper, made Mr. Bakry’s allegations its
front-page story on Monday.
A growing list of former officials face travel bans and asset freezes because of
corruption investigations, including the former housing minister, Ahmed
al-Maghrabi, and the former trade and industry minister, Rashid Mohammed Rashid.
Habib al-Adly, the former minister of interior, will be the first senior
official to face trial, scheduled to start on Saturday, on charges of illicit
enrichment and money laundering.
There was some debate within Egyptian society over whether it was appropriate to
take similar steps against Mr. Mubarak, who came to represent the dignity of the
Egyptian state over his decades of rule. The unconfirmed reports of billions in
hidden wealth that began to trickle out during the revolution, however, began to
turn the tide, spurring widespread anger against him in a nation where a
considerable portion of the population lives on less than $2 a day. Under Mr.
Mubarak, the Egyptian government was silent about the subject of the first
family’s wealth.
Ziad el-Elaimy, one of the youth organizers of the revolution and a lawyer,
hailed the decision by the prosecutor’s office to move forward with the
investigation, but expressed concerned that the two-week delay may have already
led to the hiding of some money and assets.
“It is late, but it is good that it happened,” he said. “We have demanded from
the very first moment to hold officials accountable for corruption and to try
them.”
February 28, 2011
The New York Times
By KAREEM FAHIM and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
BENGHAZI, Libya — Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces struck back
at his opponents on three fronts on Monday, with special forces, regular army
troops and, rebels said, fighter jets, in an escalation of hostilities that
brought Libya a step closer to civil war.
But the rebels dismissed the attacks as ineffectual, and Colonel Qaddafi faced a
growing international campaign to force him from power, as the Obama
administration announced it had seized $30 billion in Libyan assets and the
European Union adopted an arms embargo and other sanctions.
As the Pentagon began repositioning Navy warships to support a possible
humanitarian or military intervention, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
bluntly told the Libyan leader to surrender power “now, without further violence
or delay.”
The attacks by the colonel’s troops on an oil refinery in central Libya and on
cities on either side of the country unsettled rebel leaders — who have
maintained that they are close to liberating the country — and showed that
despite defections by the military, the government may still possess powerful
assets, including fighter pilots willing to bomb Libyan cities.
Rebel leaders said the attacks smacked of desperation, and the ease with which
at least one assault, on the western city of Zawiyah, was repelled raised
questions about the ability of the government to muster a serious challenge to
the rebels’ growing power.
In an interview with ABC News, Colonel Qaddafi said he was fighting against
“terrorists,” and he accused the West of seeking to “occupy Libya.” He gave no
hint of surrender. “My people love me,” he said. “They would die for me.”
Those unyielding words, and the colonel’s attacks on Monday were met with both
nerves and defiance by rebel military leaders as the two sides seemed to steel
themselves for a long battle along shifting and ever more violent front lines.
The antigovernment protesters, who started their uprising with peaceful sit-ins
but have increasingly turned to arms to counter Colonel Qaddafi’s brutal
paramilitary forces, have promised a large military response that has yet to
come. At the same time, government forces have been unable to reverse the costly
loss of territory to a popular revolt that has brought together lawyers, young
people and tribal leaders.
Across the region, the tumult that has already toppled two leaders and
threatened one autocrat after another continued unabated on Monday. In Yemen,
protests drove President Ali Abdullah Saleh to make a bid for a unity
government, but the political opposition quickly refused. An opposition leader,
Mohamed al-Sabry, said in a statement that the president’s proposal was a
“desperate attempt” to counter major protests planned for Tuesday.
In Bahrain, protesters blocked access to Parliament, according to news agencies.
In Oman, whose first major protests were reported over the weekend,
demonstrations turned into violent clashes with the security forces in the port
city of Sohar, and the unrest spread for the first time to the capital, Muscat.
Libya itself seemed to be brewing a major humanitarian crisis as tens of
thousands of mostly impoverished contract workers tried desperately to flee to
its neighbors, Tunisia to the west and Egypt to the east. The United Nations
refugee agency called the situation a humanitarian emergency as workers hauling
suitcases stood in long lines to leave Libya, many of them uncertain how they
would finally get home.
The country they left behind faced similar uncertainty, as warplanes took to the
sky for the first time in 10 days, according to military officials allied with
the rebels. In a direct challenge to claims by those officials, who have
asserted that Libyan Air Force pilots were no longer taking orders from Colonel
Qaddafi, two Libyan Air Force jets conducted bombing raids on Monday, according
to witnesses and two military officers in Benghazi allied with the
antigovernment protesters.
Col. Hamed Bilkhair said that the jets, two MIG-23s that took off from an air
base near Colonel Qaddafi’s hometown in the city of Surt, struck three targets,
but were deterred by rebel antiaircraft fire from striking a fourth at an air
base in Benghazi. The jets — a bomber and an escort plane — attacked three other
locations, south of Benghazi, and on the outskirts of the eastern city of
Ajdabiya.
Colonel Bilkhair said that a weapons depot was struck, but that the other
strikes — including one on a water pipeline — were “ineffective.” It was not
immediately clear whether there were any casualties, and the airstrikes could
not be independently verified.
The colonel said that government special forces took control of the oil refinery
at Ras Lanuf on Monday, though he and other rebel leaders played down the
significance of the assault, saying the refinery was only lightly guarded. “It
was only briefly occupied,” by the rebels, Colonel Bilkhair said. “They occupied
it for four days, and they had no weapons.”
The colonel, speaking in an interview on Monday evening, said government troops
were in the midst of shelling Misurata, a breakaway city 130 miles east of the
capital.
In Zawiyah, a city with important oil resources just 30 miles from the capital,
residents said they rebuffed a series of attacks on Monday, suffering no
casualties but killing about 10 soldiers and capturing about a dozen others. A
government spokesman confirmed the death toll.
“It is perfect news,” said A. K. Nasrat, 51, an engineer who is among the
rebels, before adding, “There is no way they are going to take this city out of
our hands unless we all die first.”
The first attack took place shortly after midnight, when some pro-Qaddafi
soldiers in pickup trucks tried to pass through the city’s eastern gate, Mr.
Nasrat said. But they were spotted by rebel sentries who defeated them with help
from army and police defectors defending the town. Four soldiers were killed and
several captured, with some of the captives readily surrendering their arms and
switching sides, he said
Then, in the early evening, several witnesses said, the Qaddafi forces —
believed to be led by his son Khamis’s private militia — attacked from both the
east and the west. Three pickup trucks tried to enter the narrow city gates from
the west, but a rebel-held artillery unit struck one, blowing it up and
overturning a second truck, Mr. Nasrat said. Six more pickup trucks tried to
breach the eastern gate, he said, but after an exchange of fire the rebels
captured two of the trucks and several of the soldiers.
“So about 12 or 14 soldiers were hostages,” he said, “and 8 of them turned over
their arms and joined the people. They are on our side now.”
At about 11 p.m. residents of Zawiyah reported in telephone interviews that they
heard a renewed outbreak of gunfire from the west lasting 5 to 15 minutes,
suggesting that sporadic attacks might continue through the night.
For days, military leaders in Benghazi have said they are preparing to assemble
a force of thousands to conduct a final assault on Tripoli; some of the
officials have even promised to send planes to bomb Colonel Qaddafi’s fortified
compound, Bab al-Aziziya.
But there are few signs that a plan has materialized, though military leaders
maintain they are simply waiting for the right time. A fighter pilot sympathetic
to the antigovernment protesters, Mohammed Miftah Dinali, expressed some
frustration that he had not yet been called on to aid the rebel effort.
“My friends and I are willing to go and do an airstrike on Qaddafi’s compound,”
he said. “I cannot just sit and watch this happen.”
In Tripoli, Musa Ibrahim, a spokesman for the Qaddafi government, conducted a
bizarre news conference in which he attributed the unrest in Libya to what he
described as an alliance between radical Islamists and the Western powers. The
Islamists want a Somalia-style base on the Mediterranean, and the West wants
oil, Mr. Ibrahim said. And to achieve their ends both want chaos in Libya, he
argued, asserting that such outside forces had turned a small and peaceful
protest movement into a dangerous armed force.
Addressing an incredulous audience of foreign journalists whom the Qaddafi
government had invited to Tripoli, Mr. Ibrahim repeatedly denied that any
massacres had taken place, contradicting the testimony of scores of Libyans in
Tripoli and Benghazi.
Reporters told him that, on Sunday, when they visited Zawiyah, they saw no
evidence of Islamist forces. “They knew you were coming,” the spokesman said.
“They were hiding those with an obvious Al Qaeda look.”
Kareem Fahim reported from Benghazi, and David D. Kirkpatrick
from Tripoli, Libya. Robert F. Worth contributed reporting from Benghazi, Alan
Cowell from Paris, Steven Lee Myers from Geneva, and Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul.
Refugee Agency Speaks of ‘Emergency’ on Libya’s Borders
February 28, 2011
The New York Times
By ALAN COWELL
PARIS — The United Nations refugee agency says almost 100,000
people have fled Libya’s fighting to neighboring Tunisia and Egypt in what it
called a humanitarian emergency.
The numbers seem to have increased over the weekend as armed rebel forces moved
closer to a showdown with Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and his loyalists who were
standing their ground in Tripoli, the capital, and a handful of other places.
The executive director of the World Food Program was traveling to Tunisia on
Monday to meet with government officials on refugees’ needs and the impact on
the region. In Geneva, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that
the United States Agency for International Development was dispatching two teams
to Libya’s borders in Tunisia and Egypt to assess the need for emergency
assistance. USAID, she said, had set aside $10 million funds for humanitarian
assistance and begun an inventory of American emergency food supplies.
On Monday, the French prime minister, François Fillon, said in Paris that his
country was sending two planes carrying doctors, nurses, medications and medical
equipment to the rebels’ eastern stronghold of Benghazi.
Citizens of the United States and many European nations have been evacuated by
sea and air from Tripoli and Benghazi, using the island of Malta as a staging
point. The European Union said in Brussels that most of its 10,000 citizens in
Libya had left, but there were still 650 asking to be evacuated, many of them
from areas where rescue is difficult, The Associated Press reported. China said
Monday that it had sent four military transport planes to rescue the remaining
1,000 of some 30,000 of its citizens who were there before the crisis.
Kristalina Georgieva, the European Union’s crisis response commissioner, said
that another 1.5 million foreigners remained in Libya, increasing pressure on
the borders with Egypt and Tunisia as non-Libyans seek to flee.
In a statement on Sunday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
based in Geneva, said Tunisian authorities to the west had estimated the number
of refugees arriving from Libya at 40,000 in a week, while, to the east,
Egyptian authorities said 55,000 people had fled since Feb. 19. Over half the
total number of refugees were Egyptians, the refugee agency said, but they also
included Libyans, Chinese and people from several other Asian countries.
Television coverage at Libya’s land borders show mainly poor contract workers
carrying limited possessions.
Some footage showed hundreds of people crossing into Tunisia, then sitting
glumly on the ground, awaiting help.
António Guterres, the high commissioner for refugees, said: “We are committed to
assisting Tunisia and Egypt in helping each and every person fleeing Libya. We
call upon the international community to respond quickly and generously to
enable these governments to cope with this humanitarian emergency.”
The refugee agency’s statement said the crisis in Libya had left some people
from Sudan, Bangladesh, Thailand and Pakistan stranded with no travel documents
between Egypt and Libya.
“According to the tribal leaders, Africans are being treated with suspicion in
eastern Libya, due to rumors about the government employing mercenaries from
sub-Saharan Africa,” the statement said. The agency said it had sent more than
100 tons of relief supplies like tents, plastic sheets, blankets, sleeping mats
and cooking equipment.
Reuters reported on Monday that Kenyans who fled said they had faced attacks and
hostility from Libyan citizens and officials who branded them as mercenaries
supporting Colonel Qaddafi.
A Kenya Airways flight landed in Nairobi with 90 Kenyans and 64 citizens from
South Sudan, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Burundi, according to officials.
“We were being attacked by local people who said that we were mercenaries
killing people. Let me say that they did not want to see black people,” Julius
Kiluu, a 60-year-old building supervisor, told Reuters.
Last week, British and German military planes flew into Libya’s desert to pluck
hundreds of workers and civilians from remote oil installations and, British
news reports said, the British C-130 Hercules military transports were protected
by special forces units in case they came under attack.
Steven Lee Myers contributed reporting from Geneva.
February 28, 2011
The New York Times
By STEVEN ERLANGER
PARIS — France is moving quickly to side with the forces
trying to overthrow the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, sending planes
on Monday with aid and doctors to eastern Libya.
The French prime minister, François Fillon, said that two French planes were
flying on Monday to the eastern city of Benghazi, the revolt’s birthplace, with
doctors, nurses, medicines and medical equipment.
“It will be the beginning of a massive operation of humanitarian support for the
populations of liberated territories,” Mr. Fillon said on RTL radio. The French
government is studying “all solutions to ensure that Colonel Qaddafi understands
that he should go, that he should leave power,” he said.
The French foreign ministry spokesman, Bernard Valero, said that the planes
represented only “the first stage in the mobilization of France.” He said the
two planes carried not only doctors and nurses, but also five tons of medicines
and medical equipment.
He spoke the morning after the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, addressed the
nation, saying that France welcomed the change of governments in North Africa.
“These Arab revolutions have opened a new era in our relations with these
countries and we should not be afraid of this change” from those who share “the
values we hold most dear of human rights and democracy,” Mr. Sarkozy said.
“Europe is in the front line,” he said, and called for a European summit meeting
to discuss how to help the new democracies and to find a joint position on
immigration, to deal with those fleeing uncertainty and violence in north
Africa.
But Mr. Fillon, like Mr. Sarkozy, spoke cautiously about any military
intervention in Libya, which Western diplomats said France has opposed inside
NATO and at the United Nations. Mr. Fillon said the prospect of a no-flight zone
over Libya needed a United Nations Security Council resolution, “which is far
from being obtained today,” and would require the involvement of NATO.
“No one today in Europe has the means to carry out this operation alone,” Mr
Fillon said. “It would be necessary to involve NATO, and I think that has to be
thought about. Should NATO get involved in a civil war to the south of the
Mediterranean? It is a question that at least merits some reflection before
being launched.”
He questioned whether NATO should get involved in a civil war in a North African
country, in part because of the bitter history of European colonialism there.
But he said that a no-fly zone is an option under study.
He said France and Europe could not ignore “important migratory movements” but
that before worrying about immigration, “the first topic is how to help these
revolutions,” Mr. Fillon said.
February 28, 2011
The New York Times
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and ALAN COWELL
TRIPOLI, Libya — An international campaign to force Col.
Muammar el-Qaddafi out of office gathered pace on Monday as the European Union
adopted an arms embargo and other sanctions, the opposition showed increasing
signs of organization in the east, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
bluntly told the Libyan leader to surrender power “now, without further violence
or delay.”
With the rebel and loyalist forces locked in an increasingly tense stand-off on
the ground, the prime ministers of France and Britain echoed Mrs. Clinton’s call
for Colonel Qaddafi to go, Germany proposed a 60-day ban on financial
transactions, and a spokeswoman for Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s
foreign policy chief, said that contacts were being established with the
opposition.
Italy’s foreign minister on Sunday suspended a nonaggression treaty with Libya
on the grounds that the Libyan state “no longer exists,” while Mrs. Clinton said
the United States was reaching out to the rebels to “offer any kind of
assistance.”
France said it was sending medical aid. Prime Minister François Fillon said
planes loaded with doctors, nurses and supplies were heading to the
rebel-controlled eastern city of Benghazi, calling the airlift “the beginning of
a massive operation of humanitarian support for the populations of liberated
territories.”
Monday was a day of increasing self-confidence among the rebels, who spoke of
tapping revenue from the vast Libyan oil resources now under their control —
estimated by some oil company officials to be about 80 percent of the country’s
total.
There were also new reports of fighting. The rebels claimed to have shot down a
military aircraft as they repulsed a government bid to take back Libya’s third
city, Misurata, 125 miles east of Tripoli. There, as in Zawiyah, one of several
breakaway cities near the capital, government forces seem to have encircled
rebels but have been unable to dislodge them.
Across the region, the tumult that has been threatening one autocratic
government after another since the turn of the year continued unabated. In
Yemen, protests drove President Ali Abdullah Saleh to make a bid for a unity
government, but the political opposition rapidly refused. An opposition leader,
Mohamed al-Sabry, said in a statement that the president’s proposal was a
“desperate attempt” to counter major protests planned for Tuesday.
In Bahrain, protesters blocked access to Parliament, according to news agencies.
In Oman, whose first major protests were reported over the weekend,
demonstrations turned violent in the port city of Sohar, and spread for the
first time to the capital, Muscat.
The international diplomatic campaign focused on Libya was offset by mounting
worries of a building humanitarian crisis as tens of thousands of mainly poor
contract workers stood in lines to leave Libya for its neighbors, Tunisia to the
west and Egypt to the east.
The United Nations refugee agency called the situation a humanitarian emergency
as workers hefting suitcases of possessions stood in long lines to leave Libya,
many of them uncertain how they would finally get home.
Mr. Fillon told the RTL broadcaster that the French government was studying “all
solutions to make it so that Colonel Qaddafi understands that he should go, that
he should leave power.” British Prime Minister David Cameron declared: “It’s
time for Colonel Qaddafi to go.”
In the face of such calls, the Libyan authorities blamed Islamic radicals and
the West on Monday for a conspiracy to cause chaos and take over the country.
At a news conference for foreign journalists invited to Tripoli, a government
spokesman, Musa Ibrahim, denied reports that Colonel Qaddafi’s loyalists had
turned their guns on hundreds of civilians. “No massacres, no bombardments, no
reckless violence against civilians,” he said, comparing Libya’s situation to
that of Iraq before the American-led invasion in 2003.
But Mr. Ibrahim insisted that Libya still sought some kind of gradual political
opening as suggested by the colonel’s son, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi.
“We are not like Egypt or Tunisia,” the spokesman said. “We are a very Bedouin
tribal society. People know that and want gradual change.”
Reporters told him that, on Sunday, they had visited Zawiyah, 30 miles from
Tripoli, and saw no evidence of Islamist forces. “They knew you were coming,”
the spokesman said. “They were hiding those with an obvious Al Qaeda look.”
The visit came a day after defecting officers in the east of the vast, desert
nation took steps to establish a unified command while their followers in the
rebel-held city of Zawiyah, just outside the leader’s stronghold in the capital,
displayed tanks, Kalashnikovs and antiaircraft guns.
Mr. Ibrahim said reports of massacres by government troops were analogous to
those suggesting that Saddam Hussein had developed unconventional weapons in
Iraq, suggesting that they were designed as a reason for military attack.
“The Islamists want chaos; the West also wants chaos,” he said, maintaining the
West wanted access to Libya’s oil and the Islamists wanted to establish a
bridgehead for international terrorism. “The Iraq example is not a legend — we
all lived through it. Doesn’t this remind you of the whole Iraq scenario?” he
said.
Later on Monday, the authorities, keen to show calm prevailing, took reporters
on a tour that included Roman ruins at Sabratha, 40 miles west of Tripoli, where
a pro-Qaddafi crowd chanted slogans. Afterward, a member of the crowd was asked
by a reporter whether he had been paid to demonstrate in favor of the
government. “Yes,” he replied, suggesting that he harbored sentiments other than
those he had chanted in the slogans supportive of Colonel Qaddafi. “And, believe
me, we will get our freedom.”
The official Libyan arguments have become familiar as Colonel Qaddafi’s
opponents seem to gain ground. Referring to Libya, the head of the human rights
body, Navi Pillay, demanded in a speech on Monday that: “The rights of the
protesters must be upheld and asylum seekers, migrants and other foreign
nationals fleeing the violence must be protected,” news agencies reported.
In Geneva, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with her European
counterparts and other senior diplomats to intensify international pressure to
force out Colonel Qaddafi.
In remarks to the United Nations Human Rights Council, an organization the
United States once shunned because of its inclusion of countries like Libya, she
said that the American administration would consider additional measures, but
she did not announce any.
“We all need to work together on further steps to hold the Qaddafi government
accountable, provide humanitarian assistance to those in need and support the
Libyan people as they pursue a transition to democracy,” Mrs. Clinton said.
She cited reports of “indiscriminate killings, arbitrary arrests and torture,”
as well as Libyan soldiers being executed “for refusing to turn their guns on
their fellow citizens.”
“We will continue to explore all possible options for actions,” she added. “As
we have said, nothing is off the table so long as the Libyan government
continues to threaten and kill Libyans.”
The Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said that in their meeting in a
Geneva hotel, he and Mrs. Clinton did not discuss military measures, such as
imposing a no-fly zone over Libyan airspace.
On Sunday, the most striking display of strength was seen in Zawiyah, where
rebels have repulsed repeated attempts by Colonel Qaddafi’s forces to retake
them. And the arsenal they displayed helped to explain how the rebels held
Zawiyah.
But with their increasing firepower, the rebels appeared to break the pattern of
nonviolent revolts set by neighboring Egypt and Tunisia and now sweeping the
Middle East — just as Colonel Qaddafi has shown a willingness to shed far more
of his citizens’ blood than any of the region’s other autocrats.
The maneuverings by both sides suggested they were girding for a confrontation
that could influence the shape of other protest movements and the responses of
other rulers who feel threatened by insurrections. Colonel Qaddafi’s militias,
plainclothes police and other paramilitary forces have kept the deserted streets
of Tripoli under a lockdown.
In interviews with ABC News, two of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons appeared to mix
defiance and denial. “The people — everybody wants more,” said Saadi el-Qaddafi,
apparently dismissing the public outcry for a more accountable government.
“There is no limit. You give this, then you get asked for that, you know?”
He described the uprisings around the region as “an earthquake” and predicted,
“Chaos will be everywhere.” If his father left, he said, Libya would face a
civil war “one hour later.”
His brother Seif seemed to challenge journalists to look for signs of unrest.
“Please, take your cameras tomorrow morning, even tonight,” he said. “Everything
is calm. Everything is peaceful.”
In Benghazi, rebels said that Libyan soldiers had joined the rebels in securing
vital oil industry facilities around that part of the country. Some oil industry
workers fleeing across the Tunisian border in recent days said they had seen
Libyan soldiers fire their weapons to drive off foreign mercenaries or other
security forces who had approached oil facilities not far from here.
Hassan Bulifa, who sits on the management committee of the Arabian Gulf Oil
Company, the country’s largest oil producer, said that the rebels control at
least 80 percent of the country’s oil assets, and that his company, based in
Benghazi, was cooperating with them. The company resumed oil shipments on
Sunday, loading two tankers at a port in Tobruk, Mr. Bulifa said. The ships —
one bound for Austria and the other for China — represented the company’s first
shipments since Feb. 10.
Although the revenue from those sales goes the company’s umbrella organization,
Libya’s National Oil Company, Mr. Bulifa said Arabian Gulf Oil had ceased any
coordination with the national company, though it was honoring oil contracts.
And he insisted the proceeds would ultimately flow to the rebels, not Colonel
Qaddafi. “Qaddafi and his gangsters will not have a hand on them,” he said. “We
are not worried about the revenues.”
David D. Kirkpatrick reported from Tripoli, Libya, and Alan
Cowell from Paris. Steven Lee Myers contributed reporting from Geneva.
Iran arrests two opposition leaders: opposition website
TEHRAN | Mon Feb 28, 2011
12:25pm EST
Reuters
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has arrested opposition leaders
Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, the opposition website Kaleme said on
Monday.
"Sources say that they have been arrested and transferred to Heshmatiyeh jail in
Tehran," Mousavi's website Kaleme reported.
Judiciary officials were not immediately available for comment.
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, an advocacy group which has
staff in the United States and Germany, said on Sunday the two leaders had been
moved secretly from their homes where they had been under virtual house arrest
for calling on supporters to protest against the government.
Mousavi and Karoubi had been forced to stay in their homes in the capital Tehran
for more than two weeks. Mousavi's daughters said on the Kaleme website that
they had been prevented from approaching the house since February 14.
World raises pressure on Libya, rebels hold key towns
TRIPOLI | Mon Feb 28, 2011
10:59am EST
Reuters
By Maria Golovnina
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Foreign powers accelerated efforts to help
oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Monday as rebels fought government forces
trying to take back strategic coastal cities on either side of the capital
Tripoli.
Gaddafi's forces have been trying for days to push back a revolt that has won
over large parts of the military, ended his control over eastern Libya and is
fending off government assaults in western cities near Tripoli.
It is difficult for reporters to move around western Libya and reports of
fighting were hard to verify independently.
But witnesses in both Misrata, a city of a half a million people 200 km (125
miles) to the east of Tripoli, and Zawiyah, a strategic refinery town 50 km (30
miles) to the west, said government forces were mounting repeated attacks.
"An aircraft was shot down this morning while it was firing on the local radio
station. Protesters captured its crew," a witness in Misrata, Mohamed, told
Reuters by telephone.
"Fighting to control the military air base started last night and is still going
on. Gaddafi's forces control only a small part of the base. Protesters control a
large part of this base where there is ammunition."
A resident of Zawiyah, called Ibrahim, told Reuters by telephone: "We are
expecting attacks at any moment by brigades belonging to (Gaddafi's son) Khamis.
They are on the outskirts of the town, about 5-7 km away. They are in large
numbers."
In the capital, Gaddafi's last stronghold, a Reuters reporter saw about 400
people protesting in a square in the Tajoura district, an area already partly
outside his control.
Soon after, men in sports utility vehicles pulled up and fired into the air in
an attempt to disperse the protest.
SANCTIONS
Foreign governments are increasing the pressure on Gaddafi to leave in the hope
of ending fighting that has claimed at least 1,000 lives and restoring order to
a country that accounts for 2 percent of the world's oil production.
The U.N. Security Council on Saturday slapped sanctions on Gaddafi and other
Libyan officials and imposed an arms embargo and froze Libyan assets.
European Union governments approved their sanctions against Gaddafi in Brussels
on Monday, implementing the U.N. resolution sooner than expected.
In The Hague, the International Criminal Court prosecutor said he would finish a
preliminary examination of the violence within days, after which he could open a
full inquiry -- a step mandated by the Council that could have taken months.
France proposed an emergency summit of EU leaders for Thursday, EU diplomats
said.
In an address to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton said Gaddafi was using "mercenaries and thugs" to suppress
his own people and said the Libyan leader must step down immediately.
"Gaddafi and those around him must be held accountable for these acts, which
violate international legal obligations and common decency," Clinton said,
adding that nothing was off the table as the international community considers
its next steps.
A U.S. official in Geneva said a central aim of sanctions was to "send a message
not only to Gaddafi ... but to the people around Gaddafi, who are the ones we're
really seeking to influence."
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said after meeting Clinton that he was
proposing a 60-day freeze on money transfers to Libya, and believed other
countries were open to the idea.
"We must do everything to ensure that no money is going into the hands of the
Libyan dictator's family, and that they have no opportunity to hire new foreign
soldiers to repress their people," he said.
But there was less support among foreign ministers in Geneva for an Australian
proposal to stop Gaddafi's forces attacking rebels from the air.
Asked if he had discussed a no-fly zone in his meeting with Clinton, Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov retorted:
"Absolutely not. It was not mentioned by anyone."
RESENTMENT
Revolutions in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt have helped to ignite resentment of
four decades of often bloody political repression under Gaddafi as well as his
failure to use Libya's oil wealth to tackle widespread poverty and lack of
opportunity.
The 68-year-old leader has vowed to fight to the death, but a spokesman struck a
new, conciliatory tone on Monday.
Mussa Ibrahim told reporters in Tripoli that government forces had fired on
civilians, but said this was because they were not trained to deal with civilian
unrest.
He said the government was still in control of Zawiyah, even though reporters
who were taken there at the weekend saw a town center under rebel control.
"What you saw was only the center," he said. "We allowed, we let these people
with their guns to stand there. Zawiyah has not fallen. The government could
have easily killed them and has not done so, because the government has not been
not bloody."
He said the revolt had "started as a genuine peaceful movement."
"We also believe it is time for change," he said. "But this movement has been
hijacked by the West ... and by Islamic militants."
Regional experts expect rebels eventually to take the capital and kill or
capture Gaddafi, but add that he has the firepower to foment chaos or civil war
-- a prospect he and his sons have warned of.
In the eastern city of Benghazi, opponents of Gaddafi said they have formed a
National Libyan Council to be the "face" of the revolution. They said they
wanted no foreign intervention and had not made contact with foreign
governments.
OIL
Opposition forces are largely in control of Libya's oil facilities, which are
mostly located in the east.
Fatih Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency, told Reuters
Insider TV in Paris that industry reports suggested Libya's oil output had been
halved.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch estimated in a note to clients that Libya was
losing about 1.2 million barrels per day, or 75 percent of its pre-revolt
output, and said the unrest could mean Libyan supplies were unavailable for
months.
Industry sources said actual shipments were at a standstill.
Benchmark Brent oil futures were slightly lower at just under $112 a barrel.
Wealthy states have sent planes and ships to bring home expatriate workers but
many more, from poorer countries, are stranded. Thousands of Egyptians have been
streaming into Tunisia, complaining that Cairo has done nothing to help them.
The United Nations refugee agency said on Sunday nearly 100,000 people have fled
violence in Libya in the past week in a growing humanitarian crisis.
(Additional reporting by Yvonne Bell and Chris Helgren in
Tripoli, Dina Zayed and Caroline Drees in Cairo, Tom Pfeiffer, Alexander
Dziadosz and Mohammed Abbas in Benghazi, Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers and Andrew
Quinn in Geneva; Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
Libya Blames Islamic Militants and the West for Unrest
February 28, 2011
The New York Times
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and KAREEM FAHIM
TRIPOLI, Libya — The Libyan authorities blamed Islamic
radicals and the West on Monday for a conspiracy to cause chaos and take over
the country, even as rebels challenging Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi demonstrated
their increasing military coordination and firepower.
At a news conference for foreign journalists invited to Tripoli, a government
spokesman, Musa Ibrahim, denied that Colonel Qaddafi’s loyalists had turned
their guns on hundreds of civilians. “No massacres, no bombardments, no reckless
violence against civilians,” he said, comparing Libya’s situation to that of
Iraq before the American-led invasion in 2003.
Libya had brought 130 foreign journalists to Tripoli to show that the loyalists
had nothing to hide, the spokesman said, a day after defecting officers in the
east of the vast, desert nation took steps to establish a unified command while
their followers in the rebel-held city of Zawiyah, just outside the leader’s
stronghold in the capital, displayed tanks, Kalashnikovs and antiaircraft guns.
Mr. Ibrahim said reports of massacres by government troops were analogous to
those suggesting that Saddam Hussein had developed unconventional weapons in
Iraq, suggesting that they were designed as a reason for military attack.
“The Islamists want chaos, the West also wants chaos,” he said. “The Iraq
example is not a legend — we all lived through it. Doesn’t this remind you of
the whole Iraq scenario?”
The Libyan arguments have become familiar as Colonel Qaddafi’s opponents seem to
gain ground, and world powers, meeting on Monday in Geneva, seek to increase
pressure on him to force him from power. The focus of the diplomacy is a meeting
of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights, to be attended by
leaders including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Referring to Libya, the head of the human rights body, Navi Pillay, demanded in
a speech on Monday that: “The rights of the protesters must be upheld, and
asylum seekers, migrants and other foreign nationals fleeing the violence must
be protected,” news agencies reported.
But Mr. Musa insisted that Libya still sought some kind of gradual political
opening as suggested by the colonel’s son, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi.
“We are not like Egypt or Tunisia, we are a very Bedouin tribal society. People
know that and want gradual change,” the spokesman said.
Reporters told him that, on Sunday, they had visited Zawiyah, 30 miles from
Tripoli and saw no evidence of Islamist forces. “They knew you were coming,” the
spokesman said, “They were hiding those with an obvious Al Qaeda look.”
The news conference came after a day of increasing self-confidence among the
rebels, who spoke of tapping revenue from the vast Libyan oil resources now
under their control — estimated by some oil company officials to be about 80
percent of the country’s total. And in recognition of the insurrection’s growing
power, Italy’s foreign minister on Sunday suspended a nonaggression treaty with
Libya on the grounds that the Libyan state “no longer exists,” while Secretary
of State Clinton said the United States was reaching out to the rebels to “offer
any kind of assistance.”
The most striking display of strength was seen in Zawiyah, one of several cities
near the capital controlled by rebels, who have repulsed repeated attempts by
Colonel Qaddafi’s forces to retake them. And the arsenal they displayed helped
to explain how the rebels held Zawiyah.
“Army, army, army!” excited residents shouted, pointing to a defected soldier
standing watch at Zawiyah’s entrance as he raised his machine gun in the air and
held up two fingers for victory.
A few yards away a captured antiaircraft gun fired several deafening salutes
into the air, and gleeful residents invited newcomers to clamber aboard one of
several army tanks now in rebel hands. Residents said that when Colonel
Qaddafi’s forces mounted a deadly assault to retake the city last Thursday —
shell holes were visible in the central mosque and ammunition littered the
central square — local army units switched sides to join the rebels, as about
2,000 police officers had done the week before.
And on Sunday, scores of residents armed with machine guns and rifles joined in
a chant that has become the slogan of pro-democracy uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt,
Bahrain, Yemen and across the Arab world: “The people want to bring down the
regime!”
The opposition’s display came as a global effort to isolate Colonel Qaddafi and
possibly force his resignation gained momentum over the weekend, with the United
Nations Security Council moving to impose punitive financial sanctions and NATO
allies discussing steps that included a possible no-fly zone over Libya.
But with their increasing firepower, the rebels appeared to break the pattern of
nonviolent revolts set by neighboring Egypt and Tunisia and now sweeping the
Middle East — just as Colonel Qaddafi has shown a willingness to shed far more
of his citizens’ blood than any of the region’s other autocrats.
The maneuverings by both sides suggested they were girding for a confrontation
that could influence the shape of other protest movements and the responses of
other rulers who feel threatened by insurrections. Colonel Qaddafi’s militias,
plainclothes police and other paramilitary forces have kept the deserted streets
of Tripoli under a lockdown.
And residents of Zawiyah said Sunday that his forces were massing again on its
outskirts. As a caravan of visiting journalists left Zawiyah, a crowd of
hundreds of Qaddafi supporters waving green flags and holding Qaddafi posters
blocked the highway for a rally against the rebels. “The people want Colonel
Muammar!” some chanted.
In interviews with ABC News, two of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons appeared to mix
defiance and denial. “The people — everybody wants more,” said Saadi el-Qaddafi,
apparently dismissing the public outcry for a more accountable government.
“There is no limit. You give this, then you get asked for that, you know?”
He described the uprisings around the region as “an earthquake” and predicted,
“Chaos will be everywhere.” If his father left, he said, Libya would face a
civil war “one hour later.”
His brother Seif seemed to challenge journalists to look for signs of unrest.
“Please, take your cameras tomorrow morning, even tonight,” he said. “Everything
is calm. Everything is peaceful.”
But when government-paid drivers and minders took visiting journalists on an
official tour to visit here Sunday morning, they found a town firmly in rebel
hands, where Libyan officials and military units did not even try to enter. It
was the second consecutive day that an official tour appeared to do more to
discredit than bolster the government’s line, and questions arose about the true
allegiance of the official tour minders, who appeared to mingle easily with
people of rebel-held Zawiyah. Some suggested that the Qaddafi government might
in fact have believed its own propaganda: that the journalists would discover in
Zawiyah radical Islamists or young people crazed by drugs supplied by Osama bin
Laden.
But the residents showed little interest in Islamist politics or hallucinogenic
drugs. They mocked Colonel Qaddafi’s allegations, painted the tricolored
pre-Qaddafi flag that has become the banner of the revolt on the side of a
burned-out government building, and chanted, “Free, free, Libya.”
Several said that on Thursday morning the Qaddafi forces had blasted peaceful
protesters gathered in the square with machine guns and artillery, pointing to
holes in the sides of pillars and even a mosque. They showed journalists seven
fresh graves dug in the square to bury those killed in the fight.
But the battle had made them even more confident of their power, they said,
because military units had joined their cause instead of fighting against them.
Some said that in the fights against Italian occupation and other battles in
Libya’s pre-Qaddafi history, their city of 300,000 had earned the nickname “the
silent lion,” and was living up to it again. “When Qaddafi killed people,
Zawiyah became like a volcano,” said Tariq Mohamed, a resident.
They said the city was now under the control of a committee of prominent
citizens — doctors, lawyers, judges, engineers and the like — who were
organizing its public services and continued defense. “We are a very patient
people,” said Ahmed el-Hadi Remeh, an engineer standing in the square. “We kept
silent for 42 years, and when we do start to speak, he shoots us with a 14.5
millimeter.”
In Benghazi, the eastern city where the revolt began, rebels said that Libyan
soldiers had joined the rebels in securing vital oil industry facilities around
that part of the country. Some oil industry workers fleeing across the Tunisian
border in recent days said they had seen Libyan soldiers fire their weapons to
drive off foreign mercenaries or other security forces who had approached oil
facilities not far from here.
Hassan Bulifa, who sits on the management committee of the Arabian Gulf Oil
Company, the country’s largest oil producer, said that the rebels control at
least 80 percent of the country’s oil assets, and that his company, based in
Benghazi, was cooperating with them. The company resumed oil shipments on
Sunday, loading two tankers at a port in Tobruk, Mr. Bulifa said. The ships —
one bound for Austria and the other for China — represented the company’s first
shipments since Feb. 10.
Although the revenue from those sales goes the company’s umbrella organization,
Libya’s National Oil Company, Mr. Bulifa said Arabian Gulf Oil had ceased any
coordination with the national company, though it was honoring oil contracts.
And he insisted the proceeds would ultimately flow to the rebels, not Colonel
Qaddafi. “Qaddafi and his gangsters will not have a hand on them,” he said. “We
are not worried about the revenues.”
Some in Washington, including Senator John McCain, the ranking Republican on the
Armed Services Committee, urged the Obama administration to consider military
action and recognize a rebel government. But the rebels themselves seemed far
from ready for international relations.
On Saturday, the country’s former justice minister, Mustafa Mohamed Abd
al-Jalil, said in an interview on Al Jazeera that he would head a transitional
government, with the aim of holding elections within three months. But on
Sunday, another figure in the rebel movement, Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga, seemed to
dismiss that claim, saying a national council had been formed to manage the
“day-to-day living” of the “liberated” territories.
The Qaddafi government implicitly acknowledged for the first time on Sunday that
it feared elements of its military falling into rebel hands, as Colonel
Qaddafi’s son Seif said in the television interview that the Libyan government
had bombed its own ammunition depots in the east.
And Gen. Ahmed el-Gatrani, a former senior commander who now leads the rebel
forces, said his troops were awaiting a call for support from the capital. “Our
brothers in Tripoli say: ‘We are fine so far, we do not need help.’ If they ask
for help we are ready to move,” he told Reuters. Many rebels in the west,
however, said they believed General Gatrani was trying to hide the true rebel
plans. Mr. Ghoga, for his part, vowed Sunday that Tripoli and other Libyan
cities would be liberated using “our national army.”
David D. Kirkpatrick reported from Tripoli, Libya, and Kareem Fahim from
Benghazi.
Gaddafi unflinching as rebel city fears counter-attack
TRIPOLI | Mon Feb 28, 2011
12:26am EST
Reuters
By Maria Golovnina
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Rebels awaited a counter-attack by Muammar
Gaddafi's forces on Monday, after the Libyan leader defied calls for him to quit
in the hardest-fought of the Arab world's wave of uprisings.
Rebels holding Zawiyah, only 50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli, said about 2,000
troops loyal to Gaddafi had surrounded the city.
"We will do our best to fight them off. They will attack soon," said a former
police major who switched sides and joined the rebellion. "If we are fighting
for freedom, we are ready to die for it."
Residents even in parts of the capital Tripoli have thrown up barricades against
government forces. A general in the east of the country, where Gaddafi's power
has evaporated, told Reuters his forces were ready to help rebels in the west.
"Our brothers in Tripoli say: "We are fine so far, we do not need help'. If they
ask for help we are ready to move," said General Ahmed el-Gatrani, one of most
senior figures in the mutinous army in Benghazi.
Analysts say they expect rebels to eventually take the capital and kill or
capture Gaddafi, but add that he has the firepower to foment chaos or civil war
-- a prospect he and his sons have warned of.
Monday looked likely to see nervousness in oil markets. NYMEX crude for April
delivery was up $1.12 at $99.00 barrel in Globex electronic trading by 2308 GMT
on Sunday. Libya pumps only 2 percent of world oil and Saudi Arabia has boosted
output, but traders fear turmoil intensifying in the Arab world.
Serbian television quoted Gaddafi as blaming foreigners and al Qaeda for the
unrest and condemning the U.N. Security Council for imposing sanctions and
ordering a war crimes inquiry.
"The people of Libya support me. Small groups of rebels are surrounded and will
be dealt with," he said.
STAND DOWN CALLS
European powers said it was time for Gaddafi to stand down and Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton said the United States was "reaching out" to opposition
groups.
Residents of Zawiyah told of fierce fighting against pro-Gaddafi paramilitaries
armed with heavy weapons.
"Gaddafi is crazy. His people shot at us using rocket-propelled grenades," said
a man who gave his name as Mustafa. Another man called Chawki said: "We need
justice. People are being killed. Gaddafi's people shot my nephew."
There were queues outside banks in Tripoli on Sunday for the 500 Libyan dinars
($400) the government had promised it would start distributing to each family.
From Misrata, a city 200 km (120 miles) east of Tripoli, residents said by phone
a thrust by forces loyal to Gaddafi, operating from the airport, had been
rebuffed with bloodshed.
But Libyan exile groups said later aircraft were firing on the city's radio
station.
In the eastern city of Benghazi, opponents of the 68-year-old leader said they
had formed a National Libyan Council to be the "face" of the revolution, but it
was unclear who they represented.
They said they wanted no foreign intervention and had not made contact with
foreign governments.
The "Network of Free Ulema," claiming to represent "some of Libya's most senior
and most respected Muslim scholars," issued a statement urging "total rebellion"
against Gaddafi and endorsing the formation of an "interim government" announced
two days ago.
FOREIGN WORKERS STRANDED
Western leaders, emboldened by evacuations that have brought home many of their
citizens from the vast desert state, spoke out more clearly than before against
Gaddafi.
"We have reached, I believe, a point of no return," Italy's Foreign Minister
Franco Frattini said, adding it was "inevitable" for Gaddafi to leave power.
Britain revoked Gaddafi's diplomatic immunity and said it was freezing his
family's assets. "It is time for Colonel Gaddafi to go," Foreign Secretary
William Hague said.
Three British military planes evacuated 150 civilians from Libya's desert on
Sunday, after a similar operation on Saturday.
Wealthy states have sent planes and ships to bring home expatriate workers but
many more, from poorer countries, are stranded. Thousands of Egyptians streamed
into Tunisia on Sunday, complaining Cairo had done nothing to help them.
Malta said it had refused a Libyan request to return two warplanes brought to
the island by defecting pilots last Monday.
Gaddafi, once branded a "mad dog" by Washington for his support of militant
groups worldwide, had been embraced by the West in recent years in return for
renouncing some weapons programs and, critically, for opening up Libya's
oilfields.
While money has flowed into Libya, many people, especially in the long-restive
and oil-rich east, have seen little benefit and, inspired by the popular
overthrow of veteran strongmen in Tunisia and Egypt, on either side of their
country, they rose up to demand better conditions and political freedoms.
(Additional reporting by Yvonne Bell and Chris Helgren in
Tripoli, Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Souhail Karam in Rabat, Dina Zayed and
Caroline Drees in Cairo, Tom Pfeiffer, Alexander Dziadosz and Mohammed Abbas in
Benghazi, Arshad Mohammed in Washington and Louis Charbonneau at the United
Nations; writing by Andrew Roche; editing by Jon Boyle)
Six killed in Oman protests on Sunday: government hospital
SOHAR, Oman | Mon Feb 28, 2011
12:17am EST
Reuters
SOHAR, Oman (Reuters) - Six people were killed in Oman on
Sunday, a government hospital said, after police opened fire with rubber bullets
at protesters demanding political reform.
Earlier reports on Sunday had put the death toll at two.
The roads to Gulf state's key industrial area Sohar, home to a refinery port and
aluminum factory is blocked by protesters and a supermarket has been set on
flames, witnesses said on Monday.
(Reporting by Saleh Al-Shaibany, Editing by Cynthia Johnston)
Thousands of Yemenis protest, unrest high in south
SANAA/ADEN | Mon Feb 28, 2011
8:38am EST
Reuters
By Mohamed Ghobari and Mohammed Mukhashaf
SANAA/ADEN (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of protesters
demanding the end of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 32-year rule of Yemen joined
demonstrations Monday, while skirmishes in the south killed three soldiers and a
policeman.
Witnesses said around 5,000 protesters who have camped out nightly in the
streets near Sanaa University, shouted "We have one demand: the fall of the
oppressor."
Protests against Saleh, a U.S. ally against an al Qaeda wing based in Yemen,
have spread across the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state in more than a month
of protests.
"Leave and take your corruption with you," the protesters in Sanaa shouted.
In the northern cities of Ibb and Hudeida, thousands of protesters gathered
while at least 10,000 took to the streets in Taiz, 200 km (125 miles) south of
the capital.
Opposition to Saleh, who was previously confronting an on-off Shi'ite Muslim
revolt in the north and a secessionist insurgency in the south, has now spread
across the country, galvanized by successful uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
Yemen is already teetering on the brink of state failure. One in two people own
guns, 40 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day and a third face
chronic hunger.
Violence against security forces has spiked in recent days, though it is unclear
who has been behind the attacks.
A local official said two soldiers were killed and 11 wounded Monday in two
attacks by armed men in Makhzan in the flashpoint Abyan province. The gunmen
attacked a security checkpoint, killing a soldier and wounding seven, he said.
A second attack on a car carrying the wounded away killed another soldier and
wounded four. The official blamed al Qaeda.
In the province of Hadramout, an official said the head of a local intelligence
branch was shot dead Saturday by men on motorcycles who sped off after the
attack.
In further unrest, prison riots broke out in the southern province of Mahra,
near the border with Oman Sunday. One inmate was killed in clashes with police.
Four prisoners escaped. Two guards suffered burns.
ISLAMISTS, TRIBESMEN JOIN PROTEST
Sanaa protests that have gained steam under student and activist leadership in
recent weeks were swelled Monday by members of several tribes, which are at the
heart of Yemen's social system. Islamist groups also joined the sit-in.
The protesters formed separate groups around the campus, with some waving
Yemen's white, red and black striped flags while others sang and danced,
witnesses said.
The daily protests in Yemen had already drawn in separatists and opposition
parties which have returned to the streets after dropping earlier plans for
dialogue with the 68-year-old Saleh.
Saleh, apparently trying to bolster military support, met armed forces
commanders at the weekend, and told them they were responsible for maintaining
security and stability in the face of a plot against Yemeni unity, Saba state
news agency said.
"We are confident that our people and the great national institutions will abort
any plots," Saleh was quoted as saying.
"We say to the Yemeni people that the homeland is in safety as long as it is in
the hands of their brave sons, who will defend their unity," the president
added.
Violence between pro- and anti-government demonstrators, once common, has calmed
down since Saleh asked police to protect protesters and prevent clashes between
rival factions.
But protests have been more violent in the once-independent south. Twenty-four
people have been killed in daily demonstrations across Yemen in the past two
weeks.
Special Report: U.S. cables detail Saudi royal welfare
program
LONDON | Mon Feb 28, 2011
7:51am EST
Reuters
By Simon Robinson
LONDON (Reuters) - When Saudi King Abdullah arrived home last
week, he came bearing gifts: handouts worth $37 billion, apparently intended to
placate Saudis of modest means and insulate the world's biggest oil exporter
from the wave of protest sweeping the Arab world.
But some of the biggest handouts over the past two decades have gone to his own
extended family, according to unpublished American diplomatic cables dating back
to 1996.
The cables, obtained by WikiLeaks and reviewed by Reuters, provide remarkable
insight into how much the vast royal welfare program has cost the country -- not
just financially but in terms of undermining social cohesion.
Besides the huge monthly stipends that every Saudi royal receives, the cables
detail various money-making schemes some royals have used to finance their
lavish lifestyles over the years. Among them: siphoning off money from
"off-budget" programs controlled by senior princes, sponsoring expatriate
workers who then pay a small monthly fee to their royal patron and, simply,
"borrowing from the banks, and not paying them back."
As long ago as 1996, U.S. officials noted that such unrestrained behavior could
fuel a backlash against the Saudi elite. In the assessment of the U.S. embassy
in Riyadh in a cable from that year, "of the priority issues the country faces,
getting a grip on royal family excesses is at the top."
A 2007 cable showed that King Abdullah has made changes since taking the throne
six years ago, but recent turmoil in the Middle East underlines the deep-seated
resentment about economic disparities and corruption in the region.
A Saudi government spokesman contacted by Reuters declined to comment.
MONTHLY CHEQUES
The November 1996 cable -- entitled "Saudi Royal Wealth: Where do they get all
that money?" -- provides an extraordinarily detailed picture of how the royal
patronage system works. It's the sort of overview that would have been useful
required reading for years in the U.S. State department.
It begins with a line that could come from a fairytale: "Saudi princes and
princesses, of whom there are thousands, are known for the stories of their
fabulous wealth -- and tendency to squander it."
The most common mechanism for distributing Saudi Arabia's wealth to the royal
family is the formal, budgeted system of monthly stipends that members of the Al
Saud family receive, according to the cable. Managed by the Ministry of
Finance's "Office of Decisions and Rules," which acts like a kind of welfare
office for Saudi royalty, the royal stipends in the mid-1990s ran from about
$800 a month for "the lowliest member of the most remote branch of the family"
to $200,000-$270,000 a month for one of the surviving sons of Abdul-Aziz Ibn
Saud, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia.
Grandchildren received around $27,000 a month, "according to one contact
familiar with the stipends" system, the cable says. Great-grandchildren received
about $13,000 and great-great- grandchildren $8,000 a month.
"Bonus payments are available for marriage and palace building," according to
the cable, which estimates that the system cost the country, which had an annual
budget of $40 billion at the time, some $2 billion a year.
"The stipends also provide a substantial incentive for royals to procreate since
the stipends begin at birth."
After a visit to the Office of Decisions and Rules, which was in an old building
in Riyadh's banking district, the U.S. embassy's economics officer described a
place "bustling with servants picking up cash for their masters." The office
distributed the monthly stipends -- not just to royals but to "other families
and individuals granted monthly stipends in perpetuity." It also fulfilled
"financial promises made by senior princes."
The head of the office at the time, Abdul-Aziz al-Shubayli, told the economics
officer that an important part of his job "at least in today's more fiscally
disciplined environment, is to play the role of bad cop." He "rudely grilled a
nearly blind old man about why an eye operation promised by a prince and
confirmed by royal Diwan note had to be conducted overseas and not for free in
one of the first-class eye hospitals in the kingdom." After finally signing off
on a trip, Shubayli noted that he himself had been in the United States twice
for medical treatment, once for a chronic ulcer and once for carpal tunnel
syndrome. "He chuckled, suggesting that both were probably job-induced."
FOLLOWING THE MONEY
But the stipend system was clearly not enough for many royals, who used a range
of other ways to make money, "not counting business activities."
"By far the largest is likely royal skimming from the approximately $10 billion
in annual off-budget spending controlled by a few key princes," the 1996 cable
states. Two of those projects -- the Two Holy Mosques Project and the Ministry
of Defense's Strategic Storage Project -- are "highly secretive, subject to no
Ministry of Finance oversight or controls, transacted through the National
Commercial Bank, and widely believed to be a source of substantial revenues" for
the then-King and a few of his full brothers, according to the authors of the
cable.
In a meeting with the U.S. ambassador at the time, one Saudi prince, alluding to
the off-budget programs, "lamented the travesty that revenues from 'one million
barrels of oil per day' go entirely to 'five or six princes,'" according to the
cable, which quoted the prince.
Then there was the apparently common practice for royals to borrow money from
commercial banks and simply not repay their loans. As a result, the 12
commercial banks in the country were "generally leary of lending to royals."
The managing director of another bank in the kingdom told the ambassador that he
divided royals into four tiers, according to the cable. The top tier was the
most senior princes who, perhaps because they were so wealthy, never asked for
loans. The second tier included senior princes who regularly asked for loans.
"The bank insists that such loans be 100 percent collateralized by deposits in
other accounts at the bank," the cable reports. The third tier included
thousands of princes the bank refused to lend to. The fourth tier, "not really
royals, are what this banker calls the 'hangers on'."
Another popular money-making scheme saw some "greedy princes" expropriate land
from commoners. "Generally, the intent is to resell quickly at huge markup to
the government for an upcoming project." By the mid-1990s, a government program
to grant land to commoners had dwindled. "Against this backdrop, royal land
scams increasingly have become a point of public contention."
The cable cites a banker who claimed to have a copy of "written instructions"
from one powerful royal that ordered local authorities in the Mecca area to
transfer to his name a "Waqf" -- religious endowment -- of a small parcel of
land that had been in the hands of one family for centuries. "The banker noted
that it was the brazenness of the letter ... that was particularly egregious."
Another senior royal was famous for "throwing fences up around vast stretches of
government land."
The confiscation of land extends to businesses as well, the cable notes. A
prominent and wealthy Saudi businessman told the embassy that one reason rich
Saudis keep so much money outside the country was to lessen the risk of 'royal
expropriation.'"
Finally, royals kept the money flowing by sponsoring the residence permits of
foreign workers and then requiring them to pay a monthly "fee" of between $30
and $150. "It is common for a prince to sponsor a hundred or more foreigners,"
the 1996 cable says.
BIG SPENDERS
The U.S. diplomats behind the cable note wryly that despite all the money that
has been given to Saudi royals over the years there is not "a significant number
of super-rich princes ... In the end," the cable states, Saudi's "royals still
seem more adept at squandering than accumulating wealth."
But the authors of the cable also warned that all that money and excess was
undermining the legitimacy of the ruling family. By 1996, there was "broad
sentiment that royal greed has gone beyond the bounds of reason". Still, as long
as the "royal family views this country as 'Al Saud Inc.' ever increasing
numbers of princes and princesses will see it as their birthright to receive
lavish dividend payments, and dip into the till from time to time, by sheer
virtue of company ownership."
In the years that followed that remarkable assessment of Saudi royalty, there
were some official efforts toward reform -- driven in the late 1990s and early
2000s in particular by an oil price between $10-20 a barrel. But the real push
for reform began in 2005, when King Abdullah succeeded to the throne, and even
then change came slowly.
By February 2007, according to a second cable entitled "Crown Prince Sultan
backs the King in family disputes", the reforms were beginning to bite. "By far
the most widespread source of discontent in the ruling family is the King's
curtailment of their privileges," the cable says. "King Abdullah has reportedly
told his brothers that he is over 80 years old and does not wish to approach his
judgment day with the 'burden of corruption on my shoulder.'"
The King, the cable states, had disconnected the cellphone service for
"thousands of princes and princesses." Year-round government-paid hotel suites
in Jeddah had been canceled, as was the right of royals to request unlimited
free tickets from the state airline. "We have a first-hand account that a wife
of Interior minister Prince Naif attempted to board a Saudia flight with 12
companions, all expecting to travel for free," the authors of the cables write,
only to be told "to her outrage" that the new rules meant she could only take
two free guests.
Others were also angered by the rules. Prince Mishal bin Majid bin Abdulaziz had
taken to driving between Jeddah and Riyadh "to show his annoyance" at the
reforms, according to the cable.
Abdullah had also reigned in the practice of issuing "block visas" to foreign
workers "and thus cut the income of many junior princes" as well as dramatically
reducing "the practice of transferring public lands to favored individuals."
The U.S. cable reports that all those reforms had fueled tensions within the
ruling family to the point where Interior Minister Prince Naif and Riyadh
Governor Prince Salman had "sought to openly confront the King over reducing
royal entitlements."
But according to "well established sources with first hand access to this
information," Crown Prince Sultan stood by Abdullah and told his brothers "that
challenging the King was a 'red line' that he would not cross." Sultan, the
cable says, has also followed the King's lead and turned down requests for land
transfers.
The cable comments that Sultan, longtime defense minister and now also Crown
Prince, seemed to value family unity and stability above all.
(Editing by Jim Impoco, Claudia Parsons and Sara Ledwith)
February 27, 2011
The New York Times
By ISABEL KERSHNER
JERUSALEM — A YouTube clip mocking Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s
megalomania is fast becoming a popular token of the Libya uprising across the
Middle East. And in an added affront to Colonel Qaddafi, it was created by an
Israeli living in Tel Aviv.
Noy Alooshe, 31, an Israeli journalist, musician and Internet buff, said he saw
Colonel Qaddafi’s televised speech last Tuesday in which the Libyan leader vowed
to hunt down protesters “inch by inch, house by house, home by home, alleyway by
alleyway,” and immediately identified it as a “classic.”
“He was dressed strangely, and he raised his arms” like at a trance party, Mr.
Alooshe said Sunday in a telephone interview, referring to the gatherings that
feature electronic dance music. Then there were Colonel Qaddafi’s words with
their natural beat.
Mr. Alooshe spent a few hours at the computer, using pitch corrector technology
to set the speech to the music of “Hey Baby,” a song by the American rapper
Pitbull, featuring another artist, T-Pain. Mr. Alooshe titled it “Zenga-Zenga,”
echoing Colonel Qaddafi’s repetition of the word zanqa, Arabic for alleyway.
By the early hours of Wednesday morning, Mr. Alooshe had uploaded the electro
hip-hop remix to YouTube, and he began promoting it on Twitter and Facebook,
sending the link to the pages of young Arab revolutionaries. By Sunday night,
the original clip had received nearly 500,000 hits and had gone viral.
Mr. Alooshe, who at first did not identify himself on the clip as an Israeli,
started receiving enthusiastic messages from all around the Arab world. Web
surfers soon discovered that he was a Jewish Israeli from his Facebook profile —
Mr. Alooshe plays in a band called Hovevey Zion, or the Lovers of Zion — and
some of the accolades turned to curses. A few also found the video distasteful.
But the reactions have largely been positive, including a message Mr. Alooshe
said he received from someone he assumed to be from the Libyan opposition saying
that if and when the Qaddafi regime fell, “We will dance to ‘Zenga-Zenga’ in the
square.”
The original clip features mirror images of a scantily clad woman dancing along
to Colonel Qaddafi’s rant. Mr. Alooshe said he got many requests from Web
surfers who asked him for a version without the dancer so that they could show
it to their parents, which he did.
Mr. Alooshe speaks no Arabic, though his grandparents were from Tunisia. He said
he used Google Translate every few hours to check messages and remove any
offensive remarks.
Israelis have been watching the events in Libya unfold with the same rapt
attention as they have to the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.
In the past, Colonel Qaddafi has proposed that Palestinian refugees should
return en masse by ship to Israel’s shores, and that Israel and the Palestinian
territories should be combined into one state called Isratine.
Mr. Alooshe said he was a little worried that if the Libyan leader survived, he
could send one of his sons after him. But he said it was “also very exciting to
be making waves in the Arab world as an Israeli.”
As one surfer wrote in an Arabic talkback early Sunday, “What’s the problem if
he’s an Israeli? The video is still funny.” He signed off with the
internationally recognized “Hahaha.”
Factbox: Western leaders call for Libya's Gaddafi to go
Sun Feb 27, 2011
5:11pm EST
Reuters
(Reuters) - A growing number of Western leaders are urging
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to step down after his brutal response to the
popular uprising against his rule.
The U.N. Security Council agreed on Saturday to impose travel bans and asset
freezes on Gaddafi, his family and inner circle and called for Libya's crackdown
on protesters to be referred to the International Criminal Court for
investigation.
Following are details of countries demanding Gaddafi go:
COUNTRIES:
BRITAIN: "It is time for Colonel Gaddafi to go and to go now. There is no future
for Libya that includes him," British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a
televised statement on Sunday in the strongest language Britain's nine-month-old
coalition has used so far about the crisis.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain had revoked Gaddafi's diplomatic
immunity and that of his sons, family and household -- an unprecedented step by
Britain against a serving head of state.
Revoking Gaddafi's diplomatic immunity means that any outstanding arrest warrant
would apply on British soil.
After a 2003 deal to dismantle weapons of mass destruction, former British prime
minister Tony Blair helped lead Gaddafi back into the international fold, paving
the way for big British business deals in Libya.
GERMANY: German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said on Saturday he believed
Muammar Gaddafi would not be able to stay in power after his brutal response to
the uprising in Libya.
In an article for Sunday's the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper,
Westerwelle criticised the European Union for not acting sooner to impose
sanctions against Gaddafi.
"A ruling family which conducts a war so brutally against its own people is
finished. The dictator cannot stay," he said, adding: "The EU was initially too
hesitant."
ITALY: The end of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's rule is "inevitable," the
foreign minister of Italy, his closest European ally, said on Sunday.
Foreign Minister Franco Frattinialso said a friendship and cooperation treaty
between Libya and Italy was "de facto suspended."
"We have reached, I believe, a point of no return," Frattini told Sky Italia
television. Asked whether Gaddafi should leave power, he said: "It is inevitable
for this to happen.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government had initially hesitated to condemn
violence in Libya, a former Italian colony with which Rome has close business
ties.
Libya supplies around 25 percent of Italy's oil needs and 12 percent of its gas
imports. Its sovereign wealth fund has stakes in Italy's biggest bank UniCredit
and other companies, and Italy's oil and gas major ENI is the biggest operator
in Libya.
UNITED STATES: President Barack Obama called on Saturday for Gaddafi to step
down, sharpening U.S. rhetoric after days of violence and criticism that
Washington was slow to respond.
Obama, in a call to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Gaddafi had lost his
legitimacy and needed to go.
"The president stated that when a leader's only means of staying in power is to
use mass violence against his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and
needs to do what is right for his country by leaving now," the White House said
in a statement describing the call.
Previously the White House has stopped short of calling for Gaddafi to leave,
saying -- just as in other countries affected by a wave of regional unrest --
that only Libya's citizens had a say in choosing their rulers.
TUNIS | Sun Feb 27, 2011
4:31pm EST
Reuters
By Tarek Amara
TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi
resigned Sunday after violent protests over his ties to the North African
state's toppled former leader, triggering street celebrations in central Tunis.
Analysts said the move could add legitimacy to an election to replace President
Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, ousted on January 14, but could also encourage further
opposition demands.
Police fired shots in the air and used tear gas to disperse hundreds of youths
breaking shop windows in a commercial district of Tunis shortly after the
announcement, while thousands gathered near parliament to celebrate.
"We're very happy, but it is not enough," said one of the cheering crowd, who
identified himself as Ahmed. "We want to see nothing more of this government."
Critics have accused Ghannouchi of being too close to former ruler Ben Ali,
toppled after a series of protests that sent shockwaves across the rest of North
Africa and the Arab world and encouraged a similar uprising in Egypt.
He was replaced by Beji Caid Sebsi, a former foreign minister under independence
President Habib Bourguiba, according to an announcement by interim President
Fouad Mebazza.
"My resignation will provide a better atmosphere for the new era," Ghannouchi
said, adding he wanted to prevent more deaths. Five people have been killed
since Friday in clashes between security forces and demonstrators at protests
against Ghannouchi, according to the government.
"My resignation is in the service of the country," he said during a speech on
state TV. "I am not a man of repression."
Ghannouchi restated the government's pledge to hold elections to replace Ben
Ali, widely seen by Tunisians as repressive and corrupt, by July 15.
RISK OF BACKFIRE
Analysts said Ghannouchi's resignation had the potential to ease street
tensions, but may also backfire.
"The hope is that, with this concession, street protests will calm down and this
will allow the government to get to the task of preparing elections," said
Kamran Bokhari of political risk consultancy Stratfor.
"But the risk is that it will embolden the opposition forces to demand more
concessions."
A Reuters witness said Tunisian soldiers had barricaded a commercial district of
Tunis where youths were breaking windows and throwing stones. They fired tear
gas and rounds in the air to disperse them. There was no sign of any wounded.
An official at Tunisia's powerful umbrella union UGTT, which has been demanding
labor reforms since Ben Ali's removal, said Ghannouchi's resignation was "a step
in the right direction."
A spokesman for Tunisia's main Islamist group, Ennahda, said the move could pave
the way to broader participation in the interim government. Ennahda, banned for
two decades under Ben Ali's rule, had complained of being shut out of the
caretaker government run by Ghannouchi.
(Reporting by Tarek Amara; writing by Richard Valdmanis; editing
by Andrew Roche)
As Regimes Fall in Arab World, Al Qaeda Sees History Fly By
February 27, 2011
The New York Times
By SCOTT SHANE
For nearly two decades, the leaders of Al Qaeda have denounced
the Arab world’s dictators as heretics and puppets of the West and called for
their downfall. Now, people in country after country have risen to topple their
leaders — and Al Qaeda has played absolutely no role.
In fact, the motley opposition movements that have appeared so suddenly and
proved so powerful have shunned the two central tenets of the Qaeda credo:
murderous violence and religious fanaticism. The demonstrators have used force
defensively, treated Islam as an afterthought and embraced democracy, which is
anathema to Osama bin Laden and his followers.
So for Al Qaeda — and perhaps no less for the American policies that have been
built around the threat it poses — the democratic revolutions that have gripped
the world’s attention present a crossroads. Will the terrorist network shrivel
slowly to irrelevance? Or will it find a way to exploit the chaos produced by
political upheaval and the disappointment that will inevitably follow hopes now
raised so high?
For many specialists on terrorism and the Middle East, though not all, the past
few weeks have the makings of an epochal disaster for Al Qaeda, making the
jihadists look like ineffectual bystanders to history while offering young
Muslims an appealing alternative to terrorism.
“So far — and I emphasize so far — the score card looks pretty terrible for Al
Qaeda,” said Paul R. Pillar, who studied terrorism and the Middle East for
nearly three decades at the C.I.A. and is now at Georgetown University.
“Democracy is bad news for terrorists. The more peaceful channels people have to
express grievances and pursue their goals, the less likely they are to turn to
violence.”
If the terrorists network’s leaders hope to seize the moment, they have been
slow off the mark. Mr. bin Laden has been silent. His Egyptian deputy, Ayman
al-Zawahri, has issued three rambling statements from his presumed hide-out in
the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region that seemed oddly out of sync with the
news, not noting the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, whose
government detained and tortured Mr. Zawahri in the 1980s.
“Knocking off Mubarak has been Zawahri’s goal for more than 20 years, and he was
unable to achieve it,” said Brian Fishman, a terrorism expert at the New America
Foundation. “Now a nonviolent, nonreligious, pro-democracy movement got rid of
him in a matter of weeks. It’s a major problem for Al Qaeda.”
The Arab revolutions, of course, remain very much a work in progress, as the
Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, orders a bloody defense of Tripoli, and
Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, negotiates to cling to power. The
breakdown of order could create havens for terrorist cells, at least for a time
— a hazard both Colonel Qaddafi and Mr. Saleh have prevented, winning the
gratitude of the American government.
“There’s an operational advantage for militants in any place where law
enforcement and domestic security are weak and distracted,” said Steven Simon, a
fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and co-author of “The Age of Sacred
Terror.” But over all, he said, developments in the Arab countries are a
strategic defeat for violent jihadism.
“These uprisings have shown that the new generation is not terribly interested
in Al Qaeda’s ideology,” Mr. Simon said. He called the Zawahri statements
“forlorn, if not pathetic.”
There is evidence that the uprisings have enthralled some jihadists. One
Algerian man associated with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the network’s
North African affiliate, welcomed the uprisings in a weekend interview and said
militants were returning from exile to join the battle in Libya, arming
themselves from government weapons caches.
“Since the land is in chaos and Qaddafi is helping through his reactions and
actions to increase the hatred of the population against him, it will be easier
for us to recruit new members,” said the Algerian man, who uses the nom de
guerre Abu Salman. He said that Libyans and Tunisians who had fought in Iraq or
Afghanistan were now considering a return home.
“There is lots of work to do,” he said. “We have to help the people fighting and
then build an Islamic state.”
Abu Khaled, a Jordanian jihadist who fought in Iraq with the insurgent leader
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, suggested that Al Qaeda would benefit in the long run from
dashed hopes.
“At the end of the day, how much change will there really be in Egypt and other
countries?” he asked. “There will be many disappointed demonstrators, and that’s
when they will realize what the only alternative is. We are certain that this
will all play into our hands.”
Michael Scheuer, author of a new biography of Mr. bin Laden and head of the
C.I.A.’s bin Laden unit in the late 1990s, thinks such enthusiasm is more than
wishful thinking.
Mr. Scheuer says he believes that Americans, including many experts, have wildly
misjudged the uprisings by focusing on the secular, English-speaking,
Westernized protesters who are a natural draw for television. Thousands of
Islamists have been released from prisons in Egypt alone, and the ouster of Al
Qaeda’s enemy, Mr. Mubarak, will help revitalize every stripe of Islamism,
including that of Al Qaeda and its allies, he said.
“The talent of an organization is not just leadership, but taking advantage of
opportunities,” Mr. Scheuer said. In Al Qaeda and its allies, he said, “We’re
looking over all at a more geographically widespread, probably numerically
bigger and certainly more influential movement than in 2001.”
If Al Qaeda faces an uncertain moment, so does the Obama administration. For a
decade, the United States has been preoccupied with the Muslim world as a source
of terrorist violence — one reason both the Bush and Obama administrations had
friendly relations with the authoritarian governments now under fire.
It was such a dominant theme of American policy that even Colonel Qaddafi, the
quixotic and brutal Libyan leader who President Obama said Saturday should step
down, had drawn American praise as a bulwark against jihadists. A cable from the
American Embassy in Tripoli briefing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice before
a 2008 visit called Libya “a strong partner in the war against terrorism,”
noting “excellent” intelligence cooperation and specifically lauding Colonel
Qaddafi’s efforts to block the return of Libyan militants from Afghanistan and
Iraq and to “blunt the ideological appeal of radical Islam.”
Such perceived dividends of cooperation with the likes of Colonel Qaddafi are
now history, and that is a point not lost on the C.I.A., the State Department
and the White House. As during the United States’ halting adjustment to the fall
of Communist governments from 1989 to 1991, officials are scrambling to balance
day-to-day crisis management with consideration of how American policy must
adjust for the long term.
“There has to be a major rethinking of how the U.S. engages with that part of
the world,” said Christopher Boucek, who studies the Middle East at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace. “We have to make clear that our security no
longer comes at the expense of poor governance and no rights for the people in
those countries.
“All of the givens,” Mr. Boucek said, “are gone.”
Souad Mekhennet contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan.
February 27, 2011
The New York Times
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and KAREEM FAHIM
ZAWIYAH, Libya — The Libyan rebels challenging Col. Muammar
el-Qaddafi demonstrated their increasing military coordination and firepower on
Sunday, as defecting officers in the east took steps to establish a unified
command while their followers in this rebel-held city, just outside the leader’s
stronghold in the capital, displayed tanks, Kalashnikovs and antiaircraft guns.
In a further sign of their strength, the rebels also talked about tapping
revenue from the vast Libyan oil resources now under their control — estimated
by some oil company officials to be about 80 percent of the country’s total. And
in recognition of the insurrection’s growing power, Italy’s foreign minister
suspended a nonaggression treaty with Libya on the grounds that the Libyan state
“no longer exists.” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United
States was reaching out to the rebels to “offer any kind of assistance.”
The most striking display of strength was seen here, 30 miles from Colonel
Qaddafi’s Tripoli redoubt. Zawiyah is one of several cities near the capital
controlled by rebels, who have repulsed repeated attempts by Colonel Qaddafi’s
forces to retake them. And the arsenal they displayed helped to explain how the
rebels held Zawiyah.
“Army, army, army!” excited residents shouted, pointing to a defected soldier
standing watch at Zawiyah’s entrance as he raised his machine gun in the air and
held up two fingers for victory.
A few yards away a captured antiaircraft gun fired several deafening salutes
into the air, and gleeful residents invited newcomers to clamber aboard one of
several army tanks now in rebel hands. Residents said that when Colonel
Qaddafi’s forces mounted a deadly assault to retake the city last Thursday —
shell holes were visible in the central mosque and ammunition littered the
central square — local army units switched sides to join the rebels, as about
2,000 police officers had done the week before.
And on Sunday, scores of residents armed with machine guns and rifles joined in
a chant that has become the slogan of pro-democracy uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt,
Bahrain, Yemen and across the Arab world: “The people want to bring down the
regime!”
The opposition’s display came as a global effort to isolate Colonel Qaddafi and
possibly force his resignation gained momentum over the weekend, with the United
Nations Security Council moving to impose punitive financial sanctions and NATO
allies discussing steps that included a possible no-fly zone over Libya.
But with their increasing firepower, the rebels appeared to break the pattern of
nonviolent revolts set by neighboring Egypt and Tunisia and now sweeping the
Middle East — just as Colonel Qaddafi has shown a willingness to shed far more
of his citizens’ blood than any of the region’s other autocrats.
The maneuverings by both sides suggested they were girding for a confrontation
that could influence the shape of other protest movements and the responses of
other rulers who feel threatened by insurrections. Colonel Qaddafi’s militias,
plainclothes police and other paramilitary forces have kept the deserted streets
of Tripoli under a lockdown.
And residents of Zawiyah said Sunday that his forces were massing again on its
outskirts. As a caravan of visiting journalists left Zawiyah, a crowd of
hundreds of Qaddafi supporters waving green flags and holding Qaddafi posters
blocked the highway for a rally against the rebels. “The people want Colonel
Muammar!” some chanted.
In interviews with ABC News, two of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons appeared to mix
defiance and denial. “The people — everybody wants more,” said Saadi el-Qaddafi,
apparently dismissing the public outcry for a more accountable government.
“There is no limit. You give this, then you get asked for that, you know?”
He described the uprisings around the region as “an earthquake” and predicted,
“Chaos will be everywhere.” If his father left, he said, Libya would face a
civil war “one hour later.”
His brother Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi seemed to challenge journalists to look for
signs of unrest. “Please, take your cameras tomorrow morning, even tonight,” he
said. “Everything is calm. Everything is peaceful.”
But when government-paid drivers and minders took visiting journalists on an
official tour to visit here Sunday morning, they found a town firmly in rebel
hands, where Libyan officials and military units did not even try to enter. It
was the second consecutive day that an official tour appeared to do more to
discredit than bolster the government’s line, and questions arose about the true
allegiance of the official tour minders, who appeared to mingle easily with
people of rebel-held Zawiyah. Some suggested that the Qaddafi government might
in fact have believed its own propaganda: that the journalists would discover in
Zawiyah radical Islamists or young people crazed by drugs supplied by Osama bin
Laden.
But the residents showed little interest in Islamist politics or hallucinogenic
drugs. They mocked Colonel Qaddafi’s allegations, painted the tricolored
pre-Qaddafi flag that has become the banner of the revolt on the side of a
burned-out government building, and chanted, “Free, free, Libya.”
Several said that on Thursday morning the Qaddafi forces had blasted peaceful
protesters gathered in the square with machine guns and artillery, pointing to
holes in the sides of pillars and even a mosque. They showed journalists seven
fresh graves dug in the square to bury those killed in the fight.
But the battle had made them even more confident of their power, they said,
because military units had joined their cause instead of fighting against them.
Some said that in the fights against Italian occupation and other battles in
Libya’s pre-Qaddafi history, their city of 300,000 had earned the nickname “the
silent lion,” and was living up to it again. “When Qaddafi killed people,
Zawiyah became like a volcano,” said Tariq Mohamed, a resident.
They said the city was now under the control of a committee of prominent
citizens — doctors, lawyers, judges, engineers and the like — who were
organizing its public services and continued defense. “We are a very patient
people,” said Ahmed el-Hadi Remeh, an engineer standing in the square. “We kept
silent for 42 years, and when we do start to speak, he shoots us with a 14.5
millimeter.”
In Benghazi, the eastern city where the revolt began, rebels said that Libyan
soldiers had joined the rebels in securing vital oil industry facilities around
that part of the country. Some oil industry workers fleeing across the Tunisian
border in recent days said they had seen Libyan soldiers fire their weapons to
drive off foreign mercenaries or other security forces who had approached oil
facilities not far from here.
Hassan Bulifa, who sits on the management committee of the Arabian Gulf Oil
Company, the country’s largest oil producer, said that the rebels control at
least 80 percent of the country’s oil assets, and that his company, based in
Benghazi, was cooperating with them. The company resumed oil shipments on
Sunday, loading two tankers at a port in Tobruk, Mr. Bulifa said. The ships —
one bound for Austria and the other for China — represented the company’s first
shipments since Feb. 10.
Although the revenue from those sales goes the company’s umbrella organization,
Libya’s National Oil Company, Mr. Bulifa said Arabian Gulf Oil had ceased any
coordination with the national company, though it was honoring oil contracts.
And he insisted the proceeds would ultimately flow to the rebels, not Colonel
Qaddafi. “Qaddafi and his gangsters will not have a hand on them,” he said. “We
are not worried about the revenues.”
Some in Washington, including Senator John McCain, the ranking Republican on the
Armed Services Committee, urged the Obama administration to consider military
action and recognize a rebel government. But the rebels themselves seemed far
from ready for international relations.
On Saturday, the country’s former justice minister, Mustafa Mohamed Abd
al-Jalil, said in an interview on Al Jazeera that he would head a transitional
government, with the aim of holding elections within three months. But on
Sunday, another figure in the rebel movement, Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga, seemed to
dismiss that claim, saying a national council had been formed to manage the
“day-to-day living” of the “liberated” territories.
The Qaddafi government implicitly acknowledged for the first time on Sunday that
it feared elements of its military falling into rebel hands, as Colonel
Qaddafi’s son Seif said in the television interview that the Libyan government
had bombed its own ammunition depots in the east.
And Gen. Ahmed el-Gatrani, a former senior commander who now leads the rebel
forces, said his troops were awaiting a call for support from the capital. “Our
brothers in Tripoli say: ‘We are fine so far, we do not need help.’ If they ask
for help we are ready to move,” he told Reuters. Many rebels in the west,
however, said they believed General Gatrani was trying to hide the true rebel
plans. Mr. Ghoga, for his part, vowed Sunday that Tripoli and other Libyan
cities would be liberated using “our national army.”
David D. Kirkpatrick reported from Zawiyah, and Kareem Fahim from
Benghazi, Libya.
Tremors From Libya Threaten to Rattle the Oil World
February 27, 2011
The New York Times
By JAD MOUAWAD and CLIFFORD KRAUSS
This is no oil shock — not yet, anyway.
But the events unfolding in the Arab world, the epicenter of global oil
production, are a sobering reminder that trading in oil, that mother of all
commodities, is at heart a political game. Not since Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990
have the politics of crude loomed so large. Like much of the Arab world, this
market seems like a pocket full of firecrackers, just waiting for a match.
As rebels tightened their noose around Tripoli on Sunday, its critical oil
supplies remained constricted. Production from most of Libya’s oil fields was
down to a trickle.
Several ports and refineries were left stricken by workers too afraid to go to
work. And with most foreign oil company employees having left the country and
armed men beginning to loot equipment left behind, a return to normal production
appears weeks away at best.
About 80 percent of the nation’s oil production lies in rebel-held territory,
though there is not a way to verify how much rebel leaders directly control.
Granted, the world can cope with a disruption of exports from Libya. But what
has brought us to $100-a-barrel oil again — and set people on edge — is the
possibility that the uprisings that toppled autocrats in Egypt and Tunisia might
spread to other OPEC nations in the Middle East.
For the moment, heavyweights like Saudi Arabia can make up the difference, and
big consumers, like the United States, have stored millions of barrels of oil
for just this kind of emergency.
But few oil experts are surprised that the unrest has so unnerved the market.
The world is thirsty for oil, and supply and demand are in delicate balance.
There is little room for more disruptions in supplies. Indeed, spare capacity —
essentially that amount of extra oil that OPEC members are able to produce in a
pinch — is now about five million barrels a day. That is about 6 percent of the
oil that the world consumes every day. That cushion is greater than in 2008,
when it equaled about 2 percent of daily consumption, but it remains worryingly
thin. And that is not even taking into account the loss of about one million
barrels a day exported from Libya.
“There is a vulnerability to tightness,” said David Knapp, senior energy
economist at Energy Intelligence, a specialized publisher. “But for now, there
are enough barrels out there in commercial storage and OPEC’s spare capacity and
strategic reserves held by industrial countries to handle a medium-duration
outage from Libya.”
The question on everyone’s mind is what if this goes beyond Libya. Costanza
Jacazio, an energy analyst at Barclays Capital in New York, says further unrest
— or simply fear of further unrest — could well drive oil prices higher. “The
degree of geopolitical risk now is massive.”
Jan Stuart, an energy economist at Macquarie Securities, explained: “This brings
back the political dimension to oil-price dynamics. For the best part of the
past 25 years, the Saudis have bent backwards to make sure politics would be
banned from discussions about oil supplies. The risk today is we could go back
the other way again.”
The price of oil had been rising steadily even before the wave of pro-democracy
protests swept much of the Middle East and North Africa. A recovering global
economy had convinced traders that demand for oil was going to rise by about 2
percent in 2011. Some industry experts and Wall Street seers were predicting a
gradual march back to $120 and even $150. The thinking was that investors would
pour money into the commodity markets.
Oil futures in New York jumped nearly $12 last week to settle at $97.88 a
barrel, their highest since October 2008; in London, benchmark Brent crude
traded close to $115 a barrel.
Now economists worry that high and rising energy prices could hurt the economy
just as it is beginning to revive. The price of gasoline averaged $3.29 a gallon
on Friday, up from $3.11 a month ago. As a rule, every 1-cent increase takes
more than $1 billion out of consumers’ pockets a year.
If prices keep climbing, consumers will in all likelihood tighten their belts.
If prices stay high for long, the impact could be severe: every oil shock of the
past 40 years has helped push the global economy into recession. Nariman
Behravesh, senior economist at IHS Global Insight, said that every $10 increase
in the price of a barrel of oil reduces economic growth by two-tenths of a
percentage point after one year and a full percentage point over two years.
In some ways, something like this was bound to happen. This is not a “black
swan” event — a sudden, unexpected occurrence — but a white swan one, said
Michael A. Levi, senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on
Foreign Relations.
“You can’t predict what the specific disruption there will be, but you can be
sure there will be some disruption,” he said.
To calm markets, Saudi Arabia has started to increase its crude output to more
than nine million barrels a day, roughly 700,000 barrels more than at the end of
2010, Energy Intelligence reported. Saudi officials are also asking European
refiners, who are most directly affected by the drop in Libyan exports, how much
and what grades of crude they need for quick shipment.
And the International Energy Agency, an organization of consuming countries,
also helped defuse tensions in the markets when it said Thursday that the world
had “the tools at hand to deliver adequate oil to the market,” including the
availability of emergency stocks held by consuming nations.
Much now hinges on what happens next in the Middle East. The price spikes that
accompanied the two Persian Gulf wars did not have deep impacts because of they
did not last long enough. But several oil price increases have preceded economic
downturns.
The biggest shock followed the 1973-74 OPEC embargo, which quadrupled oil prices
and helped produce stagflation, a period of slow growth, high unemployment and
inflation.
The 1979 Iranian revolution caused another shortage, and again American
motorists were forced to wait in long lines for gasoline. Oil prices surged, but
they did not stay elevated for long, as Mexico, Nigeria and Venezuela expanded
production and OPEC lost its unity. Oil prices remained low for years, and the
economy through the later half of the 1980s and most of the 1990s was generally
strong.
If the current unrest helps drive the price of a barrel up by $40 to $50, back
to its level of three years ago, that would really hurt.
“If gasoline prices go over $4 a gallon, there could be a big psychological
effect,” Mr. Behravesh said, “but it would have to last.”
February 27, 2011
The New York Times
By JOHN M. BRODER
WASHINGTON — Obama administration officials held talks on
Sunday with European and other allied governments as they readied plans for the
possible imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent further killings of
civilians by forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
Further increasing international pressure on Colonel Qaddafi, the Libyan leader,
Italy suspended a 2008 treaty with Libya that includes a nonaggression clause, a
move that could allow it to take part in future peacekeeping operations in Libya
or enable the use of its military bases in any possible intervention.
“We signed the friendship treaty with a state, but when the counterpart no
longer exists — in this case the Libyan state — the treaty cannot be applied,”
Italy’s foreign minister, Franco Frattini, said Sunday in a television
interview.
White House, State Department and Pentagon officials held talks with their
European and NATO counterparts about how to proceed in imposing flight
restrictions over Libya. A senior administration official said Sunday that no
decision had been made, and expressed caution that any decision on a no-fly zone
would have to be made in consultations with allies.
A diplomat at the United Nations said that any such action would require further
debate among the 15 nations of the Security Council, which was unlikely to act
unless there was a significant increase in state-sponsored violence in Libya,
including the use of aircraft against civilians.
Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, was scheduled to meet with
President Obama on Monday afternoon at the White House to discuss the
deteriorating situation in Libya.
Obama administration officials said Sunday that they were also discussing
whether the American military could disrupt communications to prevent Colonel
Qaddafi from broadcasting in Libya. In addition, the administration was looking
at whether the military could be used to set up a corridor in neighboring
Tunisia or Egypt to assist refugees.
“There hasn’t been discussion that I’m aware of related to military intervention
beyond that, and a discussion of that nature would have to begin at the U.N.,” a
senior administration official said. But, the official added, “I wouldn’t say
we’ve ruled anything out, either.”
Italy’s treaty with Libya, signed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in August
2008, calls on Italy to pay Libya $5 billion over 20 years in reparations for
its colonial past there. In return, Libya pledged to help block the flow of
illegal immigrants to Italy and grant favorable treatment for Italian companies
seeking to do business in Libya.
But the treaty also contains a nonaggression clause that some analysts said
complicated Italy’s position in the event of international military intervention
in Libya. In it, Italy pledges not to use “direct or indirect” military force
against Libya, or to allow the use of its territory “in any hostile act against
Libya.”
There are several United States and NATO bases in Italy that presumably would be
staging areas for any action against Libya, including the United States Sixth
Fleet base near Naples. After the treaty was signed, Italy had to explain to
NATO that it would respect its multilateral international treaties.
An Italian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Maurizio Massari, noted that Italy had
suspended the treaty, not revoked it, and would evaluate how to proceed as the
conflict in Libya evolved.
At the United Nations, there was no formal discussion about Libya on Sunday, as
diplomats weighed possible next steps and digested the Security Council
resolutions passed Saturday night that imposed an arms embargo and economic
sanctions on Libya.
An American official, who discussed United Nations deliberations on the
condition that he not be identified, said the Security Council had moved more
quickly on Libya than on almost any issue in recent years. The body is poised to
take further steps, if warranted, like “a rapid deterioration, a significant
uptick in violence,” he said. “In terms of big ideas like a no-fly zone, if the
international community is ready, and there is a need to impose a no-fly zone or
authorize use of force, that would require another whole debate and resolution.”
Helene Cooper contributed reporting from Washington, and Rachel
Donadio from Rome.
Workers from poor states stuck in Libya as others flee
Sun, Feb 27 2011
BENGHAZI, Libya | Sun Feb 27, 2011
1:30pm EST
Reuters
By Alexander Dziadosz
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Omar Chand, 50, a driver from
India, joined hundreds of his fellow expatriate workers to watch a British
warship dock in Libya's Benghazi on Sunday. Like others from poor Asian nations
with him, he did not board.
Wealthier Western and Asian states have sent ships to evacuate expatriate
workers from this port since a bloody uprising against Muammar Gaddafi's rule
erupted. Thousands of others, mostly from Africa and South Asia, are still
stranded.
"There's no money, there's nothing," said Chand as a light rain fell on the dock
in this eastern city. "Maybe tomorrow a ship is coming. Maybe. It's not for
sure."
An estimated 1.5 million foreigners work in Libya, drawn largely by oil and
construction jobs from countries as varied as Vietnam, Bangladesh, Egypt, Malta,
Australia, Brazil and Ghana.
Like many of the others who huddled with their blankets and suitcases, Chand did
not have a passport with him. His company held on to it, and their offices had
been torched during the uprising, he said.
Benghazi residents have set up kitchens and a hospital at the dock and have sent
doctors to tend to stranded workers. Volunteers wearing badges bearing the
monarchy-era flag adopted by the rebellion handed out tuna sandwiches to the
crowds.
"When your neighbor is in difficulty, you should assist him, regardless of his
race, his language, his religion," said Ali Buhedma, president of the Islamic
Committee of the International Crescent at the Organization of the Islamic
Countries, who came to help coordinate the assistance.
"That's why these people -- they are engineers, they are businessmen, they are
doctors -- are here."
Haitham Jadir, 36, a Libyan engineer helping the workers, estimated between
3,000 and 5,000 workers were stranded at the port and at a second site set up in
the city's university campus, most of them from Bangladesh, Vietnam, Ghana,
Eritrea and other African and Asian countries.
Few had any idea if and when the workers would be able to leave.
"These people, there is no one asking about them," Jadir said. "All the
directors for the Chinese and the Turkish companies ran and left the
Bangladeshis, the Vietnamese, the Somalis, the African people."
FLIGHT
Rebels managed to oust forces loyal to Gaddafi from much of eastern Libya
following a violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrations nearly two weeks ago.
In the ensuing chaos, many companies operating in Libya pulled out their
workers.
The British warship HMS Cumberland made its second stop in Benghazi on Sunday to
evacuate Britons and some others. Soldiers patrolled a warehouse near the boat
as fleeing workers queued to have their documents checked.
Many of the roughly 250 workers boarding the ship were fleeing from the oil
fields south of Benghazi and had traveled hundreds of kilometres (miles) by bus
to reach the port.
"I'd actually only been in the country about 13 days, on my first rotation, my
first time working overseas," said Jon Wright, 45, a Canadian mechanic queuing
to board. "I got into Libya, got onto the rig, and everything kind of turned
upside down."
Wright said the road from the oil fields had been safe and that Libyans had
assisted fleeing expatriates along their way.
Other workers described scenes of looting after the rule of law largely
collapsed.
"We had no security. No security whatsoever," said Terry Hinz, 47, an Australian
mechanic working for a drilling firm, adding looters stole a vehicle from his
oilfield. "One pickup came in, one guy had an AK47, the other guy had a
handgun."
"It makes you think you take a little bit for granted," he said.
(Writing by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Caroline Drees)
SOHAR, Oman | Mon Feb 28, 2011
7:05am EST Reuters
By Jason Benham and Saleh Al-Shaibany
SOHAR, Oman (Reuters) - Omani protesters demanding political
reforms blocked roads to a main export port and refinery on Monday and a doctor
said the death toll from clashes with police in the Gulf Arab sultanate had
risen to six.
Hundreds of protesters blocked the entrance to the industrial area of the
northern coastal town of Sohar, which includes a port, refinery and aluminum
factory. They pushed back four army vehicles that had been observing the scene.
"We want to see the benefit of our oil wealth distributed evenly to the
population," one protester yelled over a loudhailer near the port. "We want to
see a scale-down of expatriates in Oman so more jobs can be created for Omanis."
The unrest in Sohar, Oman's main industrial center, was a rare outbreak of
discontent in the normally sleepy sultanate ruled by Sultan Qaboos bin Said for
four decades, and follows a wave of pro-democracy protests across the Arab
world.
Oman's government, trying to calm tensions, promised on Sunday to create more
jobs and give benefits to job seekers.
A main supermarket in Sohar was burning on Monday after being looted, witnesses
said. Protesters stormed the town's police station on Sunday to try to free
detainees before burning it. They had also set two state offices alight.
As well as those demonstrating outside the industrial area, hundreds more were
at the main Globe Roundabout, angry after police opened fire on Sunday at
stone-throwing protesters demanding political reforms, jobs and better pay.
Graffiti scrawled on a statue said: "The people are hungry." Another message
read: "No to oppression of the people."
Nearby, sidewalks were smashed and office windows broken. Troops deployed around
the town but were not intervening to disperse protesters.
"There are no jobs, there's no freedom of opinion. The people are tired and
people want money. People want to end corruption," said Ali al-Mazroui, 30, who
is unemployed.
SOHAR OIL EXPORTS UNAFFECTED
Marine traffic and exports of refined oil products from Sohar's port, which
ships 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) of a range of products, were continuing
although the flow of trucks into the port was blocked, a port spokeswoman said.
"It is true the protesters are making a very non-violent protest," the
spokeswoman told Reuters. "Marine traffic in and out is not affected at the
moment."
A doctor at Sohar's main hospital said the death toll had risen to six.
Witnesses had earlier put it at two, some saying police had fired live
ammunition, while others said they had used rubber bullets.
"We have received a total of six deaths yesterday from the protests in Sohar,"
the emergency doctor at the state hospital in Sohar said, without saying how
they had died.
The state news agency, quoting an unnamed government source, said only one
person had died in the clashes and that reports of additional dead were "devoid
of truth."
Sultan Qaboos, who exercises absolute power in a country where political parties
are banned, shuffled his cabinet on Saturday, a week after a small protest in
the capital Muscat.
The government, under pressure over its response to the Sohar protests, pledged
on Sunday to create 50,000 more public sector jobs and hand out unemployment
benefits of $390 a month.
Mostly wealthy Gulf Arab countries have stepped up reforms to appease their
populations following popular unrest that toppled the leaders of Tunisia and
Egypt and is threatening Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's grip on power.
Oman is a non-OPEC oil exporter which pumps around 850,000 bpd, and has strong
military and political ties to Washington.
Sultan Qaboos appoints the cabinet and in 1992 introduced an elected advisory
Shura Council. Protesters have demanded the council be given legislative powers
and on Sunday Qaboos ordered a ministerial committee to study increasing its
authority.
TRIPOLI | Sun Feb 27, 2011
7:29am EST
Reuters
By Maria Golovnina and Ahmed Jadallah
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi's grip on Libya looked
ever more tenuous on Saturday, as his police abandoned parts of the capital
Tripoli to a popular revolt that has swept the country and the United States
bluntly told him he must go.
In the oil-rich east around the second city of Benghazi, freed a week ago by a
disparate coalition of people power and defecting military units, a former
minister of Gaddafi announced the formation of an "interim government" to
reunite the country.
At Tripoli in the west, the 68-year-old Brother Leader's redoubt was shrinking.
Reuters correspondents found residents in some neighborhoods of the capital
barricading their streets and proclaiming open defiance after security forces
melted away.
Western leaders, their rhetoric emboldened by evacuations that have sharply
reduced the number of their citizens stranded in the oilfields and cities of the
sprawling desert state, spoke out more clearly to say Gaddafi's 41-year rule
must now end.
"When a leader's only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against
his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right
for his country by leaving now," aides to President Barack Obama said in
describing a call on Libya he had with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
SECURITY COUNCIL
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also showed a harder tone from Washington,
which lately warmed to Gaddafi in recent years after decades of sanctions: "(He)
has lost the confidence of his people and he should go without further bloodshed
and violence."
A vote in the United Nations Security Council was imminent. It may impose
sanctions and say Gaddafi should face war crimes charges over deaths, estimated
by diplomats at some 2,000, during his 10 days of efforts to stem the tide of
revolution.
Talk of possible military action by foreign governments remained vague, however.
It was unclear how long Gaddafi, with some thousands of loyalists -- including
his tribesmen and military units commanded by his sons -- might hold out against
rebel forces comprised of youthful gunmen and mutinous soldiers.
London-based Algerian lawyer Saad Djebbar, who knows a large number of Gaddafi's
top officials, says that for Gaddafi staying in power had become impossible.
"It's about staying alive."
"(Gaddafi's) time is over," he added. "But how much damage he will cause before
leaving is the question."
One key element in the opposition's efforts to unseat him may be tribal
loyalties, always a factor in the desert nation of six million and one which
Gaddafi, despite official rhetoric to the contrary, tended to reinforce down the
years.
His former justice minister Mustafa Mohamed Abud Ajleil, now gone over to the
opposition in Benghazi, was quoted by the online edition of the Quryna newspaper
as saying that an interim government, whose status remained unclear, would
"forgive" his large Gaddadfa tribe for "crimes" committed by the leader.
Such declarations may be intended to erode Gaddafi's efforts to rally supporters
into a do-or-die defense of the old guard.
Some of those closest to Gaddafi have been deserting him and joining the
opposition. On Saturday, Libya's envoy to the United States told Reuters he
backed Abud Ajleil's caretaker team -- though it was unclear how much popular
support that would have.
One of Gaddafi's sons, the London-educated Saif al-Islam, again appeared on
television on Saturday to deny that much of Libya was in revolt. But he also
warned: "What the Libyan nation is going through has opened the door to all
options, and now the signs of civil war and foreign interference have started."
OPPOSITION DEMANDS
Gaddafi, once branded a "mad dog" by Washington for his support of militant
groups worldwide, has been embraced by the West in recent years in return for
renouncing some weapons programs and, critically, for opening up Libya's
1oilfields.
While money has flowed into Libya, many people, especially in the long-restive
and oil-rich east, have seen little benefit and, inspired by the popular
overthrow of veteran strongmen in Tunisia and Egypt, on either side of their
country, they rose up to demand better conditions and political freedoms last
week.
Particular condemnation has been reserved for aerial bombing by government
forces and for reported indiscriminate attacks by Gaddafi loyalists and
mercenaries on unarmed protesters.
"Gaddafi is the enemy of God!" a crowd chanted on Saturday in Tajoura, a poor
neighborhood of Tripoli, at the funeral of a man they said was shot down by
Gaddafi loyalists the day before.
Now, residents said, those security forces had disappeared.
Locals had erected barricades of rocks and palm trees across rubbish-strewn
streets, and graffiti covered many walls. Bullet holes in the walls of the
houses bore testimony to the violence.
The residents, still unwilling to be identified for fear of reprisals, said
troops fired on demonstrators who tried to march from Tajoura to central Green
Square overnight, killing at least five people. The number could not be
independently confirmed.
"We will demonstrate again and again, today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow
until they change," one protester said.
Libyan state television again showed a crowd chanting their loyalty to Gaddafi
in Tripoli's Green Square on Saturday. But journalists there estimated their
number at scarcely 200.
REVOLT CLOSES IN
From Misrata, a major city 200 km (120 miles) east of Tripoli, residents and
exile groups said by telephone that a thrust by forces loyal to Gaddafi,
operating from the local airport, had been rebuffed with bloodshed by the
opposition.
"There were violent clashes last night and in the early hours of the morning
near the airport," one resident, Mohammed, told Reuters. "An extreme state of
alert prevails in the city."
He said several mercenaries from Chad had been detained by rebels in Misrata.
The report could not be verified but was similar to accounts elsewhere of
Gaddafi deploying fighters brought in from African states where has long had
allies.
Protesters in Zawiyah, an oil refining town on the main coastal highway 50 km
(30 miles) west of Tripoli, have fought off government forces for several
nights.
One man told Reuters by telephone from the town on Saturday that heavy clashes
early in the day left dozens dead. At one point "mercenaries" roared across a
town square, spraying machinegun fire from the back of pick-up trucks, he said.
"They indiscriminately sprayed dwellers in the square. Youths, children, elderly
and women have died," he told Reuters. The account could not be independently
verified.
At Tripoli's international airport, thousands of desperate foreign workers
besieged the main gate trying to leave the country as police used batons and
whips to keep them out.
Britain and France followed the United States in closing their embassies.
Britain sent in air force troop carriers to take some 150 oil workers out of
camps in the desert.
Libya supplies 2 percent of the world's oil, the bulk of it from wells and
supply terminals in the east. The prospect of it being shut off -- as well as
speculation that the unrest in the Arab world could spread to the major
exporters of the Gulf -- has pushed oil prices up to highs not seen in over two
years.
(Additional reporting by Yvonne Bell and Chris Helgren in
Tripoli, Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Souhail Karam in Rabat, Dina Zayed and
Caroline Drees in Cairo, Tom Pfeiffer, Alexander Dziadosz and Mohammed Abbas in
Benghazi, Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Louis Charbonneau at the United
Nations, Angus MacSwan and Sonya Hepinstall in London; Writing by Alastair
Macdonald; Editing by Jon Boyle)
February 27, 2011
Filed at 5:45 a.m. EST
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Necmettin Erbakan, a longtime leader of Turkey's Islamic
political movement and briefly the country's prime minister, has died. He was
85.
Yasin Hatipoglu, a close aide, confirmed the death of Erbakan in a telephone
call to NTV television. The Anatolia news agency says Erbakan died at Ankara's
Guven hospital Sunday.
Erbakan served only a year as prime minister before he was pressured by the
secular military to step down in 1997.
He was convicted of falsifying party records and hiding millions in cash
reserves ordered seized after his Welfare Party was shut down in 1997.
February 27, 2011
The New York Times
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
CAIRO — Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi sounded a resonant warning,
exhorting his dwindling supporters toward civil war.
“At the appropriate time, we will open the arms depots so all Libyans and tribes
will be armed,” he shouted into a handheld microphone at dusk Friday, “so that
Libya turns red with fire!”
That is indeed the fear of those watching the carnage in Libya, not least
because Colonel Qaddafi spent the last 40 years hollowing out every single
institution that might challenge his authority. Unlike neighboring Egypt and
Tunisia, Libya lacks the steadying hand of a military to buttress a collapsing
government. It has no Parliament, no trade unions, no political parties, no
civil society, no nongovernmental agencies. Its only strong ministry is the
state oil company. The fact that some experts think the next government might be
built atop the oil ministry underscores the paucity of options.
The worst-case scenario should the rebellion topple him, and one that concerns
American counterterrorism officials, is that of Afghanistan or Somalia — a
failed state where Al Qaeda or other radical groups could exploit the chaos and
operate with impunity.
But there are others who could step into any vacuum, including Libya’s powerful
tribes or a pluralist coalition of opposition forces that have secured the east
of the country and are tightening their vise near the capital.
Optimists hope that the opposition’s resolve persists; pessimists worry that
unity will last only until Colonel Qaddafi is gone, and that a bloody witch hunt
will ensue afterward.
“It is going to be a political vacuum,” said Lisa Anderson, the president of the
American University in Cairo and a Libya expert, suggesting that chances are
high for a violent period of score-settling. “I don’t think it is likely that
people will want to put down their weapons and go back to being bureaucrats.”
There is a short list of Libyan institutions, but each has limits. None of the
tribes enjoy national reach, and Colonel Qaddafi deliberately set one against
the other, dredging up century-old rivalries even in his latest speeches.
There are a few respected but elderly members of the original 12-member
Revolutionary Command Council who joined Colonel Qaddafi in unseating the king
in 1969. Some domestic and exiled intellectuals hope that Libya can resurrect
the pluralistic society envisioned by the 1951 Constitution, though without a
monarch.
And there is the wild card, such as Colonel Qaddafi’s feat at age 27 as a junior
officer when he engineered a bloodless coup against a feeble monarchy.
The greatest fear — and one on which experts differ — is that Al Qaeda or
Libya’s own Islamist groups, which withstood fierce repression and may have the
best organizational skills among the opposition, could gain power.
“We’ve been concerned from the start of the unrest that A.Q. and its affiliates
will look for opportunities to exploit any disarray,” said a United States
counterterrorism official, referring to Al Qaeda.
Of these affiliates, he mentioned the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, formed by
the veterans who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan, and Al Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb, the network’s North African affiliate, which hastened to endorse the
Libyan uprising last week.
Those groups “could be more successful” in Libya than militants have been so far
in Egypt, the counterterrorism official said. “Our counterterrorism experts are
watching for any signs that these groups might gain a new foothold there.”
Frederic Wehrey, a senior policy analyst at the RAND Corporation who just
returned from a three-week trip to Libya, said Al Qaeda might try to exploit
tribal unrest and seize footholds in the vast ungoverned spaces of southwestern
Libya, near the Algerian border. But he added that Sufi Islam, a mystical form
of the religion popular among Libyans, has been resistant to the most extreme
forms of Salafism favored by Al Qaeda.
“Al Qaeda is very skillful at exploiting tribal grievances, so that’s a concern
in the south,” Mr. Wehrey said. “But in terms of whether Libyans are primed for
Al Qaeda’s narrative, I don’t think that’s as ominous as some might suspect.”
Colonel Qaddafi long saw Al Qaeda as a grave threat to his rule, and was the
first to request an arrest warrant for Osama bin Laden through Interpol, said
Bruce Hoffman, director of the center for peace and security studies at
Georgetown University. But the reality is more nuanced.
To answer the threats that after the Qaddafis comes either an Islamic or tribal
deluge, Mustafa Mohamed Abud al-Jeleil, the justice minister who defected to the
east, held a forum this week in the eastern city of Baida. It brought together
tribal leaders, former military commanders and others who pledged future
cooperation.
“We want one country — there is no Islamic emirate or Al Qaeda anywhere,” Mr.
Abud al-Jeleil told Al Jazeera. “Our only goal is to liberate Libya from this
regime and to allow the people to choose the government that they want.”
It was right around Baida, a city northeast of Benghazi, however, that the
Islamic insurgency reached its zenith in the 1990s. Colonel Qaddafi heavily
bombed the city of Darnah, also in the northeast, in the 1990s to eliminate the
insurgency, and jailed those members who were not killed. His son and heir
apparent Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi led a well-publicized campaign to wean them
from violence while they were in jail, but there is no assurance that the
teachings will stick once they are freed. Among these groups is a Libyan Muslim
Brotherhood with ties to similar organizations in Egypt and Algeria, which is
mainly moderate with a few radical splinters.
Nonetheless, there are real doubts about how much appeal radical Islam holds
among Libyans. In Benghazi, in the courthouse that serves as the nerve center
for the opposition, Essam Gheriani, a psychologist turned merchant, said that
because most Libyans are Sunni Muslims from the same sect, Islam in Libya would
remain moderate. “The extremism we saw is the result of oppression,” said Mr.
Gheriani, a graduate of Michigan State University who is married to a lawyer who
helped organize the first protests. “As you move from that period the extremism
will decline with democracy. It won’t have a chance.”
Experts also believe Colonel Qaddafi used the threat of a Muslim takeover the
way many Arab leaders did — exaggerating the menace to win sympathy from a
United States prone to seeing Islamic revolutions under every Koran.
Tom Malinowski, Washington director of Human Rights Watch, who has participated
in several White House meetings on the crisis, said Libya’s tribal nature and
absence of civil society were worrisome. But he said the experience of eastern
Libya, where ad-hoc committees have taken control of local affairs, is a
strikingly positive sign.
“People seem to be adopting a new identity based on their common experience of
standing up to a dictator,” Mr. Malinowski said. “That doesn’t mean peace and
love and brotherhood forever. But it’s a reason to hope that our worst fears
about a post-Qaddafi Libya may not be realized.”
For the most part, though, few experts believe that any group can dominate.
“The current opposition movement in Libya is diverse and includes secular,
nationalists, monarchists and Islamist elements,” said Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, a
professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. “I don’t
think that any movement is in the position, in terms of resources and
ideological power, to monopolize the political process.”
But he said that some hybrid of Islamism and nationalism was likely to emerge.
In Libya, the strong nationalism that has run through all the recent uprisings
is more likely to take on a religious tinge, experts believe, because it is a
conservative society whose royal family once drew its authority in part from its
spiritual role.
Probably the greatest insurance that Libya will not descend into Somalia-like
chaos is its oil. The oil — once production fully resumes — can buy social
content during a rocky transition period and offers insurance that Western
powers cannot afford to sit by and watch such an important oil exporter
disintegrate. Last year Italy, Germany and France together bought a substantial
proportion of Libya’s 1.55 million barrels of petroleum pumped daily, about 2
percent of world production.
Some experts wonder if Libya might become the first experiment in the use of the
“responsibility to protect” — the idea that a United Nations force would be
deployed to prevent civilian deaths in the event of widespread violence. Russian
or Chinese opposition to intervening in domestic affairs might be overcome if
enough Libyans accepted the idea, which is possible because the United Nations
helped oversee the birth of their modern nation.
With the country now split badly between east and west, an outside protection
force would lend time for Tripoli to reassert itself as the capital and
establish control.
“Nobody has an interest in permanent anarchy,” said Ms. Anderson of American
University in Cairo. “You have to have some kind of mechanism to ensure that
people turn in their weapons,” she said. “I don’t see there is any group within
the political constellation that could do it.”
Eric Schmitt and Scott Shane contributed reporting from
Washington, and Kareem Fahim from Benghazi, Libya.
February 26, 2011
The New York Times
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
CAIRO
Is the Arab world unready for freedom? A crude stereotype lingers that some
people — Arabs, Chinese and Africans — are incompatible with democracy. Many
around the world fret that “people power” will likely result in Somalia-style
chaos, Iraq-style civil war or Iran-style oppression.
That narrative has been nourished by Westerners and, more sadly, by some Arab,
Chinese and African leaders. So with much of the Middle East in an uproar today,
let’s tackle a politically incorrect question head-on: Are Arabs too politically
immature to handle democracy?
This concern is the subtext for much anxiety today, from Washington to Riyadh.
And there’s no question that there are perils: the overthrow of the shah in
Iran, of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, of Tito in Yugoslavia, all led to new
oppression and bloodshed. Congolese celebrated the eviction of their longtime
dictator in 1997, but the civil war since has been the most lethal conflict
since World War II. If Libya becomes another Congo, if Bahrain becomes an
Iranian satellite, if Egypt becomes controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood — well,
in those circumstances ordinary citizens might end up pining for former
oppressors.
“Before the revolution, we were slaves, and now we are the slaves of former
slaves,” Lu Xun, the great Chinese writer, declared after the toppling of the
Qing dynasty. Is that the future of the Middle East?
I don’t think so. Moreover, this line of thinking seems to me insulting to the
unfree world. In Egypt and Bahrain in recent weeks, I’ve been humbled by the
lionhearted men and women I’ve seen defying tear gas or bullets for freedom that
we take for granted. How can we say that these people are unready for a
democracy that they are prepared to die for?
We Americans spout bromides about freedom. Democracy campaigners in the Middle
East have been enduring unimaginable tortures as the price of their struggle —
at the hands of dictators who are our allies — yet they persist. In Bahrain,
former political prisoners have said that their wives were taken into the jail
in front of them. And then the men were told that unless they confessed, their
wives would promptly be raped. That, or more conventional tortures, usually
elicited temporary confessions, yet for years or decades those activists
persisted in struggling for democracy. And we ask if they’re mature enough to
handle it?
The common thread of this year’s democracy movement from Tunisia to Iran, from
Yemen to Libya, has been undaunted courage. I’ll never forget a double-amputee I
met in Tahrir Square in Cairo when Hosni Mubarak’s thugs were attacking with
rocks, clubs and Molotov cocktails. This young man rolled his wheelchair to the
front lines. And we doubt his understanding of what democracy means?
In Bahrain, I watched a column of men and women march unarmed toward security
forces when, a day earlier, the troops had opened fire with live ammunition.
Anyone dare say that such people are too immature to handle democracy?
Look, there’ll be bumps ahead. It took Americans six years after the
Revolutionary War to elect a president, and we almost came apart at the seams
again in the 1860s. When Eastern Europe became democratic after the 1989
revolutions, Poland and the Czech Republic adjusted well, but Romania and
Albania endured chaos for years. After the 1998 people power revolution in
Indonesia, I came across mobs in eastern Java who were beheading people and
carrying their heads on pikes.
The record is that after some missteps, countries usually pull through.
Education, wealth, international connections and civil society institutions
help. And, on balance, Egypt, Libya and Bahrain are better positioned today for
democracy than Mongolia or Indonesia seemed in the 1990s — and Mongolia and
Indonesia today are successes. Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain visited
the Middle East a few days ago (arms dealers in tow), and he forthrightly
acknowledged that for too long Britain had backed authoritarian regimes to
achieve stability. He acknowledged that his country had bought into the bigoted
notion “that Arabs or Muslims can’t do democracy.” And he added: “For me, that’s
a prejudice that borders on racism. It’s offensive and wrong, and it’s simply
not true.”
It’s still a view peddled by Arab dictatorships, particularly Saudi Arabia —
and, of course, by China’s leaders and just about any African despot. It’s
unfortunate when Westerners are bigoted in this way, but it’s even sadder when
leaders in the developing world voice such prejudices about their own people.
In the 21st century, there’s no realistic alternative to siding with people
power. Prof. William Easterly of New York University proposes a standard of
reciprocity: “I don’t support autocracy in your society if I don’t want it in my
society.”
That should be our new starting point. I’m awed by the courage I see, and it’s
condescending and foolish to suggest that people dying for democracy aren’t
ready for it.
In Libyan Port, Stranded Migrants Watch Hope Depart
February 26, 2011
The New York Times
By KAREEM FAHIM
BENGHAZI, Libya — American and British citizens have been
evacuating for days. The Chinese workers were on their way, and the Bosnians
stood ready with their bags on the shore. But from the milky windows of stifling
rooms in a makeshift camp, the migrant workers from other, poorer countries,
stranded by war and, in some cases, forsaken by their employers, watched cruise
ships — and salvation — depart.
Many of the workers — from Vietnam and Thailand, Bangladesh and Ghana — worked
for Turkish construction companies that had projects under way worth billions of
dollars in Libya. The workers said that the Turkish managers of some of those
companies quickly left Libya, sometimes without returning the workers’
passports. In other cases, though, the companies seemed to be actively trying to
help.
But there seemed to be little assistance available for black African workers,
including many from Ghana, Nigeria, Mali and Burkina Faso. Libya has become a
dangerous place to be a black man, after Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi used African
mercenaries to kill opponents of his government. Now the workers, some of whom
have seen colleagues killed, are kept under armed guard and moved from place to
place because residents have objected to their presence.
“The Ghanaian ambassador said he didn’t know what to do,” said Idris Shebany,
one of several Libyan volunteers running the camp. “Let them stay here.”
On Saturday, in the rain under a loading crane on a dock next to a Greek cruise
ship, a group of Nigerians watched luckier workers make their way up a gangway.
The Nigerians said they were told that they could not board the ship. “It’s not
clear that a boat is coming for us,” said Ali Uchichi, 27.
Some said they had heard a rumor that a plane was waiting for them in Tripoli,
but, of course, there was no way for them to reach the capital. Furthermore,
they were not sure whether the rumor was true.
“We don’t want to die here,” Mr. Uchichi said.
There are as many as 1.5 million migrants working in Libya, according to the
International Organization for Migration, an intergovernmental group. Since the
uprising that started in this city, hundreds of thousands of people trying to
escape the violence have streamed toward the borders with Egypt or Tunisia, or
departed on chartered planes and ferries sent from their home countries.
With parts of Libya locked in armed struggle, Benghazi — its faded colonial
buildings brightened by antigovernment graffiti — lurches between euphoria and
apprehension. At the courthouse nearby, a fledgling authority is taking over the
functions of the government and helping to plan a military response to Colonel
Qaddafi’s brutal suppression of the uprising. Many people in this center of
resistance to the colonel’s rule made rosy predictions that the leader would be
gone by now. But, through violence, he has held power.
So with blankets wrapped in zippered plastic bags and whatever documents they
can muster, the migrants flee.
Almost 20,000 workers have cycled through a camp here, in Benghazi’s port,
living in trailers that were apparently used by a company rehabilitating the
port. They were met by members of this city’s thriving volunteer corps — men and
women working to defy Colonel Qaddafi’s assertion that the uprising would lead
to certain chaos.
A man who sells women’s clothes carries a machine gun and patrols the camp.
Other businessmen register the workers, stock the kitchen or outfit a hospital.
Juice, dates and biscuits have been donated by residents, some of whom have lent
their kitchens to the effort.
Even so, the conditions are harsh. On thin mattresses, the men sleep 10 or more
to a tiny room, and, for all of the donations, there is not enough food. “I am
now very hungry,” said Nguyen Van Thuoun, 22, a laborer. “There is not enough
rice.” Trash was piled high outside a trailer where Indian employees of Hyundai
had stayed.
Many workers traveled hundreds of miles to get to the camp. Pakistani and
Bangladeshi pipeline workers came on buses from deep in Libya’s southern desert.
Chinese workers drove their dump trucks right to the Benghazi port, left the
keys in the ignition (or forgot them) and got on the boats. Ghanaians who worked
in Benghazi came because they no longer felt safe in the city.
Abubakar Ummar, a 29-year-old Ghanaian plasterer who worked at a Turkish
construction company, said that men with machetes had recently attacked the
building where he was living with other workers. “They came to us at midnight,”
Mr. Ummar said. One of the workers, a young man about 25 years old, was killed
instantly, he said, adding that another had died of his wounds the next day.
His company’s managers, who, according to Mr. Ummar, had not paid their workers
in several weeks, were no help. “They gave us our passports and our ID’s and let
us mind our lives,” he said.
Mr. Ummar stood in line with hundreds of other African migrants at a school
where volunteers registered them, while men with sunglasses and machine guns
stood watch outside. The organizers said that later on Saturday the migrants
would be moved to a stadium because local residents had complained that the
situation was making the neighborhood unsafe.
Like the volunteers, some of the workers have assumed new roles. Mansoor K.
Warraich, a quality assurance manager for a Turkish company that helped build a
Libyan water pipeline, now helps organize about 600 stranded workers. All of the
company’s Turkish managers and workers, except one, were able to leave the
country several days ago. The workers that remain include many from Pakistan and
Bangladesh.
They said they left their camps along the pipeline after they were raided by
bandits.
“We want to know what’s going to happen,” said Mr. Warraich. “I believe there is
a plan, but we don’t know about the plan.”
U.N. Security Council imposes sanctions on Gaddafi
TRIPOLI/UNITED NATIONS | Sat Feb 26, 2011
11:35pm EST
Reuters
By Maria Golovnina and Louis Charbonneau
TRIPOLI/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council
unanimously imposed travel and asset sanctions on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi
and close aides, ratcheting up pressure on him to quit before any more blood is
shed in a popular revolt against his rule.
It also adopted an arms embargo and called for the deadly crackdown against
anti-Gaddafi protesters to be referred to the International Criminal Court for
investigation and possible prosecution of anyone responsible for killing
civilians.
The 15-nation council passed the resolution hours after Gaddafi's police
abandoned parts of the capital Tripoli to the revolt that has swept Libya and
the United States bluntly told him he must go.
In the oil-rich east around the second city of Benghazi, freed a week ago by a
disparate coalition of people power and defecting military units, a former
minister of Gaddafi announced the formation of an "interim government" to
reunite the country.
To the west in Tripoli, the 68-year-old Brother Leader's redoubt was shrinking.
Reuters correspondents found residents in some neighborhoods of the capital
barricading their streets and proclaiming open defiance after security forces
melted away.
Western leaders, their rhetoric emboldened by evacuations that have sharply
reduced the number of their citizens stranded in the oilfields and cities of the
sprawling desert state, spoke out more clearly to say Gaddafi's 41-year rule
must now end.
"When a leader's only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against
his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right
for his country by leaving now," an aide to U.S. President Barack Obama said of
phone talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel over Libya.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said the Security Council
measures against Gaddafi and 15 other Libyans, including members of his family,
were "biting sanctions" and that all those who committed crimes would be held to
account.
"Those who slaughter civilians will be held personally accountable," Rice told
the council after the vote. Speaking to reporters later, she praised the
council's "unity of purpose."
The death toll from 10 days of violence in Libya is estimated by diplomats at
about 2,000.
Talk of possible military action by foreign governments remained vague, however.
It was unclear how long Gaddafi, with some thousands of loyalists -- including
his tribesmen and military units commanded by his sons -- might hold out against
rebel forces comprised of youthful gunmen and mutinous soldiers.
London-based Algerian lawyer Saad Djebbar, who knows a large number of Gaddafi's
top officials, said that for Gaddafi staying in power had become impossible.
"It's about staying alive. (Gaddafi's) time is over," he said. "But how much
damage he will cause before leaving is the question."
TRIBAL LOYALTIES
One key element in the opposition's efforts to unseat him may be tribal
loyalties, always a factor in the desert nation of six million and one which
Gaddafi, despite official rhetoric to the contrary, tended to reinforce down the
years.
His former justice minister Mustafa Mohamed Abud Ajleil, now gone over to the
opposition in Benghazi, was quoted by the online edition of the Quryna newspaper
as saying that an interim government, whose status remained unclear, would
"forgive" his large Gaddadfa tribe for "crimes" committed by the leader.
Such declarations may be intended to erode Gaddafi's efforts to rally supporters
into a do-or-die defense of the old guard.
Some of those closest to Gaddafi have been deserting him and joining the
opposition. On Saturday, Libya's envoy to the United States told Reuters he
backed Abud Ajleil's caretaker team -- though it was unclear how much popular
support that would have.
One of Gaddafi's sons, London-educated Saif al-Islam, again appeared on
television on Saturday to deny that much of Libya was in revolt. But he also
said: "What the Libyan nation is going through has opened the door to all
options, and now the signs of civil war and foreign interference have started."
Gaddafi, once branded a "mad dog" by Washington for his support of militant
groups worldwide, has been embraced by the West in recent years in return for
renouncing some weapons programs and, critically, for opening up Libya's
oilfields.
While money has flowed into Libya, many people, especially in the long-restive
and oil-rich east, have seen little benefit and, inspired by the popular
overthrow of veteran strongmen in Tunisia and Egypt, on either side of their
country, they rose up to demand better conditions and political freedoms.
Particular condemnation has been reserved for aerial bombing by government
forces and for reported indiscriminate attacks by Gaddafi loyalists and
mercenaries on unarmed protesters.
"Gaddafi is the enemy of God!" a crowd chanted on Saturday in Tajoura, a poor
neighborhood of Tripoli, at the funeral of a man they said was shot down by
Gaddafi loyalists the day before.
Now, residents said, those security forces had disappeared.
Locals had erected barricades of rocks and palm trees across rubbish-strewn
streets, and graffiti covered many walls. Bullet holes in the walls of the
houses bore testimony to the violence.
The residents, still unwilling to be identified for fear of reprisals, said
troops fired on demonstrators who tried to march from Tajoura to central Green
Square overnight, killing at least five people. The number could not be
independently confirmed.
Libyan state television again showed a crowd chanting their loyalty to Gaddafi
in Tripoli's Green Square on Saturday. But journalists there estimated their
number at scarcely 200.
REVOLT CLOSES IN
From Misrata, a major city 200 km (120 miles) east of Tripoli, residents said by
telephone that a thrust by forces loyal to Gaddafi, operating from the local
airport, had been rebuffed with bloodshed by the opposition.
"There were violent clashes last night and in the early hours of the morning
near the airport," one resident, Mohammed, told Reuters. "An extreme state of
alert prevails in the city."
He said several mercenaries from Chad had been detained by rebels in Misrata.
The report could not be verified but was similar to accounts elsewhere of
Gaddafi deploying fighters brought in from African states where he has long had
allies.
Protesters in Zawiyah, an oil refining town on the main coastal highway 50 km
(30 miles) west of Tripoli, have fought off government forces for several
nights.
At Tripoli's international airport, thousands of desperate foreign workers
besieged the main gate trying to leave the country as police used batons and
whips to keep them out.
Britain and France followed the United States in closing their embassies.
Britain sent in air force troop carriers to take some 150 oil workers out of
camps in the desert.
Libya supplies 2 percent of the world's oil, the bulk of it from wells and
supply terminals in the east. The prospect of it being shut off -- as well as
speculation that the unrest in the Arab world could spread to the major
exporters of the Gulf -- has pushed oil prices up to highs not seen in over two
years.
(Additional reporting by Yvonne Bell and Chris Helgren in
Tripoli, Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Souhail Karam in Rabat, Dina Zayed and
Caroline Drees in Cairo, Tom Pfeiffer, Alexander Dziadosz and Mohammed Abbas in
Benghazi, Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Louis Charbonneau at the United
Nations, Angus MacSwan and Sonya Hepinstall in London; Editing by Ralph Gowling)
U.S. tells Gaddafi it is time to go as revolt closes in
TRIPOLI | Sat Feb 26, 2011
9:52pm EST
Reuters
By Maria Golovnina and Ahmed Jadallah
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi's grip on Libya looked
ever more tenuous on Saturday, as his police abandoned parts of the capital
Tripoli to a popular revolt that has swept the country and the United States
bluntly told him he must go.
In the oil-rich east around the second city of Benghazi, freed a week ago by a
disparate coalition of people power and defecting military units, a former
minister of Gaddafi announced the formation of an "interim government" to
reunite the country.
At Tripoli in the west, the 68-year-old Brother Leader's redoubt was shrinking.
Reuters correspondents found residents in some neighborhoods of the capital
barricading their streets and proclaiming open defiance after security forces
melted away.
Western leaders, their rhetoric emboldened by evacuations that have sharply
reduced the number of their citizens stranded in the oilfields and cities of the
sprawling desert state, spoke out more clearly to say Gaddafi's 41-year rule
must now end.
"When a leader's only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against
his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right
for his country by leaving now," aides to President Barack Obama said in
describing a call on Libya he had with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
SECURITY COUNCIL
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also showed a harder tone from Washington,
which lately warmed to Gaddafi in recent years after decades of sanctions: "(He)
has lost the confidence of his people and he should go without further bloodshed
and violence."
A vote in the United Nations Security Council was imminent. It may impose
sanctions and say Gaddafi should face war crimes charges over deaths, estimated
by diplomats at some 2,000, during his 10 days of efforts to stem the tide of
revolution.
Talk of possible military action by foreign governments remained vague, however.
It was unclear how long Gaddafi, with some thousands of loyalists -- including
his tribesmen and military units commanded by his sons -- might hold out against
rebel forces comprised of youthful gunmen and mutinous soldiers.
London-based Algerian lawyer Saad Djebbar, who knows a large number of Gaddafi's
top officials, says that for Gaddafi staying in power had become impossible.
"It's about staying alive."
"(Gaddafi's) time is over," he added. "But how much damage he will cause before
leaving is the question."
One key element in the opposition's efforts to unseat him may be tribal
loyalties, always a factor in the desert nation of six million and one which
Gaddafi, despite official rhetoric to the contrary, tended to reinforce down the
years.
His former justice minister Mustafa Mohamed Abud Ajleil, now gone over to the
opposition in Benghazi, was quoted by the online edition of the Quryna newspaper
as saying that an interim government, whose status remained unclear, would
"forgive" his large Gaddadfa tribe for "crimes" committed by the leader.
Such declarations may be intended to erode Gaddafi's efforts to rally supporters
into a do-or-die defense of the old guard.
Some of those closest to Gaddafi have been deserting him and joining the
opposition. On Saturday, Libya's envoy to the United States told Reuters he
backed Abud Ajleil's caretaker team -- though it was unclear how much popular
support that would have.
One of Gaddafi's sons, the London-educated Saif al-Islam, again appeared on
television on Saturday to deny that much of Libya was in revolt. But he also
warned: "What the Libyan nation is going through has opened the door to all
options, and now the signs of civil war and foreign interference have started."
OPPOSITION DEMANDS
Gaddafi, once branded a "mad dog" by Washington for his support of militant
groups worldwide, has been embraced by the West in recent years in return for
renouncing some weapons programs and, critically, for opening up Libya's
1oilfields.
While money has flowed into Libya, many people, especially in the long-restive
and oil-rich east, have seen little benefit and, inspired by the popular
overthrow of veteran strongmen in Tunisia and Egypt, on either side of their
country, they rose up to demand better conditions and political freedoms last
week.
Particular condemnation has been reserved for aerial bombing by government
forces and for reported indiscriminate attacks by Gaddafi loyalists and
mercenaries on unarmed protesters.
"Gaddafi is the enemy of God!" a crowd chanted on Saturday in Tajoura, a poor
neighborhood of Tripoli, at the funeral of a man they said was shot down by
Gaddafi loyalists the day before.
Now, residents said, those security forces had disappeared.
Locals had erected barricades of rocks and palm trees across rubbish-strewn
streets, and graffiti covered many walls. Bullet holes in the walls of the
houses bore testimony to the violence.
The residents, still unwilling to be identified for fear of reprisals, said
troops fired on demonstrators who tried to march from Tajoura to central Green
Square overnight, killing at least five people. The number could not be
independently confirmed.
"We will demonstrate again and again, today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow
until they change," one protester said.
Libyan state television again showed a crowd chanting their loyalty to Gaddafi
in Tripoli's Green Square on Saturday. But journalists there estimated their
number at scarcely 200.
REVOLT CLOSES IN
From Misrata, a major city 200 km (120 miles) east of Tripoli, residents and
exile groups said by telephone that a thrust by forces loyal to Gaddafi,
operating from the local airport, had been rebuffed with bloodshed by the
opposition.
"There were violent clashes last night and in the early hours of the morning
near the airport," one resident, Mohammed, told Reuters. "An extreme state of
alert prevails in the city."
He said several mercenaries from Chad had been detained by rebels in Misrata.
The report could not be verified but was similar to accounts elsewhere of
Gaddafi deploying fighters brought in from African states where has long had
allies.
Protesters in Zawiyah, an oil refining town on the main coastal highway 50 km
(30 miles) west of Tripoli, have fought off government forces for several
nights.
One man told Reuters by telephone from the town on Saturday that heavy clashes
early in the day left dozens dead. At one point "mercenaries" roared across a
town square, spraying machinegun fire from the back of pick-up trucks, he said.
"They indiscriminately sprayed dwellers in the square. Youths, children, elderly
and women have died," he told Reuters. The account could not be independently
verified.
At Tripoli's international airport, thousands of desperate foreign workers
besieged the main gate trying to leave the country as police used batons and
whips to keep them out.
Britain and France followed the United States in closing their embassies.
Britain sent in air force troop carriers to take some 150 oil workers out of
camps in the desert.
Libya supplies 2 percent of the world's oil, the bulk of it from wells and
supply terminals in the east. The prospect of it being shut off -- as well as
speculation that the unrest in the Arab world could spread to the major
exporters of the Gulf -- has pushed oil prices up to highs not seen in over two
years.
(Additional reporting by Yvonne Bell and Chris Helgren in
Tripoli, Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Souhail Karam in Rabat, Dina Zayed and
Caroline Drees in Cairo, Tom Pfeiffer, Alexander Dziadosz and Mohammed Abbas in
Benghazi, Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Louis Charbonneau at the United
Nations, Angus MacSwan and Sonya Hepinstall in London; Writing by Alastair
Macdonald; Editing by Jon Boyle)
TUNIS (Reuters) - Three people were killed in clashes between
Tunisian security forces and youths rioting in central Tunis on Saturday, an
Interior Ministry official told Reuters.
The official, who declined to be named, said another 12 had been injured in the
clashes, which he said occurred after a riot orchestrated by loyalists of ousted
President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. He said about 100 people had been arrested.
"Those who were arrested have admitted they were pushed by former Ben Ali
officials," he said. "Others said they were paid to do it."
A Reuters witness had earlier seen Tunisian soldiers fire into the air and use
tear gas in an effort to disperse dozens of youths, many carrying sticks, who
were breaking shop windows near Tunis's Barcelona Station.
The North African state's crime rates have soared since a popular uprising
toppled Ben Ali on January 14, and security officials often say his supporters
are trying to destabilize the country.
The clash followed a large protest late on Friday against the make-up of the
post-Ben Ali interim government. During that, security forces fired in the air
to disperse protesters who burned tires and threw rocks.
Critics of the interim government, which has promised to hold elections by
mid-July, complain that it is too close to the old regime and has failed to
provide adequate security.
Tunisia's revolution inspired a similar revolt in Egypt and sparked protests
elsewhere around the Arab world, including in neighboring Libya.
(Reporting by Tarek Amara; writing by Richard Valdmanis; editing
by Jon Boyle)
Long Bread Lines and Open Revolt in Libya’s Capital
February 26, 2011
The New York Times
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
TRIPOLI, Libya — A bold effort by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi to
prove that he was firmly in control of Libya appeared to backfire Saturday as
foreign journalists he invited to the capital discovered blocks of the city in
open revolt.
Witnesses described snipers and antiaircraft guns firing at unarmed civilians,
and security forces were removing the dead and wounded from streets and
hospitals, apparently in an effort to hide the mounting toll.
When government-picked drivers escorted journalists on tours of the city on
Saturday morning, the evidence of the extent of the unrest was unmistakable.
Workers were still hastily painting over graffiti calling Colonel Qaddafi a
“bloodsucker” or demanding his ouster. Just off the tour route were long bread
lines where residents said they were afraid to be seen talking to journalists.
And though heavily armed checkpoints dominated some precincts of the city, in
other neighborhoods the streets were blocked by makeshift barricades of broken
televisions, charred tree trunks and cinder blocks left over from protests and
street fights the night before.
“I have seen more than 68 people killed,” said a doctor who gave his name only
as Hussein. “But the people who have died, they don’t leave them in the same
place. We have seen them taking them in the Qaddafi cars, and nobody knows where
they are taking the people who have died.” He added, “Even the ones with just a
broken hand or something they are taking away.”
In some ways, the mixed results of Colonel Qaddafi’s publicity stunt — opening
the curtains to the world with great fanfare, even though the stage is in
near-chaotic disarray — is an apt metaphor for the increasingly untenable
situation in the country.
On Friday, before the journalists arrived, his forces put down a demonstration
in the capital only after firing on the protesters. There were reports that an
armed rebel force was approaching the city on Saturday, but Colonel Qaddafi’s
forces are believed to have blocked the way at the city of Surt, a stronghold of
his tribe.
He is no longer in full control of the countryside either. Rebels now control
about half the populous Mediterranean coast, including the strategic towns of
Zawiyah and Misurata, not far from the capital and near important oil
facilities.
But Tripoli is home to a third of Libya’s roughly six million people. Colonel
Qaddafi and his special militias have unleashed enough firepower here that it
may enable them to keep a firm grasp on the city for some time to come, raising
vexing questions about just how the standoff might end.
Until Friday night, Colonel Qaddafi’s government had imposed a complete ban on
foreign journalists, had shut down most Internet access, had confiscated
cellphone chips and camera memory cards from those leaving the border, and had
done whatever it could to prevent unauthorized images of the unrest here from
leaving the country.
But he reversed himself on Thursday when his son Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi said
Libya would now welcome the foreign news media and officials began figuring out
how to issue visas when many of its embassies abroad had already defected to the
rebels.
When foreign journalists arrived Friday night, the airport looked like a refugee
camp, with thousands jammed into the halls awaiting flights out of the country.
Many customs and security officials wore hospital masks in fear of contracting
some disease among the hordes.
In a midnight news conference for journalists assembled in the luxurious Rixos
Hotel, where bread and other food was plentiful, the younger Mr. Qaddafi,
dressed in a dark zip-up sweater, acknowledged for the first time the extent of
the rebellion, confirming reports that rebels had control of Zawiyah and
Misurata despite concerted attempts over the last two days to dislodge them.
But, contradicting rebel claims that their victory was at hand, the younger Mr.
Qaddafi said the government was negotiating with the protesters and making great
progress, an assertion not confirmed by the protesters.
He promised journalists they would find the streets peaceful and support for his
father strong. Do not confuse the sound of celebratory fireworks for bursts of
gunfire around the streets of Tripoli, he told them.
The next morning, a driver took a group of foreign journalists to an area known
as the Friday market, which appeared to have been the site of a riot the night
before. The streets were strewn with debris, and piles of shattered glass had
been collected in cardboard boxes.
A young man approached the journalists to deliver a passionate plea for unity
and accolades to Colonel Qaddafi, then left in a white van full of police
officers. Two small boys approached surreptitiously with bullet casings they
presented as evidence of force used on protesters the night before.
But at another stop, in the neighborhood of Tajoura, journalists stumbled almost
accidentally into a block cordoned off by makeshift barriers where dozens of
residents were eager to talk about a week of what they said were peaceful
protests crushed by Colonel Qaddafi’s security forces with overwhelming, deadly
and random force.
A middle-age business owner, who identified himself only as Turkey, said that
the demonstrations there had begun last Sunday, when thousands of protesters
inspired by the uprising in the east had marched toward the capital’s central
Green Square. He said the police had dispersed the crowd with tear gas and then
bullets, killing a man named Issa Hatey. He said neighbors had now renamed the
area’s central traffic circle Issa Hatey Square in memory of their struggle.
He and several other residents said that over the past week neighbors had been
besieged by pickup trucks full of armed men shooting randomly at the crowds,
sometimes wounding people who were sitting peacefully in their homes or cars. At
other times, several said, the security forces had employed rooftop snipers,
antiaircraft guns mounted on trucks and buckshot, and they produced shells and
casings that appeared to confirm their reports. Mr. Turkey said that on one day
he had seen about 50 to 60 heavily armed men who appeared to be mercenaries from
nearby African countries.
The residents also said that they had seen security forces scooping up dead and
wounded protesters and removing them from the streets, apparently to hide
evidence of the violence. Because they believe security forces are also removing
casualties from hospitals, they said, they have tried to hide their friends
within the hospital and remove them after initial treatment.
After Friday Prayer, Mr. Turkey and his friends said, a crowd of several
thousand had gathered at what they now call Issa Hatey Square to march to Green
Square. They raised what he called “the old-new flag,” the former tri-color flag
of the Libyan monarchy that rebels have claimed as the flag of a free,
post-Qaddafi Libya.
Two carloads of Libyan Army soldiers had joined them, he said, though they never
used their weapons. The protesters were determined to remain peaceful, he said,
because they knew that if they fought back with weapons Colonel Qaddafi would
retaliate with even greater force.
But when they got to a neighborhood called Arada, they met an ambush led by
snipers firing down from the roofs. Others had attacked with machine guns and
antiaircraft guns. At least 15 people had died, he and others said.
Several said they had been attacked by the personal militia of Colonel Qaddafi’s
son Khamis Qaddafi, which is considered the most formidable battalion in the
Libyan Army or other Qaddafi forces.
A precise death toll has been impossible to verify. A Libyan envoy said Friday
that hundreds had been killed in Tripoli.
Asked why he and his neighbors were rising up now, after living under Colonel
Qaddafi for 42 years, Mr. Turkey, 46, shrugged. “No one can tell the time,” he
said. After forty years of pressure, “you explode.” Two funerals were taking
place nearby for those who died on Friday, and he said they expected another big
protest on Sunday.
A pickup truck of Qaddafi critics wheeled by just in time to carry the foreign
journalists back to meet their official driver, and the official tour continued.
Kareem Fahim contributed reporting from Benghazi, Libya, and Sharon Otterman
from Cairo.
February 26, 2011
The New York Times
By LAURA KASINOF and NEIL MacFARQUHAR
SANA, Yemen — A powerful tribal leader has called for the
downfall of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, posing what may be the most
significant challenge yet to the president, an American ally, who has been
struggling to quell a popular revolt for more than two weeks.
The move by the tribal leader, Sheik Hussein al-Ahmar, raised fears that the
antigovernment protests, which began largely as a youth movement, could take a
more violent and unpredictable turn.
“Many worry that tribal leaders will try to hijack what is now a peaceful and
civilian-led protest movement and will turn the struggle into a tribal conflict
instead,” said Robert Malley, the head of the Middle East and North Africa group
at the International Crisis Group.
Until Saturday, the country’s powerful tribal leaders had mostly stayed out of
the protest movement.
“The president is in a very tenuous position, I don’t think he has ever faced a
crisis like he is now,” said one senior Yemeni official, speaking on condition
of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his post.
The official noted that tribal support was often fungible — it can go to the
highest bidder — and that issues like the fighting by breakaway groups in the
north and south were far more serious. But each layer of opposition makes it
harder for Mr. Saleh to maneuver.
Sheik Ahmar made his announcement during a speech to a large gathering of
tribesmen in northern Amran Province, according to local news reports. As the
crowd shouted antigovernment chants, he said “The Yemeni people would not keep
silent on the blood of martyrs shed in Aden and will avenge it.”
The government crackdown of the unrest appears to have been fiercest in Aden, a
center of a longstanding secessionist movement.
Sheik Ahmar is a prominent leader in Yemen’s most important confederation of
tribes, one of 10 sons of a legendary tribal sheik who died in 2007. The sons
play prominent roles in either the ruling party or the main Islamist-oriented
opposition group. Yemen’s president is a member of the Hashid confederation and
has been doling out cars, favors and other largesse to tribal leaders for years
to garner support.
Sheik Ahmar has quit the party once before, two years ago, but rejoined last
December. One of his brothers has been a longtime critic of the president, and
the other is deputy speaker of Parliament.
“For the past couple weeks Saleh has been making a play to bolster his tribal
alliances,” said Gregory Johnsen, a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University who
has been studying Yemen’s tribes. “If the president loses his tribal support
that puts him in a precarious position.”
In Washington, Obama administration officials say that of all the Arab countries
now in chaos, they are most worried about the fate of Mr. Saleh, who has been
crucial to American efforts to combat Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. One
administration official on Saturday acknowledged that a small number of
influential tribal leaders, including some who had previously backed the Yemeni
president, had now allied themselves with the protest movement.
“Obviously, we want to see President Saleh take the same steps which we’ve asked
of other leaders, and that is to be responsive to the aspirations of his
people,” the official said. He said that administration officials were
“monitoring” the Yemen situation closely.
In northern Yemen, who tribes side with will have a major effect on Mr. Saleh’s
grip on power. An increasing number of tribesmen have joined Yemen’s protest in
Sana. They complain that the president has kept certain northern tribes weak for
years in order to stay in power.
“He makes war between the tribes by giving certain people money,” said Faisal
Gerayi, from the impoverished northern Jawf Province, who was sitting under a
tent with other tribesmen from outside the capital.
On Friday, at least one person was shot fatally in the southern port city of
Aden. But some local reports place the number of dead much higher, and it is
difficult to confirm their legitimacy. Protests in Aden have been more violent
than those in other cities.
There are accounts of snipers being used against demonstrators and gunfire was
heard late into the night in some districts of Aden. Residents complain that the
city is in lockdown and they cannot move from one district to another.
After fatal clashes in the past week, protests in Sanaa and Taiz have been
relatively calm in recent days, after Mr. Saleh announced that security forces
should protect protesters.
Laura Kasinof reported from Sana, and Neil MacFarquhar from
Cairo. Helene Cooper contributed reporting from Washington.
This article has been revised to reflect the following
correction:
Correction: February 26, 2011
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated the
position of officials who resigned from Yemen's ruling party. Ten members of
parliament, not ministers, resigned earlier in the week.
February 25, 2011
The New York Times
By JENNIFER CONLIN
LAST October, on my final day in Cairo after a yearlong stay,
I walked across the Kasr el-Nil Bridge toward Tahrir Square, stopping for a
moment to take in the view. Though the Nile was, as always, a lovely sight, it
was still hard to ignore the broken glass and cigarette butts beneath my feet,
and the tired, worn faces of the young Egyptians standing near me.
On Feb. 21, I crossed that bridge again, 10 days after Hosni Mubarak resigned as
president. The scene could not have been more different. The bridge was
spotless. Small plastic wastebaskets, many with the word “Facebook” taped on
them (an homage to the role the social media site played in Egypt’s revolution)
were tied to each street lamp. I slid my hand along the shiny hunter-green and
silver railings, marveling that even the curbs had received new coats of
black-and-white paint to prevent illegal parking — courtesy of the protesters.
A boy sold me a bottle of water from a small stand he had set up, also with
coffee and candy bars, while young girls swept the streets. Everyone stopped to
talk to one another, whether it was an old friend or a visiting stranger.
“Enjoy Tahrir,” a young man yelled to me before taking a photo of his
girlfriend, her white headscarf blowing in the wind. I smiled, then joined the
parade of Egyptians heading to the square.
Many tourist sites in and around Cairo are open again — from the pyramids to the
Khan el-Khalili souk to the Egyptian Antiquities Museum. But these days the most
sought-after photo is not one of Tutankhamen’s mask but of Tahrir (Liberation)
Square, a mammoth traffic circle the world had stared at for three weeks on
television. Named after Egypt’s 1919 liberation from the British, Tahrir Square
is a top destination for many of the Western tourists who have begun trickling
into Egypt in recent days.
“It is amazing what has happened here,” said Aart Blijdorp, a 60-year-old civil
servant from the Netherlands. He had flown in a few days earlier to attend the
seven-day anniversary of Mr. Mubarak’s resignation, a gathering on Tahrir Square
that the protesters hope will become a weekly Friday event to remind the current
military government of their continuing demands for reform. “The optimism in the
air was so apparent on the news, I had to come feel it for myself,” Mr. Blijdorp
said, after introducing me to two young protesters he had met in the square.
They had become Mr. Blijdorp’s tour guides around Cairo.
“We have been taking him around because he is traveling on his own,” said Omar
Ahmed, 23, a civil engineer, adding that they were off to the Citadel, but that
Mr. Blijdorp wanted to come back to Tahrir Square first.
“The good news is he is seeing everything fast, because no one is here,” said
Hamdy Mohammed, 24, a law student. “But we want tourists to come back because it
is a new Egypt now.”
“So far, Tahrir is my favorite place,” said Mr. Blijdorp, who had visited the
Pyramids the day before.
Despite the slightly carnival atmosphere in the square — one can find everything
from revolutionary souvenirs (including badges with photos of those who had lost
their lives in the uprising), face-painting (black, red and white — the colors
of the Egyptian flag) and stands selling popcorn — I still felt slightly
nervous. After all, I had ignored the United States State Department’s travel
warning the moment I bought my airplane ticket here, the day after Mr. Mubarak
resigned. Ultimately, I had decided that the State Department’s advice to “defer
non-essential travel” to Egypt because of “continuing uncertainties regarding
the restructuring of Egyptian government institutions” was not going to change
very soon. After living here for a year with my family, I longed to see the
changes taking place in Cairo.
With visitors a mainstay of the country’s economy — before the revolution 11
percent of the work force and 6 percent of the country’s gross national product
had been directly linked to tourism — Egypt is eager to get tourists back.
According to the Egyptian state statistics agency, about 210,000 tourists left
the country during the last week of January. Although most international travel
companies are deferring tours until later in the year, Mr. Blijdorp and I
certainly weren’t the only curious international travelers who were not putting
off a visit. The first day the Pyramids reopened, Feb. 9, after being closed for
several days, about 50 foreigners visited, according to tourism officials.
“I thought it would be neat to be here during the revolution,” said Julia
Griffin, 27, who with her boyfriend, Joel Anthony, 25, had arrived in Cairo the
previous day on a flight from Vancouver. “We are being very careful with safety,
but we honestly don’t feel afraid,” Mr. Anthony said, adding that they had been
practically the only visitors at the museum the day before, as well as at the
Pyramids.
The allure of visiting Egypt at this moment hasn’t been lost on some tour
operators. For example, Akorn Destination Management (akorndmc.com), which bills
itself as an organization that delivers “inspirational travel experiences,” is
offering “Tahrir Square — Egypt Is Making History,” a trip that includes a Nile
cruise, a walk through Tahrir Square and a stay at the Semiramis
InterContinental Hotel, which is near the square.
As Rick Zeolla, the general manager of the Cairo Marriott, where Christiane
Amanpour and many other journalists stayed, put it: “Right now Egypt is like
having a fast pass at Disney. People should come over.”
Amr Badr, managing director of Abercrombie & Kent in Egypt and the Middle East,
believes now is a unique time to visit Egypt and see history in the making. “I
think people will immediately feel the energy,” he said, noting that the streets
are now cleaner than they have been in recent memory, and that Tahrir Square has
become a “living exhibit — a sort of Speaker’s Corner” in Egypt that they plan
to promote. Egyptians, he added, are feeling a newly found sense of pride in
their country. “If Egypt was good before, it will be better now,” he said.
Michael Koth, general manager of the Semiramis InterContinental, said his
clients are no longer asking for a “Nile view” room but a Tahrir view. “The
early guests we are seeing are more independent, well seasoned and globally
focused travelers,” Mr. Koth said.
Though Egypt never suffered from a tourism boycott like South Africa under
apartheid (a record 14 million visitors were expected this year in Egypt), there
is a belief that politically and historically minded tourists will be the first
to visit the "new Egypt," as everyone here is now referring to the country. In
the first four years after Nelson Mandela was released (between 1990 and 1994),
South Africa saw an increase of 400 percent in tourism, according to South
African Tourism, the national agency that markets the country. After Mr.
Mandela’s release in 1990 the country had a million visitors, and by 1995, the
year after their first democratic elections were held, it had nearly 5 million.
And not unlike Berlin, where visitors can see many of the relics surrounding the
fall of the wall in the city’s museums, plans are already under way in Cairo to
do the same with the revolution’s memorabilia. The Tahrir Archives Project is an
exhibition that Salima Ikram, a professor of Egyptology at the American
University of Cairo, hopes will be open by the spring in the university’s
downtown campus building, right on the square. “We are gathering everything we
can from the protests — signs, tear gas canisters, oral histories, rubber
bullets — everything, because to me as a historian it is important,” said
Professor Ikram, who protested nearly every day in Tahrir with many of her
colleagues.
“Were work responsibilities no object, I would return this month,” said Cornelia
Wathen, 67, from Stone Ridge, N.Y. Ms. Wathen, along with 16 other American
tourists who arrived on Jan. 26 and left on Feb, 13, decided to continue their
trip through Egypt despite the unrest. Though they spent most of their time in
Luxor and Aswan, far from the protests, they returned to Cairo just in time to
celebrate Mr. Mubarak’s resignation in Tahrir Square before flying home. “For
anyone who is excited to learn about other cultures and people,” she said, “I
believe this is the best and most privileged time to visit Egypt.”
NEW YORK | Fri Feb 25, 2011
5:08pm EST
Reuters
By Gene Ramos
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Brent oil rose in volatile trade on
Friday to hold above $112 a barrel but below Thursday's 2-1/2-year highs after
Saudi Arabia raised output to calm fears of supply disruptions sparked by
Libya's uprising.
Saudi Arabia has boosted output by more than 700,000 barrels per day, to a level
exceeding 9 million bpd, a senior industry source familiar with Saudi production
told Reuters.
Worries about the worsening situation in Libya, where oil outages have risen to
as much as three quarters of its 1.6 million bpd output, spurred short-covering
before the weekend.
Those moves were further stoked by news that the United States was imposing
sanctions and cutting diplomatic ties with Libya as Muammar Gaddafi's security
forces cracked down against a widening revolt against his rule.
"I don't think many traders are comfortable being short over the weekend," said
Tom Bentz, a broker at BNP Paribas Commodity Futures in New York.
Estimates of Libya's supply loss could not be confirmed, however, with
conditions unsettled as rebels fought to wrest control of oilfields and
terminals in the east of the country from Gaddafi loyalists.
On Thursday, the disruptions pushed Brent to almost $120 and U.S. crude to more
than $103. Brent shot ahead as more of Libya's oil exports go to European
refiners than to those in the United States.
In London, Brent futures for April closed up 78 cents at $112.14 a barrel, the
highest weekly settlement since August 21, 2008. They peaked at $113.91, below
Thursday's high of $119.79, the loftiest intraday since August 2008.
U.S. April crude futures settled up 60 cents at $97.88, the highest weekly close
since September 2008, and reached $99.20 earlier. That was well below Thursday's
intraday peak of $103.41, also the highest since September 2008.
Brent's premium against U.S. crude rose to $14.26, from $14.08 at the close on
Thursday, when the Brent spread against U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate
rocketed to a record $16.91.
SAUDI MOVE, U.S. DATA
"Fears that the unrest in Libya could turn into a civil war and wipe out its oil
production have been offset by assurances from Saudi Arabia that it is raising
output," said Gene McGillian, analyst at Tradition Energy in Stamford,
Connecticut.
U.S. crude drew support from a rise in consumer confidence to a three-year high
in February, suggesting the economy remained on a solid footing despite high
gasoline prices, according to a ThomsonReuters/University of Michigan survey.
That optimism was tempered by the latest reading of fourth-quarter 2010 economic
growth, which showed the U.S. economy grew more slowly than expected.
(Additional reporting by Ikuko Kurahone and Nia Williams in
London, Randy Fabi in Singapore; Editing by Dale Hudson)
February 26, 2011
Filed at 2:26 p.m. EST
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisian authorities have temporarily banned vehicle and
pedestrian traffic on the capital's central boulevard after a new outbreak of
clashes between police and stone-throwing protesters.
Police and troops backed by tanks deployed in Tunis as hundreds of youths
rallied on Saturday to protest against the North African country's interim
government — fearing it has hijacked Tunisia's revolution.
The ban on traffic on Bourguiba Avenue until midnight Sunday is the first of its
kind since President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled Tunisia Jan. 14 in a popular
uprising that has sent shock waves through the Arab world.
Police fired tear gas and warning shots on Friday as violence erupted alongside
a sit-in that drew tens of thousands of protesters near the seat of the interim
government.
TRIPOLI | Sat Feb 26, 2011
2:24pm EST
Reuters
By Maria Golovnina and Ahmed Jadallah
TRIPOLI, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Poor neighborhoods of the Libyan
capital Tripoli openly defied Muammar Gaddafi on Saturday as his grip on power
after 41 years of rule looked increasingly tenuous in the face of nationwide
revolt.
Security forces had abandoned the working-class Tajoura district after five days
of anti-government demonstrations, residents told foreign correspondents who
visited the area.
The residents, unwilling to be identified for fear of reprisals, said troops
fired on demonstrators who tried to march from Tajoura to central Green Square
overnight, killing at least five people. The number could not be independently
confirmed.
A funeral on Saturday morning for one of the victims turned into another show of
defiance. "We will demonstrate again and again, today, tomorrow, the day after
tomorrow until they change," a man who called himself Ali, aged 25, told
Reuters.
The scene contradicted Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam, who told reporters invited
into the country late on Friday that peace was returning to Libya. "If you hear
fireworks don't mistake it for shooting," said the younger Gaddafi, 38, smiling.
On Saturday, maintaining that the rebels were few and isolated, he warned that
the unrest threatened civil war.
"What the Libyan nation is going through has opened the door to all options, and
now the signs of civil war and foreign interference have started," he told Al
Arabiya television.
Libyan state television again showed a crowd chanting their loyalty to Gaddafi
in Tripoli's Green Square on Saturday. But journalists estimated their number at
only about 200.
Much of the east of the oil-producing country, including the second city
Benghazi, is in opposition hands. Diplomats say some 2,000 or more people have
been killed across the country.
From Misrata, a major city 200 km (120 miles) east of Tripoli, residents and
exile groups said by telephone that a thrust by forces loyal to Gaddafi,
operating from the local airport, had been rebuffed with bloodshed by the
opposition.
"There were violent clashes last night and in the early hours of the morning
near the airport," one resident, Mohammed, told Reuters. "An extreme state of
alert prevails in the city."
He said several mercenaries from Chad had been detained by rebels in Misrata.
The report could not be verified but was similar to accounts elsewhere of
Gaddafi deploying fighters brought in from African states where has long had
allies.
FOREIGN POWERS PROTEST
The Arab world has been hit by a wave of pro-democracy uprisings which have
already swept away the longtime rulers of Tunisia and Egypt and forced others
into concessions.
The pace of Libya's revolt has still come as a surprise to the West. It once
treated Gaddafi as a pariah due to his support for militant groups around the
world and incidents such as the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing. But Western
powers later sought a rapprochement in quest of Libyan oil deals and other
business.
Libya supplies 2 percent of the world's oil, the bulk of it from wells and
supply terminals in the east.
Diplomats at the United Nations said a vote on a draft resolution calling for an
arms embargo on Libya as well as travel bans and asset freezes on its leaders
might come on Saturday after U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said it could not wait.
U.S. President Barack Obama signed an order prohibiting transactions related to
Libya on Friday, and on Saturday Britain said Prime Minister David Cameron and
other European leaders had agreed the United Nations and European Union should
take urgent action, including sanctions.
Several Libyan diplomats and politicians have resigned their posts or voiced
opposition to the violent crackdown, most lately prosecutor-general Abdul-Rahman
al-Abbar. Delegations to the Arab League and United Nations in Geneva also
switched sides.
The opposition says it controls nearly all oilfields east of Ras Lanuf. Industry
sources told Reuters that crude oil shipments from Libya, the world's
12th-largest exporter, had all but stopped because of reduced production, a lack
of staff at ports and security concerns.
Gaddafi's closest European ally, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, said
in Rome on Saturday that the Libyan leader no longer appeared to be in control
of his country.
GRAFFITI AND BARRICADES
In the Tripoli neighborhood of Tajoura early on Saturday, protesters had erected
barricades of rocks and palm trees across rubbish-strewn streets, and graffiti
covered many walls. Gaddafi's forces were nowhere to be seen but bullet holes in
the walls of the tightly packed houses bore testimony to violence.
Several thousand people attended the funeral of one person killed the night
before. It quickly turned into another demonstration. "Gaddafi is the enemy of
God," the crowd chanted.
Protesters in Zawiyah, an oil refining town on the main coastal highway 50 km
(30 miles) west of Tripoli, have fought off government forces for several
nights, according to witnesses who fled across the nearby Tunisian border at Ras
Jdir.
"There are corpses everywhere. It's a war in the true sense of the word," said
Akila Jmaa, who crossed into Tunisia on Friday after traveling from the town.
A government-escorted trip to Zawiyah from Tripoli for the foreign media planned
for Saturday morning was called off.
In the east, ad hoc committees of lawyers, doctors, tribal elders and soldiers
appeared to be filling the vacuum left by Gaddafi's government with some
success.
At Tripoli's international airport, thousands of desperate foreign workers
besieged the main gate trying to leave the country as police used batons and
whips to keep them out.
The area outside the main building was a sprawling camp with makeshift tents and
people huddled together in the cold, wrapped in blankets and surrounded by heaps
of clothes, food and garbage.
A group of Egyptian migrant workers said they had been sleeping rough for six
days: "We have only eaten biscuits. Sometimes there is even no water," one said.
Washington, having evacuated Americans from Libya after days of difficulties,
said it was closing down its embassy.
In recent days, the flamboyant Gaddafi has made several appearances railing
against his enemies as rats and cockroaches and blaming the unrest on a range of
foes from the United States and Israel to al Qaeda militants and youths high on
drugs.
He vowed to "crush any enemy" before a crowd of supporters in Green Square on
Friday and threatened to open military arsenals to his supporters and tribesmen.
State television said the government was raising wages and food subsidies and
ordering special allowances for all families, a late bid to enrol the support of
Libya's 6 million citizens.
(Additional reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian in Rabat, Dina
Zayed and Caroline Drees in Cairo; Writing by Angus MacSwan and Sonya
Hepinstall; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
MUSCAT (Reuters) - Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said reshuffled
his cabinet on Saturday, changing six ministers in "the public's interest," one
week after a rare protest calling for political reform.
The cabinet changes came as 500 protesters demanding democracy and jobs blocked
traffic and broke street lights in the largest industrial city Sohar. Protests
are rare in Oman, a small Gulf country where political parties are banned.
The state news agency ONA said Qaboos issued a decree naming Mohammed bin Nasser
al-Khasibi as commerce and industry minister, Hamoud bin Faisal al-Bousaidi as
civil service minister and Madiha bint Ahmed bin Nasser as education minister.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah al-Harthy, the outgoing civil service minister, was
appointed to head the environment ministry in the Gulf Arab state, while Maqboul
bin Ali bin Sultan will be the new transport minister, the agency said.
The ruler's decree also named Mohsen bin Mohammed al-Sheikh as tourism minister
and said the reshuffle was carried out in the "public's interest," without
elaborating.
The reshuffle did not effect long-serving ministers, although two tourism and
education ministries were headed by new figures.
Gulf Arab countries have stepped up measures to appease their populations
following popular unrest that toppled the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt.
In Sohar, protesters blocked cars and shoppers at a mall in the city to demand
that the Gulf Arab state's elected advisory body be given legislative powers,
witnesses said.
Protesters chanted: "We want long-term corrupt ministers to go!" "We want the
Shura Council to have legislative powers!" "We want jobs!" and "We want
democracy!"
"It has been going on for hours now. They are now at the Globe Roundabout
blocking traffic," said Mohammed Sumri, a resident. The police did not
intervene, residents said.
The Shura Council, whose 84 members are elected by voters in 61 districts, is
only advisory and has no legislative powers.
Last week, about 300 people demanded political reforms and better pay in a
peaceful protest in the capital Muscat as unrest in other Middle East countries
and North Africa turned increasingly violent.
In mid-February, the sultanate increased the salary for national workers in the
private sector by 43 percent to $520 per month.
There is no official unemployment rate, but a CIA estimate from 2004 put the
rate then at about 15 percent.
(Reporting by Saleh Al-Shaibany; editing by Elizabeth Piper)
MANAMA | Sat Feb 26, 2011
12:21pm EST
Reuters
By Frederik Richter
MANAMA (Reuters) - A hardline Shi'ite dissident flew home to
Bahrain from exile on Saturday to join an opposition movement demanding that the
island kingdom's Sunni ruling family accept a more democratic system.
"We want a real constitution," Hassan Mushaimaa told reporters at the airport.
"They've promised us (one) before and then did whatever they wanted to."
"I'm here to see what are the demands of the people at the square and sit with
them and talk to them," he said, referring to anti-government protesters camped
in Manama's Pearl Square.
Thousands of anti-government protesters marched from Pearl Square to a former
office of Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa on Saturday in a
new tactic to press demands for the removal of a man who has held his post for
40 years.
Sheikh Khalifa, the king's uncle, is a symbol of the ruling family's political
power and wealth.
The march was the protesters' first foray into a government and commercial
district of Manama. They halted at a compound that also houses the Foreign
Ministry. Many waved Bahraini flags and chanted: "The people want the fall of
the regime."
Mushaimaa, London-based leader of the Shi'ite Haq movement, had been on trial in
his absence over an alleged coup plot.
The other defendants in the case were freed in Bahrain this week and the Gulf
Arab state's foreign minister said Mushaimaa had received a royal pardon and
could return home unhindered.
Letting Mushaimaa back was the latest in a series of concessions by the ruling
al-Khalifa family aimed at placating Bahrain's majority Shi'ites who have been
at the forefront of nearly two weeks of protests demanding more say in
government.
Tens of thousands had thronged the streets of Manama on Friday, declared a day
of mourning by the government, in one of the biggest demonstrations since a "Day
of Rage" on February 14.
Security forces did not interfere. Last week seven people were killed and
hundreds wounded in unrest before Bahraini rulers, under pressure from their
Western allies, pledged to allow peaceful protests and offered dialogue with
opponents.
This week the government released more than 300 people detained since a
crackdown on Shi'ite unrest in August.
SOP TO OPPOSITION
Government officials said the cabinet had been reshuffled in what was seen as
another sop to the opposition.
The ministers of housing, health and cabinet affairs were among those fired,
said the officials, who asked not to be named because they had not been formally
notified of the changes.
A cabinet reshuffle seems unlikely to pacify protesters energized by popular
uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere.
Many are demanding a constitutional monarchy instead of the existing system
where citizens vote for a mostly toothless parliament and policy remains the
preserve of an elite centered on the al-Khalifa dynasty that has ruled Bahrain
for 200 years.
Mushaimaa's Haq party is more radical than the Shi'ite Wefaq party, from which
it split in 2006 when Wefaq contested a parliamentary election, effectively
legitimizing it.
Opposition groups want to see a commitment to an elected government instead of
one appointed by the king before they enter any dialogue. Before the reshuffle,
about two thirds of the cabinet were ruling family members.
Replacing the ministers of health and housing could be a nod to Shi'ites who
have long complained of discrimination in public services -- complaints the
government says are unjustified.
One government source said Labour Minister Majeed al-Alawi, a former opposition
activist, could become housing minister.
Nazar al-Baharna, minister of state for foreign affairs and one of the
highest-ranking Shi'ite government officials, could take the health portfolio,
the source added. Sheikh Ahmed bin Attiatullah al-Khalifa, minister for cabinet
affairs, was also likely to be replaced the source said.
Shi'ites have linked him to an alleged government plan leaked in 2006 to alter
Bahrain's sectarian balance in favor of Sunnis. The government has denied there
was such a plan.
Government loyalists, who have also taken to the streets in tens of thousands
this week, say reforms launched by the king a decade ago brought democratic
freedoms rare in the Gulf.
Dozens wounded as Gaddafi force opens fire: report
RABAT | Sat Feb 26, 2011
12:10pm EST
Reuters
RABAT (Reuters) - Dozens of people were severely wounded
Saturday in western Libyan after security forces opened fire, the Quryna
newspaper reported.
The Al-Khuweildi al-Humaidi battalion opened fire in an area along a strip on
the Mediterranean cost between the cities of Sabratha and Surman, the online
version of Quryna reported, quoting its correspondent there. It did not specify
the circumstances of the shooting and who the victims were.
Tribal Leader’s Resignation Is Blow to Yemeni President
February 26, 2011
The New York Times
By LAURA KASINOF and SHARON OTTERMAN
SANA, Yemen — A leading tribal figure in Yemen announced his
resignation from the ruling party on Saturday, signaling a major blow to the
embattled leadership of President Ali Abdullah Saleh as demonstrations calling
for his resignation continue across the country.
“The Yemeni people would not keep silent on the blood of martyrs shed in Aden
and will avenge it,” Sheikh Hussein Al Ahmar said in a speech before a large
gathering of tribesmen in northern Amran province, referring to deaths of
antigovernment protesters in the southern city of Aden, according to local press
reports. He also called for the overthrow the Saleh regime, and the gathering
broke out in antigovernment chants.
Mr. Ahmar is a prominent leader in Yemen’s most influential tribal
confederation, the Hashids; his brother, Sadiq Al Ahmar, is the chief Hashid
leader. Mr. Saleh, the president, is also a member of the Hashid confederation
and has been meeting with tribal leaders to garner their support over the past
two weeks.
Four days earlier, Mohammad Abdel Illah al-Qadi, a key leader of the Sanhan
tribe, a Hashid affiliate that is also a key power base of the president, had
joined the growing protest movement. y. Mr. Qadi, whose father is a powerful
military leader, was one of 10 ministers who resigned the ruling party.
Mr. Saleh has maintained power in the impoverished Persian Gulf nation of Yemen
for more than three decades in part by deftly balancing tribal allegiances, so
the loss of the tribal leaders is a significant development.
Elsewhere in the region, widespread unrest continued, with the most serious
situation in Libya, where Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi waged a bloody crackdown in an
effort to maintain power amid a growing rebellion.
In Bahrain, one of the leaders of the country’s longstanding opposition
movement, Hassan Mushaima, a Shiite leader of the banned Al Haq party, returned
from exile in London on Saturday after King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa announced
that criminal charges against him for an alleged coup plot against the
government had been dropped.
Mr. Mushaima had been due to arrive on Tuesday but had been detained in Beirut,
his passport seized by authorities in what he told a Lebanese newspaper he
believed was a deal with the Bahrain government to keep him away.
“We want a real constitution,” Mr. Mushaima told reporters at the airport,
according to Retuers. “They’ve promised us before and then did whatever they
wanted to.”
Thousands of anti-government protesters, meanwhile, marched from Pearl Square to
a former office of Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa on
Saturday, in the protesters’ first foray from Pearl Sqaure into a government and
commerical district of Manama, the capital, Reuters reported. Sheikh Khalifa,
the king’s uncle, is a symbol of the ruling family’s political power and wealth
who has held his position for 40 years.
Mr. Mushaima, a Shiite leader, heads the banned Al Haq Party; he had earlier
broken with another opposition group because it participated in parliamentary
elections that he felt would give the government legitimacy and little incentive
to institute real changes.
Bahrian declares itself a constitutional monarchy, but the parliament gives
royal family, which is Sunni, absolute authority in the Shiite majority nation.
In Egypt, tension lingered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the center of the
revolution, after military police, soldiers and commandos in the early morning
hours of Saturday used force to remove protesters who had planned to spend the
night there. Later, the country’s ruling military council posted a statement on
its new Facebook page apologizing for the violence and promising to release
those detained, believed to be several dozen. But the incident showed how the
honeymoon between the demonstrators and the military that had marked the 18-day
revolution was beginning to fray.
During the revolution, the popular slogan was: “The army and the people are one
hand.” But overheard on Saturday was “The people, and just the people, are one
hand,” a chant from Mohammed Mordi, 24, who had been sitting near a drum circle
after midnight and had seen protesters hit with electric prods and beaten by the
commandos.
The Egyptian panel tasked with amending the country’s constitution also released
its initial recommendations. It suggested limiting a president to two
consecutive four-year terms — currently, the presidency is open-ended — and
called for elections to be overseen by the judiciary, another key opposition
demand.
In Tunisia, where the ouster of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the former president,
by protesters spearheaded the wave of revolutionary fervor in the region, tear
gas was used to disperse about 300 protesters seeking the resignation of the
interim prime minister, who was part of his government, wire services reported.
On Friday, as tens of thousands demonstrated, the interim government said that
it would hold elections by mid-July.
In Algeria, hundreds of demonstrators protested in Algiers, the capital, to
demand the ouster of
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, but they were easily outnumbered by a heavy
police presence, The Associated Press reported.
The protest in central Martyr’s Square came two days after the government ended
a 19-year state of emergency in place since Algeria’s bloody Islamic insurgency,
aimed at easing tensions after weeks of anti-government strikes and protests.
In Sana, the decsion of Mr. Ahmar to join with the swelling protest moment in
Yemen led to cheers and applause at an anti-govermnet sit-in in front of Sanaa
University that has lasted almost a week, as it was announced via loudspeaker
before noon prayers.
An increasing number of tribesmen from outside the city have joined with the
youth that make up the bulk of the tens of thousands of protesters in Sana. They
complain that the president has kept certain northern tribes weak for years in
order to shore up control.
“He makes war between the tribes by giving certain people money,” said Faisal
Gerayi, a resident of the poor, northern Al Jawf province who was sitting under
a tent with other tribesmen from outside the capital.
The most common complaint among anti-government protesters is about Yemen’s
endemic corruption problem that they feel has kept the majority of the
population impoverished. At least one person was shot fatally during a protest
on Friday in the southern port city Aden, though some local reports place the
number much higher and it is difficult to confirm their legitimacy. Protests in
Aden have been notoriously more violent than those in other cities.
There are accounts of snipers being used against demonstrators and gunfire was
heard late into the night in some districts of Aden. Residents say that the city
is in lockdown and they can’t move from one district to another.
After fatal clashes in the past week, protests in Sana and Taiz have been
relatively calm after Saleh announced on Wednesday that security forces should
protect protesters.
Laura Kasinof reported from Sana, Yemen, and Sharon Otterman from
Cairo. Liam Stack contributed reporting from Cairo.
Qaddafi Forces Shooting From Ambulances, Witnesses Say
February 26, 2011
The New York Times
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and SHARON OTTERMAN
TRIPOLI, Libya — An increasingly gruesome picture began to
emerge Saturday of the violent tactics used by the government of Col. Muammar
el-Qaddafi to quell protesters in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, with several
witnesses confirming that forces loyal to the government had been shooting
people from ambulances and using antiaircraft guns against crowds.
Witnesses to the violence in Tripoli, where a tense standoff held on Saturday,
also said that the government had removed dead bodies as well as the wounded
from hospitals in an effort to disguise the mounting death toll in the uprising
against Col. Qaddafi sweeping Libya.
Col. Qaddafi’s forces had put down demonstrators, who had taken to the streets
after Friday Prayers to mount their first major challenge to the government’s
crackdown, with snipers from rooftops, buckshot, and tear gas, witnesses said.
There were unconfirmed reports that an armed rebel force was approaching the
city on Saturday.
In Tajoura, a neighborhood of the capital where there has been significant
fighting since a peaceful demonstration there last Sunday, residents had
barricaded a street with old television sets and cinderblocks to try to keep out
pickup trucks full of men with machine guns. A doctor working at the local
clinic here said he had seen 68 people killed and 150 injured in recent days of
clashes, and that residents were braced for more violence.
A rebel officer who is coordinating an attack on Tripoli, Col. Tarek Saad
Hussein, asserted in an interview that an armed volunteer force of about 2,000
men — including army defectors — was to arrive in Tripoli on Friday night. There
was no way to confirm his claim.
Protesters in Tripoli said that they had heard a force was on its way from the
eastern cities that had fallen to rebels, but that they had been stopped in
Surt, a remaining Qaddafi stronghold halfway between Tripoli and Benghazi, the
opposition-controlled city where the uprising began.
Colonel Hussein was especially angered at the reports of security forces’ firing
on protesters after prayers. “They did not have weapons,” he said, speaking at
an abandoned army base in the eastern city of Benghazi, which is firmly under
rebel control. “They shot people outside the mosque.”
Indeed, accounts of the bloodshed on Friday indicated that Colonel Qaddafi’s
forces had deployed the same determined brutality as they had earlier in the
week defending their leader, who has ruled for more than 40 years.
“They shoot people from the ambulances,” said one terrified resident, Omar, by
telephone as he recalled an episode during the protests on Friday when one
protester was wounded. “We thought they’d take him to the hospital,” he said,
but the militiamen “shot him dead and left with a squeal.”
A precise death toll might be impossible. Omar said that friends who were
doctors at a hospital in Tripoli saw bodies being removed from the morgue to
conceal the death toll. Local residents told him that the bodies were being
taken to beaches and burned. Omar did not want his full named used for fear of
his life.
“We have no freedom here,” he said. “We want our freedom, too.”
Heba Morayef, a researcher with Human Rights Watch trying to confirm the number
of fatalities, said she had heard widespread reports of security forces inside
hospitals. Top officials of the biggest Tripoli hospitals were said to be loyal
to Colonel Qaddafi and understating the casualties, she said.
The deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Ibrahim Dabbashi, had also said in
New York on Friday that government forces had been shooting from ambulances, as
he pleaded for international action to help stop the violence.
"Hundreds of people have been killed. We expect thousands to be killed" in
Tripoli, he told reporters.
The Tripoli airport has become a refugee camp packed with thousands of people
trying to flee. The floors inside are a carpet of flesh and blankets, including
families with children. Outside, a thick wall of thousands of refugees was
waiting to get in, and at least two guards were beating them back — one with a
billy club and the other a whip.
The city had been cleansed Thursday night for a visit by a number of foreign
journalists the Qaddafi government has invited. Billboards with pictures of
Colonel Qaddafi that were burned and defaced last week have all been restored,
witnesses said. “It is a stage set they built overnight,” one resident said.
Witnesses in Tripoli said that the streets were lined with extra police officers
in riot gear before Friday Prayer services, and militia members patrolled the
area near Bab al-Aziziya, Colonel Qaddafi’s military base.
A resident who spoke with friends in several neighborhoods said the police
opened fire on worshipers after the prayers, killing at least five people in
Siyahiya, in western Tripoli, and several other people in Zawiat al-Dahmani, in
the city’s center.
There were also reports of gunfire in Fashloom and the Souq al-Jumaa area. Those
reports could not be immediately confirmed.
It was no longer possible to reach Tripoli’s central Green Square, the scene of
many of the demonstrations — and much of the slaughter. The area was surrounded
by checkpoints and barricades patrolled by members of the armed forces, Omar and
other witnesses said.
Indeed, earlier Friday, Libyan state television showed Colonel Qaddafi speaking
from a parapet overlooking Green Square and addressing a crowd of supporters.
There was no sign of resistance, only the sight of thousands of young loyalists.
There was no way to know if the broadcast was live or pre-recorded.
“This is the formidable, invincible force of youth,” Colonel Qaddafi said. “Life
without dignity is useless.” He blew kisses to the crowd and urged them to fight
to the death. “Every individual will be armed,” he said. “Libya will become a
hell.”
Libyan state television also announced that the government would give $400 to
every family and raise the salaries of state employees by as much as 150
percent, in what appeared to be an attempt to buy support.
But the gesture was too late to stop more painful defections. Libya’s ambassador
to the United Nations, Abdurrahman Shalgham, a longtime friend of Colonel
Qaddafi, denounced him Friday in New York, comparing him with Pol Pot and
Hitler.
Libya’s entire Arab League mission resigned for the same reasons on Friday, as
did the country’s mission in Geneva.
Ahmed Gadhaf al-Dam, one of Colonel Gaddafi’s top security official and a
cousin, left Wednesday evening, it was revealed, for Egypt, where he denounced
Colonel Qaddafi’s “grave violations to human rights.”
The protesters in Tripoli appeared emboldened by promises of help from rebels
outside the capital and the surprisingly strong showing of protesters in cities
close to the capital on Thursday against Colonel Qaddafi’s forces, which brought
the rebellion to the capital’s doorstep.
A potentially large force of armed fighters sympathetic to the protesters was
now converging on Tripoli, according to military officials and soldiers who had
defected to the rebels.
Colonel Hussein said the force consisted of active duty, retired soldiers and
army reservists who had joined the rebel side. It was sent to the capital in
small groups, he said, adding that they carried a mixture of light arms and
heavier weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades.
He did not offer more details about the size of the groups, or their route. The
road to Tripoli from the country’s eastern cities is blocked to the rebels by
the city of Surt, Colonel Qaddafi’s hometown.
Colonel Hussein said he was negotiating with tribal leaders and military
officers in Surt to abandon the government, or at least not stand in the way of
the rebels. “We’re appealing to the people of Surt to help us stop the
bloodshed,” he said.
Army soldiers stationed at a barracks near Benghazi said on Friday that 200 to
250 of their colleagues had left the barracks in recent days, headed to Tripoli
to fight Colonel Qaddafi’s forces.
A group of 60 or so officers stood outside another barracks in Benghazi on
Friday, saying they were volunteering to go fight in Tripoli. Colonel Hussein
said they were joining the battle because protesters were being killed. “In cold
blood,” said Colonel Hussein.
Asked what would happen if Colonel Qaddafi was deposed or killed, Colonel
Hussein said Libyans wanted a democracy.
“It was our duty to enter the fight,” he added. “The regime started this. They
are the ones who brought the revolution.”
David D. Kirkpatrick reported from Tripoli, and Sharon Otterman
from Cairo. Kareem Fahim contributed reporting from Benghazi, Libya, and Gaia
Pianigiani from Rome.
February 26, 2011
The New York Times
By JACK HEALY
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s largest oil refinery was crippled by a
predawn attack on Saturday after gunmen stormed the vast complex, killed one
engineer and set off several bombs.
The attack shut down parts of the Baiji Refinery, halting the production of
about 150,000 barrels per day of oil derivatives and raising questions about the
security of Iraq’s underdeveloped and antiquated refineries.
It was the second insurgent attack this month against Iraq’s crucial oil sector,
which drives about 90 percent of all government revenues in a country whose
economy is still reeling from years of war and insurgency.
According to officials from the refinery and provincial government, gunmen armed
with pistols with noise suppressors broke into the refinery at about 4:30 a.m.
and attacked the few security guards and engineers who had been working
overnight. They then planted eight bombs inside and outside, blowing up a
pipeline.
The explosions started a fire that sent plumes of smoke billowing into the sky
above the refinery, which is located in Salahuddin Province, a Sunni area about
100 miles north of Baghdad.
Oil officials did not provide details on the extent of the damage or say when
they would be able to restart production. Oil Ministry officials promised an
investigation on Saturday afternoon.
After the American invasion in 2003, millions and millions of dollars in fuel
from the refinery was funneled onto the black market, some of it into the hands
of militants. In 2008, an American captain stationed at Baiji called the illegal
flow of oil the “money pit of the insurgency.”
Earlier this month, a pipeline north of Baghdad was bombed, disrupting
production at the Dora refinery in Baghdad.
Although Iraq floats atop the world’s third-largest oil reserves, it has
struggled to increase production beyond about 2.6 million barrels per day,
hampered by creaky pipelines and other infrastructure, as well as political and
security instabilities.
February 26, 2011
The New York Times
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
AT some point, Thomas Jefferson realized, you just can’t do
business with pirates any more.
For years, the infant American government, along with many others, had accepted
the humiliating practice of paying tribute — essentially mob-style protection
fees — to a handful of rulers in the Barbary states so that American ships
crossing the Mediterranean would not get hijacked. But in 1801, Tripoli’s pasha,
Yusuf Karamanli, tried to jack up his prices. Jefferson said no. And when the
strongman turned his pirates loose on American ships, Jefferson sent in the Navy
to bombard Tripoli, starting a war that eventually brought the Barbary states to
their knees. Rampant piracy went to sleep for nearly 200 years.
The question now is: Are we nearing another enough-is-enough moment with
pirates?
On Tuesday, Somali pirates shot and killed four American hostages. A single
hostage intentionally killed by these pirates had been almost unheard of; four
dead was unprecedented. Until now, the first thing that came to mind about
Somalia’s buccaneers was that they were brash and mercurial. Just a few weeks
ago they let go some Sri Lankan fishermen after they essentially said, “You’re
poor, like us.” They were seen as a nuisance, albeit an expensive one, but not a
lethal threat.
Exactly what happened Tuesday is still murky. Pirates in the Arabian Sea had
hijacked a sailboat skippered by a retired couple from California, and when the
American Navy closed in, the pirates got twitchy. Navy Seals rushed aboard but
it was too late. It’s still not clear why the pirates would want to kill the
hostages when their business model, which has raked in more than $100 million in
the past few years, is based on ransoming captives alive.
“Of course, I do not know what the U.S. will do in response to this latest
atrocity,” said Frank Lambert, a professor at Purdue who is an expert on the
Barbary pirates. But, he said, “Jefferson advocated an armed response and
eventually war against Tripoli for far less provocation.”
For years now, Somali pirates with fiberglass skiffs and salt-rusted
Kalashnikovs have been commandeering ships along one of the most congested
shipping routes in the world — the Gulf of Aden, a vital conduit for Middle East
oil to Europe and the United States. More than 50 vessels are now held captive,
from Thai fishing trawlers to European supertankers, with more than 800
hostages. Those numbers grow each year.
But the international response has been limited, partly because the most
promising remedies are intensely complicated and risky. Western powers,
including the United States, have sent warships to cruise Somalia’s coast and
discourage attacks. When a vessel is hijacked, ship owners cough up a ransom,
nowadays in the neighborhood of $5 million, and most of that cost gets passed to
the end user — consumers. Until recently, most hostages would emerge unharmed,
albeit skinny and pale from being locked in a filthy room. The average time in
captivity is around six months.
But recently the pirates have been getting more vicious; reports have emerged of
beatings, of being hung upside down, even of being forced at gunpoint to join in
raids. And now the pirates have gunned down four Americans.
“I think there’s going to be some type of retaliation,” said a European diplomat
in Nairobi, Kenya, who trades ideas on anti-piracy strategies with other
diplomats and was instructed not to speak publicly about the issues. “I could
see the Americans going after the pirate bosses, the organizers, maybe even
blockade some of the ports that they use,” he speculated. “I don’t think the
Americans are going to invade Somalia, because of Iraq and Afghanistan, but they
can use local allies.” Another obvious possibility would be American Special
Forces, who have killed terrorism suspects in Somalia.
The American government isn’t revealing its plans but officials suggest — as
long as they are not quoted by name — that the killings of the four Americans
could be a game-changer. “We get it,” said one State Department official. “We
get the need to recalibrate.”
Any course of action, however, will confront two huge obstacles: the immensity
of the sea and the depth of chaos in Somalia.
The pirates used to stick relatively close to Somalia’s shores. But now, using
“mother ships” — hijacked vessels that serve as floating bases — they attack
ships more than 1,000 miles away. Sometimes that puts them closer to India than
to home. The red zone now covers more than one million square miles of water, an
area naval officers say is impossible to control.
Piracy Inc. is a sprawling operation on land, too. It offers work to tens of
thousands of Somalis — middle-managers, translators, bookkeepers, mechanics,
gunsmiths, guards, boat builders, women who sell tea to pirates, others who sell
them goats. In one of the poorest lands on earth, piracy isn’t just a business;
it’s a lifeline.
And this gets to the real problem.
“The root cause is state failure,” the American official said.
Somalia’s central government collapsed more than 20 years ago, and now its
landscape includes droughts, warlords, fighters allied to Al Qaeda, and
malnutrition, suffering and death on a scale unseen just about anywhere else.
The United States and other Western powers are pouring millions of dollars into
Somalia’s transitional government, an appointed body with little legitimacy on
the ground, in the hope, perhaps vain, that it can rebuild the world’s most
failed state and create an economy based on something like fishing or livestock.
Young men then might be able to earn a living doing something other than
sticking up ships.
But the transitional government has been divided, feckless and corrupt. Islamist
rebels control much of the country. Few Somalis think the nation will stop being
a war zone any time soon.
The shipping industry seems to know this.
“Until things change on land, you have to come down very hard on them at sea,”
said Cyrus Mody, manager of the International Maritime Bureau in London.
Shipping companies are frustrated, he said, because while many pirates are
apprehended at sea by foreign navies, the vast majority are typically released
unless they are caught in the act of a hijacking a ship — which is a very narrow
window because once pirates control a vessel, it’s extremely dangerous to
intervene.
“The laws have to be amended,” Mr. Mody said. “Why would a skiff be 800 miles
off Somalia with a rocket-propelled grenade, a ladder and extra barrels of fuel?
What are they doing? Fishing? These people need to be arrested and prosecuted.”
The last resort is military action. Many people ask: Why not storm ashore and
attack the pirate bases? These dens are well known. I even visited one last year
and met a pirate boss who was using millions of dollars in ransoms to build a
land-based army that at first glance looked more disciplined and better equipped
than Somalia’s national army.
But the military option would not be pretty. The 800 or so captured seamen could
be used as human shields. And no Western country has shown an appetite to send
troops to Somalia, not after the Black Hawk Down fiasco of 1993, when ragtag
Somali militiamen downed two American helicopters and killed 18 elite American
troops. And a military attack could easily backfire. “They might kill a few
pirates, but more would certainly spring up to replace them,” said Bronwyn
Bruton, who wrote a widely discussed essay on Somalia. “The replacements would
probably be even angrier and more violent.” In her essay, she advised the
international community to essentially pull out and let Somalis sort out their
problems on their own.
She added that collateral damage from a raid could be severe and “a lot of
civilian casualties could actually wind up aggravating a much bigger security
threat to the U.S. — terrorism.”
So it seems that Jefferson may have had an easier piracy problem to solve.
“I can offer a couple thoughts based on the U.S.’s dealing with pirates more
than 200 years ago,” Mr. Lambert said. “If the U.S. response is a vigorous
military response, it is likely to be difficult, costly, and prolonged” — a
reference to the war that followed bombardment of the coast.
But, he warned, “If it is a continuation of the present policy (whatever that
is), it is almost a certainty that we will see more or perhaps escalated
atrocities. ‘’
CAIRO | Sat Feb 26, 2011
11:07am EST
Reuters
By Marwa Awad and Tom Perry
CAIRO (Reuters) - Future presidents of Egypt will only be
allowed to stay in office for eight years according to constitutional amendments
that will open up competition for the position held for three decades by ousted
leader Hosni Mubarak.
The proposed amendments outlined on Saturday by a judicial committee appointed
by Egypt's ruling military council will be put to a referendum ahead of
parliamentary and presidential elections that will hand power back to a civilian
government.
Mubarak was serving in his fifth, six-year term when he was toppled on February
11, forced from office by a mass uprising driven in large part by demands for
reform to put an end to the one-man rule that has defined Egyptian government
for decades.
The existing constitution, suspended by the military council to which Mubarak
handed power, made it almost impossible for an opposition candidate to mount a
challenge to his ruling National Democratic Party.
The completion of the draft amendments is a milestone along Egypt's road toward
the elections which the military council says it hopes to hold within six months
and which Egyptians hope will usher in a new era of democracy.
Under the proposed amendments, the elections would be subject to judicial
supervision, said retired judge Tariq al-Bishri, the head of the committee. He
outlined terms for candidacy which are loser than current requirements.
Candidates for the presidency will need the support of 30 parliamentarians,
stripping away the former requirement for the backing of 250 members of a range
of elected assemblies, including 65 MPs.
Failing that, candidates could also run if they secure the support of 30,000
eligible voters across 15 governorates.
Alternatively, they could run as representatives of registered political parties
which have at least one member elected to either the upper or lower house of
parliament.
The proposed amendments will also make it complicated for a president to
maintain the state of emergency -- in place for decades -- which opposition
activists want lifted as part of their broad demands for reform.
ARMY SAYS SORRY TO PROTESTERS
Pressing those demands, thousands of protesters gathered on Friday in Cairo's
Tahrir Square, the hub of the uprising against Mubarak. They were calling for a
complete overhaul of the government, still headed by a prime minister Mubarak
appointed.
In the early hours of the morning, the military broke up the remnants of the
protest by force, using sticks and tasers, protesters said, in the toughest
moves yet by the army against the demonstrators.
The military council apologized, said there had been no order to assault the
protesters, and called the incident unintentional. Twenty-seven protesters
detained overnight were released, the army said, blaming the incident on
"infiltrators" it said had thrown bottles and rocks at soldiers.
"What happened last night was ... the result of unintentional altercations
between the military police and the children of the revolution," the council
said on a Facebook page that has become a main tool in its public relations
effort.
Ashraf Omar, a demonstrator, said: "I thought things would change. I wanted to
give the government a chance but there is no hope with this regime."
As day broke, a few dozen protesters left in the square flagged down motorists,
telling them that the army had attacked the protest. A number of the activists
held aloft signs declaring "the army betrayed the people."
One taxi driver remonstrated with a protester, telling him: "The people can't
find food to eat." His view reflected the feelings of those Egyptians who
believe continued protests are obstructing a return to normality.
As it manages domestic affairs for the first time in decades, the military also
wants Egyptians to get back to work to revive an economy drained by weeks of
turmoil.
Having committed to constitutional changes and democratic elections, the
military appears reluctant to enact further reforms, a Western diplomat said.
The military appeared to want to leave further reforms to a civilian government,
the diplomat said, adding that the army aimed to "get out from under the
obligation" of government.
(Additional reporting by Dina Zayed, Yasmine Saleh, Sarah Mikhail
Mohamed Abdellah; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Caroline Drees)
CAIRO | Sat Feb 26, 2011
6:17am EST
Reuters
By Marwa Awad and Dina Zayed
CAIRO (Reuters) - Soldiers used force Saturday to break up a
protest demanding more political change in Egypt in the toughest move yet
against demonstrators who accused the country's military rulers of "betraying
the people."
Protesters said the soldiers had moved against them after midnight, firing in
the air and using sticks to break up the remnants of a demonstration urging the
military to enact deeper reforms including a complete overhaul of the cabinet.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which has been ruling Egypt since
President Hosni Mubarak stepped down in the face of a mass uprising, apologized,
said there had been no order to assault the protest and the incident was
unintentional.
Protesters detained overnight would be released, it said, without stating how
many of them there were. It said "infiltrators" had thrown bottles and rocks at
soldiers.
"What happened last night was ... the result of unintentional altercations
between the military police and the children of the revolution," the council
said on a Facebook page that has become a main tool in its public relations
effort.
Ashraf Omar, a demonstrator, said soldiers had used tasers and batons against
the protesters. "I thought things would change. I wanted to give the government
a chance but there is no hope with this regime," he said.
The military council has promised constitutional changes leading to free and
fair elections within six months. The judicial council tasked with drafting the
constitutional reforms is expected to announce its proposals soon.
As it manages domestic affairs for the first time in decades, the military also
wants Egyptians to get back to work to revive an economy drained by weeks of
turmoil unleashed by the mass uprising that toppled Mubarak on February 11.
Thousands of people had gathered in Tahrir Square Friday to press broader
demands including the replacement of the prime minister, who was appointed by
the ousted president in the last weeks of his rule and had long served his
administration.
As day broke, a few dozen protesters left in the square flagged down motorists,
telling them that the army had attacked the protest. A number of the activists
held aloft signs declaring "the army betrayed the people."
One taxi driver remonstrated with a protester, telling him: "The people can't
find food to eat." His view reflected the feelings of those Egyptians who
believe continued protests are obstructing a return to normality.
FOR NOW, MILITARY APPEARS HESITANT ON FURTHER REFORM
Witnesses said they saw several protesters fall to the ground but it was not
clear if they were wounded and if so, how seriously. Protesters were heard
yelling and shouting as they were chased down side streets surrounding Tahrir
Square.
The protesters want the resignation of Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq as well as
the removal of other ministers associated with Mubarak's rule and the immediate
release of remaining political detainees. A partial cabinet reshuffle has not
satisfied them.
Opposition groups want a complete break with the past in the run up to
democratic elections promised by the military.
Having committed to constitutional changes and democratic elections, the
military appears reluctant to enact further reforms, a Western diplomat said.
The military council appears to want to leave further reforms to an elected
civilian government, the diplomat added.
The military appeared to want to "get out from under the obligation" of
government, the diplomat added.
An anti-corruption campaign targeting prominent figures in Mubarak's era is one
of the clearest signs yet of a break with the past. The foreign ministry has
instructed governments overseas to freeze the assets of Mubarak and his family.
Several former ministers and businessmen linked to the ruling party are also
under investigation.
In the latest case, investigators have ordered the detention of former
Information Minister Anas el-Fekky for 15 days on charges of profiteering and
wasting public funds, the state news agency MENA said Saturday.
(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh and Mohamed Abdellah;
Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Caroline Drees)
One casualty of the uprisings in the Middle East has been the
professionals who didn’t see them coming. The International Monetary Fund has
taken a hit for its April 2010 report on Egypt, which praised the country’s
‘‘sustained and wide-ranging reforms since 2004,’’ noting they had made the
economy more durable and less vulnerable to external shocks. Ditto the C.I.A.,
whose director, Leon Panetta, endured the very personal ignominy of seeing his
public predictions to Congress proven wrong within hours of making them.
For anyone who watched the collapse of the Soviet Union or the 2008 financial
crisis, there is something very familiar about this failure of the experts.
There seems to be something about swift, massive paradigm shifts — whether they
are the bursting of a financial bubble that has been years in the making, or a
popular revolt against a political regime that had been stable for decades —
that we find hard to anticipate.
Research by behavioral economists like Dan Ariely of Duke University has
suggested that part of the problem may be that when we have a vested interest in
the status quo our brains are wired to view it as good and stable. Dr. Ariely’s
work has focused on the cognitive blinders our financial self-interest imposes.
But a similar bias may shape the views of political experts, who can end up
developing a sense of ‘‘ownership’’ of the national elites they study that seems
to be nearly as powerful as the proprietary feeling bankers had for the credit
derivatives they created.
In a prescient book about democracy and authoritarianism written before he went
to work at the White House, the political scientist Michael McFaul argued that
assumptions of regime stability are always dominant, and that, when those
regimes are authoritarian, these assumptions are always wrong. Dr. McFaul
strenuously disagreed with that default view, arguing: ‘‘assuming that the
current configuration of autocratic regimes in play today will persist 50 years
from now is much more naïve than believing that some of these regimes might
succeed in making the transition to democracy.’’
Dr. McFaul’s conviction is looking pretty good today. But even if we are able to
overcome our psychological resistance to the very notion of regime change,
anticipating precisely when dictators will be toppled may not be possible. ‘‘By
their very nature, these tipping points are not predictable,’’ said Daron
Acemoglu, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
A better way of thinking about whether regimes will endure, he suggested, might
be to try to understand the potential for rebellion, given the right catalyst.
‘‘Most of the time it’s dormant and hence there is no predictability of
uprisings,’’ he argued. ‘‘But once we enter into a critical period like the
current one, this latent factor has some predictive power.’’
In that spirit, my colleague Peter Rudegeair and I have done a back-of-
the-envelope calculation to identify countries with a high latent potential for
uprisings. We considered four factors — political freedom (on the grounds that
democracies don’t usually require popular rebellions to achieve regime change),
corruption, vulnerability to food price shocks and Internet penetration. Our
spreadsheet used publicly available measures of the four factors and came up
with a list of 25 most vulnerable countries.* You can see the spreadsheet
explaining the publicly available measures of the four factors we used and the
top 25 countries we came up with here. Libya, Algeria and Egypt made it into the
top 10. Perhaps more surprisingly, so did Russia, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and
Venezuela.
According to Wired.com, the U.S. military and intelligence agencies have spent
more than $125 million over the past three years on computer models that try to
forecast unrest. Bearing that in humbly mind, this fast and dirty calculation is
meant to provoke discussion, not to pinpoint the next hot spot.
Dr. Acemoglu suggested that one way to refine this sort of calculation would be
to consider ways in which the different factors that make a regime vulnerable to
revolution interact: ‘‘For example, a lot of corruption without any Internet
penetration or a lot of Internet penetration without corruption may create no
pressure for uprisings, but when both of them are present that might be a whole
different ballgame.’’
Lucan Way, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto, said
another contributor to regime fragility that it would be worth factoring in to a
more sophisticated analysis (you can try this at home!) is whether the
authoritarian government is itself the product of recent revolutionary struggle.
Dictatorships run by an ideologically united revolutionary party — Iran, for
instance, and to a lesser extent China — are, Dr. Way argued, more durable than
those whose rulers rely purely on guns and patronage.
Food-price shocks are often the catalyst that tips a regime with a latent
vulnerability to an uprising into one facing people in the streets: that was the
case in Tunisia, and has been true as far back as the Bolshevik Revolution.
Something else that can propel a society with a latent potential for rebellion
into action is the demonstration effect, or what Dr. Acemoglu calls
‘‘contagion,’’ a phenomenon also familiar to anyone who was caught in the
wildfire global spread of the financial crisis in 2008.
In both cases, the sudden belief that a previously stable status quo could
change had the power to alter reality. This interplay between perception and
fact is what George Soros, an expert in paradigm shifts in both markets and
countries, calls reflexivity.
Even some of the world’s most powerful authoritarian regimes seem to be getting
concerned about the danger of contagion and the power of perception. Hence
China’s efforts to block electronic information and discussion of the uprisings
in the Middle East. The Kremlin may have even more reason to worry: A Russian
opinion poll found that one-third of respondents thought the ‘‘Egyptian
scenario’’ of mass protests was possible in Russia. That is the kind of thinking
that can tip a latent potential for rebellion into a revolution.
*Update: For ease and simplicity, we used Nomura’s Food Vulnerability Index to
calculate how rising food prices would affect a country’s domestic economy.
Because Nomura limited their Food Vulnerability Index to 80 countries, our
uprising index is also limited to 80 countries. This explains why some countries
that seem like they would be prime candidates for having a high latent potential
for rebellion — like Iran, Cuba, and Jordan — do not make our list.
Could the administration of President Barack Obama hasten the
downfall of Iran’s government by taking an opposition group off the U.S. list of
terrorist organizations? To hear a growing roster of influential former
government officials tell it, the answer is yes.
The opposition group in question is the Mujadeen-e-Khalq (MEK) and the growing
list of Washington insiders coming out in its support include two former Central
Intelligence Agency chiefs (James Woolsey and Michael Hayden), two chairmen of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Peter Pace and Hugh Shelton), former Attorney General
Michael Mukasey, former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge and former FBI head
Louis Freeh.
The MEK was placed on the terrorist list in 1997, a move the Clinton
administration hoped would help open a dialogue with Iran, and since then has
been waging a protracted legal battle to have the designation removed. Britain
and the European Union took the group off their terrorist lists in 2008 and 2009
respectively after court rulings that found no evidence of terrorist actions
after the MEK renounced violence in 2001.
In Washington, initial support for “de-listing” came largely from the ranks of
conservatives and neo-conservatives but it has been spreading across the aisle
and the addition of a newcomer of impeccable standing with the Obama
administration could herald a policy change not only on the MEK but also on
dealing with Tehran.
The newcomer is Lee Hamilton, an informal senior advisor to President Obama, who
served as a Democratic congressman for 34 years and was co-chairman of the
commission that investigated the events leading to the September 11, 2001
attacks on Washington and New York.
“This is a big deal,” Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett, two prominent
experts on Iran, wrote on their blog. “We believe that Hamilton’s involvement
increases the chances that the Obama administration will eventually start
supporting the MEK as the cutting edge for a new U.S. regime change strategy
towards Iran.” The Leveretts think such a strategy would be counter-productive.
But speakers at the February 19 conference in Washington where Hamilton made his
debut as an MEK supporter thought otherwise. Addressing some 400
Iranian-Americans in a Washington hotel, retired General Peter Pace said: “Some
folks said to me ? if the United States government took the MEK off the
terrorist list it would be a signal to the Iranian regime that we changed from a
desire to see changes in regime behavior to a desire to see changes in regime.
Sounds good to me.”
The Obama administration’s policy is not regime change but the use of sanctions
and multi-national negotiations to persuade the government in Tehran to drop its
nuclear ambitions. So far, that has been unsuccessful. Two rounds of talks
between Iran, the U.S., China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany in January
ended without progress and did not even yield agreement on a date for more
talks.*
NO POLICY CHANGE BUT SHARPER RHETORIC
That did not change Washington’s “no regime change” stand.
What has changed is the tone of public American statements on Iran since a wave
of mass protests swept away the authoritarian rulers of Tunisia and Egypt and
forced the governments of Jordan, Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria and Saudi Arabia to
announce reforms. In contrast, Iran responded to mass demonstrations with
violent crackdowns.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that the U.S. “very clearly and
directly support the aspirations of the people who are in the streets” of
Iranian cities agitating for a democratic opening as they did in 2009, when
Washington stayed silent.
Like the U.S., Iran labels the MEK a terrorist organization and has dealt
particularly harshly with Iranians suspected of membership or sympathies. In the
view of many of its American supporters, the U.S. terrorist label has weakened
internal support for the MEK. How much support there is for the organization is
a matter of dispute among Iran watchers, many of whom consider it insignificant.
At last week’s Washington conference, however, speaker after speaker described
it as a major force, feared and hated by the Iranian government. General Shelton
called it “the best organized resistance group.” Dell Daley, the State
Department’s counter-terrorism chief until he retired in 2009, said the MEK was
“the best instrument of power to get inside the Iran mullahs and unseat them.”
The decision to give legitimacy, or not, to the group is up to Hillary Clinton.
Last July, a federal appeals court in Washington instructed the Department of
State to review the terrorist designation, in language that suggested that it
should be revoked. Court procedures gave her until June to decide.
TRIPOLI | Fri Feb 25, 2011
10:21pm EST
Reuters
By Ahmed Jadallah and Maria Golovnina
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - World powers struggled to find a way to
stop Libyan leader Muammer Gaddafi lashing out at his people as he clings to
power in Tripoli, the last big city where an uprising against his rule has yet
to take hold.
President Barack Obama signed an order prohibiting transactions related to Libya
and blocking property, the first major step to isolate the North African leader,
who has used army, police and irregular forces to try to crush the protests.
"By any measure, Muammar Gaddafi's government has violated international norms
and common decency and must be held accountable," Obama said in a statement on
Friday.
Diplomats at the United Nations said a vote on a draft resolution calling for an
arms embargo on Libya as well as travel bans and asset freezes on its leaders
might come on Saturday after U.N. chief Ban ki Moon said it could not wait.
Western powers, with whom Gaddafi has exploited Libya's oil after years of
diplomatic isolation, have struggled to keep up with the pace of protests that
have swept away Western-backed strongmen in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia
already this year.
Tripoli's streets were eerily quiet overnight, with portraits of Gaddafi
adorning street corners and a few police cars patrolling after a day in which
residents said pro-Gaddafi forces fired at and over the heads of protesters in
many areas. Up to 25 people were said to have been killed in one area alone.
"Peace is coming back to our country," one of Gaddafi's sons, Saif al-Islam
Gaddafi, told reporters flown into Libya under close supervision.
"If you hear fireworks don't mistake it for shooting," the 38-year-old
London-educated younger Gaddafi said, smiling.
He acknowledged pro-Gaddafi forces had "a problem" with Misrata, Libya's third
largest city, and Zawiya, also in the west, where protesters had beaten back
counter-attacks by the military but said the army was prepared to negotiate.
"Hopefully there will be no more bloodshed. By tomorrow we will solve this," he
said on Friday evening.
The country's second city Benghazi fell to the opposition along with much of
eastern Libya earlier in the uprising, which began more than a week ago. Gaddafi
vowed to "crush any enemy" on Friday, addressing a crowd of supporters in
Tripoli's central Green Square. Residents said government forces had fired when
protesters, who had gathered after Friday prayers around the capital,
approached.
"They just started shooting people," Ali, a businessman who declined to give his
full name, said by telephone. A female resident said her friend had seen police
fire at people in another district and had told her 25 people were killed there.
AIRPORT CHAOS
At Tripoli's international airport, thousands of desperate migrant workers
besieged the main gate trying to leave the country as police used batons and
whips to keep them out.
International diplomats say some 2,000 or more people have been killed. The U.N.
Security Council draft, drawn up by Britain and France, said the attacks on
civilians in Libya may amount to crimes against humanity.
The White House did not express direct support for the proposal but said it was
discussing it with members of the Security Council, including the other four
permanent members -- China, Russia, Britain and France.
Charles Ries, director of the Center for Middle East Public Policy at Rand
Corporation, said the U.N. resolution was risky.
"The U.N. Security Council is a very risky proposition if, for example, the
Chinese were not in favor of voting a resolution, and I don't think the
administration feels confident that it has all of those ducks lined up," Ries
said.
Washington, which in recent years had a rapprochement with Gaddafi and has
several energy companies in Libya still working while other foreign firms have
curtailed or suspended operations, announced unilateral sanctions first.
"His legitimacy has been reduced to zero in the eyes of his people," said
Obama's spokesman, who also refused to rule out military action.
Gaddafi's own people seemed close to forcing him from power, although it is hard
to assess the relative strengths of forces that include irregular units, tribal
loyalists and militias backing Gaddafi and regular army units who have now gone
over to the opposition.
Other towns were reported by residents to have fallen to the opposition,
although Gaddafi retained the defiance he has often displayed against the West
over more than four decades.
"We can crush any enemy. We can crush it with the people's will," he urged the
crowd of thousands, threatening to open military arsenals to his supporters and
tribesmen.
Residents said parts of Tripoli, apparently the last major stronghold of the man
who took over Libya as a young colonel in a 1969 military coup, were already
beyond his control.
U.S. EMBASSY CLOSES
Washington, having evacuated Americans from Libya after days of difficulties,
said it was closing down its embassy. Gaddafi, once branded a "mad dog" by the
White House for backing global militants, had in recent years sought cooperation
with the West.
Protesters in Zawiyah, an oil refining town on the main coastal highway 50 km
(30 miles) west of Tripoli, fought off government forces on several nights,
according to witnesses who fled across the Tunisian border at Ras Jdir.
"There are corpses everywhere ... It's a war in the true sense of the word,"
said Akila Jmaa, who crossed into Tunisia on Friday after traveling from the
town.
Prosecutor-general Abdul-Rahman al-Abbar became the latest senior official to
resign, telling al Arabiya television he was joining the opposition. Libya's
delegations to the Arab League and the United Nations in Geneva also switched
sides.
State television said the government was raising wages and food subsidies and
ordering special allowances for all families, a late bid to enrol the support of
Libya's 6 million citizens.
In the east, ad hoc committees of lawyers, doctors, tribal elders and soldiers
appeared to be filling the vacuum left by Gaddafi's government with some
success.
There was little sign of the radical Islamists whom Gaddafi has accused of
fomenting the unrest.
Army and police in the eastern city of Adjabiya told Al Jazeera they had joined
the opposition and a man back from the Western Mountains, some 150 km (90 miles)
southwest of Tripoli, said three towns there had shrugged off central control.
Libya supplies 2 percent of the world's oil, the bulk of it from wells and
supply terminals in the east. The opposition says it controls nearly all
oilfields east of Ras Lanuf.
Industry sources told Reuters that crude oil shipments from Libya, the world's
12th-largest exporter, had all but stopped because of reduced production, a lack
of staff at ports and security concerns.
Benchmark Brent oil futures were steady at around $112, after a Saudi assurance
that it would replace any shortfall in Libyan output brought prices back from
Thursday's peak of nearly $120.
(Additional reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian in Rabat, Dina
Zayed and Caroline Drees in Cairo, Jeff Mason, Patricia Zengerle, Alister Bull,
Andrew Quinn, Paul Eckert, David Morgan and David Lawder in Washington and Luke
Baker in Brussels; writing by Philippa Fletcher; editing by Ralph Gowling)
February 25, 2011
The New York Times
By JANE PERLEZ
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s chief spy agency has demanded
an accounting by the Central Intelligence Agency of all its contractors working
in Pakistan, a fallout from the arrest last month of an American involved in
surveillance of militant groups, a senior Pakistani intelligence official said
Friday.
Angered that the American, Raymond A. Davis, worked as a contractor in Pakistan
on covert C.I.A. operations without the knowledge of the Pakistanis, the spy
agency estimated that there were “scores” more such contractors “working behind
our backs,” said the official, who requested anonymity in order to speak
candidly about a delicate matter between the two countries.
In a slight softening of the Pakistani stance since Mr. Davis’s arrest, the
official said that the American and Pakistani intelligence agencies needed to
continue cooperation, and that Pakistan was prepared to put the episode in the
past if the C.I.A. stopped treating its Pakistani counterparts as inferior.
“Treat us as allies, not as satellites,” said the official of the Directorate
for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI. “Respect, equality and trust are
needed.”
George Little, a C.I.A. spokesman, said the American spy agency’s ties to the
ISI “have been strong over the years, and when there are issues to sort out, we
work through them.”
“That’s the sign of a healthy partnership,” Mr. Little said.
The arrest and detention of Mr. Davis, 36, after he shot and killed two
motorcyclists in Lahore soured already testy relations between two governments
that are supposed to have a common front in the fight against terrorism.
The top American and Pakistani military leaders, including the chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, and the leader of the Pakistani Army,
Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, met this week in Oman, where the Davis case was
discussed.
According to a report by a former head of the Pakistani Army, Gen. Jehangir
Karamat, who runs a research and analysis center based in Lahore, both sides
agreed to try to “arrest the downhill descent.”
Even so, the Pakistani intelligence community was divided over how quickly to
settle the Davis case and how much to extract from the C.I.A., said a Pakistani
official with intimate knowledge of the situation, who declined to be named
because of the delicacy of the issue.
At a minimum, the ISI wants an accounting of all the contractors who work for
the C.I.A. in roles that have not been defined to Pakistan and a general
rewriting of the rules of engagement by the C.I.A. in Pakistan, the official
said.
In another sign that the two spy services were trying to patch up their
differences, Leon E. Panetta, the director of the C.I.A., spoke on Wednesday
with Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the ISI director, about resolving Mr. Davis’s
case, American and Pakistani officials said on Friday. Mr. Davis, who appeared
in handcuffs on Friday for a hearing in a closed courtroom at the jail where he
is being held in Lahore, faces possible murder charges.
The Obama administration insists that Mr. Davis has diplomatic immunity and
should be released. The Pakistani government has left the determination on
diplomatic immunity to the Foreign Office and a hearing before the Lahore High
Court on March 14.
Some senior Pakistani intelligence officers were unwilling to have Mr. Davis
released under almost any circumstances, said the official with knowledge of the
split in the intelligence community.
He said others wanted to use the Davis case as a bargaining chip to get the
withdrawal of a civil lawsuit filed in Brooklyn last year that implicates the
ISI chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, in the November 2008 terrorist attacks in
Mumbai, India.
The demand for the C.I.A. to acknowledge the number of contractors in Pakistan
was driven by the suspicion that the American spy service had slipped many such
secret operatives into Pakistan in the past six months, the senior ISI official
said.
The increase occurred after a directive last July by the Pakistani civilian
government, which is often at odds with the ISI, to its Washington embassy to
expedite visas without supervision from the ISI or the Ministry of Interior, the
senior ISI official said.
The behavior of people like Mr. Davis is deeply embarrassing to the ISI because
it makes the agency “look like fools” in the eyes of the anti-American Pakistani
public, the ISI official said.
The Davis case made it hard to explain to Pakistanis why the ISI was cooperating
with Washington, he said.
The clampdown on American contractors by the Pakistani authorities appeared to
be under way Friday with the arrest of an American citizen, Aaron Mark DeHaven,
in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
The Peshawar police said Mr. DeHaven was detained because he had overstayed his
business visa after his request for an extension last October was turned down.
There was no immediate accusation that Mr. DeHaven worked for the American
government, a security official in Peshawar said. But the arrest of Mr. DeHaven,
who is married to a Pakistani woman, appears to be a signal that the Pakistani
authorities have decided to expel Americans they have doubts about.
The security official said Mr. DeHaven owned a firm, Catalyst Services in
Peshawar, that rented houses for Americans in the city.
The American Embassy in Islamabad said in a statement that it did not have
details about Mr. DeHaven but that it was arranging consular access for him
through the Pakistani government.
During his first months in Pakistan in early 2010, Mr. Davis, the contractor for
the C.I.A., was attached to the American Consulate in Peshawar and lived in a
house with other Americans in an upscale neighborhood, according to Pakistani
officials.
At the 20-minute court hearing on Friday, Mr. Davis told the judge he would not
take part in the proceedings because he had diplomatic immunity, Pakistani
officials told reporters later.
He refused to sign the charge sheet presented to him, the officials said. The
Obama administration insists that Mr. Davis acted in self-defense when the two
motorcyclists tried to rob him.
In the charge sheet, the Pakistani police said Mr. Davis shot the motorcyclists
multiple times from inside his car, and then stepped from the car and continued
shooting with his Glock pistol. Mr. Davis then drove from the scene and was
arrested several miles away, the police said.
At Friday Prayers in Lahore and in Islamabad, the capital, anti-American
sermons, in some cases laced with references to Mr. Davis, were common.
Hafiz Saeed, the founder of the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which Mr. Davis
is believed to have been conducting surveillance on, said the American was “a
spy, committing terrorism, helping in drone attacks.”
Banners reading “Hang Davis” and “No immunity to Davis” were strung across the
road adjacent to Mr. Saeed’s headquarters.
Ismail Khan contributed reporting from Peshawar, Pakistan, and
Waqar Gillani from Lahore, Pakistan.
U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Libya in Wake of Crackdown
February 25, 2011
The New York Times
By HELENE COOPER and MARK LANDLER
WASHINGTON — The United States closed its embassy in Tripoli
on Friday and imposed unilateral sanctions against Libya, including the freezing
of billions in government assets, as the Obama administration made its most
aggressive move against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi since his security forces opened
fire on protesters.
Just minutes after a charter flight left Tripoli carrying the last Americans who
wanted to leave Libya, officials markedly toughened the administration’s words
and actions against Colonel Qaddafi, announcing that high-ranking Libyan
officials who supported or participated in his violent crackdown would also see
their assets frozen and might, along with Colonel Qaddafi, be subject to war
crimes prosecution.
“It’s clear that Colonel Qaddafi has lost the confidence of his people,” said
the White House press secretary, Jay Carney, in a briefing that was delayed to
allow the plane to take off because the Americans feared that the Libyan leader
might harm the passengers. “His legitimacy has been reduced to zero.”
On Friday night, President Obama issued a formal executive order freezing the
American-held assets of Colonel Qaddafi, his children and family, and senior
members of the Libyan government.
With Colonel Qaddafi killing more of his people every day in a desperate bid to
remain in power, it was not clear that these actions would do much to mitigate
the worsening crisis. Sanctions, for instance, take time to put in place, and
every other option comes with its own set of complications. Colonel Qaddafi,
increasingly erratic, has seemed to shrug off outside pressure, becoming even
more bizarre — with charges that protesters are on drugs — in the face of the
world’s scorn. And unlike with Egypt and Bahrain, close American allies that
also erupted into crisis, the United States has few contacts deep inside the
Libyan government, and little personal sway with its leadership.
Libya and the United States resumed full diplomatic relations only in 2008;
before that it was regarded as an outlaw state. In fact, even as he was
announcing that the Obama administration was cutting off military to military
cooperation with the Libyan Army, Mr. Carney noted that such cooperation was
“limited” — a stark contrast to the deep ties that the Pentagon has cultivated
with other Arab armies.
The tougher American response came nine days into the Libyan crisis and six days
after Colonel Qaddafi’s security forces first opened fire on protesters at a
funeral in Benghazi, plunging Libya into something close to civil war and
igniting worldwide condemnation. In the days after, the Obama administration
repeatedly called for an end to the violence, but avoided criticizing Colonel
Qaddafi by name — a cautious policy that brought criticism from the president’s
Republican rivals.
Countering those criticisms, administration officials said they feared a hostage
crisis, which tied President Obama’s hands until American citizens, diplomats
and their families were evacuated from Libya. A ferry with 167 Americans left
Tripoli on Friday afternoon, having been delayed for two days by 15- to 18-foot
waves in the Mediterranean, and a charter plane with additional Americans left
Friday night. The embassy, Mr. Carney said, “has been shuttered.”
European leaders have been more aggressive. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France
has called on Colonel Qaddafi to resign, a step that Mr. Obama has yet to take.
But American allies and the United Nations also moved to isolate Libya
diplomatically. A senior United Nations official said that the world should
intervene to stop the bloodshed in Libya, and France and Britain called on the
international organization to approve an arms embargo and sanctions. NATO said
it was ready to help evacuate refugees.
In Geneva, the normally passive United Nations Human Rights Council voted
unanimously on Friday to suspend Libya’s membership, but not before a junior
delegate of the Libyan mission announced that he and his colleagues had resigned
after deciding to side with the Libyan people. The gesture drew a standing
ovation and a handshake from the United States ambassador, Eileen Donahoe.
Administration officials said that getting the people around Colonel Qaddafi to
abandon him is a key part of the American and international strategy to isolate
him. Administration officials say they are supporting a British proposal to try
to bring before a war crimes tribunal Colonel Qaddafi and those who support or
enable his violent crackdown.
“It’s hard to do, but the point is to encourage the remaining supporters of
Qaddafi to peel off,” said Robert Malley, the Middle East and North Africa
program director at the International Crisis Group. “If you want to accelerate
his demise, you send the message that those who do not participate in the
violence might not be prosecuted for their association with the regime.”
American officials are also discussing a no-flight zone over Libya to prevent
Colonel Qaddafi from using military aircraft against demonstrators. But such a
move would have to be coordinated with NATO, and would require a Security
Council resolution, diplomats said. Arab governments might object on sovereignty
grounds.
Administration officials have avoided public discussion of additional military
options. When asked whether the United States was considering using its military
assets in the region — including a marine amphibious ship in the Red Sea — to
support the rebellion in Libya, Mr. Carney said, “We are not taking any options
off the table in the future.” But administration officials said there were no
immediate plans to intervene militarily.
The administration’s measures appeared to satisfy human-rights groups. Analysts
said they wanted more details about the sanctions, but they were encouraged by
signs that the United States would support the effort to have Colonel Qaddafi
referred to the International Criminal Court on war-crimes charges, as well as
by a special NATO meeting.
“Even if people aren’t explicitly talking about no-fly zones, the fact that NATO
met today suggests there is more on people’s minds than diplomacy,” said Tom
Malinowski, the director of the Washington office of Human Rights Watch. “I
sense military contingencies are on the table.”
One complication that could speed up consideration of any military action would
be evidence that Colonel Qaddafi was prepared to use his remaining stockpile of
mustard gas.
The American sanctions will also include travel bans against Colonel Qaddafi and
senior members of his government, and the freezing of assets, including a move
to freeze all American-controlled portions of Libya’s sovereign wealth fund,
administration officials said. Sanctions, once they go into effect, could have
an impact on oil-rich Libya. According to an American diplomatic cable obtained
by WikiLeaks, a senior Libyan official told American diplomats in January 2010
that the Libyan Investment Authority, which manages the country’s oil revenue,
had $32 billion in cash, and that several American banks managed up to $500
million in each of those funds. Administration officials said they planned to go
after that money as part of the punitive sanctions.
“The government of Libya has claimed that it holds as much as $130 billion in
reserves and its sovereign wealth fund reportedly holds more than $70 billion in
foreign assets,” an Obama administration official said. The official said that
“while we are aware of certain assets owned by the Libyan government in the
U.S., there are likely additional funds that we are not aware of.”
Analysts said that going after the assets of Colonel Qaddafi’s aides would
probably be more effective than going after those held by the leader himself,
given that he is engaged in an all-or-nothing defense of his rule.
A more draconian approach, suggested Danielle Pletka, an expert on sanctions at
the American Enterprise Institute, would be to impose a trade embargo on Libya,
excepting only food and other humanitarian aid.
The United Nations Security Council will discuss a proposal backed by France and
Britain for multilateral sanctions, including an arms embargo and financial
sanctions. But no definitive move was expected until next week. Italy, which is
not in the Security Council and has deep investments in Libya, said Friday that
it also backed sanctions.
Steven Erlanger contributed reporting from Paris, Rachel Donadio
from Valletta, Malta, and Nick Cumming-Bruce from Geneva.
February 25, 2011
The New York Times
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and KAREEM FAHIM
TRIPOLI, Libya — Mercenaries and army forces put down an
attempt by protesters on Friday to break Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s hold on this
capital city, opening fire on crowds who had taken to the streets after prayers
to mount their first major challenge to the government’s crackdown, witnesses
said.
The bloodshed heightened a standoff that has pitted Colonel Qaddafi — who vowed
Friday to turn Libya into “a hell” as he hunkered down in his stronghold —
against a spreading rebel force and increasingly alarmed international
community, which condemned the violence and promised sanctions in coming days.
A rebel officer who is coordinating an attack on Tripoli, Col. Tarek Saad
Hussein, asserted in an interview that an armed volunteer force of about 2,000
men — including army defectors — was to arrive in Tripoli on Friday night. There
was no way to confirm his claim.
He was especially angered at the reports of security forces’ firing on
protesters after prayers. “They did not have weapons,” he said, speaking at an
abandoned army base in the eastern city of Benghazi, which is firmly under rebel
control. “They shot people outside the mosque.”
Indeed, accounts of the bloodshed on Friday indicated that Colonel Qaddafi’s
forces had deployed the same determined brutality as they had earlier in the
week defending their leader, who has ruled for more than 40 years.
“They shoot people from the ambulances,” said one terrified resident, Omar, by
telephone as he recalled an episode during the protests on Friday when one
protester was wounded. “We thought they’d take him to the hospital,” he said,
but the militiamen “shot him dead and left with a squeal.”
Reports said several people were killed, but a precise toll might be impossible.
Omar said that friends who were doctors at a hospital in Tripoli saw bodies
being removed from the morgue to conceal the death toll. Local residents told
him that the bodies were being taken to beaches and burned. There was no way to
confirm the account, and Omar did not want his full named used for fear of his
life.
“We have no freedom here,” he said. “We want our freedom, too.”
Heba Morayef, a researcher with Human Rights Watch trying to confirm the number
of fatalities, said she had heard widespread reports of security forces inside
hospitals. Top officials of the biggest Tripoli hospitals were said to be loyal
to Colonel Qaddafi and understating the casualties, she said.
The Tripoli airport has become a refugee camp packed with thousands of people
trying to flee. The floors inside are a carpet of flesh and blankets, including
families with children. Outside, a thick wall of thousands of refugees was
waiting to get in, and at least two guards were beating them back — one with a
billy club and the other a whip.
The city had been cleansed Thursday night for a visit by a number of foreign
journalists the Qaddafi government has invited. Billboards with pictures of
Colonel Qaddafi that were burned and defaced last week have all been restored,
witnesses said. “It is a stage set they built overnight,” one resident said.
Witnesses in Tripoli said that the streets were lined with extra police officers
in riot gear before Friday Prayer services, and militia members patrolled the
area near Bab al-Aziziya, Colonel Qaddafi’s military base.
A resident who spoke with friends in several neighborhoods said the police
opened fire on worshipers after the prayers, killing at least five people in
Siyahiya, in western Tripoli, and several other people in Zawiat al-Dahmani, in
the city’s center.
There were also reports of gunfire in Fashloom and the Souq al-Jumaa area. Those
reports could not be immediately confirmed.
It was no longer possible to reach Tripoli’s central Green Square, the scene of
many of the demonstrations — and much of the slaughter. The area was surrounded
by checkpoints and barricades patrolled by members of the armed forces, Omar and
other witnesses said.
Indeed, earlier Friday, Libyan state television showed Colonel Qaddafi speaking
from a parapet overlooking Green Square and addressing a crowd of supporters.
There was no sign of resistance, only the sight of thousands of young loyalists.
There was no way to know if the broadcast was live or pre-recorded.
“This is the formidable, invincible force of youth,” Colonel Qaddafi said. “Life
without dignity is useless.” He blew kisses to the crowd and urged them to fight
to the death. “Every individual will be armed,” he said. “Libya will become a
hell.”
Libyan state television also announced that the government would give $400 to
every family and raise the salaries of state employees by as much as 150
percent, in what appeared to be an attempt to buy support.
But the gesture was too late to stop more painful defections. Libya’s ambassador
to the United Nations, Abdurrahman Shalgham, a longtime friend of Colonel
Qaddafi, denounced him Friday in New York, comparing him with Pol Pot and
Hitler.
Libya’s entire Arab League mission resigned for the same reasons on Friday, as
did the country’s mission in Geneva.
Ahmed Gadhaf al-Dam, one of Colonel Gaddafi’s top security official and a
cousin, left Wednesday evening, it was revealed, for Egypt, where he denounced
Colonel Qaddafi’s “grave violations to human rights.”
The protesters in Tripoli appeared emboldened by promises of help from rebels
outside the capital and the surprisingly strong showing of protesters in cities
close to the capital on Thursday against Colonel Qaddafi’s forces, which brought
the rebellion to the capital’s doorstep.
A potentially large force of armed fighters sympathetic to the protesters was
now converging on Tripoli, according to military officials and soldiers who had
defected to the rebels.
Colonel Hussein said the force consisted of active duty, retired soldiers and
army reservists who had joined the rebel side. It was sent to the capital in
small groups, he said, adding that they carried a mixture of light arms and
heavier weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades.
He did not offer more details about the size of the groups, or their route. The
road to Tripoli from the country’s eastern cities is blocked to the rebels by
the city of Surt, Colonel Qaddafi’s hometown.
Colonel Hussein said he was negotiating with tribal leaders and military
officers in Surt to abandon the government, or at least not stand in the way of
the rebels. “We’re appealing to the people of Surt to help us stop the
bloodshed,” he said.
Army soldiers stationed at a barracks near Benghazi said on Friday that 200 to
250 of their colleagues had left the barracks in recent days, headed to Tripoli
to fight Colonel Qaddafi’s forces.
A group of 60 or so officers stood outside another barracks in Benghazi on
Friday, saying they were volunteering to go fight in Tripoli. Colonel Hussein
said they were joining the battle because protesters were being killed. “In cold
blood,” said Colonel Hussein.
Asked what would happen if Colonel Qaddafi was deposed or killed, Colonel
Hussein said Libyans wanted a democracy.
“It was our duty to enter the fight,” he added. “The regime started this. They
are the ones who brought the revolution.”
David D. Kirkpatrick reported from Tripoli, and Kareem Fahim from
Benghazi, Libya. . Sharon Otterman and Mona El-Naggar contributed reporting from
Cairo, and Gaia Pianigiani from Rome.
February 25, 2011
The New York Times
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN and NADIM AUDI
MANAMA, Bahrain — In by far the largest protest yet here, tens
of thousands of demonstrators packed the city’s streets on Friday and closed a
stretch of highway as they demanded that their king dissolve the government and
agree to a transition to a true constitutional monarchy.
The protest — which appeared to be twice as large as one on Tuesday that drew
about 100,000 people — cut through Manama, the capital, with staggering numbers
for a population of just 500,000. They marched in two huge, roaring crowds from
the south and from the west, converging at Pearl Square.
“This is another great day for our movement,” said Abbas al-Mawali, 30, a
security guard who joined the march. “We won’t stop until our demands are met.
We will have a march like this every day if we have to.”
But after 11 days of protests, King Hamad ibn Isa al-Khalifa has slowly moved to
meet protesters’ demands, taking incremental steps. Late Friday, he fired three
cabinet ministers, but not the prime minister — one of the opposition’s top
demands. He also has not addressed the issue of democratic change.
His emphasis appears to have been on defusing the protests and repairing the
damage to Bahrain’s international reputation after the army fired on protesters
last week, as well as on limiting concessions to ones that do not affect the
government’s power.
“The government released prisoners and said it will investigate what happened;
it will make some small changes in the government,” said a rights worker who is
not being identified to protect him from potential reprisals by the government.
“The whole region is changing. Now is our chance. I am saying, If we don’t do
this now, we never will.”
The protesters, meanwhile, have not articulated a strategy for bringing about
change, beyond new protests and camping out in the square.
The unrest has been led by members of the nation’s Shiite majority, who have
long been politically marginalized and who have accused the Sunni king and his
government of discrimination.
In a shift on Friday, it was the Shiite religious leaders who called for
protests, rather than the political opposition. Although some of the chants on
Friday had a religious cast — with some people shouting “victory comes from God”
— the protesters’ demands remained the same, emphasizing a nonsectarian call for
democracy and the downfall of the government.
Since the start of the crisis, the government’s response has evolved. First the
king unleashed his armed forces, who killed seven protesters and wounded dozens.
Then, under international pressure, he withdrew the police and military from the
capital, called for a national dialogue, released 300 political prisoners and
pointed to the protests as evidence of his government’s tolerance.
His government is also working with a public relations agency based in Britain,
the Bell Pottinger Group, which says on its Web site that “we understand how to
create, build and protect reputations in the modern age.”
On Friday, Bell Pottinger staff members distributed a statement from the
government’s spokeswoman, Maysoon Sabkar, saying in part, “The Crown Prince has
called on all parts of society to engage in the national dialogue to progress
reform.”
On Thursday, Ms. Sabkar read a statement referring to the killings by government
forces as “regrettable incidents” and announced that the king’s son, the crown
prince, had called for Friday to be a national day of mourning, and that the
king “extended condolences to the families” of the dead.
Ms. Sabkar also said there were no shots fired from a helicopter or from a
building last Friday. But she said she was not authorized to say who ordered the
army to fire at all or where the shots came from that killed one man and wounded
dozens of others. Witnesses said they had seen shots fired from a helicopter and
a nearby building.
The statement also said that large crowds at the hospital prevented emergency
workers from doing their jobs. But witnesses said they had seen soldiers fire
weapons at ambulances as they tried to pick up the wounded, and doctors in the
ambulances said the security forces had prevented them from picking up wounded
people.
The government’s message inflamed some people in the square.
“These were not ‘incidents,’ ” Said Shamlouh, 37, an accountant, said, referring
to last week’s protests, including one in which security forces shot at
protesters sleeping in Pearl Square. “This was a massacre. It was people
sleeping, families, children. And they opened fire on them. That’s not an
incident.”
February 25, 2011
The New York Times
By LIAM STACK
CAIRO — Tens of thousands of protesters returned Friday to
Tahrir Square, the site of demonstrations that led to the ouster of President
Hosni Mubarak two weeks ago, to keep up the pressure on Egypt’s military-led
transitional government.
But by early Saturday, the military made it clear there would be limits to
further dissent as soldiers and plainclothes security officers moved into the
square, beating protesters and tearing down their tents, witnesses said.
In a day that had begun with equal parts carnival and anti-government
demonstration, protesters’ called for the quick cancellation of the Emergency
Law, which for three decades has allowed detentions without trial, and the
resignation of Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force general appointed
by Mr. Mubarak days before he stepped down.
But after night fell, the protest transformed into a tense standoff between
protesters and the military, whose neutrality during the uprising, and
unwillingness to fire on the protesters, had turned them into popular heroes.
The first sign of tension arose when hundreds of people rallied in the
intersection in front of the prime minister’s office, barred from taking their
protest any closer to the ornate building by armored personnel carriers and a
line of soldiers armed with Tasers.
The crowd returned to a chant heard often in the days before Mr. Mubarak fell,
replacing his name with the prime minister’s: “The people want the overthrow of
Ahmed Shafiq!”
Military police surrounded the protesters and kept them from leaving until late
at night, witnesses said, while in Tahrir about a thousand people began to pitch
tents and settle in for the night.
After midnight, soldiers and police officers took over the square.
Salma Said was asleep in a tent when it began to fall down on top of her.
Outside people were screaming, and she emerged to see people being beaten by
soldiers and armed plainclothes security officers wearing masks.
“They had their faces covered like criminals,” she said, “They only showed their
eyes.”
“One of the officers threatened to shoot us and said he was going to set our
tent on fire,” she said.
During the day Friday, the atmosphere could not have been more different. Many
protesters had brought their families and were resting on blankets spread out in
a grassy traffic island. A man sold chopped liver grilled on a portable stove,
vendors offered cheese sandwiches and cups of sweet tea and others sold
revolution souvenirs like t-shirts and headbands.
Solidarity with the antigovernment protesters in Libya was also a major theme.
Crowds circled the square carrying two massive flags more than 25 feet long, one
Egyptian and one of the Libyan monarchy overthrown by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in
1969. Throughout the day protesters chanted “Long live free Libya.”
Protesters called on the military-led transitional government to fulfill demands
made during the 18-day protest in Tahrir Square, including the release of
political prisoners, the removal of all ministers appointed by Mr. Mubarak and
the prosecution of the former president and high ranking members of his party
for corruption and abuse of power.
The military has shown little interest in firing Mr. Shafiq, but many Egyptians
see him as a proxy for the former president, who has been keeping a low profile
in the resort town of Sharm el Sheik since his ouster on Feb. 11.
“We overthrew the President and now we want to get rid of the rest of this
corrupt government,” said Ashraf Abdel Aziz, a businessman accompanied by two
daughters, ages five and two, who wore tight pigtails and whose faces were
painted in the colors of Egypt’s flag. He described the girls, who came to daily
protests with him for 18 days earlier this month, as “revolutionaries.”
The spirit of the revolution, which had included people from all segments of
Egyptian society, was still evident in the mix of secular leftists, members of
the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, and women wearing full Islamic veils with
children in their arms.
Ismael Abdul Latif, 27, a secular writer, chatted with the religious women, only
their eyes showing, as they drew revolutionary posters.
“I never dreamed in my wildest dreams that we would be talking to a munaqaba”—
as women in full veils are called — “in Tahrir Square,” he said. “A secular
artist is having a political debate with a fully veiled lady and having a
meaningful conversation. What’s the world coming to?”
But after midnight that answer was less clear.
Ms. Said, after fleeing her tent, ran with a group of other protesters to a
nearby plaza, where they began to plot their next move. “In the morning,” she
said, “we are going back to Tahrir.”
February 25, 2011
The New York Times
By RACHEL DONADIO
VALLETTA, Malta — After a two-day wait in the Tripoli harbor
followed by a rough eight-hour crossing, more than 300 evacuees from Libya
landed here on Friday night on a high-speed ferry chartered by the United States
government.
As they wheeled their dusty suitcases into a ferry terminal in this storied
Mediterranean port, tired passengers recounted days of fear as scattered
demonstrations turned into chaotic violence, and exhaled with relief at being on
dry land.
“It feels great to be here,” said Keith Diebold, a petroleum engineer from
Missouri, looking ebullient as he and his fellow passengers emerged from the
terminal and into the eye of dozens of waiting television cameras.
The United States hired the ferry Maria Dolores after commercial flights from
Tripoli could not keep up with demand. The Tripoli airport was overwhelmed, with
as many as 10,000 people waiting to leave the country, according to the Turkish
Foreign Ministry.
But the catamaran ferry remained docked in the Tripoli harbor for two days until
rough waters and winds subsided enough for it to depart.
“It was a terrible crossing with very big waves,” said Tammi Shreve, from
Florida, who teaches at the American School in Tripoli. But she said that the
passengers had rallied and stuck together, and that the United States Embassy
had taken good care of them.
“It wasn’t scary, it’s just that a lot of people were sick,” she said.
Like many passengers, Ms. Shreve said she would return to Libya as soon as she
could. She said she was distraught that the turmoil had scattered her students
and colleagues. “I was crying when we left Tripoli,” she said.
The ferry carried 338 passengers, including 183 Americans, the State Department
spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, said at a briefing in Washington. About 40 of the
Americans were government officials, he said. The officials included staff
members from the American Embassy in Tripoli, which was formally shut down on
Friday.
The other passengers included British, Australian, Canadian and South African
citizens.
Mr. Crowley said a charter plane had also left Tripoli on Friday carrying the
remaining American diplomatic personnel, as well as other American citizens and
people from other countries.
Around Libya, frantic operations to evacuate foreigners from the widening chaos
continued Friday, and European officials were already looking toward the next
challenge: coping with what could be a huge influx of refugees from across the
Mediterranean.
Tens of thousands of foreigners have fled Libya this week. Jemini Pandya, a
spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration, an
intergovernmental group, said at least 30,000 people, mainly Tunisian and
Egyptian migrant workers, fled Libya from Monday to Wednesday.
Drawn by jobs in Libya’s booming construction industry and rich oil fields, as
many as 1.5 million migrants were working in Libya when the violence began, the
organization said.
Sam Dewhirst, a Briton who managed to get a seat on a flight to Malta chartered
by the British government, described the situation at the Tripoli airport as
“hellish” and his government’s response as underwhelming.
Mr. Dewhirst, from Leeds, had been teaching English in Libya.
While he and other Britons had been able to “jump the queue,” he said, scores of
North Africans were still waiting to leave or had abandoned their suitcases on
the tarmac in a mad scramble to get on flights. “It was heartbreaking,” he said.
Many of those arriving in Malta said that they had not witnessed the violence
firsthand, but that they had heard the gunshots with a growing sense of dread.
Andy Law, from Manchester, England, came off the ferry with two black suitcases
and one black eye, which he said he had received in a confrontation. He said
there had been “a few tense moments, a few gunshots,” on his way out of Libya.
He declined to explain the black eye any further other than to say, “I kind of
bumped into something.”
A construction engineer, Mr. Law had been holed up in his apartment about 10
miles outside Tripoli. “At first I thought it was just a demonstration,” he
said. “I didn’t think the gunfire would be so heavy.” But he said he was stunned
“by how quickly everything changed.”
Ernie Diller, a history teacher at the American School in Tripoli, did not mince
words describing the mood in Libya when he left. “Kind of like, you’d like to
get out of the country,” he said. But he said he had not feared for his life and
said he hoped to return to Libya as soon as he could.
“I hope my daughter doesn’t hear that,” he added.
Rachel Donadio reported from Valletta and J. David Goodman from
New York. Reporting was contributed by Helene Cooper from Washington, Sebnem
Arsu from Istanbul, Judy Dempsey from Berlin, Niki Kitsantonis from Athens, and
Gaia Pianigiani from Rome.
American Ferry Departs Tripoli Amid Exodus From Libya
February 25, 2011
The New York Times
By RACHEL DONADIO and J. DAVID GOODMAN
VALLETTA, Malta — An evacuation ferry chartered by the United
States two days ago but stranded in Libya because of high seas left Tripoli on
Friday with more than 300 Americans and foreign citizens on board, the State
Department said.
The ferry departed from Tripoli just after 6:30 a.m. Eastern time on Friday,
early afternoon local time, and was expected to reach Valletta within eight
hours.
Philip J. Crowley, a State Department spokesman, said at least 167 Americans
were on board the ship. The State Department has said 40 members of the United
States Embassy as well as family members were among the passengers.
It was not immediately clear if all the Embassy staff had been evacuated or just
nonessential personnel.
The stalled evacuation had led the Obama administration to temper its
condemnations of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s government, with officials worrying
that the Libyan government could take American diplomats hostage.
The State Department said roughly 6,000 American citizens, most of them holding
dual citizenship, were in Libya when the uprising against Colonel Qaddafi began.
Mr. Crowley has said that he believed that those holding dual citizenship would
need Libyan government permission to depart.
In addition to the ferry evacuation, the United States Embassy said on its Web
site that it was chartering a flight from Tripoli for Friday; an earlier effort
to fly Americans out of Libya had been frustrated on Wednesday when a plane
chartered by the United States was denied permission to land.
The State Department Thursday said 285 people were on the ferry, but on Friday
it said the number jumped above 300 and that more people had been let on before
departure.
Around Libya, frantic operations to evacuate foreigners from the widening chaos
continued Friday, and European officials were already looking toward the next
challenge: coping with what could be a huge influx of refugees from across the
Mediterranean.
More than 10,000 people crowded into Tripoli’s main airport on Thursday, the
Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
The scramble by foreigners to leave the country began several days ago, but the
number of commercial flights could not keep up with demand. Many countries have
been mobilizing military and chartered ships and planes.
After landing in Malta on a flight chartered by the British government, Sam
Dewhirst from Leeds who had been teaching English in Libya, described the
situation in the Tripoli airport as “hellish.”
While he and other Britons had been able to “jump the queue,” he said, scores of
North Africans were still waiting to leave or had abandoned their suitcases on
the tarmac in a mad scramble to get on flights. “It was heartbreaking,” he said.
As a sign of the makeshift nature of the operation, Mr. Dewhirst held up what he
had been given as a boarding card: An invitation to a reception at the British
ambassador’s residence in Tripoli. “That is not an invitation I’ll be taking any
time soon,” he said dryly.
Jemini Pandya, a spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration,
an intergovernmental group, said at least 30,000 people, mainly Tunisian and
Egyptian migrant workers, fled violence in Libya from Monday to Wednesday.
Drawn by jobs in Libya’s booming construction industry and rich oil fields, as
many as 1.5 million migrants were working in Libya when the violence began,
according to Ms. Pandya’s group.
With such a vast population potentially displaced, officials of European
countries likely to be the primary destinations were already looking for help.
As the European Union convened a two-day meeting in Brussels on the crisis,
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni of Italy said his country “cannot be left” to
handle a possible Libyan exodus. But northern European countries, including
Britain, urged a far more cautious approach, saying more precise estimates of
the number of possible refugees from North Africa were required.
The organization was particularly concerned that large numbers of migrant
workers from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia would be unable to leave Libya
for either Tunisia or Egypt.
France, Spain, Greece, Malta and Cyprus have joined Italy in asking for a
special European Union solidarity fund to help them bear the brunt of the wave,
and for assurances that other countries would join in accommodating refugees.
Human rights organizations urged the European Union not to neglect humanitarian
concerns.
Tom Porteous, director of the British office of Human Rights Watch, said the
Europeans, in focusing on evacuating their citizens, seemed indifferent to the
fate of those foreign workers who could not return home so easily or who feared
for their lives.
Rachel Donadio reported from Valletta and J. David Goodman from
New York. Reporting was contributed by Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul, Judy Dempsey
from Berlin, Niki Kitsantonis from Athens, and Gaia Pianigiani from Rome.
BENGHAZI, Libya | Fri Feb 25, 2011
10:30am EST
Reuters
By Tom Pfeiffer and Mohammed Abbas
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Government forces shot dead two
protesters in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Friday, Al Jazeera television
reported, as a popular uprising against Muammar Gaddafi closed in on his main
power base.
Pro-Gaddafi forces opened fire after hundreds of people in the Janzour district
in western Tripoli started a protest march after Friday prayers, a resident, who
asked not to be identified, told Reuters in an email.
He said protesters were also shouting anti-Gaddafi slogans in Fashloum in the
city's east, and another resident said security forces had fired into the air
there.
Al Jazeera said two people had been killed and several wounded in heavy shooting
in several districts.
Tripoli and the surrounding area, where Gaddafi's forces had managed to stifle
earlier protests, appear to be his last main stronghold as the revolt that has
put the east under rebel control has also reportedly advanced through the west.
Zawiyah, an oil refining town on the main coastal highway 50 km (30 miles) west
of Tripoli, has on successive nights fought off attempts by government forces to
take control, said witnesses who fled across the Tunisian border at Ras Jdir.
"There are corpses everywhere ... It's a war in the true sense of the word,"
said Akila Jmaa, who crossed into Tunisia on Friday after traveling from the
town.
Saeed Mustafa, who also drove through the town, said:
"There are army and police checkpoints around Zawiyah but there is no presence
inside."
REBEL CONTROL
Army and police in the eastern city of Adjabiya told Al Jazeera television they
had gone over to the opposition.
Other reports say the third city, Misrata, 200 km east of Tripoli, is also under
rebel control. Such reports are hard to verify, with foreign correspondents
unable to travel around western Libya, and telephone and broadband connections
poor.
But Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam said the government was in control of the west,
south and center, and that his family had no intention of leaving.
"We have plans A, B and C. Plan A is to live and die in Libya. Plan B is to live
and die in Libya. Plan C is to live and die in Libya," he told Turkey's CNN Turk
television.
People in Benghazi, under rebel control, said friends in Tripoli had told them
protesters had demonstrated at mosques throughout Tripoli and planned to
converge on Green Square.
"At around 14:10 pm (7:10 a.m. EST), hundreds of protesters at the Slatnah
Mosque in the Shargia district of Janzour were chanting anti-Gaddafi slogans,
such as 'With our souls, with our blood we protect Benghazi!'," the Tripoli
resident said.
Hadar, a businessman who declined to give his full name, told Reuters by
telephone: "I saw two men fall down and someone told me they were shot in the
head."
Ali, another businessman who declined to give his full name, told Reuters by
phone that he was standing with a crowd near a mosque on a road leading to Green
Square.
"They just started shooting people. People are being killed by snipers but I
don't know how many are dead," he said.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said "thousands" may have
been killed or injured by Gaddafi's forces in the uprising, and called for
international intervention to protect civilians.
OIL FACILITIES
The rebels who have seized Libya's east said they controlled almost all oil
facilities east of the Ras Lanuf terminal. A Reuters reporter saw that the other
main terminal, Marsa el Brega, was in rebel control, with soldiers securing the
port.
Industry sources said oil shipments were near standstill.
Prosecutor-general Abdul-Rahman al-Abbar became the latest senior official to
resign, and told al Arabiya television he was joining the opposition.
In the first practical attempt to enroll the support of Libya's 6 million
citizens since the uprising began, state television announced the government was
raising wages and food subsidies and ordering special allowances for all
families.
Gaddafi's four decades of totalitarian rule have stifled any organized
opposition or rival political structures, but in the east, ad hoc committees of
lawyers, doctors, tribal elders and soldiers appeared to be filling the vacuum
left by Gaddafi's government with some success.
There was little sign of the radical Islamists whom Gaddafi has accused of
fomenting the unrest.
The turmoil, inspired by successful revolutions in neighboring Tunisia and
Egypt, has caused particular global concern because Libya supplies 2 percent of
the world's oil, the bulk of it from wells and supply terminals in the east.
Abdessalam Najib, a petroleum engineer at the Libyan company Agico and a member
of the Feb 17. coalition that says it is running Benghazi on an interim basis,
said the rebels controlled nearly all oilfields east of Ras Lanuf.
But industry sources told Reuters that crude oil shipments from Libya, the
world's 12th-largest exporter, had all but stopped because of reduced
production, a lack of staff at ports and security concerns.
Benchmark Brent oil futures were steady at around $111 on Friday, after a Saudi
assurance that it would replace any shortfall in Libyan output brought prices
back from Thursday's peak of nearly $120.
INTERNATIONAL STEPS
U.S. President Barack Obama consulted the French, British and Italian leaders on
Thursday to discuss coordinated steps.
The U.N. Security Council was to meet on Friday to discuss a French-British
proposal for sanctions against Libyan leaders, although a vote is not likely
until next week.
French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said the draft would ask for an
arms embargo, financial sanctions and a request to the International Criminal
Court to indict Libyan leaders.
A German diplomatic source said the European Union was likely to agree its own
sanctions early next week.
Switzerland said it was freezing any assets owned by the Gaddafi family.
But NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said NATO members had not yet
discussed trying to impose a no-fly zone to protect rebel-held areas from air
attacks.
Foreign governments mostly focused on evacuating thousands of their citizens
trapped by the unrest.
Chinese official media said Beijing had so far evacuated 12,000, or about one
third, of its citizens from Libya. A U.S.-chartered ferry that had been trapped
in Tripoli for two days by bad weather finally set off for Malta.
Britain said it was sending a naval destroyer and drawing up plans to pull out
British oil workers stranded in desert camps.
Gaddafi appealed for calm on Thursday in a telephone call to state television,
blaming the revolt on al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
State television said on Friday that each family would get 500 Libyan dinars
($400) to help cover higher food costs, and wages for some public sector workers
would rise by 150 percent.
Gaddafi's grip on power could depend in part on the performance around Tripoli
of an elite military unit led by one of his younger sons, U.S. and European
officials and secret diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks showed.
The 32nd Brigade, led by Gaddafi's son Khamees, is one of three last-ditch
"regime protection units" totaling 10,000 men. They are better equipped and more
loyal than the rest of the military, which has seen heavy desertion, officials
said.
A witness told Reuters the unit had attacked anti-government militias
controlling Misrata, although residents said the forces were beaten back by
lightly armed local people.
(Additional reporting by Alexander Dziadosz, Ali Abdelatti in
Cairo, Amena Bakr in Riyadh, Michael Georgy on the Tunisian border, Stephanie
Nebehay and Robert Evans in Geneva; Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Andrew
Roche)
February 25, 2011
The New York Times
By KAREEM FAHIM and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
BENGHAZI, Libya — Clashes erupted in the capital, Tripoli, as
security forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi used gunfire in an attempt to
disperse thousands of protesters who streamed out of mosques after Friday
prayers to mount their first major challenge to the government’s crackdown.
The protesters refused to back down, witnesses told news services and the
opposition reported on websites, and clashes continued in parts of the city. The
renewed violence came even as the government prepared to open Tripoli for the
first time to foreign journalists to demonstrate what Colonel Qaddafi and his
sons had described as a return normal life there. Some witnesses, in telephone
interviews with news services, said that several people had been wounded and
killed.
The continuing crackdown came as international efforts to stem the bloodshed in
Libya appeared to gain momentum on Friday, with the United Nations Security
Council scheduled to meet to discuss a draft proposal for sanctions against
Libyan leaders.
The antigovernment demonstrators had pledged to take to the streets of the
capital on Friday despite threats of a violent crackdown by pro-government
mercenaries and security forces, as Colonel Qaddafi attempted to maintain his
grip on the city that remains one of his last strongholds in a widespread
rebellion.
Before prayers had even begun, security personnel deployed around mosques to
prevent demonstrations, witnesses said. In their sermons, prayer leaders
followed a text that had been imposed by the authorities calling for a “return
to stability” and an end to “sedition” and “acts of sabotage,” worshippers
quoted by news services said.
“The situation is chaotic in parts of Tripoli now,” one resident told The
Associated Press. Armed militiamen were speeding through the streets, he said.
Residents hiding in their homes reported hearing gunfire around the city,
according to The A.P.
The protesters appeared emboldened after rebels in nearby cities repelled a
concerted assault by security forces on Thursday, as Libya’s patchwork of
protests evolved into an increasingly well-armed revolutionary movement.
The series of determined stands by rebel forces on Thursday — especially in the
strategic city of Zawiyah, near important oil resources and 30 miles from the
capital, Tripoli — presented the gravest threat yet to the Libyan leader. In
Zawiyah, more than 100 people were killed as Colonel Qaddafi’s forces turned
automatic weapons on a mosque filled with protesters, a witness said. Still,
residents rallied afterward.
Colonel Qaddafi’s evident frustration at the resistance in Zawiyah spilled out
in a rant by telephone over the state television network charging that Osama bin
Laden had drugged the town’s youth into a rebellious frenzy.
“Al Qaeda is the one who has recruited our sons,” he said in a 30-minute tirade
broadcast by the network. “It is bin Laden.”
Colonel Qaddafi said, “Those people who took your sons away from you and gave
them drugs and said ‘Let them die’ are launching a campaign over cellphones
against your sons, telling them not to obey their fathers and mothers.”
With the threat of a brutal crackdown looming, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the NATO
secretary general, said he had called an emergency meeting for Friday afternoon
in Brussels to discuss the situation in Libya. Humanitarian assistance and the
evacuation of foreign nations would be the priority, he said.
In New York, the United Nations Security Council was scheduled to meet Friday
afternoon to discuss a proposal backed by France and Britain for sanctions
against Libyan leaders, including a possible arms embargo and financial
sanctions, though no definitive action was expected until next week.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, has also said the
bloc should consider sanctions such as travel restrictions and an asset freeze
against Libya to try to halt to the violence there. Britain and Switzerland have
already announced freezes on Colonel Qaddafi’s in country assets.
The violence on Thursday underscored the contrast between the character of
Libya’s revolution and the uprising that toppled autocrats in neighboring Egypt
and Tunisia. Unlike those Facebook-enabled youth rebellions, the insurrection
has been led by people who are more mature and who have been actively opposing
the government for some time. It started with lawyers’ syndicates that have
campaigned peacefully for two years for a written constitution and some
semblance of a rule of law.
Fueled by popular anger, the help of breakaway leaders of the armed forces and
some of their troops, and weapons from looted military stockpiles or smuggled
across the border, the uprising here has escalated toward more violence in the
face of increasingly brutal government crackdowns.
At the revolt’s starting point, in the eastern city of Benghazi, Fathi Terbil,
39, the human rights lawyer whose detention first ignited the protests, drew a
map of rebel-held territory in striking distance of Tripoli. “It is only a
matter of days,” he said.
A turning point in the uprising’s evolution was arguably the defection of the
interior minister, Abdel Fattah Younes al-Abidi, an army general who had been a
close ally of Colonel Qaddafi.
The break by General Abidi, who has family roots near the revolt’s eastern
origins, encouraged other disaffected police, military and state security
personnel to change sides as well. “We are hoping to use his experience,” said
Mr. Terbil, who some called the linchpin of the revolt.
Opposition figures in rebel-held cities like Benghazi have been appearing on
cable news channels promising that opponents of Colonel Qaddafi are heading
toward Tripoli to bolster the resistance there. Their ability to carry out those
assertions remains to be seen.
In parts of the country, the revolutionaries, as they call themselves, appear to
have access to potentially large stores of weapons, including small arms and
heavy artillery, automatic weapons smuggled from the Egyptian border and
rocket-propelled grenades taken from army bases, like the Kabila in Benghazi.
Tawfik al-Shohiby, one of the rebels, said that in the early days of the revolt
one of his relatives bought $75,000 in automatic weapons from arms dealers on
the Egyptian border and distributed them to citizens’ groups in towns like
Bayda.
So far, at least in the east, many of the weapons appear to be held in storage
to defend against a future attempt by Colonel Qaddafi’s forces to retake the
territory. At a former security services building in Benghazi on Thursday, men
in fatigues prepared to transport anti-aircraft and antitank weapons to what one
said was a storage depot.
Like their counterparts in Tunisia and Egypt, the rebels in Libya have shown
tech-savvy guile in circumventing government efforts to block their
communication. To sidestep the government’s blocking of the Internet and curbing
of cellphone access, for example, some of the more active antigovernment
protesters distribute flash drives and CDs with videos of the fighting to
friends in other towns and to journalists.
Mr. Shohiby began helping lead an effort this week to shuttle foreign
journalists from the Egyptian border to towns across eastern Libya.
His network of contacts was built on the Internet: not on Facebook, but on a
popular soccer Web site. “I have friends from east to west, north to south,” he
said. “There are two guys in Sabha, one in Zawiyah, three friends in Misurata,
for example,” he said, speaking of towns that were the scenes of some of the
clashes on Thursday.
Still, Mohammed Ali Abdallah, deputy secretary general of an opposition group in
exile, The National Front for the Salvation of Libya, said the government’s
fierce crackdown made organizing the spontaneous uprising a continuing
challenge, especially in heavily guarded Tripoli.
“It is almost like hit and runs,” he said. “There are almost no ways that those
young guys can organize themselves. You can’t talk on a mobile phone, and if
five people get together in the street they get shot.”
Nonetheless, protesters in Tripoli were calling for a massive demonstration on
Friday after noon prayers, residents of the city and those fleeing the country
said. In recent days, witnesses said, Colonel Qaddafi appears to have pulled
many of his militiamen and mercenaries back toward the capital to prepare for
its defense.
But despite the encroaching insurrection, Colonel Qaddafi appeared determined on
Thursday to put on a show of strength and national unity, a stark turnabout from
his approach so far.
Since the start of the uprising, his government had shut out all foreign
journalists, cut off communications and even confiscated mobile phone chips, and
other devices that might contain pictures, at the border from people fleeing the
country. Libya had warned that reporters who entered the country illegally
risked arrest and could be deemed collaborators of Al Qaeda.
But on Thursday, Colonel Qaddafi’s son and heir apparent Seif al-Islam
el-Qaddafi announced on television that the government would allow teams of
journalists to visit Tripoli. Witnesses said preparations for the visit were
already under way.
The soldiers and mercenaries who had previously roamed the streets had largely
disappeared by the late afternoon, leaving only traffic police officers, and the
capital’s central Green Square — the scene of violent clashes earlier this week
— had been cleaned up. Two banners, in English, now adorned the square. “Al
Jazeera, BBC, don’t spread lies that reflect other’s wishful thinking,” one
read. The other: “Family members talk but never fight between each other.”
But the rebels’ unexpected strength was undeniable on Thursday as they appeared
to hold or contest several towns close to Colonel Qaddafi’s stronghold in
Tripoli in the face of a coordinated push by his mercenaries and security
forces.
In Misurata, 130 miles the east of the capital, Colonel Qaddafi’s forces struck
at rebels guarding the airport with rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells,
The Associated Press reported. But the rebels seized an anti-aircraft gun used
by the militias and turned it against them.
In Zuwarah, 75 miles west of the capital, the police and security forces had
pulled out and a “people’s committee” was controlling the city, several people
who had fled across the border reported. “The people are taking care of their
own business,” said Basem Shams, 26, a fisherman.
In Sabratha, 50 miles west of the capital, witnesses reported that the police
headquarters and offices of Colonel Qaddafi’s revolutionary committees were all
in smoldering ruins. “We are not afraid; we are watching,” said a doctor by
telephone from Sabratha. “What I am sure about, is that change is coming.”
In Zawiyah, an envoy from Colonel Qaddafi had reportedly arrived to warn rebels
on Wednesday: “Either leave or you will see a massacre,” one resident told The
A.P.
About 5 a.m. Thursday, Colonel Qaddafi’s forces fulfilled their threat.
Witnesses said a force that included about 60 foreign mercenaries assaulted a
central mosque where some of the roughly 2,000 protesters had sought refuge. One
witness said the protesters were armed mainly with rifles, sticks and knives,
but after four hours of fighting they managed to hold the square.
About 100 people were killed and 200 were wounded, this witness said. During a
telephone interview with him, a voice could be heard over a loudspeaker in the
background telling the crowd, in an area known as Martyrs Square, not to be
afraid.
“People came to send a clear message: We are not afraid of death or your
bullets,” one resident told The A.P. “This regime will regret it. History will
not forgive them.”
Meanwhile, the violence sowed concern across the region and beyond. President
Obama spoke Thursday, in separate calls, with President Nicolas Sarkozy of
France and the prime ministers of Britain and Italy, David Cameron and Silvio
Berlusconi.
The White House said the leaders expressed “deep concern” over the Libyan
government’s use of force and discussed possible responses, without specifying
what steps they were prepared to take.
Kareem Fahim reported from Benghazi, and David D. Kirkpatrick from the
Tunisian border with Libya. Reporting was contributed by Sharon Otterman, Mona
El-Naggar and Neil MacFarquhar from Cairo, and Robert F. Worth from Tunis.
February 25, 2011
The New York Times
By SHARON OTTERMAN and J. DAVID GOODMAN
CAIRO — Hundreds of thousands of protesters turned out in
cities across the Middle East on Friday to protest the unaccountability of their
leaders and express solidarity with the uprising in Libya that Col. Muammar
el-Qaddafi is trying to suppress with force.
In Iraq, demonstrations for better government services spiraled out of control
in many places. Protesters burned buildings and security forces fired on crowds
in Baghdad, Mosul, Ramadi and in Salahuddin Province, north of the capital,
killing at least four people.
Large-scale demonstrations in Yemen appeared to proceed more peacefully, even
festively. More than 100,000 people poured into the streets on Friday, after
Yemen’s embattled president pledged on Wednesday not to crack down on
protesters.
In Egypt, tens of thousands of people returned to Tahrir Square in central Cairo
to celebrate one full month since the start of the popular revolution that
toppled President Hosni Mubarak.
In Bahrain, pro-democracy demonstrations on a scale that appeared to dwarf the
largest ever seen in the tiny Persian Gulf nation blocked miles of downtown
roads and highways in Manama, the capital, on Friday. The crowds overflowed from
Pearl Square in the center of the city for the second time in a week.
In a shift from Tuesday, when antigovernment protesters brought more than
100,000 people to Pearl Square, on Friday it was the country’s Shiite religious
leaders who called for people to take to the streets. That development could
change the dynamic in Bahrain, where Shiites are the majority but the rulers
belong to the Sunni minority.
“We are winners, and victory comes from God,” protesters chanted in Manama.
A small number of black flags — a Shiite mourning symbol — could be seen for the
first time in the vast sea of red and white, the colors of Bahrain. Crowds
stretched two miles to the Bahrain Mall, east of Pearl Square, and about another
two miles southwest of the square to the Salmaniya Medical Complex.
Throughout the unrest that has gripped the region for more than a month, protest
organizers have mounted their largest demonstrations on Fridays, when most
people are off work and the day is punctuated by an important Muslim prayer
service at noon.
The violence in Iraq came after demonstrators responded to a call for a “day of
rage,” despite attempts by the government to keep people from taking to the
streets. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki made a televised speech on Thursday
urging Iraqis not to gather, and security officials in Baghdad banned all cars
from the streets until further notice.
.
As protesters took to the streets around the region, many kept their eyes on
Libya, where the government has been waging a brutal crackdown against
protesters, whose efforts over the past week have developed into a full-scale
rebellion. Much of the east of the country is now in the hands of antigovernment
rebels and clashes continue in the west. In Tripoli, which is under the control
of mercenaries and militias as Colonel Qaddafi’s attempts to preserve the
capital, protesters pledged to brave threats of violence to take to the streets.
Opposition leaders had also pledged to march to Tripoli from other cities,
though the roads were reported to be thick with checkpoints and heavily armed
forces that remain loyal to Colonel Qaddafi’s 40-year rule. But tens of
thousands did turn out in Benghazi, the eastern city where the Libyan rebellion
started over a week ago, and which is now in control of the opposition.
In Yemen, where protesters have faced sporadic violence from security forces and
government supporters, roughly 100,000 people massed in the southern city of
Taiz for demonstrations dubbed “Martyrs’ Friday,” in honor of two protesters who
died in a grenade attack last week.
While weeks protests in the capital, Sana, have been tense, with repeated
clashes between pro and antigovernment forces, the demonstration in Taiz, the
intellectual hub of the country, took on a hopeful, exhilarated feel. Along with
the youth who organized the protests on Facebook, older residents of the
countryside flowed into the area of the town that protesters have dubbed Freedom
Square.
"There are no parties, our revolution is a youth revolution,” read one banner.
In emulation of Egypt’s Tahrir Square, the center of the protest zone in Taiz
was filled with some 100 tents, where people had spent the night for more than a
week, and there were national flags and large signs.
A cleric delivered a morning speech, reminding the people that the revolution
was not against a single person but against oppression itself. And as noon
prayers ended, the people broke out into the roaring chant that has now become
familiar around the Arab world: “The people want to topple the regime.”
At the same time in the capital, tens of thousands of people were pouring into a
square near the main gates of Sana University to call for the resignation of
President Ali Abdullah Saleh amid a tight security presence, The Associated
Press reported.
In Cairo, tens of thousands of Egyptians flooded Tahrir Square as much to renew
the spirit of Egypt’s popular revolution, which resulted in Mr. Mubarak’s
resignation on Feb. 11, as to press for new demands. The square felt like a
carnival, filled with banners in Egypt’s national colors of black, white and
red. Vendors sold cheese and bean sandwiches and popcorn, a man fried liver on a
portable grill, and others sold revolutionary souvenirs, like miniature flags,
stuffed animals, and stickers for sale.
The utopian spirit of the revolution, which had included people from all aspects
of Egyptian society, was still evident, as secular leftists, members of the
Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, and women wearing full Islamic veils with children
on their arms circulated through the crowd. Ismael Abdul Latif, 27, a writer,
chatted with the religious women, only their eyes showing, as they drew
revolutionary posters.
“I never dreamed in my wildest dreams that we would be talking to a munaqaba”—
as women in full veils are called — “in Tahrir Square,” he said. “A secular
artist is having a political debate with a fully veiled lady and having a
meaningful conversation. What’s the world coming to?”
But there were also signs of tension, as well as reminder that it was the
military that ultimately remains in charge. Several hours into the
demonstration, an army officer demanded that protesters dismantle the tents they
were erecting in the center of the square, touching off a series of angry
arguments.
There were fervent political demands as well, foremost among them, the
resignation of the cabinet that Mr. Mubarak had appointed before his downfall,
as well as the dismantling of the security apparatus, the release of prisoners
still held under Egypt’s repressive emergency laws, and the prosecution of
former leaders guilty of corruption.
George Ishaq, one of the founders of Kifaya, an early protest movement here, led
chants through speakers, saying, “Our demand today is a presidential council in
which civilians will take part. We want it to be one politician one judge, and
one representative of the armed forces.”
“We are not leaving, he’s leaving,” the crowd chanted, referring this time to
Ahmed Shafiq, the prime minister, with the slogan that had foretold Mr.
Mubarak’s fall. “Mubarak left the palace, but Shafiq still governs Egypt.”
Sharon Otterman reported from Cairo and J. David Goodman from New
York. Michael Slackman contributed reporting from Manama, Bahrain; Jack Healy,
Michael S. Schmidt and Duraid Adnan from Baghdad; and Liam Stack from Cairo.
February 25, 2011
The New York Times
By JACK HEALY and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
BAGHDAD — Demonstrations turned violent across Iraq on Friday,
as protesters burned buildings and security forces fired on the crowds.
Thousands of Iraqis demanding better government services took to the streets in
at least 10 cities, from Basra in the south to Mosul in the north, despite
attempts by the government and by top Shiite leaders to head off the protests .
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki made a televised speech on Thursday urging
Iraqis not to gather, warning that insurgents would use the opportunity to carry
out attacks. Security officials in Baghdad banned all cars from the streets
until further notice.
The constellation of rallies, modeled after the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt,
brought together a chorus of anger and frustration over government corruption,
instability and shoddy public services. Unlike protesters elsewhere in the
region, though, the crowds in Iraq did not call for an entirely new form of
government.
In Mosul, a restive, ethnically mixed city in the north, two people were killed
when local security forces fired on demonstrators who tried to storm two
government buildings.
In Baghdad, hundreds of people walked through the sprawling city to Tahrir
Square, which has been a gathering point for demonstrations over the last few
weeks, shouting and waving flags in a tumultuous call for government reform.
The protesters in Baghdad pulled down two concrete blast walls that blocked
access to a bridge leading to the Green Zone. Rock-throwing demonstrators
clashed with security forces who, in turn, beat many of the protesters and kept
them from crossing the bridge.
Demonstrations elsewhere in the country seemed to spiral out of control.
Iraqi soldiers fired on about 250 demonstrators in Ramadi in the west, killing
one person and wounding eight. Those protesters were calling for the resignation
of the provincial governor.
In Salahuddin Province north of Baghdad, Army troops fired on protesters,
wounding five people.
Protesters tallied one surprising success in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
The provincial governor appeared before a crowd of 10,000 people who were
demanding his resignation and announced that he would step down. A report on
Iraqi television said the governor resigned at the behest of Prime Minister
Maliki.
Mr. Maliki has offered a complex response to the waves of discontent at his
government. While affirming the free-speech rights of protesters, he has also
discouraging people from gathering.
In his nationally televised address on Thursday night, Mr. Maliki tried to
persuade Iraqis to call off the protests, saying that loyalists of Saddam
Hussein were behind the protests, and that insurgents would try to exploit the
protests to sow unrest.
Mr. Maliki’s appeals came a day after the populist cleric Moktada al-Sadr
returned to Iraq from Iran and cautioned against protesting, asking Iraqis to
have more patience with the government.
“They are attempting to crack down on everything you have achieved, all the
democratic gains, the free elections, the peaceful exchanges of power and
freedom,” he said. “So I call on you, from a place of compassion, to thwart the
enemy plans by not participating in the demonstrations tomorrow, because it’s
suspicious and it will give rise to the voice of those who destroyed Iraq.”
In Baghdad, a city of 6 million people, the ban on vehicular traffic seemed
likely to prevent at least some people from reaching the square where
demonstrations were planned.
“It’s definitely a shrewd move” said Zaid Al-Ali, who was a legal adviser for
the United Nations in Iraq from 2005 to 2010, dealing with constitutional and
parliamentary issues. “They don’t want there to be a large turnout, because it
coincides with the movements in the rest of the region, and they don’t want
their people to build momentum.”
Still, he said, Friday’s events would have an important bearing on Iraqi
politics over the next six months. “Either there will be a large turnout, and
the government will react by improving services or cracking down on the people,”
he said, “or the government will continue to ignore the people and public anger
will simmer.”
Protesters said the government’s restrictions had redoubled their determination.
“No one can stop me,” said Ali Muhsin, 28, an unemployed lawyer. “If you want
your freedom, you have to get it, even if it’s at the end of the world.”Mr. Ali,
the legal adviser, said that larger waves of unrest could still erupt in the
months ahead, when scorching summer temperatures and regular power outages put
the government’s faults on sharp display.
“If you look at Iraqi history, all the revolutions and public unrest have
started in the summer,” he said. “With the heat getting worse, the lack of
electricity and the fact that Iraqis know how well others are living better in
neighboring countries, they will be much more likely to take to the streets. On
top of that, they know about how successful protests have been in Tunisia,
Egypt, and maybe Libya.”
Zaid Thaker and Duraid Adnan contributed reporting from Baghdad.
Iraqi employees of The New York Times contributed reporting from Baghdad, Basra,
Mosul, Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra.
February 25, 2011
The New York Times
By JACK HEALY and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
BAGHDAD — Defying attempts by Iraq’s government to curtail a
day of nationwide protests, thousands of Iraqis took to the streets on Friday to
call for more accountability from elected leaders.
Most of the gatherings appeared to proceed peacefully, though there were
sporadic reports of violence in the Sunni Muslim areas north of Baghdad, where
Iraqi Army troops opened fire on protesters, wounding five of them. It was
unclear what provoked the shooting.
In Baghdad, where officials banned all cars from the streets “until further
notice,” hundreds of people began walking through the sprawling city, heading to
the central square that has been a gathering point for demonstrations during the
past few weeks.
The constellation of rallies, which Iraqis called a “day of rage” modeled after
the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, brought together a chorus of anger and
frustration over government corruption, instability and shoddy public services.
However, unlike other protests in the region, there were not calls for an
entirely new form of government.
In the southern oil city of Basra, protesters tallied one surprising success.
The provincial governor appeared before a crowd of 10,000 people demanding his
resignation and announced that he would step down. A report on Iraqi television
said the governor had resigned at the behest of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal
al-Maliki.
Mr. Maliki has offered a complex response to the waves of discontent at his
government, both affirming the free-speech rights of protesters while also
discouraging people from gathering.
In a nationally televised address on Thursday night, Mr. Maliki tried to
persuade Iraqis to call off the protests, saying that loyalists of Saddam
Hussein were behind the protests, and that insurgents would try to exploit them
to sow unrest.
Mr. Maliki’s appeals came a day after the populist cleric Moktada al-Sadr
returned to Iraq from Iran and cautioned against protesting, asking Iraq’s to
have more patience with the government.
“They are attempting to crack down on everything you have achieved, all the
democratic gains, the free elections, the peaceful exchanges of power and
freedom,” he said. “So I call on you, from a place of compassion, to thwart the
enemy plans by not participating in the demonstrations tomorrow, because it’s
suspicious and it will give rise to the voice of those who destroyed Iraq.”
Security officials in Baghdad announced late on Thursday night that all cars
would be banned from the normally choked streets of Iraq’s capital on Friday, in
what appeared to be an attempt to curtail the demonstrations while stopping
short of expressly prohibiting them.
The Baghdad Operations Command said the ban was a necessary security measure,
and added that people could still walk the streets.
But in this sprawling capital, with 6 million people and virtually no public
transportation network, the ban on vehicles seemed likely to prevent at least
some people from reaching the central square where demonstrations were scheduled
for Friday.
“It’s definitely a shrewd move and what happens today will have an important
bearing on Iraqi politics over the next six months,” said Zaid Al-Ali, a legal
adviser for the United Nations in Iraq from 2005 to 2010, who dealt with
constitutional and parliamentary reform issues.
He added: “Either there will be a large turnout and the government will react by
improving services or cracking down on the people. Or, the government will
continue to ignore the people and public anger will simmer until the summer when
it’s extremely hot and a greater chance of riots.”
As popular uprisings course through northern Africa and the Middle East, Iraqis
angry with government corruption and shoddy public services have rallied
sporadically in cities across the country. Large demonstrations in the north and
south have turned violent, but the protests in Baghdad have so far failed to
attract more than a few hundred people at a time.
On Friday morning, the minibuses, taxis and cars that normally jam every inch of
Baghdad’s streets had vanished, but dozens of people were walking to Tahrir
Square — the gathering spot for the demonstrations.
Protesters said the government’s restrictions had redoubled their determination
to make it to the rally.
“No one can stop me, said Ali Muhsin, 28, an unemployed lawyer. “If you want
your freedom, you have to get it, even if it’s at the end of the world.”
Mr. Ali, the former legal adviser in Iraq, said that the ban on cars seemed to
be a tactical move to short-circuit the demonstrations, rather than address the
country’s woeful lack of services and other grievances of the protesters.
“They don’t want there to be a large turnout because it coincides with the
movements in the rest of the region, and they don’t want their people to build
momentum,” he said.
No matter what happened on Friday, Mr. Ali said that larger waves of unrest
could still erupt in the months ahead, when scorching summer temperatures and
regular power outages put the government’s faults on sharp display.
”If you look at Iraqi history, all the revolutions and public unrest have
started in the summer,” he said. “With the heat getting worse, the lack of
electricity and the fact that Iraqis know how well others are living better in
neighboring countries they will be much more likely to take to the streets. On
top of that they know about how successful protests have been in Tunisia, Egypt
and maybe Libya.”
February 25, 2011
The New York Times
By SHARON OTTERMAN
CAIRO — Opposition movements across the Middle East called for
huge demonstrations on Friday to protest corruption and unaccountability in the
governments that rule them and to express solidarity with the uprising in Libya
that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi is trying to suppress with force.
In Baghdad, defying attempts by Iraq’s government to curtail a day of nationwide
protests, thousands of Iraqis took to the streets on Friday. Most of the
gatherings around the country appeared to proceed peacefully, though were
reports of sporadic violence in the Sunni Muslim areas north of Baghdad, where
Iraqi Army troops opened fire, wounding five protesters. It was unclear what
provoked the shooting.
In a nationally televised address on Thursday night, Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki had tried to convince Iraqis to call off the protests, saying that
loyalists of Saddam Hussein were behind them, and that insurgents would try to
exploit them to sow unrest. He banned vehicles from Baghdad streets as a
security precaution.
“They are attempting to crack down on everything you have achieved, all the
democratic gains, the free elections, the peaceful exchanges of power and
freedom,” he said. “So I call on you, from a place of compassion, to thwart the
enemy plans by not participating in the demonstrations tomorrow, because it’s
suspicious and it will give rise to the voice of those who destroyed Iraq.”
In Egypt, tens of thousands of people were expected to turn out in Tahrir Square
in central Cairo to mark the one-month anniversary of the start of the popular
revolution. On Feb. 11, Hosni Mubarak resigned as president , leading to the
imposition of military rule and an interim cabinet.
Calling it the “Friday of Cleansing,” the coalition of youth groups that
spearheaded the uprising said that they would call for resignation of the prime
minister and other cabinet members who remain in place from Mr. Mubarak’s
government, and underscore the need to move quickly toward a new Constitution,
the dismantling of the state’s repressive security apparatus, and true
multiparty elections.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement that was banned for decades but is
playing an active role in politics here, also pledged to hold protests in Cairo
and across the country with similar demands.
Large protests were also planned in Yemen. After an escalation in violence
between supporters and opponents of the Yemeni government in Sana, the capital,
President Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose hold on power has grown increasingly
fragile, instructed security forces on Wednesday to protect demonstrators and
thwart clashes between the two sides.
In Sana, tens of thousands of people were pouring into a square near the main
gates of Sana University to call for the resignation of the president amid a
tight security presence, The Associated Press reported.
In the morning, tens of thousands of people gathered to listen to Islamic
preaching on the subject of freedom in the city of Taiz, 130 miles south of the
capital, where antigovernment protesters and supporters of the regime clashed
last week. On Tuesday night, two protesters were shot dead by government
supporters during a sit-in in front of Sana University. At least 10 others were
injured.
In Bahrain, religious leaders have for the first time called for people to take
to the streets, which could change the dynamic. More than 100,000 demonstrators
packed central Pearl Square on Tuesday in what organizers called the largest
pro-democracy demonstration this tiny Persian Gulf nation had ever seen, as the
monarchy struggled to hold on to power.
Yet the eyes of the region were on Libya, where the government has been waging a
brutal crackdown against protesters, whose efforts over the past week have
developed into a full-scale rebellion. Much of the east of the country is now in
the hands of antigovernment rebels and clashes continue in the west. In Tripoli,
which is under the control of mercenaries and militias as Col. Qaddafi’s
attempts to preserve the capital, protesters pledged to brave threats of
violence to take to the streets.
Opposition leaders had also pledged to march to Tripoli from other cities,
though the roads were reported to be thick with checkpoints and heavily armed
forces that remain loyal to Col. Qaddafi’s 40-year rule.
Jack Healy, Michael S. Schmidt and Duraid Adnan contributed from Baghdad.
BENGHAZI, Libya | Fri Feb 25, 2011
3:02am EST
Reuters
By Alexander Dziadosz and Tom Pfeiffer
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - The United States sought to drum
up international backing for ways to stem the bloodshed in Libya as forces loyal
to Muammar Gaddafi waged fierce gun battles with opposition rebels holding
cities near the capital.
U.S. President Barack Obama consulted the French, British and Italian leaders
late on Thursday on immediate steps against Gaddafi over his bloody crackdown on
a popular uprising in which up to 2,000 people may have died, according to
French estimates.
As oil prices leapt toward $120, stoking fears the fragile global economic
recovery could be threatened, Washington, which once branded Gaddafi a "mad
dog," said it was keeping all options open, including sanctions and military
action.
However, coordinated international action against Gaddafi, who has ruled the
oil-rich desert nation of six million for 41 years, still seemed some way off,
as foreign governments focused on evacuating thousands of their citizens trapped
by the unrest.
With the Middle East still absorbing the aftershocks from the overthrow of
veteran, Western-backed leaders in Tunisia and Egypt by people power, Western
governments are also concerned not to be seen to be imposing neo-colonial
solutions on Libya.
Disparate opposition forces were already in control of major centers in the
east, including the second city Benghazi. Reports of the third city Misrata, as
well as Zuara, in the west also falling brought the tide of rebellion closer to
Gaddafi's power base -- though information from western Libya remained patchy.
Little opposition organization exists in Libya after four decades of oppression,
so the nature of the new ruling orders in eastern cities is still unclear. There
was little sign of radical Islamists among the lawyers, doctors, tribal elders
and army officers who made up committees trying to bring order.
GADDAFI DEFIANT
But Gaddafi, appealing for calm on Thursday in a telephone call to state
television, blamed the revolt on al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. He also said
the protesters were fueled by milk and Nescafe spiked with hallucinogenic drugs.
His opponents, including some in the capital Tripoli where many kept off the
streets for fear of violence, said the latest public appearance by the
68-year-old showed he was out of touch.
"Their ages are 17. They give them pills at night, they put hallucinatory pills
in their drinks, their milk, their coffee, their Nescafe," Gaddafi said of the
rebels fighting his forces.
His apparently conciliatory tone contrasted sharply with his raging defiance two
days before when he vowed on television to crush the revolt and die a "martyr"
in Libya, unlike the leaders in Egypt and Tunis ousted in past weeks by mass
uprisings.
Amid reports of Gaddafi and his sons deploying African mercenaries and their own
clansmen, a former minister who bolted Gaddafi's cabinet this week said he
believed Colonel Gaddafi would "do what Hitler did" and take his own life if
cornered.
ASSET SEIZURE
As growing numbers of Libyan officials, including cabinet ministers and
ambassadors, reportedly deserted Gaddafi, the Swiss government said it was
freezing assets of his family.
Libya's foreign ministry denied that the leader had any such funds and said it
would sue Switzerland for saying so. London's Daily Telegraph newspaper said in
an unsourced report that Britain may seize some $30 billion held in Britain.
Diplomatic differences emerged even in a push by Western states to suspend Libya
from the low-powered U.N. Human Rights Council, which met with strong resistance
from Arab and some other Islamic states, as well as from Russia and Cuba.
Obama is sending Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Geneva on Monday to push
the U.N. body to condemn Libya.
Gaddafi's grip on power could depend in part on the performance around Tripoli
of an elite military unit led by one of his younger sons, U.S. and European
officials and secret diplomatic cables obtained by Wikileaks showed.
Libya's 32nd Brigade, led by Gaddafi's son Khamees, is the most elite of three
last-ditch "regime protection units" totaling about 10,000 men in all, which are
better equipped and more loyal to Gaddafi than the rest of the military, which
has seen heavy desertion, officials said.
A witness told Reuters the unit had attacked anti-government militias
controlling the town of Misrata, 200 km (120 miles) east of Tripoli, killing
several people, although residents said the government forces were beaten back
by lightly armed local people.
OIL PRESSURE
After decades of shunning Gaddafi, accusing him of supporting anti-Western
militant groups around the world, the Western powers had in recent years
embraced the flamboyant leader with a penchant for flowing robes and female
bodyguards.
Gaddafi was particularly reviled after the 1988 Pan Am airliner bombing over
Lockerbie, Scotland. A defecting minister said this week that he had evidence
Gaddafi did order the attack, in which 270 people were killed.
His ending of some weapons programs and cutting of overt ties with international
militants, especially following the U.S. overthrow of Iraq's Saddam Huseein in
2003, led to cooperation with Western companies on developing oilfields.
U.S. officials said specific steps against Libya could include seeking stronger
U.N. Security Council action, enforcing a no-fly zone to prevent further
government attacks, suspending Libya's export licenses and sending humanitarian
relief.
Oil prices have surged to 2- year highs on fears the unrest could spread to
other oil-producing countries and choke supplies. That may jeopardize a global
economic recovery.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch said crude production in Libya, which supplies
nearly 2 percent of world oil output, was expected to shut down completely and
could be lost for a prolonged period of time. Saudi Arabia is prepared to try to
fill the gap in supplies, Saudi sources said.
(Reporting by Tarek Amara in Tunis, Christian Lowe in Algiers,
Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Souhail Karam in Rabat, Firouz Sedarat and Martina
Fuchs in Dubai, Tom Pfeiffer, Mohammed Abbas and Alexander Dziadosz in Benghazi;
Brian Love and John Irish in Paris; Daren Butler in Istanbul; Dina Zayed, Sarah
Mikhail and Tom Perry in Cairo; Michael Georgy on Tunisia/Libya border; Katie
Reid in Zurich; writing by Elizabeth Fullerton; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
February 24, 2011
The New York Times
By MARK LANDLER and HELENE COOPER
WASHINGTON — As the Obama administration grapples with a
cascade of uprisings in the Middle East, it has come to a stark recognition: the
region’s monarchs are likely to survive; its presidents are more likely to fall.
In the rapidly changing map that stretches from Morocco to Iran, two presidents
have already tumbled: Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali of
Tunisia. Administration officials said they believe that Yemen’s authoritarian
president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, is in an increasingly tenuous position.
Yet in Bahrain, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa has so far managed to weather a
surge of unrest, winning American support, even though his security forces were
brutal in their crackdown of protesters. Officials believe that King Abdullah of
Saudi Arabia is also unlikely to be dethroned, while the emirs of the Persian
Gulf have so far escaped unrest. Even in Jordan, where serious protests erupted,
King Abdullah II has maneuvered deftly to stay in power, though he still has to
contend with a restive Palestinian population.
This pattern of kings holding on to power is influencing the administration’s
response to the crisis: the United States has sent out senior diplomats in
recent days to offer the monarchs reassurance and advice — even those who lead
the most stifling governments. But it is keeping its distance from autocratic
presidents as they fight to hold power.
By all accounts, that is more a calculation of American interests than anything
else.
“What the monarchies have going for them are royal families that allow them to
stand above the fray, to a certain extent,” said Kenneth M. Pollack, the
director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings
Institution. “It allows them to sack the government without sacking themselves.”
Many of the monarchs have run governments every bit as repressive as the
presidents’. And the American calculation of who is likely to hang on to power
has as much to do with the religious, demographic and economic makeups of the
countries as with the nature of the governments.
Arab presidents pretend to be democratically chosen, even though most of their
elections are rigged. Their veneer of legitimacy vanishes when pent-up
grievances in their societies explode. Most of the presidents oversee more
populous countries, without the oil wealth of the gulf monarchies, which would
enable them to placate their populations with tax cuts and pay raises, like the
kings of Saudi Arabia and Jordan have done recently.
The Americans acknowledge that they have no choice but to support countries like
Saudi Arabia, and that all of the situations could change rapidly.
A case in point is Libya, where Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi — neither a king nor a
president — has been brought to the verge of collapse with dizzying speed.
On Thursday, the administration failed again to evacuate diplomats and other
American citizens from Libya. A ferry chartered by the United States government
remained tied up at a pier in the capital, Tripoli, unable to sail to Malta
because of heavy seas in the Mediterranean.
The 285 passengers are safe, according to the State Department spokesman, Philip
J. Crowley, but they cannot leave the ship, which he said is guarded by Libyan
security forces. A hotel across the street from the pier has been the site of
gun battles between rebels and loyalists of Colonel Qaddafi, witnesses said.
The stalled evacuation has led the Obama administration to temper its
condemnations of Colonel Qaddafi’s government, because officials worry that the
Libyan government could take Americans hostage. But Mr. Crowley said Thursday
that the United States would support a European proposal to expel Libya from the
United Nations Human Rights Council, when it meets in Geneva on Monday.
Unlike in the case of Egypt, where President Obama spoke by phone with Mr.
Mubarak several times during the crisis there, neither he nor any other American
official has spoken with Colonel Qaddafi since the violence erupted. Secretary
of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was unable to reach the foreign minister, Moussa
Koussa, Mr. Crowley said, citing a technical glitch.
The under secretary of state for political affairs, William J. Burns, did speak
twice with Mr. Koussa, he said, and conveyed the administration’s “concern” that
Libya continue to cooperate with the evacuation.
The spotty American communication with Libya contrasts with the regular phone
calls Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton have held with Arab monarchs. King Abdullah of
Saudi Arabia pressed Mr. Obama in at least two conversations to back Mr.
Mubarak. Since his ouster, an administration official said, Saudi officials have
expressed some misgivings about their support for the former Egyptian leader.
So far, the kings appear to be hanging on.
The administration is sanguine that the Saudi royal family will survive any
upheaval, though some acknowledge that they misread the prospects for change in
Egypt. Earlier this week, King Abdullah, returning home from three months of
medical treatment abroad, announced a $10 billion increase in welfare spending
to help young people marry, buy homes and open businesses.
The administration has urged Saudi Arabia not to impede King Hamad’s attempt to
undertake reforms in Bahrain, an island connected to Saudi Arabia by a causeway
and dependent on the Saudis for political and economic support. Saudi Arabia is
rattled by the prospect of Bahrain’s Shiite Muslim majority’s gaining more
political power, at the expense of its Sunni rulers, in part because Saudi
Arabia has a substantial Shiite population in its east.
American officials have sought to keep the focus on what they insist have been
concessions made by Bahrain, where the Navy’s Fifth Fleet is stationed, as a
sign that the protests can prod the king, and the crown prince who will head the
dialogue with the protesters, in the right direction.
Similarly, in Jordan, King Abdullah, who faces a tricky situation because of his
majority Palestinian population, has signaled a willingness to cede some power
to an elected government or parliament. American officials and independent
experts say that they think that could allow him to hang on to power. The
administration’s clear hope is that all these kingdoms will eventually be
constitutional monarchies.
“That approach to Jordan or Bahrain is the right approach; these are countries
that have moved in the right direction, but not enough,” said Elliott Abrams, a
Middle East adviser in the Bush administration who has been a frequent critic of
the Obama administration. “Constitutional monarchy is a form of democracy.”
There has been far less unrest in other Persian Gulf states, like the United
Arab Emirates, Qatar or Kuwait — in part, experts say, because they are
essentially regal welfare states, where citizens pay no taxes and are looked
after by the government. In the United Arab Emirates, for example, when one
citizen marries another citizen, the government helps to pay for the wedding and
even to buy a home.
Even so, an administration official noted, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi,
Mohammed bin Zayed, recently toured less prosperous parts of the United Arab
Emirates to hold town-hall-style meetings — at least a nod to democratic rule.
“The truly wealthy societies like Qatar, the U.A.E. and Kuwait have greater
advantages,” said Ted Kattouf, a former United States ambassador to Syria. In
many ways, he added, “the monarchies have more legitimacy than the republics.”
In Yemen, a lack of legitimacy is plaguing President Saleh and the prospect of
instability there poses national security problems for the United States, which
has had the government’s support for counterterrorism operations. Protesters are
demanding his resignation even after he pledged not to seek re-election. The
administration is pushing Mr. Saleh — a crafty authoritarian who has manipulated
factions in his country to cling to power for 30 years — to revive a stalled
effort at constitutional reform, though an official expressed pessimism about
the likelihood of progress.
“The republics — and hence, the presidents — are the most vulnerable because
they’re supposed to be democracies but ultimately are not,” said an Arab
diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They pretend people have a
voice, but this voice doesn’t exist. With the monarchy, no one’s pretending
there’s a democracy.”
February 24, 2011
The New York Times
By ALWALEED BIN TALAL BIN ABDULAZIZ AL-SAUD
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
THE toppling of the heads of state of Egypt and Tunisia on the heels of huge
demonstrations there, and the subsequent manifestations of public unrest in
Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Libya, Morocco and Yemen, have generated a wide range
of opinion on the root causes of those events. Some analysts see the protests as
a natural outcome of the policies of autocratic regimes that had become
oblivious to the need for fundamental political reform, while others view them
as the inevitable product of dire economic and social problems that for decades
have been afflicting much of the Arab world, most particularly its young.
In either case, unless many Arab governments adopt radically different policies,
their countries will very likely experience more political and civil unrest. The
facts are undeniable:
The majority of the Arab population is under 25, and the unemployment rate for
young adults is in most countries 20 percent or more. Unemployment is even
higher among women, who are economically and socially marginalized. The middle
classes are being pushed down by inflation, which makes a stable standard of
living seem an unattainable hope. The gap between the haves and the have-nots is
widening. The basic needs for housing, health care and education are not being
met for millions.
Moreover, Arab countries have been burdened by political systems that have
become outmoded and brittle. Their leaderships are tied to patterns of
governance that have become irrelevant and ineffective. Decision-making is
invariably confined to small circles, with the outcomes largely intended to
serve special and self-serving interests. Political participation is often
denied, truncated and manipulated to ensure elections that perpetuate one-party
rule.
Disheartening as this Arab condition may be, reforming it is neither impossible
nor too late. Other societies that were afflicted with similar maladies have
managed to restore themselves to health. But we can succeed only if we open our
systems to greater political participation, accountability, increased
transparency and the empowerment of women as well as youth. The pressing issues
of poverty, illiteracy, education and unemployment have to be fully addressed.
Initiatives just announced in my country, Saudi Arabia, by King Abdullah are a
step in the right direction, but they are only the beginning of a longer journey
to broader participation, especially by the younger generation.
The lesson to be learned from the Tunisian, Egyptian and other upheavals —
which, it is important to note, were not animated by anti-American fervor or by
extremist Islamic zeal — is that Arab governments can no longer afford to take
their populations for granted, or to assume that they will remain static and
subdued. Nor can the soothing instruments of yesteryear, which were meant to
appease, serve any longer as substitutes for meaningful reform. The winds of
change are blowing across our region with force, and it would be folly to
suppose that they will soon dissipate.
For any reform to be effective, however, it has to be the result of meaningful
interaction and dialogue among the different components of a society, most
particularly between the rulers and the ruled. It also has to encompass the
younger generation, which in this technologically advanced age has become
increasingly intertwined with its counterparts in other parts of the world.
Exclusion can no longer work. This admonishment was most forcefully and
unabashedly expressed by no less a personage of an earlier generation than my
father, Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz, in a recent television interview.
Social and political change is invariably turbulent, painful and unpredictable.
But the Arab world has an abundance of resources, natural and otherwise, that
transcend oil. Most important, it has a substantial reservoir of talent that can
be enlisted in the creation of a vibrant social and economic order that would
enable Arab countries to join the ranks of those nations that have within a few
decades propelled themselves out of underdevelopment, stagnation and poverty.
But that can be achieved only if the will to reform is unwavering, enduring and
sincere.
Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, a grandson of the founding king of
modern Saudi Arabia, is the chairman of the Kingdom Holding Company and the
Alwaleed bin Talal Foundations.
Unless some way is found to stop him, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi
of Libya will slaughter hundreds or even thousands of his own people in his
desperation to hang on to power.
Libyans have shown extraordinary courage, and some members of the military may
also be turning against the regime. We don’t know if they will be able to bring
the dictator down by themselves. We are sure they need more support than they
have been getting from the United States and other Western democracies.
It took President Obama four days to condemn the violence. Even then, he spoke
only vaguely about holding Libyan officials accountable for their crimes.
Colonel Qaddafi was never mentioned by name.
We understand Mr. Obama’s concern for the hundreds of Americans waiting to be
evacuated from Tripoli. The Libyan government denied landing rights, and rough
seas have prevented a ferry from leaving.
Administration officials insist they are working hard to find ways to stop the
killing. On Thursday, Mr. Obama spoke with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France,
Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of
Italy to plot a joint strategy.
There is not a lot of time. Colonel Qaddafi and his henchmen have to be told in
credible and very specific terms the price they will pay for any more killing.
They need to start paying right now.
It would be best if the United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions, but
that takes too long. Washington and Europe can immediately freeze Libyan assets
in American and European banks and work to block Libya’s access to the
international financial system. Europe and the United States can deny travel
visas to top Libyan officials and government supporters.
Europe, which sells weapons to Libya, can impose an arms embargo. Washington has
other quieter ways to pressure the government, including jamming military
communications. It should do so. Libya, which has just emerged from years of
isolation, needs to be constantly reminded that it can be fully isolated again.
The Security Council has deplored Colonel Qaddafi’s actions, and the Arab League
suspended Libya’s participation. When it meets on Friday, the United Nations
Human Rights Council should expel Libya.
Libya is a major supplier of oil to France and Italy, and for years both
countries have enabled Colonel Qaddafi. Mr. Sarkozy now wants the European Union
to impose an arms embargo on Libya, as well as an assets freeze and travel ban
for the Libyan leader and his collaborators. Germany seems inclined to go along.
Britain and Italy should stop temporizing.
If the killing goes on, other steps may be quickly needed, including offering
temporary sanctuary for refugees and imposing the kind of no-fly zone that the
United States, Britain and France used to protect Kurds in Iraq from the
savagery of Saddam Hussein. After Bosnia, Kosovo and Rwanda, the United States
and its allies vowed that they would work harder to stop mass atrocities. One
thing is not in doubt: The longer the world temporizes, the more people die.
February 24, 2011
The New York Times
By ROGER COHEN
LONDON — Watching Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi do his Caligula
thing in the ruins of the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, and
reading about his son’s St. Barts fests with Beyoncé, I confess that disgust
yielded to nausea: enough is enough.
There are as many versions of current events in Libya as there are
transliterations of the Colonel’s name but it’s already clear this is the
Ceausescu chapter of the Arab spring. Qaddafi’s killing is not yet on the scale
of Assad’s Hama massacre of 1982 or Saddam’s slaughter of the Shiites in 1991,
but it’s up there.
There are moments when the argument for capital punishment becomes persuasive to
me. This is one.
I don’t know what the nascent Benghazi-Tobruk Libyan Republic with its new-old
flag stands for, apart from ending Qaddafi’s 42-year rule, and I’m not sure
anyone does. I do know Arabs have had it with despots who treat their nations as
personal fiefdoms and oil revenue as pocket money for their dynasties. This is
about enfranchisement. It’s not about Islam, or pan-Arabism, or Socialism. It’s
about acquiring rights grounded in institutions and law.
Qaddafi’s Libya is a creepy place. I was there once for a couple of days and it
left a lasting impression of spookiness. I went out to the desert to see the
Colonel in his dun-colored caravanserai. There were camel motifs; sand got in
everyone’s eyes. I never saw him. Mercurial used to be the operative adjective.
Murderous works better now.
I’ve been thinking about that trip and also about the last time I saw Libyans in
exile, in a mosque in Oklahoma City where local Muslims had gathered for Friday
prayers.
This was late last year after Oklahoma, in the grips of a strange wave of
Islamophobia orchestrated by prominent Republicans, had approved a “Save our
State” amendment banning Shariah law. Its supporters told me the amendment was a
“preemptive strike” against Muslim takeover.
Imad Enchassi, the imam of the mosque, was talking to his congregation about
these troubles and said this: “Many of you may have been harassed or threatened
at work. I don’t expect you to love those that hate but understand one thing:
Many of you came to America from states of oppression. Here we can sue the
government. In the countries where you come from, if you sue the government you
disappear.”
Or you get shot by hired mercenaries before you ever get to your lawyer.
One Oklahoma Muslim, Muneer Awad, 27, did just that. He sued the state of
Oklahoma over the Shariah ban and secured a preliminary federal injunction
blocking the amendment.
Awad, an attorney, is a Palestinian-American; his parents came to the United
States from the West Bank. His father started with a small store. He acquired
real estate and gave his children good educations.
That’s the way the American Dream is supposed to work. Often, these days, it’s
no more than a mirage. But Awad’s story is a reminder that America is still a
reinvention machine.
Enchassi, the imam, had invited the local head of the F.B.I., special agent
James Finch, to speak. As he placed the microphone on Finch, he joked: “This is
something you’ve not seen before — an imam wiring the F.B.I.!”
Finch, an African-American, stood in front of the congregation and declared:
“I’ve come here today to tell you that the F.B.I. stands ready to investigate
any violation of the civil rights of our citizens in the state of Oklahoma,
irrespective of ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. We are very
aggressive in prosecuting civil rights violations, hate crimes, including
religious discrimination and defacement or damage to any religious property. All
persons in the United States have the freedom to practice their religions
without fear of violent acts. If you are threatened in any way, call the F.B.I.”
There was an approving murmur through the mosque — a modest building. As I
watched this scene — a black cop telling Muslim Americans about their civil
rights and what the F.B.I. and the attorney general would do to enforce them — I
could only think of the long journey traveled by the United States from its
“original sin” of slavery, through the civil war and Jim Crow, on through the
long civil rights campaign and the King assassination, to the once unthinkable
thing: the election of an African American to the nation’s highest office.
It takes a long time — centuries — to establish that all men really are created
equal; and that “certain unalienable rights” belong to all citizens rather than
to all citizens except those of a certain color. Even then bigotry rears its
head — as it had in Oklahoma.
Finch, flanked by Sandy Coats, a U.S. attorney for Oklahoma, finished with these
words: “I love this country and have to uphold its laws. The buck stops with me.
I am the face of the F.B.I. Hold me accountable if something is not investigated
because I am passionate about ensuring people’s rights are upheld.”
The Arab world has embarked on a very long road to enfranchisement. It will be
tempestuous but the direction taken is irreversible.
In the Cradle of Libya’s Uprising, the Rebels Learn to
Govern Themselves
February 24, 2011
The New York Times
By KAREEM FAHIM
BENGHAZI, Libya — The rebels here said they caught a spy in
the court building, the nerve center of the uprising, recording insurgent plans
on a cellphone camera. The response was swift. Prosecutors interrogated the man
on Thursday, and the rebels said they planned to detain him, for now.
“We want to know if he’s alone,” said Fathi Terbil, the lawyer whose detention
set off Libya’s rebellion and who is now one if its leaders.
In the city where the Libyan uprising began, lawyers, prosecutors, judges and
average citizens who oppose the rule of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi are adjusting to
unfamiliar roles: they are keepers both of an evolving rebellion, as well as law
and order in Libya’s second largest city.
And they fret that their gains will be reversed, by people and groups
sympathetic to Colonel Qaddafi, who still maintain a presence.
Since Sunday, when government forces withdrew and Benghazi became the first
major city to fall under rebel control, residents and rebels here have been left
to hammer out a new way of life and governance.
On Thursday, the fruits of that effort were beginning to take a rough shape. A
judge, still wearing his robes, wandered through traffic, ordering drivers to
put on their seat belts. At another intersection, three young men helped an
elderly police officer direct a traffic jam.
Dozens of banks opened for business, and by late afternoon, stores shuttered for
days had started to open as well.
In Benghazi’s new order, the court building overlooking the Mediterranean has
become both a seat of rebel power and the town hall.
A battery of newly formed committees meet there to discuss security, negotiate
with the army and sort out how to get people back to work. “We needed something
temporary, to manage the day-to-day life,” said Imam Bugaighis, an orthodontist
who has become a spokeswoman for the caretaker administration.
She said her sister, a lawyer, is also an organizer of the effort, whose
leadership remains very loose. Lawyers and judges were at the vanguard of the
uprising.
“They are in charge,” Dr. Bugaighis said. Then she added, “Nobody is in charge.”
After Libya’s revolt began here on Feb. 15, there was intense fighting for
several days. The local hospital is still coping with the influx of those who
survived. At the height of the uprising, about a hundred people a day were
admitted with bullet wounds and other injuries, according to the chief surgeon,
who gave his name only as Dr. Abdullah because the government’s agents were
still lurking. “We’ve been under threats for 40 years,” he said.
Badly wounded men lay in the hospital’s intensive care unit, and doctors
confided privately that they did not expect them to live. They included a
30-year-old man whose chest was filled with bullet fragments. “He’s deeply
comatose,” Dr. Abdullah said.
Dr. Abdullah said that 140 people died during the unrest here, while local rebel
leaders said the number could be as high as 300. The doctors said many patients
arrived with bullet wounds to the chest and the head. Many of them are
paralyzed.
In the morgue, nine green bags contained charred remains. Dr. Abdullah said that
they had been recovered from the local military base, and that he was told they
were soldiers who were executed and then burned by their commanders after they
refused to fire on civilians. But he could not be sure.
“It was chaos,” he said.
The chaos had started with the detention of Mr. Terbil, a lawyer who represents
families of those killed in a massacre of more than 1,000 inmates in Abu Slim
prison in Tripoli in 1996. The families planned to be part of a protest on Feb.
17, and Mr. Terbil said that the authorities detained him on Feb. 15, hoping to
head off the demonstrations.
During an interview in a second-floor office in the court building on Thursday,
Mr. Terbil said his interrogation stretched out over two days, as his supporters
protested outside the security building where he was detained. Using carrots and
sticks, the authorities told him to find a way to end the demonstrations.
“I told them it’s already on Facebook and Twitter,” he said he told the officer
interrogating him. “We can’t stop it. We can make it peaceful.”
The interrogator’s response, Mr. Terbil said, was: “We cannot allow protests
like that to take place. Blood will be shed.”
February 24, 2011
The New York Times
By KAREEM FAHIM and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
BENGHAZI, Libya — Rebels seeking to overturn the 40-year rule
of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi repelled a concerted assault by his forces on
Thursday on cities close to the capital, removing any doubt that Libya’s
patchwork of protests had evolved into an increasingly well-armed revolutionary
movement.
The series of determined stands by rebel forces on Thursday — especially in the
strategic city of Zawiyah, near important oil resources and 30 miles from the
capital, Tripoli — presented the gravest threat yet to the Libyan leader. In
Zawiyah, more than 100 people were killed as Colonel Qaddafi’s forces turned
automatic weapons on a mosque filled with protesters, a witness said. Still,
residents rallied afterward.
Colonel Qaddafi’s evident frustration at the resistance in Zawiyah spilled out
in a rant by telephone over the state television network charging that Osama bin
Laden had drugged the town’s youth into a rebellious frenzy.
“Al Qaeda is the one who has recruited our sons,” he said in a 30-minute tirade
broadcast by the network. “It is bin Laden.”
Colonel Qaddafi said, “Those people who took your sons away from you and gave
them drugs and said ‘Let them die’ are launching a campaign over cellphones
against your sons, telling them not to obey their fathers and mothers.”
The violence on Thursday underscored the contrast between the character of
Libya’s revolution and the uprising that toppled autocrats in neighboring Egypt
and Tunisia. Unlike those Facebook-enabled youth rebellions, the insurrection
here has been led by people who are more mature and who have been actively
opposing the government for some time. It started with lawyers’ syndicates that
have campaigned peacefully for two years for a written constitution and some
semblance of a rule of law.
Fueled by popular anger, the help of breakaway leaders of the armed forces and
some of their troops, and weapons from looted military stockpiles or smuggled
across the border, the uprising here has escalated toward more violence in the
face of increasingly brutal government crackdowns.
At the revolt’s starting point, in the eastern city of Benghazi, Fathi Terbil,
39, the human rights lawyer whose detention first ignited the protests, drew a
map of rebel-held territory in striking distance of Tripoli. “It is only a
matter of days,” he said.
A turning point in the uprising’s evolution was arguably the defection of the
interior minister, Abdel Fattah Younes al-Abidi, an army general who had been a
close ally of Colonel Qaddafi.
The break by General Abidi, who has family roots near the revolt’s eastern
origins, encouraged other disaffected police, military and state security
personnel to change sides as well. “We are hoping to use his experience,” said
Mr. Terbil, who some called the linchpin of the revolt.
Opposition figures in rebel-held cities like Benghazi have been appearing on
cable news channels promising that opponents of Colonel Qaddafi are heading
toward Tripoli to bolster the resistance there. Their ability to carry out those
assertions remains to be seen.
In parts of the country, the revolutionaries, as they call themselves, appear to
have access to potentially large stores of weapons, including small arms and
heavy artillery, automatic weapons smuggled from the Egyptian border and
rocket-propelled grenades taken from army bases, like the Kabila in Benghazi.
Tawfik al-Shohiby, one of the rebels, said that in the early days of the revolt
one of his relatives bought $75,000 in automatic weapons from arms dealers on
the Egyptian border and distributed them to citizens’ groups in towns like
Bayda.
So far, at least in the east, many of the weapons appear to be held in storage
to defend against a future attempt by Colonel Qaddafi’s forces to retake the
territory. At a former security services building in Benghazi on Thursday, men
in fatigues prepared to transport anti-aircraft and antitank weapons to what one
said was a storage depot.
Like their counterparts in Tunisia and Egypt, the rebels in Libya have shown
tech-savvy guile in circumventing government efforts to block their
communication. To sidestep the government’s blocking of the Internet and curbing
of cellphone access, for example, some of the more active antigovernment
protesters distribute flash drives and CDs with videos of the fighting to
friends in other towns and to journalists.
Mr. Shohiby began helping lead an effort this week to shuttle foreign
journalists from the Egyptian border to towns across eastern Libya.
His network of contacts was built on the Internet: not on Facebook, but on a
popular soccer Web site. “I have friends from east to west, north to south,” he
said. “There are two guys in Sabha, one in Zawiyah, three friends in Misurata,
for example,” he said, speaking of towns that were the scenes of some of the
clashes on Thursday.
Still, Mohammed Ali Abdallah, deputy secretary general of an opposition group in
exile, The National Front for the Salvation of Libya, said the government’s
fierce crackdown made organizing the spontaneous uprising a continuing
challenge, especially in heavily guarded Tripoli.
“It is almost like hit and runs,” he said. “There are almost no ways that those
young guys can organize themselves. You can’t talk on a mobile phone, and if
five people get together in the street they get shot.”
Nonetheless, protesters in Tripoli were calling for a massive demonstration on
Friday after noon prayers, residents of the city and those fleeing the country
said. In recent days, witnesses said, Colonel Qaddafi appears to have pulled
many of his militiamen and mercenaries back toward the capital to prepare for
its defense.
But despite the encroaching insurrection, Colonel Qaddafi appeared determined on
Thursday to put on a show of strength and national unity, a stark turnabout from
his approach so far.
Since the start of the uprising, his government had shut out all foreign
journalists, cut off communications and even confiscated mobile phone chips, and
other devices that might contain pictures, at the border from people fleeing the
country. Libya had warned that reporters who entered the country illegally
risked arrest and could be deemed collaborators of Al Qaeda.
But on Thursday, Colonel Qaddafi’s son and heir apparent Seif al-Islam
el-Qaddafi announced on television that the government would allow teams of
journalists to visit Tripoli. Witnesses said preparations for the visit were
already under way.
The soldiers and mercenaries who had previously roamed the streets had largely
disappeared by the late afternoon, leaving only traffic police officers, and the
capital’s central Green Square — the scene of violent clashes earlier this week
— had been cleaned up. Two banners, in English, now adorned the square. “Al
Jazeera, BBC, don’t spread lies that reflect other’s wishful thinking,” one
read. The other: “Family members talk but never fight between each other.”
But the rebels’ unexpected strength was undeniable on Thursday as they appeared
to hold or contest several towns close to Colonel Qaddafi’s stronghold in
Tripoli in the face of a coordinated push by his mercenaries and security
forces.
In Misurata, 130 miles the east of the capital, Colonel Qaddafi’s forces struck
at rebels guarding the airport with rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells,
The Associated Press reported. But the rebels seized an anti-aircraft gun used
by the militias and turned it against them.
In Zuwarah, 75 miles west of the capital, the police and security forces had
pulled out and a “people’s committee” was controlling the city, several people
who had fled across the border reported. “The people are taking care of their
own business,” said Basem Shams, 26, a fisherman.
In Sabratha, 50 miles west of the capital, witnesses reported that the police
headquarters and offices of Colonel Qaddafi’s revolutionary committees were all
in smoldering ruins. “We are not afraid; we are watching,” said a doctor by
telephone from Sabratha. “What I am sure about, is that change is coming.”
In Zawiyah, an envoy from Colonel Qaddafi had reportedly arrived to warn rebels
on Wednesday: “Either leave or you will see a massacre,” one resident told The
A.P.
About 5 a.m. Thursday, Colonel Qaddafi’s forces fulfilled their threat.
Witnesses said a force that included about 60 foreign mercenaries assaulted a
central mosque where some of the roughly 2,000 protesters had sought refuge. One
witness said the protesters were armed mainly with rifles, sticks and knives,
but after four hours of fighting they managed to hold the square.
About 100 people were killed and 200 were wounded, this witness said. During a
telephone interview with him, a voice could be heard over a loudspeaker in the
background telling the crowd, in an area known as Martyrs Square, not to be
afraid.
“People came to send a clear message: We are not afraid of death or your
bullets,” one resident told The A.P. “This regime will regret it. History will
not forgive them.”
Meanwhile, the violence sowed concern across the region and beyond. President
Obama spoke Thursday, in separate calls, with President Nicolas Sarkozy of
France and the prime ministers of Britain and Italy, David Cameron and Silvio
Berlusconi.
The White House said the leaders expressed “deep concern” over the Libyan
government’s use of force and discussed possible responses, without specifying
what steps they were prepared to take.
Kareem Fahim reported from Benghazi, and David D. Kirkpatrick from the
Tunisian border with Libya. Reporting was contributed by Sharon Otterman, Mona
El-Naggar and Neil MacFarquhar from Cairo, and Robert F. Worth from Tunis.
Qaddafi Strikes Back as Rebels Close In on Libyan Capital
February 24, 2011
The New York Times
By KAREEM FAHIM and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
BENGHAZI, Libya —Thousands of mercenary and other forces
struck back at a tightening circle of rebellions around the capital, Tripoli, on
Thursday, trying to fend off an uprising against the 40-year rule of Col.
Muammar el-Qaddafi, who blamed the revolt on “hallucinogenic” drugs and Osama
bin Laden.
The bloodiest fighting centered on Zawiya, a gateway city to the capital, just
30 miles west of Tripoli. Early Thursday, Colonel Qaddafi’s forces arrived and
unleashed an assault using automatic weapons and an anti-aircraft gun on a
mosque occupied by rebels armed with hunting rifles, Libyans who had fled the
country said.
An exiled Libyan who had been in contact with members of the opposition in
Zawiya said the battle lasted four hours and had killed at least 100.
Fighting intensified in other cities near Tripoli as well — Misurata, 130 miles
to the east, and Sabratha, about 50 miles west. Zuara, 75 miles west of the
capital, had fallen to anti-government militias, other reports said.
To the east, at least half of the nation’s 1,000-mile Mediterranean coast, up to
the port of Ra’s Lanuf, appeared to have fallen to opposition forces, a Guardian
correspondent in the area reported.
“We are not afraid — we are watching,” said a doctor by telephone from Sabratha.
The city was under a state of siege, he said. Stores were closed and buildings
belonging to the police and Colonel Qaddafi’s revolutionary committees were in
ruins after being burned by protesters. “What I am sure about,” he said, “is
that change is coming.”
Colonel Qaddafi, speaking in an impassioned 30-minute phone call to a Libyan
television station, appeared particularly incensed by the revolt in Zawiya,
close as it was to the capital, and addressed the citizens there directly.
In a rambling discourse, he blamed the uprising on the leader of Al Qaeda, Osama
bin Laden, saying he had drugged the people, giving them “hallucinogenic pills
in their coffee with milk, like Nescafe.”
“Those people who took your sons away from you and gave them drugs and said let
them die are launching a campaign over cellphones against your sons, telling
them not to obey their fathers and mothers, and they are destroying their
country,” he said.
The choice of peace or war, he said, belonged to the people of Zawiya — a town
of 1,000 martyrs, as he called it — which had now become the focus of many of
the thousands of forces he has called on to reinforce his stronghold in the
capital.
Libyan state television flashed an urgent bulletin later Thursday, in English,
saying: “We have seized voice recordings from some members of Al Qaeda who have
joined in the city of Zawiya aiming to do sabotage actions.”
Opponents of the government in Zawiya had been camped at the central mosque for
days. On Wednesday, an envoy from Colonel Qaddafi came with a warning: “Either
leave or you will see a massacre,” one resident told The Associated Press. About
5 a.m. they fulfilled their threat. “Those who attacked us are not the
mercenaries,” he told The A.P. “They are sons of our country.”
After the assault, he added, thousands rallied in the city’s main Martyrs Square
demanding that Colonel Qaddafi go. “People came to send a clear message: We are
not afraid of death or your bullets,” he said. “This regime will regret it.
History will not forgive them.”
Qaddafi loyalists also attacked in Misurata, where opponents of the government
had claimed control Wednesday. Using rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, they
struck at rebels guarding the airport, who seized an anti-aircraft gun used by
the militias and turned it against them, The A.P. reported.
Residents of Tripoli, reached by telephone, said the uprising appeared to be
headed toward a decisive stage, with Colonel Qaddafi fortifying his stronghold
and protesters gearing up for their first organized demonstration after days of
spontaneous rioting and bloody crackdowns.
“A message comes to every mobile phone about a general protest on Friday in
Tripoli,” one resident of Tripoli said.
In an apparent effort to demonstrate Colonel Qaddafi’s control, his government
announced on Thursday that it would allow teams of journalists to visit Tripoli,
though without guaranteeing their safety. Reporters who entered the country
illegally risked arrest and could be considered collaborators of Al Qaeda, the
State Department warned.
One resident of the capital said the central Green Square — the scene of violent
clashes earlier this week — had already been spruced up, with two banners
hanging in English. “Al Jazeera, BBC, don’t spread lies that reflect other’s
wishful thinking,” one read. The other: “Family members talk but never fight
between each other.”
One of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, said in an interview
aired on Libyan state television that life was “quiet” in Tripoli; another son,
Saadi, told The Financial Times that “50 or 60 percent of the people are working
normally” in the capital. The protesters, he said, echoing his father, were
under the influence of “very powerful” drugs like amphetamines and Ecstasy.
The overall death toll so far has been impossible to determine, but is clearly
many hundreds. Even before the intensified battles on Thursday, Franco Frattini,
the foreign minister of Italy — the former colonial power with longstanding ties
— estimated that more than 1,000 had been killed. Tens of thousands of others
are fleeing the country — to Tunisia, Egypt and Malta — including members of the
government.
In the latest blow to the Libyan leader, a cousin who is one of his closest
aides, Ahmed Gadhaf al-Dam, announced on Thursday that he had defected to Egypt
in protest against the bloody crackdown, The A.P. reported.
The force that has attacked rebels on behalf of the government is one Colonel
Qaddafi has built up quietly for years, distrustful of his own generals. It is
made up of special brigades headed by his sons, segments of the military loyal
to his native tribe and its allies, and legions of African mercenaries.
Many are believed to have fought elsewhere, in places like Sudan, but he has now
called them back, relying on their willingness to carry out orders to kill
Libyans that other police and military units, and even fighter pilots, have
refused.
Colonel Qaddafi, who took power in a military coup, has always kept the Libyan
military too weak and divided to do the same thing to him. About half its
relatively small 50,000-member army is made up of poorly trained and unreliable
conscripts, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Many of its battalions are organized along tribal lines, ensuring their loyalty
to their own clan rather than to top military commanders — a pattern evident in
the defection of portions of the army to help protesters take the eastern city
of Benghazi.
Colonel Qaddafi’s own clan dominates the air force and the upper level of army
officers, and they are believed to have remained loyal to him, in part because
his clan has the most to lose from his ouster.
Other clans, like the large Warfalla tribe, have complained that they have been
shut out of the top ranks, said Paul Sullivan, a professor at Georgetown who has
studied the Libyan military, which may help explain why they were among the
first to turn on Colonel Qaddafi.
Untrusting of his officers, Colonel Qaddafi built up an elaborate paramilitary
force — accompanied by special segments of the regular army that report
primarily to his family. It is designed to check the army and in part to subdue
his own population. At the top of that structure is his roughly 3,000-member
revolutionary guard corps, which mainly guards him personally.
Then there are the militia units controlled by Colonel Qaddafi’s seven sons. A
cable from the United States Embassy in Libya released by WikiLeaks described
his son Khamis’s private battalion as the best equipped in the Libyan Army.
His brother Sa’ad has reportedly used his private battalion to help him secure
business deals. And a third brother, Muatassim, is Colonel Qaddafi’s national
security adviser. In 2008 he asked for $2.8 billion to pay for a battalion of
his own, to keep up with his brothers.
But perhaps the most significant force that Colonel Qaddafi has deployed against
the current insurrection is one believed to consist of about 2,500 mercenaries
from countries like Chad, Sudan and Niger that he calls his Islamic Pan African
Brigade.
Colonel Qaddafi began recruiting for his force years ago as part of a scheme to
bring the African nations around Libya into a common union, and the mercenaries
he trained are believed to have returned to Sudan and other bloody conflicts
around Africa. But from the accounts of many witnesses Colonel Qaddafi is
believed to have recalled them — and perhaps others — to help suppress the
uprising.
Kareem Fahim reported from Benghazi, Libya, and David D.
Kirkpatrick from the Tunisian border with Libya. Reporting was contributed by
Sharon Otterman, Mona El-Naggar and Neil MacFarquhar in Cairo.
February 24, 2011
The New York Times
By J. DAVID GOODMAN
More than a hundred Americans seeking to flee the widening
chaos in Libya remained stuck in the capital, Tripoli, on Thursday as high seas
prevented an evacuation ferry from departing for Malta.
Philip J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman, said Thursday afternoon that
the ferry could leave “within hours” if the weather permits. An official with
the ferry company, Virtu Ferries, said high winds had tossed up sea swells as
high as 16 feet throughout the day on Thursday.
The United States chartered the seagoing ferry — a high-speed tourist vessel
with flat-screen televisions and a small casino — on Wednesday, after being
turned down for permission to land a chartered plane in Tripoli. The American
Embassy in Tripoli said on its Web site that it was in the process of chartering
a flight from Tripoli for Friday. “We do not anticipate scheduling another
charter flight after the charter on Friday,” the embassy said.
The passengers are expected to remain on the 600-person ferry, which has been
secured, until it departs and were being given food and water, Mr. Crowley said.
There were 285 passengers on board, including 167 Americans.
The State Department has said that about 35 members of the United States Embassy
staff and their family members were on the vessel. The delay is likely to
continue to color public responses to the crisis by the Obama administration,
which has been worried about the safety of its diplomats and their families.
Although President Obama on Wednesday broke a four-day silence to condemn
Libya’s violent crackdown of protesters, he did not mention Col. Muammar
el-Qaddafi.
The State Department said roughly 6,000 United States citizens, most of them
holding dual citizenship, were in Libya when the uprising against Colonel
Qaddafi began. “My understanding is that they would need the permission of the
Libyan government to depart,” Mr. Crowley said during a news conference,
referring to those with dual citizenship.
Mr. Crowley added that the number of Americans on the ferry corresponds to those
who have indicated to the State Department in recent days that they wished to
leave.
The scramble by foreigners to leave the country began several days ago, but the
number of commercial flights could not keep up with the demand and many
countries have been mobilizing military and chartered ships and planes.
More than 10,000 people crowded into Tripoli’s main airport on Thursday, the
Turkish foreign ministry said. Amateur video posted by the British newspaper The
Independent showed desperate travelers filling the trash-strewn terminal and
flowing out the doors into the surrounding roads.
Some government-led evacuations proceeded Thursday, with two Greek ferries
carrying about 4,500 Chinese workers departing from the eastern city of
Benghazi.
As some nations rushed to coordinate rescues, migrant workers from poorer
nations in the Middle East, Asia and Africa were often fending for themselves,
with their home countries unable to organize evacuations.
In buses piled high with luggage and in rented cars, thousands of people
streamed over the borders into Tunisia and Egypt on Thursday..
Those fleeing the country, as well as those who had not yet found a way out,
described scenes of chaos and deprivation.
“The Libyans are hoarding food, but the Egyptians are starving,” said Sabri
Abdel Aziz, a 28-year-old Egyptian who was crossing into Tunisia on Thursday.
The daunting nature of the evacuation led several nations to turn to others for
help.
China had requested help from Greece via its embassy in Athens on Monday,
according to an official at the Greek Foreign Ministry. “Greece is already
helping with evacuations from Libya and is ready to help any nation that has
similar problems,” Prime Minister George Papandreou said in a televised
statement on Thursday from Finland, where he is on an official visit.
The two Greek vessels, the Hellenic Spirit and the Olympic Champion, that left
Thursday will return to Benghazi to collect another 10,000 Chinese, thus
evacuating around half the resident Chinese population of Libya, the official
said. He said around 40 Greeks had been on the first ferry to reach Greece and
that dozens more would be returned aboard two C-130 military transport aircraft
that were en route to Tripoli and Sabha. On Wednesday, Israel had agreed to
allow about 300 Palestinians to enter the West Bank from Libya even though they
did not have residency documents for the territory. While the Palestinian
president, Mahmoud Abbas, welcomed Israel’s offer, he said he had asked for
thousands more to be allowed entry, according to the official Palestinian news
agency Wafa.
Two Italian naval vessels headed to eastern Libyan ports to rescue citizens from
cities like Benghazi whose airports were damaged, and Turkey said it was sending
two Navy frigates to escort its ferries from the city. “Our ferry called
‘Iskenderun’ with a 1,500-passenger capacity just made it to Benghazi as we
speak,” Selcuk Unal, a spokesman for the Turkish foreign ministry, said. “If all
runs as scheduled, it may even be able to carry some more foreigners back home,
in addition to our own citizens.”
The International Organization for Migration, an intergovernmental agency,
estimates that as many as 1.5 million migrants were working in Libya at the
start of the strife. Many of the migrants went there to work in construction,
which had been booming, and in Libya’s rich oil fields.
Fears have been growing in Europe that countries there would be flooded with
needy people fleeing Libya. Italy’s interior minister, Roberto Maroni, traveled
to Brussels on Thursday to ask the European Union to create a “solidarity fund”
to help Italy with a potential “invasion” of refugees from Libya on top of the
6,300 Tunisians who have arrived there since the beginning of its revolution in
January.
Reporting was contributed by Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul; David D.
Kirkpatrick from the border between Tunisia and Libya; Brian Knowlton from
Washington; Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem; Niki Kitsantonis from Athens; and
Gaia Pianigiani from Rome.
BENGHAZI, Libya | Thu Feb 24, 2011 4:36pm EST
Reuters
By Alexander Dziadosz and Tom Pfeiffer
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi launched a fierce
counter-attack on Thursday on rebels holding towns near the capital and the
United States did not rule out military action in response to the Libyan
crackdown.
The opposition were already in control of major centers in the east, including
the regional capital Benghazi, and reports that the towns of Misrata and Zuara
in the west had also fallen brought the tide of rebellion closer to Gaddafi's
power base.
Gun battles in Zawiyah, an oil terminal 50 km (30 miles) from the capital, left
23 people dead, a Libyan newspaper said. Al Jazeera quoted residents putting the
toll at 100 there.
France's top human rights official said up to 2,000 people might have died so
far in the uprising since February 15.
As concerns of further unrest across the Arab world drove oil prices higher,
jeopardizing world economic growth, foreign governments were struggling to find
a common response.
The White House said it was examining all options, including imposing a no-fly
zone over Libya, in its response to the Libyan government's attempts to crush of
the revolt.
In a rambling appeal for calm, Gaddafi blamed the revolt on al Qaeda leader
Osama bin Laden, and said the protesters were fueled by milk and Nescafe spiked
with hallucinogenic drugs.
Gaddafi, who just two days ago vowed in a televised address to crush the revolt
and fight to the last, showed none of the fist-thumping rage of that speech.
This time, he spoke to state television by telephone without appearing in
person, and his tone seemed more conciliatory.
"Their ages are 17. They give them pills at night, they put hallucinatory pills
in their drinks, their milk, their coffee, their Nescafe," Gaddafi said.
A Tripoli resident, who did not want to be identified because he feared
reprisals, told Reuters: "It seems like he realized that his speech yesterday
with the strong language had no effect on the people. He's realizing it's going
to be a matter of time before the final chapter: the battle of Tripoli."
FIGHTBACK
The Swiss government said it had frozen assets belonging to Gaddafi and his
family.
As governments and foreign companies scrambled to evacuate foreign nationals
working in Libya, a U.S.-chartered ferry remained docked in Tripoli with 285
passengers on board.
A former Libyan Justice Minister Mustafa Mohamed Abud Al Jeleil told a Swedish
newspaper he expected the increasingly isolated Libyan leader to commit suicide
the way Adolf Hitler did at the end of World War Two rather than surrender or
flee.
Forces loyal to the Libyan leader attacked anti-government militias controlling
Misrata, Libya's third-biggest city, 125 miles east of Tripoli, and several
people were killed in fighting near the city's airport.
Al Jazeera quoted a senior officer who had joined the rebels as saying the
government used poisoned gas against demonstrators at Misrata's airport early on
Thursday, although such reports could not be verified.
Soldiers were reported along the roads approaching Tripoli. In Zawiyah,
witnesses said pro- and anti-Gaddafi forces were firing at each other in the
streets.
Libya's Quryna newspaper said 23 people were killed and 44 wounded in the town.
Quoting medical sources it said "intense exchange of fire" was preventing the
wounded from reaching hospitals. Some men were removing wounded kin from
hospitals for fear of them falling into the hands of Gaddafi loyalists.
"It is chaotic there. There are people with guns and swords," said Mohamed
Jaber, who passed through Zawiyah on his way to Tunisia on Thursday.
A witness told Reuters the Libyan army was present in force.
Anti-government militias were in control of Zuara, about 120 km (75 miles) west
of Tripoli. There was no sign of police or military and the town was controlled
by "popular committees" armed with automatic weapons.
In the east of Libya, many soldiers have withdrawn from active service and some
are openly supporting the revolt.
Protesters have also taken control of Al Kufra, some 1,000 km southeast of
Benghazi, Quryna newspaper said.
The uprising has virtually halted Libya's oil exports, said the head of Italy's
ENI, Libya's biggest foreign oil operator. The unrest has driven world oil
prices up to around $120 a barrel, stoking concern about the economic recovery.
Key Libyan oil and product terminals to the east of the capital are in the hands
of rebels, according to Benghazi residents in touch with people in region. The
oil and product terminals at Ras Lanuf and Marsa El Brega were being protected,
they said, amid fears of attacks by pro-Gaddafi forces.
The desert nation pumps nearly 2 percent of the world's oil.
UP TO 2,000 DEAD
France's top human rights official said up to 2,000 people could have died in
the unrest and he feared Gaddafi could unleash "migratory terrorism" on Europe
as his regime collapses.
"The question is not if Gaddafi will fall, but when and at what human cost,"
Francois Zimeray told Reuters. "For now the figures we have ... more than 1,000
have died, possibly 2,000, according to sources."
Benghazi, where the rebellion started a week ago, the mood was triumphant.
Effigies of Gaddafi and his clan hung from lampposts, men chanted slogans and
fired guns into the air and the town was being run under "people's committees".
"All is run now by the young people of Benghazi, there is no control from
outside Libya or inside Libya," said resident Faraj Mohamed.
In the hospital morgue though, body bags lay half opened exposing the charred
remains of eight bodies.
"I am a witness to this criminal act, from the first time, the first day I saw
13 bodies, one with a bullet in his neck. The other case a bullet in the spine.
Even the injured are handicapped now. All 13 to 20 years," said doctor Jamil
Howedi.
"I am responsible for this and have medical records and I know from hospital
records that 220 to 250 people died," he said, noting that many of the dead were
from the army, killed for refusing to fight the protesters.
A Reuters correspondent in the city was shown about a dozen people being held in
a court building who residents said were "mercenaries" backing Gaddafi. Some
were said to be African and others from southern Libya.
In Tripoli, which remains largely closed to foreign media, locals said they were
too scared to go outside for fear of being shot by pro-government forces.
(Reporting by Tarek Amara in Tunis, Christian Lowe in Algiers,
Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Souhail Karam in Rabat, Firouz Sedarat and Martina
Fuchs in Dubai, Tom Pfeiffer, Mohammed Abbas and Alexander Dziadosz in Benghazi;
Brian Love and John Irish in Paris; Daren Butler in Istanbul; Dina Zayed, Sarah
Mikhail and Tom Perry in Cairo; Michael Georgy on Tunisia/Libya border; Katie
Reid in Zurich; writing by Elizabeth Fullerton; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
February 24, 2011
The New York Times
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and JACK HEALY
BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki urged Iraqis on
Thursday not to take part in nationwide demonstrations scheduled for Friday,
saying he had evidence that insurgents were trying to use the protests to create
unrest.
Mr. Maliki’s statement was the first in which a member of his cabinet has said
that Iraqis should not join the protests, organized around demands like improved
government services.
In a nationally televised speech, Mr. Maliki said that loyalists of the deposed
leader Saddam Hussein were behind the protests. But he said the government would
not prevent Iraqis from taking to the streets.
Mr. Maliki said that insurgents, led by members of Mr. Hussein’s Baath Party and
terrorists from Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, were planning to do “everything
possible to create chaos, disturb public order and endanger the state
institutions” through the protests.
“They are attempting to crack down on everything you have achieved, all the
democratic gains, the free elections, the peaceful exchanges of power and
freedom,” he said. “So I call on you from a place of compassion to thwart the
enemy plans by not participating in the demonstrations tomorrow because it’s
suspicious and it will give rise to the voice of those who destroyed Iraq.”
As protests have swept across the Arab world over the past month, there have
been scattered ones in Iraq, calling for better government services like
electricity supplies and job creation — not an entirely new form of government.
In an interview on Iraqi television recorded before Mr. Maliki’s speech, a
spokesman for the United States Embassy in Baghdad said Iraqi officials appeared
to be taking encouraging steps in response to the protests. He said that they
had not outlawed the marches, and that they had ordered security forces not to
use force against peaceful demonstrators.
“We hope that the demonstrations will be peaceful and a powerful affirmation of
Iraqi democracy,” said the spokesman, Aaron Snipe.
In the speech on Thursday, Mr. Maliki said the concerns about government
services were legitimate and blamed insurgents and terrorists for the problems.
Responses to the planned demonstrations have cleaved along familiar lines of
political party and religious sect.
As Mr. Maliki and two prominent Shiites, the populist cleric Moktada al-Sadr and
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged Iraqis not to march on Friday, members of
a large political coalition supported by many of Iraq’s Sunni minority publicly
embraced the demonstrators.
The political bloc, Iraqiya, released a statement on Wednesday that “declared
its solidarity with the just demands of the demonstrators” and warned security
forces not to respond violently to the protests.
Late last year, Iraqiya grudgingly joined a coalition government assembled by
Mr. Maliki, but many of its members have remained sharply critical of him.
Mr. Maliki’s warnings seemed to further inflame some demonstrators already angry
with the government’s failings.
“It is a threat,” said Bushra Amin, who works for a radio station that has been
encouraging the demonstrators. “Iraqis will get the message: if you come out
tomorrow you’ll be responsible for what will happen. This government is so lame
and so unprofessional.”
Ms. Amin said supporters of Mr. Hussein’s overthrown government might be among
the quilt of Communists, liberals, public employees and other political and
social groups who have been filling streets and public squares across Iraq over
the last few weeks. But echoing a common refrain among protesters, she said the
demonstrators were seeking only to reform Iraq’s government, not tear it down.
“They want their rights,” Ms. Amin said. “They want to live like any other
nation, with dignity.”
Fouad Qasim, who was among hundreds of protesters who marched to Baghdad’s
heavily guarded Green Zone several days ago, said Mr. Maliki’s speech was aimed
at maligning and intimidating demonstrators.
“Tomorrow, we’re coming into the street,” he said. “We will not stop.”
Duraid Adnan and Yasir Ghazi contributed reporting.
ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria on Thursday lifted a 19-year-old
state of emergency in a concession to the opposition designed to keep out a wave
of uprisings sweeping the Arab world.
Ending the emergency powers was one of the demands voiced by opposition groups
which have been staging weekly protests in the Algerian capital that sought to
emulate uprisings in Egypt and neighboring Tunisia.
However, one of the organizers of the protests told Reuters this week that
lifting the state of emergency was not enough, and that the government must
allow more democratic freedoms.
An order signed by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika lifting the state of emergency
came into force on Thursday after it was published in the government's official
gazette.
Algeria is a major energy exporter which pumps gas via pipelines under the
Mediterranean to Europe.
The state of emergency was imposed to help the authorities combat Islamist
rebels, but in the past few years the violence has subsided and government
critics have alleged the emergency rules are being used to repress political
freedoms.
The lifting of the state of emergency will have few practical implications. New
rules were also adopted which will allow the military to continue involving
itself in domestic security, as it had done under the emergency powers.
The emergency rules banned protest marches in the capital but Bouteflika said
this month this restriction would remain in force indefinitely.
Bouteflika, who is 73, is likely to remain under pressure -- both from
protesters and from inside the ruling establishment -- to deliver more change
and to explain to the public what he plans to do.
(Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Alison Williams)
MANAMA | Thu Feb 24, 2011
3:08pm EST
Reuters
By Frederik Richter
MANAMA (Reuters) - Bahrain, which has seen thousands of mainly
Shi'ite protesters take to the streets, is seeking a national dialogue where
everything is on the table, the kingdom's foreign minister said on Thursday.
Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said a national dialogue would include "all
walks of people", including a hardline Bahraini opposition figure who was
pardoned and is seeking to return home.
"What's happening in Bahrain is a new transformation, a new beginning for our
reforms that started a decade ago," Sheikh Khaled told Reuters.
"Everything can be brought to the table," Sheikh Khaled said, responding to
questions over whether Bahrain would consider changes in its cabinet in response
to the demands of protesters.
Bahrain saw the worst unrest since the 1990s when seven were killed last week in
protests by its majority Shi'ites that complain of discrimination and want an
elected government.
Sheikh Khaled said he expected formal talks between the government and the
opposition to start within days and that Hassan Mushaimaa, the London-based
leader of the Shi'ite Haq movement, could return to the country.
Mushaimaa has been stranded in Beirut since Tuesday after authorities blocked
him from boarding a flight to Manama because his name was on an international
arrest warrant. A Lebanese judicial source said Mushaimaa's passport had been
seized, but he was not in custody.
"The Bahraini government has distributed his name to borders in the Arab world,"
Abbas al-Amran, a friend of Mushaimaa, told Reuters. "He will not let himself be
arrested. He wants to take a plane and come to Bahrain as an ordinary citizen."
REFORM DEMANDS
Mushaimaa is among 25 people charged last year over an alleged coup plot and was
being tried in absentia. But the government freed the other defendants on
Tuesday as one of several gestures to try to defuse anti-government protests
that at their height drew tens of thousands.
A statement by King Hamad bin Isa on Monday hinted the trial would be shelved,
which would let Mushaimaa return unhindered. Lebanese authorities were checking
with Bahraini authorities on whether to let him fly to Manama, the Lebanese
official said.
Mushaimaa's Haq party is more radical than the Shi'ite Wefaq party, from which
it split in 2006 when Wefaq contested a parliamentary election. Haq's leaders
have often been arrested in recent years, only to receive royal pardons.
Bahrain's protesters want a constitutional monarchy instead of the existing
system where citizens vote for a mostly toothless parliament and policy remains
the preserve of a ruling elite centered on the Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty.
Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa has offered dialogue but has yet
to persuade the opposition that the government is serious about constitutional
reforms. Pro-government supporters have also staged rallies.
"Talks with representatives of Bahrain society and the Crown Prince continue and
positive progress is being made toward the commencement of the national
dialogue," a government statement said.
The Shi'ite opposition Wefaq party, however, said there had been "no progress at
all". Former Wefaq lawmaker Ibrahim Mattar said his party wanted a clear
commitment to a constitutional monarchy before coming to the table.
The al-Khalifa family, which has ruled Bahrain for 200 years, dominates a
cabinet led by the king's uncle, who has been prime minister for 40 years since
independence in 1971.
(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny in Beirut; Writing by
Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Alistair Lyon and Jon Hemming)
Al Qaeda backs Libyan protesters and condemns Gaddafi
DUBAI | Thu Feb 24, 2011
12:59am EST
Reuters
DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's North African wing has condemned Libyan leader
Muammar Gaddafi and expressed solidarity with protesters revolting against his
rule, the SITE Intelligence Group quoted it as saying on Thursday.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) accused Gaddafi of hiring African
mercenaries and ordering aircraft to fire on protestors, SITE said, citing a
jihadist statement issued on Thursday.
AQIM urged Muslim scholars, thinkers and journalists to support the Libyan
people in their uprising.
"We were pained by the carnage and the cowardly massacres carried out by the
killer of innocents Gaddafi against our people and our unarmed Muslim brothers
who only came to lift his oppression, his disbelief, his tyranny and his might,"
AQIM was quoted as saying in the statement.
"We only came out to defend you against these despots who usurped your rights,
plundered your wealth, and prevented you from having the minimum requirements of
a dignified life and the simplest meanings of freedom and human dignity," AQIM
said.
The group, under pressure from Algerian security forces in the north, moved some
of its operations to the desert area straddling Niger, Mali, Algeria and
Mauritania where the vast expanses and porous borders have provided it with a
safe haven.
Massive protests have swept through Arab countries in past weeks, threatening
Gaddafi's four-decade rule after toppling the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia.
"We call upon the Muslim Libyan people to have steadfastness and patience, and
we incite them to continue their struggle and revolution and to escalate it to
oust the criminal tyrant," the group said.
(Reporting by Martina Fuchs; Editing by Maria Golovnina)
February 24, 2011
Filed at 7:51 a.m. EST
The New York Times
By REUTERS
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Residents of Benghazi have jailed those they say
are mercenaries and set up committees to run this eastern city now out of the
control of leader Muammar Gaddafi, who has lost control of swathes of Libya.
A court compound in the center of Benghazi, on the Mediterranean coast, has
become a focal point for those seeking to reimpose law and order after a bloody
rebellion against Gaddafi loyalists who relinquished the city to residents.
A Reuters correspondent was shown about a dozen people held in a court building
who residents said were "mercenaries" backing Gaddafi, some were said to be
African and others from southern Libya.
"They have been interrogated, and they are being kept safe, and they are fed
well," said Imam Bugaighis, 50, a university lecturer now helping organize
committees to run the city, adding that they would be tried according to the
law, but the collapse of institutions of state meant the timing was not clear.
After a week of violence in which it threw off government control, this elegant
Mediterranean port of about 700,000 is starting to run itself under "people's
committees" as the dust of rebellion settles. In the east of Libya, many
soldiers have withdrawn from active service.
Angry residents of Benghazi have destroyed the compound they say was used by
African mercenaries recruited by Gaddafi.
The building where residents said the mercenaries' battalion was holed up stood
in ruins with its shattered walls scrawled upon with graffiti condemning Gaddafi
saying "Libya is Free" and "Down with Gaddafi."
RIDDLED WITH BULLETS
A lawyer in Benghazi said a security committee formed by civilians there on
Monday after they took control of the city had arrested 36 "mercenaries" from
Chad, Niger and Sudan who were hired by Gaddafi's Praetorian Guard.
Tractors and diggers had been used to destroy the mercenaries' building and one
machine was still lodged in the wreckage. A nearby police station was charred
nearby, riddled with bullet holes.
"Even if they bring all the mercenaries in the world we will stand here and
fight in our country," said Aowath Hussein Sady, 45, standing in the compound.
"The Libyan people are one."
Benghazi residents at the compound vowed to fight on.
"Many people attacked this base and the army used heavy, heavy guns ... Many
people died," said Ahmed Sowesy, 40, a microbiologist, adding:
"All the people in this area hate Gaddafi and we are ready if he attacks again.
We haven't guns but we are ready to die."
One police officer said it was now safe for him and his colleagues to be back on
the streets. "We didn't go out before because people didn't want police on the
streets. But we are with them and couldn't leave them," Mohamed Huweidy, 24,
said.
In another eastern city, Tobruk, one resident said the clans will never back
Gaddafi.
"With 1,000 people dead, none of the clans will go back to Gaddafi," said one
man, who just gave his name as Breyek. "We don't know who will govern the
country now but Libyans must act with one hand. No one should rule just the east
or the west."
CHARRED SHELLS
An Interior Ministry building in central Tobruk was burned out and on its wall
was scrawled "Down with American spy Gaddafi." Charred shells of 15 vehicles
were in its courtyard.
"All these were paid for with money stolen from the people and were used to
oppress the people," said a young man who identified himself as Mustafa. "Before
we were killed if we spoke. Now we are free," he said, raising hands in the air.
In one Tobruk square, a group of about 30 men, young and old in civilian clothes
keep guard near the burned out Interior Ministry. They had put up tents to
shelter against the rain.
"We will go from here to Tripoli to fight if it is necessary" said Fathi Ashour,
a young student in the group.
An elderly man in traditional clothes, his head covered wrapped in a scarf with
a long brown robe, said:
"The people will control all of Libya. Gaddafi made no good for the young,
changed nothing. He cannot control the Libyan people. We insist on the end of
the regime. If he had changed things, this would never have happened but he
didn't. My life is done, but we did this for the young. They need a future."
Ali, who declined to give his full name, said:
"I am a revolutionary ... The Libyan people have been hurt too much. The people
woke up on Feb 17 ... There is not really an army in Libya, you should know
that, just a few people to protect the regime for Gaddafi and his sons."
Ali, who was in the navy for 25 years ago and who is now a tourist guide, said:
"There was one of his security camps here in Tobruk. The resistance took control
of the police station here and held it. After we took weapons from these people
and brought safety to our city."
"Everything will get back to normal, the banks will open, that one is already
open," said Ali, pointing to a queue at a bank which had its door open.
"The army is with us. There is not any al Qaeda here, the people from some TV
talked about Qaeda taking over. But there is no al Qaeda. Some people from the
(long time anti-Gaddafi) rebels are supporting us from outside Benghazi but we
don't want their help. They can stay where they are."
Ali accused the Libyan leader of squandering money abroad.
"Gaddafi paid too much of our money for Africa. We like to spend our money on
something useful, not rebellions in Uganda, Burkina Faso, Chad. People here are
very poor. He did not want good for Africa, he wanted good for himself and his
family."
(Writing by Edmund Blair and Peter Millership; editing by Myra MacDonald)
February 24, 2011
The New York Times
By MOTOKO RICH, CATHERINE RAMPELL and DAVID STREITFELD
This article is by Motoko Rich, Catherine Rampell and David Streitfeld.
The American economy just can’t catch a break.
Last year, as things started looking up, the European debt crisis flustered the
fragile recovery. Now, under similar economic circumstances, comes the turmoil
in the Middle East.
Energy prices have surged in recent days, as a result of the political violence
in Libya that has disrupted oil production there. Prices are also climbing
because of fears the unrest may continue to spread to other oil-producing
countries.
If the recent rise in oil prices sticks, it will most likely slow a growth rate
that is already too sluggish to produce many jobs in this country. Some
economists are predicting that oil prices, just above $97 a barrel on Thursday,
could be sustained well above $100 a barrel, a benchmark.
Even if energy costs don’t rise higher, lingering uncertainty over the stability
of the Middle East could drag down growth, not just in the United States but
around the world.
“We’ve gone beyond responding to the sort of brutal Technicolor of the crisis in
Libya,” said Daniel H. Yergin, the oil historian and chairman of IHS Cambridge
Energy Research Associates. “There’s also a strong element of fear of what’s
next, and what’s next after next.”
Before the outbreak of violence in Libya, the Federal Reserve had raised its
forecast for United States growth in 2011, and a stronger stock market had
helped consumers be more confident about the future and more willing to spend.
But other sources of economic uncertainty besides oil prices have come into
sharper focus in recent days. After a few false starts, housing prices have slid
further. New-home sales dropped sharply in January, as did sales of big-ticket
items like appliances, the government reported Thursday.
Though the initial panic from last year has faded, Europe’s deep debt problems
remain, creating another wild card for the global economy. Protests turned
violent in Greece this week in response to new austerity measures.
Budget and debt problems at all levels of American government also threaten to
crimp the domestic recovery. Struggling state and local governments may dismiss
more workers this year as many face their deepest shortfalls since the economic
downturn began, and a Congressional stalemate over the country’s budget could
even lead to a federal government shutdown.
“The irony is that we just barely got ourselves up and off the ground from the
devastating financial crisis,” said Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at
the Economic Outlook Group, who had been optimistic about the country’s
prospects. “The recovery itself is less than two years in, and we haven’t yet
seen jobs make a decent comeback. Now we’re being hit with this new, very
ominous event, so the timing couldn’t be worse.”
Most economists are not yet talking about the United States dipping back into
recession, and it is too soon to tell how far the pro-democracy protests that
have roiled Egypt, Bahrain and Libya will spread. For now, most analysts are not
predicting that Iran and Saudi Arabia, repressive governments that also happen
to be two of the world’s biggest oil producers, will catch the revolutionary
fever.
“But revolutions are notoriously difficult to forecast,” said Chris Lafakas, an
economist at Moody’s Analytics who focuses on energy. Disruptions of oil
supplies in Saudi Arabia and Iran in particular, he said, “would be catastrophic
for prices. Saudi Arabia alone could cause maybe a 20 to 25 percent increase in
oil prices overnight.”
In the last week, oil prices have risen more than 10 percent and even breached
$100 a barrel. A sustained $10 increase in oil prices would shave about
two-tenths of a percentage point off economic growth, according to Dean Maki,
chief United States economist at Barclays Capital. The Federal Reserve had
forecast last week that the United States economy would grow by 3.4 to 3.9
percent in 2011, up from 2.9 percent last year.
Higher oil prices restrain growth because they translate to higher fuel prices
for consumers and businesses. Mr. Lafakas estimates that oil prices are on track
to average $90 a barrel in 2011, from $80 in 2010, an increase that would offset
nearly a quarter of the $120 billion payroll tax cut that Congress had intended
to stimulate the economy this year.
Rising gasoline prices have already led Jayme Webb, an office manager at a
recycling center in Sioux City, Iowa, and her husband, Ken, who works at
Wal-Mart, to cut back on spending.
In the last month, they have canceled their satellite television subscription
and their Internet service. They have also stopped driving from their home in
rural Moville to Sioux City on weekends to see Ms. Webb’s parents.
Along with making their commutes to work more expensive, rising oil prices have
driven up the cost of food for animals and people. So the couple have stopped
buying feed for their dozen sheep and goats and six chickens and instead asked
neighboring farmers to let them use scraps from their corn fields.
“It’s a struggle,” said Ms. Webb, 49. “We have to watch every little penny.”
A cutback in consumer spending reverberates through the economy by crimping
businesses, making it less likely that employers will commit to the additional
hiring needed to lower the 9 percent unemployment rate.
“Revenue is down, costs are up, and you can’t make any money,” said R. Jerol
Kivett, the owner of Kivett’s Inc., a company that manufactures pews and other
church furniture in Clinton, N.C. “You’re just trying to meet payroll and keep
people working, hoping the economy will turn. But it just seems like setback
after setback after setback.”
And the money that consumers and businesses spend on oil often does not stay
within the American economy. Nor do the expanded coffers in oil-producing
countries raise demand for American exports, because they often bank it as
reserves.
“The countries that are getting this bonus basically get an enormous benefit,”
said Raghuram G. Rajan, an economics professor at the University of Chicago.
“But if they can’t spend it quickly, it doesn’t add to aggregate demand.”
The rise in oil prices could also create a vicious cycle, as higher energy costs
propel already rising food prices, which in turn can lead to more political
unrest and more global uncertainty.
Even without the Middle East, the domestic economy has a number of weaknesses
that have proved hard to overcome. The recession was provoked by housing and
worsened by housing, and housing is likely to remain frail in parts of the
country until the end of the decade.
After a couple of brief growth spurts, home prices have started declining again
in earnest.
This week, the Yale economist Robert Shiller speculated about another drop as
large as 25 percent. Anything close to that would push millions more households
to the point where they owe more on their houses than the houses are worth,
generating a lot of sour moods — which can depress consumer spending — more
foreclosures and potential job losses.
Even absent such a decline, lenders remain cautious, punishing those who never
indulged during the boom.
Maria Schneider and Roger Westerman have plenty of equity in their Brooklyn
home, and a 17-year record of paying on time. Last fall, the couple tried to
capitalize on historically low mortgage rates and refinance.
They estimated they would save $360 a month. But their lender said they were a
bad credit risk. The couple, both 48, are self-employed.
“We could be sending all three of our kids to camp this summer instead of just
one,” Mrs. Schneider said.
There are some signs that the economy could weather this latest round of
buffeting. Revenue at many companies is back to prerecession levels, said Scott
Bohannon, a general manager at the Corporate Executive Board, a research and
advisory firm. That suggests companies may start adding equipment, factories
and, eventually, workers.
“Of course, if a war breaks out in a significant way or something like that
happens,” he said, “then I would give you a different answer. Then you’re
talking about huge shocks to the system.”
Analysis: Oil prices could be game-changer for world economy
LONDON | Thu Feb 24, 2011
8:11am EST
Reuters
By Jeremy Gaunt
LONDON (Reuters) - Soaring oil prices are reaching levels that could threaten
to brake improving but tentative global economic recovery, with an outside
chance of a new recession or that most destructive of conditions, stagflation.
If the price spike is sustained, it will soon add pressure on central banks
already worried about food prices to tighten monetary policy, a move that would
mop up some of the liquidity that fostered recovery in the first place.
It will also hit different regions and countries differently, depending on their
underlying economic strength and whether they are oil producers or importers.
Few policymakers or analysts are panicking yet. The spiking price of oil is
related to the turmoil in Libya and fears of a more widespread supply
disruption. It has nothing to do with wider economic fundamentals.
But the numbers are getting high enough to at least raise the prospect of big
trouble for the global economy.
Brent oil was around $115 a barrel on Thursday, hitting its highest level since
August 2008, and U.S. crude was above $100. They were driven by concern the
bloody unrest that has cut more than a quarter of OPEC-member Libya's output
could spread to other producers including Saudi Arabia.
The Brent contract flirted with $120 a barrel in earlier trading, a level
Deutsche Bank says could be an inflection point for global economic growth.
"$120/barrel is the level that oil as a share of global GDP starts to move above
5.5 percent of GDP, which has historically been an environment where global
growth has come under pressure," the bank's analysts said in a note.
Technical analyses indicated that oil prices could smash through their 2008
highs to just below $160 a barrel this year, according to Reuters analyst Wang
Tao.
HOW LONG, HOW FAR
An oft-cited rule of thumb is that a $10 per barrel increase in the price of oil
knocks half a percentage point from global GDP growth.
By this standard, an oil-induced double-dip recession is a long way off. Brent
would have to reach around $190 a barrel for a return to negative growth from
current levels.
The rule is questionable -- the world economy boomed in the mid-noughties while
oil soared. The key is really the sustainability of a high price.
Charles Robertson, chief economist at Renaissance Capital, for example, reckons
that an average annual price of more than $150 a barrel would be akin to the
oil-price shock that hit after the Iranian revolution of 1979.
That pushed oil up to nearly 8 percent of GDP, way above the level at which it
starts battering global growth.
Robertson, however, says the world can handle short-lived spikes that only lift
the GDP impact to 5 percent.
Macquarie economists, meanwhile, calculate that oil needs to be sustainably
above $120, closer to $140, before it starts having a major global impact.
For that to occur it would probably take more than just Libyan revolt. The fear
at the back of many investors' and economists' minds is an even wider breakdown
in stability across the Arab world, particularly if Saudi Arabia was dragged in.
The latest spike in prices, for example, was partly prompted by Goldman Sachs
saying that the market was reacting to fears of contagion to other producing
nations after Libya and that another disruption could create severe oil
shortages and require demand rationing.
All bets would be off if Saudi Arabia succumbed to serious popular revolt. The
top OPEC producer holds more than a fifth of world oil reserves.
Saudi King Abdullah returned home on Wednesday after a three-month medical
absence and unveiled benefits for Saudis worth some $37 billion in an apparent
bid to insulate the world's top oil exporter from an Arab protest wave.
INFLATION
Even if the price is relatively contained, however, any form of sustained rise
will feed into already rising inflationary pressures, threatening monetary
tightening and causing problems of different sorts across the world.
Fast-growing Asian economies such as China's are already struggling to deal with
higher food prices and to keep their economies from over-heating.
Deng Yusong, an economist at China's Development Research Center, a government
think tank, told the hexun.com financial news website that a higher oil price is
not a particular problem for Chinese consumer inflation.
But, looking closer at the heart of the Chinese economic dragon, he added: "The
impact of oil prices on the producer price index may be quite deep."
Elsewhere, higher oil prices are threatening to unwind some of the recovery
plays being carefully crafted by western officials.
Calls are already being heard for the British government to hold off on new
petrol taxes, an income stream that is part of a broader plan to kill off a
burgeoning fiscal deficit.
European Central Bank officials have also become increasingly hawkish about
inflation, despite weak growth in a number of non-core euro zone economies.
Higher prices, meanwhile, are unlikely to do anything positive for U.S.
employment, which continues to lag economic recovery elsewhere and directly
impacts all-important consumer sentiment.
It is the United States that may bear the heaviest inflationary brunt from an
oil shock in the developed world, according to analysis by at Fathom Consulting.
It calculates that oil at $120 would add about 0.5 percentage points to UK and
European inflation but more than 1.5 points to U.S. inflation because of greater
American consumption of oil and its lower energy taxes.
"An increase in oil prices then might still be a problem for all, but it is a
particular problem for the Fed, especially at this point in the 'recovery',"
said Fathom's Andrew Clare.
A repeat of the '70s oil crises, which saw prices spike, global economic growth
dampen and stagflation remains an extreme scenario. But it is not as obscure a
prospect as it was a few weeks ago
(Additional reporting by Mike Peacock and Don Durfee)
Feb 23, 2011
13:54 EST
Reuters
By Una Galani and Fiona Maharg Bravo
The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are
their own.
Arab unrest will test the limits of the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries. The oil cartel has enough spare capacity to cope with
disruptions from Libya and elsewhere. However, the quality of crude differs, and
supply could be squeezed if other member countries were to come under threat.
OPEC has around 5 million barrels per day of spare capacity, mostly in Saudi
Arabia. That’s twice the amount it had during the last oil price spike in 2008.
In addition, members of the International Energy Agency have sufficient
stockpiles to pump an extra 2 million barrels a day for two years if necessary.
These reserves are more than sufficient to cover a total shutdown in Libya,
which produces around 1.6 million barrels per day, equivalent to 2 percent of
global output. Even if Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen also stopped production at the
same time, the total loss to world oil output would only add up to 2.7 million
barrels per day.
Revolutions and riots in these countries have so far led to manageable
disruption. Nevertheless, oil above $110 per barrel suggests markets are pricing
in further upheaval. Turmoil in Algeria, with 1.8 million barrels per day, would
really spook the market. And if unrest spread to Saudi Arabia, which accounts
for about 12 percent of global oil production, a big shock would be on the
cards.
What’s more, not all oil is the same. Libya’s high quality crude can’t easily be
replaced with supplies from other OPEC members. The increase in worldwide
refining capacity in recent years may ease this problem. Italy, which imports
about 22 percent of its oil from Libya, has enough extra capacity to process
heavier oils, according to STRATFOR, a global intelligence consultancy. But the
difference in quality complicates the picture. So does timing; prices react
immediately, but it would take Saudi up to one month to bring
extra barrels to market.
Damage to infrastructure from the current tumult could also lead to a lasting
squeeze. Countries in Asia with small stockpiles may also feel more pinched. In
the long run, oil-dependent countries cannot afford to turn off the taps for
long. Even so, the next few months are bound to be bumpy.
Neglect, tribalism, history fuel east Libya revolt
Wed, Feb 23 2011
Reuters
By Alexander Dziadosz
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Discrimination and oppression were two of the
main causes of a rebellion against Muammar Gaddafi in eastern Libya, a region
with a history of revolting against authority.
During his four decades in power, experts say Gaddafi has favored tribes in and
around Tripoli at the expense of the eastern regions where much of Libya's oil
resources are located and which have fallen from his grip this week.
"Benghazi should be the capital of eastern Libya, but it never gets any
development," said Ibrahim Mohamed, a resident of the city where crowds on
Wednesday celebrated what they hoped was a permanent end to Gaddafi's rule over
them.
Anti-Gaddafi rebels are in control of territory stretching from the border with
Egypt to at least as far as Benghazi -- the same region where Omar Mukhtar led
resistance against Italian control in the 1920s and Gaddafi faced a revolt in
the 1990s.
Memories of oppression run deep.
Abdu Salem Mohamed, who is unemployed, said he had taken to the streets to
protest against "the devil" Gaddafi as far back as 1975. "I've been put in
prison four times," he said.
Residents in Benghazi are still scarred by the deaths of relatives killed in a
prison in Tripoli in 1996. Photos of the dead were on display in Benghazi on
Wednesday.
"All of them are my brothers," Abdullah Hamed, a 41-year-old engineer said, as
he gestured at photos of some of the people killed in the Abu Salim prison
killings.
"We have been suffering for 41 years," said 45-year-old Hamida Muftah. "Gaddafi
has killed people and has taken educated people and put them in prison."
The revolt has spread as far as Tripoli, where Gaddafi is hanging onto power in
the face of a mutiny among some officials and an international outcry over his
attempts to crush the uprising. At least 1,000 people have been killed.
"The eastern region has always represented a permanent headache, to Italian
colonialism and to the various rulers including the monarchy and Gaddafi," said
Saad Djebbar, a commentator and expert on North Africa.
Libya's east, he added, had always been more influenced than other parts of the
country by events in neighboring Egypt, whose revolt against President Hosni
Mubarak helped inspire the revolt against Gaddafi.
TRIBES OF THE EAST
Gaddafi has ruled Libya since 1969, or most of the post-independence period of a
country stitched together within its current borders in the middle of the 20th
century, joining the province of Tripolitania with Cyrenaica in the east.
The tribes in the east have resented the patronage and privilege Gaddafi has
bestowed over those centered in and around Tripoli.
"They have been complaining about an unfair distribution of resources," said
Claire Spencer, head of the Middle East program at Chatham House in London.
"It's the concentration of the Gaddafi tribal networks in Tripoli that has
favored investment and patronage there over Benghazi," she said.
Members of the Libyan security forces in the east are among those who have
revolted against Gaddafi, their tribal affiliations having trumped any loyalty
to the leader who is hanging onto power in Tripoli.
"Gaddafi has always thought that there are people in eastern Libya, in Benghazi
and Ajdabiya and so on, that are not very trustworthy and not very loyal," said
Dirk Vandewalle, a Libya expert at Dartmouth College, in the United States.
"Remember that Libya was kind of artificially created in 1951 and the provinces
at the time, Cyrenaica where Benghazi is, and Tripolitania where Tripoli is, had
very little in common.
"From the beginning there were issues with that partnership and that increased
even further when oil was discovered that kind of straddled both provinces," he
said.
(Additional reporting by Tom Perry in Cairo and Christian Lowe in Algiers;
Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Peter Millership and Caroline Drees)
February 23, 2011
The New York Times
By DIRK VANDEWALLE
Hanover, N.H.
TWO images serve as bookends to the four-decades-old rule of Libya’s ruler, Col.
Muammar el-Qaddafi. The first is the picture taken a few days after the Sept. 1,
1969, coup that brought him to power: it shows a handsome, pencil-thin
revolutionary in military uniform, kneeling in the desert sand to pray. The
other was taken two days ago: Colonel Qaddafi in bedouin garb as an uprising
sparked by the arrest of a human rights lawyer in Benghazi continued to overtake
the country, defiantly and incoherently defending his self-styled revolution,
vowing to struggle on until death.
Between those two shots lie 42 years of iron-fisted rule, and thousands of
photos that show him slowly turning from a young firebrand to a mastermind of
international terrorism; from ambitious new ruler, bent on restoring the
grandeur of Arab nationalism after the assassination of his hero President Gamal
Abdel Nasser of Egypt to international pariah; from would-be philosopher to
clownish figure whose demagoguery was derided by friend and foe alike. And,
finally, after years of sanctions by the United States and the international
community, a much older but equally combative Colonel Qaddafi was seemingly
rehabilitated by the West.
After the 1969 revolution, Western leaders initially believed that the new
Libyan regime would follow in the kingdom’s footsteps, with a pro-Western bent
to its policies. It quickly became clear, however, that Colonel Qaddafi was no
ordinary Arab leader who would live by the conventions of international behavior
or decorum.
Once Colonel Qaddafi assumed power, his message was unambiguous: he cast himself
and Libya as a bulwark against what he perceived as the predations of the West.
The brutality of the Italian colonial period — which had lasted from 1911
through 1943 and led to the deaths of perhaps half of the population of Libya’s
eastern province — would become for him an enduring obsession. The Italians had
destroyed whatever embryonic bureaucratic and administrative structures had been
in place before they invaded, so Libya had few elements of modern statehood. And
the monarchy — headed by King Idris I, who showed no love for ruling a unified
Libya — had for almost 20 years largely left matters as they were when the
Italians left.
What was not clear at the start of the 1969 revolution was how tortuous Colonel
Qaddafi’s path would become. Fueled by ample petrodollars, he would descend into
an increasingly self-contained and self-reverential world, a closed system fed
and reinforced by the sycophancy that always surrounds dictators and that brooks
no opposition.
In the early 1970s, by nationalizing the country’s oil companies, Colonel
Qaddafi provided himself with a healthy dose of legitimacy at home, but also
with increasing suspicion from the West. In the mid-’70s, he demonstrated his
growing lack of perspective by publishing his manifesto, the Green Book, a slim
collection of incoherent ramblings that he offered as the ideological guide to
what he saw as Libya’s never ending “revolution.”
Soon the contents of the Green Book became national slogans. “The house belongs
to those who live in it,” said one, forcing landlords who owned multiple
dwellings to give up their properties (or to hastily arrange marriages to keep
them in the family). Another insisted that “democracy is the abortion of an
individual’s rights.” Colonel Qaddafi came to be referred to as the Leader or
the Guide, the oracle for an unsteady revolution.
Increasingly, however, Colonel Qaddafi’s philosophical musings and his grand
ideas for a new society clashed with what was becoming a visibly darker side of
the regime. Libyans found themselves in an Orwellian nightmare where even small
utterances of protest could lead to disappearances, prolonged incarceration
without any form of legal redress and torture. Entire families were made to
suffer from the alleged transgressions of one of its members.
Even exile could not provide escape from the terror. In a campaign to kill what
Colonel Qaddafi termed “stray dogs,” he had assassination teams gun down
dissidents abroad. When, in 1984, Libyan protestors demonstrated in front of
their embassy in London, a police officer, who was trying to keep demonstrators
at bay, was killed by a bullet fired from inside the embassy. That led the
British government to break off diplomatic relations with the regime.
Colonel Qaddafi’s willingness to flout international conventions and his
government’s well-documented involvement in terrorist incidents led inexorably
to a sustained confrontation with the West and made the Libyan leader a pariah.
President Ronald Reagan famously labeled him “the mad dog of the Middle East,”
and the image of an irrational Colonel Qaddafi, hell-bent on destroying Western
interests at all costs and by all methods, became the world’s lingering image of
him. The bombing of a Pan Am plane over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, which
killed 270 people, was only the final confirmation of his madness and evil.
After Lockerbie, Libya was plunged into isolation and remained there for more
than a decade. Colonel Qaddafi ranted and raved, his speeches becoming even more
apocalyptic. He blamed American or Zionist conspiracies — or a fifth column in
Libya working at their behest — for every little setback his country suffered.
Armed with large ambitions, and large amounts of cash, he struck back at the
West — by committing more acts of terrorism, like the bombing of the La Belle
disco in Germany in 1986, which killed two American soldiers, and attempting to
create and purchase biological weapons and nuclear arms technology. He also
supported unsavory liberation movements and causes throughout the world, ranging
from small opposition movements in sub-Saharan Africa to the Irish Republican
Army. But he was severely hemmed in by the world’s economic and diplomatic
sanctions.
In December 2003, Libya finally agreed to give up whatever supplies of chemical,
biological and nuclear weapons it possessed. This promise came at the end of a
long process of behind-the-scenes negotiations with Britain and the United
States, and was one of the conditions Colonel Qaddafi met in order to end the
sanctions. It marked the beginning of his rehabilitation into international
society.
The regime now sought in earnest to portray Muammar el-Qaddafi to the world as
he had always envisioned himself: a global figure of major proportion, a
visionary thinker whose ideas about democracy were worthy of serious
intellectual contemplation. Among these ideas was Colonel Qaddafi’s notion of
Israteen, a unitary state that would house both Palestine and Israel.
The Libyan government paid an international consulting firm to help create a
forum to bring well-known public pundits and personalities to Libya to debate
with the “leader of the revolution” on the nature of democracy. The appearance
in Libya of leading Western intellectuals and public figures — willing to
indulge a dictator’s whims and fancies for a handful of petrodollars — fed
Colonel Qaddafi’s conviction that the Green Book was still relevant, and that
his outworn revolution and his own stature as a world leader were important.
The man who had once personified terrorism thus became our valued ally in the
fight against terrorism. We could live with his foibles and occasional ranting
in return for his cooperation. So he provided intelligence on Islamic groups in
his country, and on at least one occasion accepted a terrorist detainee for
interrogation — and American oil companies, along with various other United
States businesses, returned to Libya. Colonel Qaddafi had come full circle, or
so many believed.
But now that the Libyan regime — like those of Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain
— is besieged by a popular uprising, the image of Colonel Qaddafi as the vicious
monster who will go to any lengths to survive has reappeared. Hundreds of
civilians have been killed by security forces and hired mercenaries, even as
pro-Qaddafi forces have had to abandon Benghazi and most of the eastern province
of Cyrenaica.
On Monday, when the leader went on television with his Green Book in hand, his
diatribe was incoherent but familiar. His opponents, he said, were nothing but
dogs and cockroaches, and he would squash and kill them.
Gone were the flowery niceties of democratic theory. Back again was the reality
of brutal suppression. However, the terrible events of the past week do recall a
line from the Green Book, written with perfect sangfroid by Col. Muammar
el-Qaddafi: “This is genuine democracy, but in reality the strong always rule.”
Dirk Vandewalle, an associate professor of government at Dartmouth, is the
author of “Modern Libya.”
Arab Unrest Propels Iran as Saudi Influence Declines
February 23, 2011
The New York Times
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
MANAMA, Bahrain — The popular revolts shaking the Arab world have begun to
shift the balance of power in the region, bolstering Iran’s position while
weakening and unnerving its rival, Saudi Arabia, regional experts said.
While it is far too soon to write the final chapter on the uprisings’ impact,
Iran has already benefited from the ouster or undermining of Arab leaders who
were its strong adversaries and has begun to project its growing influence, the
analysts said. This week Iran sent two warships through the Suez Canal for the
first time since its revolution in 1979, and Egypt’s new military leaders
allowed them to pass.
Saudi Arabia, an American ally and a Sunni nation that jousts with Shiite Iran
for regional influence, has been shaken. King Abdullah on Wednesday signaled his
concern by announcing a $10 billion increase in welfare spending to help young
people marry, buy homes and open businesses, a gesture seen as trying to head
off the kind of unrest that fueled protests around the region.
King Abdullah then met with the king of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, to
discuss ways to contain the political uprising by the Shiite majority there. The
Sunni leaders in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain accuse their Shiite populations of
loyalty to Iran, a charge rejected by Shiites who say it is intended to stoke
sectarian tensions and justify opposition to democracy.
The uprisings are driven by domestic concerns. But they have already shredded a
regional paradigm in which a trio of states aligned with the West supported
engaging Israel and containing Israel’s enemies, including Hamas and Hezbollah,
experts said. The pro-engagement camp of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia is now
in tatters. Hosni Mubarak of Egypt has been forced to resign, King Abdullah of
Jordan is struggling to control discontent in his kingdom and Saudi Arabia has
been left alone to face a rising challenge to its regional role.
“I think the Saudis are worried that they’re encircled — Iraq, Syria, Lebanon;
Yemen is unstable; Bahrain is very uncertain,” said Alireza Nader, an expert in
international affairs with the RAND Corporation. “They worry that the region is
ripe for Iranian exploitation. Iran has shown that it is very capable of taking
advantage of regional instability.”
“Iran is the big winner here,” said a regional adviser to the United States
government who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized
to speak to reporters.
Iran’s circumstances could change, experts cautioned, if it overplayed its hand
or if popular Arab movements came to resent Iranian interference in the region.
And it is by no means assured that pro-Iranian groups would dominate politics in
Egypt, Tunisia or elsewhere.
For now, Iran and Syria are emboldened. Qatar and Oman are tilting toward Iran,
and Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain and Yemen are in play.
“If these ‘pro-American’ Arab political orders currently being challenged by
significant protest movements become at all more representative of their
populations, they will for sure become less enthusiastic about strategic
cooperation with the United States,” Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett,
former National Security Council staff members, wrote in an e-mail.
They added that at the moment, Iran’s leaders saw that “the regional balance is
shifting, in potentially decisive ways, against their American adversary and in
favor of the Islamic Republic.” Iran’s standing is stronger in spite of its
challenges at home, with a troubled economy, high unemployment and a determined
political opposition.
The United States may also face challenges in pressing its case against Iran’s
nuclear programs, some experts asserted.
“Recent events have also taken the focus away from Iran’s nuclear program and
may make regional and international consensus on sanctions even harder to
achieve,” Mr. Nader said. Iran’s growing confidence is based on a gradual
realignment that began with the aftershocks of the Sept. 11 attacks. By ousting
the Taliban in Afghanistan, and then Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the United States
removed two of Iran’s regional enemies who worked to contain its ambitions.
Today, Iran is a major player in both nations, an unintended consequence.
Iran demonstrated its emboldened attitude this year in Lebanon when its ally,
Hezbollah, forced the collapse of the pro-Western government of Saad Hariri. Mr.
Hariri was replaced with a prime minister backed by Hezbollah, a bold move that
analysts say was undertaken with Iran’s support.
“Iraq and Lebanon are now in Iran’s sphere of influence with groups that have
been supported by the hard-liners for decades,” said Muhammad Sahimi, an Iran
expert in Los Angeles who frequently writes about Iranian politics. “Iran is a
major player in Afghanistan. Any regime that eventually emerges in Egypt will
not be as hostile to Hamas as Mubarak was, and Hamas has been supported by Iran.
That may help Iran to increase its influence there even more.”
Iran could also benefit from the growing assertiveness of Shiites in general.
Shiism is hardly monolithic, and Iran does not speak on behalf of all Shiites.
But members of that sect are linked by faith and by their strong sense that they
have been victims of discrimination by the Sunni majority. Events in Bahrain
illustrate that connection well.
Bahrain has about 500,000 citizens, 70 percent of them Shiite. The nation has
been ruled by a Sunni family since it was captured from the Persians in the 18th
century. The Shiites have long argued that they are discriminated against in
work, education and politics. Last week, they began a public uprising calling
for democracy, which would bring them power. The government at first used lethal
force to try to stop the opposition, killing seven. It is now calling for a
dialogue while the protesters, turning out in huge numbers, are demanding the
government’s resignation.
But demonstrators have maintained their loyalty to Bahrain. The head of the
largest Shiite party, Al Wefaq, said that the party rejected Iran’s type of
Islamic government. On Tuesday, a leading member of the party, Khalil Ebrahim
al-Marzooq, said he was afraid that the king was trying to transform the
political dispute into a sectarian one. He said there were rumors the king would
open the border with Saudi Arabia and let Sunni extremists into the country to
attack the demonstrators.
“The moment that any border opens by the government, means the other borders
will open,” he said. “You don’t expect people will see their similar sect being
killed and not interfere. We will not call them.”
February 23, 2011
The New York Times
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
CAIRO
By telephone, I reached a family in Tripoli, Libya, with deep roots in the armed
forces there, and members of the family offered some insight into what we should
do to help nudge Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi from power.
One member of the family is a senior naval officer who says that his ship and
two others were ordered to sail to the major city of Benghazi, which has been
liberated by rebels. The boats were instructed to attack Benghazi, he said,
speaking through an English-speaking family member.
Some of the senior officers were aghast at the idea of attacking civilians but
feared summary execution if they disobeyed orders, by his account. In that tense
situation, the officer said, four officials supporting Colonel Qaddafi staged a
rally for him on the naval base. Other officers then hushed them up without
explicitly condemning the government, my contact said, and there was a fierce
argument that ended with the pro-Qaddafi group giving way because it was far
outnumbered by the anti-Qaddafi forces.
There has been no mutiny, and in theory the naval officers accepted their
orders, my contact said. But in practice they have not yet set sail. I can’t say
more for fear of getting some very brave people in trouble.
Likewise, in another phone call to Tripoli, I was given firsthand information
about an air force unit in the Tripoli area that is staying on base and
refraining from getting involved in the fighting one way or the other. The
unit’s leaders don’t dare disobey orders directly, but they are waiting and
watching and sitting out the fighting for now.
Those are the people we need to send signals to: Libyan military officers who
are wavering about which way to turn their guns.
We shouldn’t invade Libya, but there are steps the international community can
take that may make a difference by influencing these officers who haven’t yet
committed. Senator John Kerry, the Genocide Intervention Network, the
International Crisis Group and others have laid out sensible steps that
countries can take. These include:
•
Offer a safe haven for Libyan pilots ordered to bomb their country. For example,
they could be encouraged to land on airstrips in Malta or neighboring countries.
Even if not many took advantage of the offer, Colonel Qaddafi might be more
reluctant to dispatch his air force if he thought he might lose it.
•
Impose financial and trade sanctions on Libya, as President Nicolas Sarkozy of
France has suggested, and freeze assets of the Qaddafi family. In particular,
military exchanges and weapons transfers should be canceled. Sanctions take time
to bite (aside from a cutoff from the global banking system), but they would
signal to those around Colonel Qaddafi that he is going down and they should not
obey his orders.
•
Impose a no-fly zone, as Libya’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations
proposed after he defected, to prevent the government from bombing or strafing
its own people. This is what we did to prevent Saddam Hussein from attacking his
Kurdish population, and in Libya we could do it without dispatching NATO
aircraft to hover continually over the region. We can warn Libya (publicly or
quietly) that if military aircraft or ships are used against civilians, Libya’s
military assets will later be destroyed. The aim is to encourage the air force
and navy to keep their assets from being used against civilians.
•
Encourage the Arab League and African Union to continue to pressure Libya in
connection with the killing of its people. Such efforts undermine Colonel
Qaddafi’s nationalist warnings that this is about foreign powers trying to
re-colonize Libya and encourage his aides to appreciate that he is losing all
his allies.
•
Seek a referral by the United Nations Security Council to the International
Criminal Court for the prosecution of Colonel Qaddafi for crimes against
humanity.
Skeptics will note that none of these moves would convince Colonel Qaddafi to be
any more genteel. And these are uncertain levers, creating some risk that he
would respond by going after citizens of the United States. But there are two
reasons why I think it’s very important to pull these levers.
The first is that so many Libyans have defected or seem to be wavering. That
military family in Tripoli estimates that only 10 percent of those in the Libyan
armed forces are behind Colonel Qaddafi — and the rest are wondering what to do
next.
The second is that as this democracy uprising spreads, other despots may be
encouraged to follow Colonel Qaddafi’s example. We need to make very sure that
the international reaction is so strong — and the scorched-earth strategy so
unsuccessful — that no other despot is tempted to declare war on his own people.
Qaddafi Massing Forces in Tripoli as Rebellion Spreads
February 23, 2011
The New York Times
By KAREEM FAHIM and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
BAIDA, Libya — As rebellion crept closer to the capital and defections of
military officers multiplied, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi called on thousands of
mercenaries and irregular security forces on Wednesday to defend his bastion in
Tripoli, in what residents said was a desperate and dangerous turn in the
week-old uprising.
Distrustful of even his own generals, Colonel Qaddafi has for years quietly
built up this ruthless and loyal force. It is made up of special brigades headed
by his sons, segments of the military loyal to his native tribe and its allies,
and legions of African mercenaries he has helped train and equip. Many are
believed to have fought elsewhere, in places like Sudan, but he has now called
them back.
Witnesses said thousands of members of this irregular army were massing on roads
to the capital, Tripoli, where one resident described scenes evocative of
anarchic Somalia: clusters of heavily armed men in mismatched uniforms clutching
machine guns and willing to carry out orders to kill Libyans that other police
and military units, and even fighter pilots, have refused.
Some residents of Tripoli said they took the gathering army as a sign that the
uprising might be entering a decisive stage, with Colonel Qaddafi fortifying his
main stronghold in the capital and protesters there gearing up for their first
organized demonstration after days of spontaneous rioting and bloody crackdowns.
The fall of other cities to rebels on Wednesday, including Misurata, 130 miles
east of the capital, left Colonel Qaddafi more embattled — and his opponents
emboldened.
“A message comes to every mobile phone about a general protest on Friday in
Tripoli,” one resident of Tripoli said. Colonel Qaddafi’s menacing speech to the
country on Tuesday — when he vowed to hunt down opponents “house by house” —
increased their determination “100 percent,” the resident said.
Dozens of checkpoints operated by a combination of foreign mercenaries and
plainclothes militiamen lined the road west of Tripoli for the first time,
witnesses said, requiring not only the presentation of official papers but also
displays of flag-waving, fist-pumping enthusiasm for Colonel Qaddafi, who has
long fashioned himself as a pan-African icon.
“You are trying to convince them you are a loyalist,” one resident said, “and
the second they realize that you are not, you are done for.”
The overall death toll so far has been impossible to determine. Human rights
groups say they have confirmed about 300 deaths, though witnesses suggested the
number was far larger. On Wednesday, Franco Frattini, the foreign minister of
Italy — the former colonial power with longstanding ties — said that nationwide
more than 1,000 people were probably dead in the strife.
Egyptian officials said Wednesday that nearly 30,000 people — mostly Egyptians
working in Libya — had fled across their border. People fleeing west into
Tunisia said the rebellion was now taking off far from its origins just a week
ago in the eastern city of Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city, which fell
over the weekend.
There were reports for the first time of protests in the southern city of Sabha,
considered a Qaddafi stronghold.
On Wednesday, in addition to the northwestern city of Misurata, protesters
claimed victory in nearby Zawai, where local army units are said to have joined
them. Some said there had been intense fighting in the past few nights in the
town of Sabratha, home of an important Roman archaeological site 50 miles west
of Tripoli, where witnesses on Wednesday reported a heavy deployment of
machine-gun toting foreign mercenaries and Qaddafi loyalists known as
revolutionary committees.
“The revolutionary committees are trying to kill everyone who is against
Qaddafi,” said a doctor fleeing Sabratha, declining to give his name for fear of
reprisals if he returned.
But amid spreading rebellion and growing defections by top officials, diplomats
and segments of the regular army, Colonel Qaddafi’s preparations for a defense
of Tripoli also reframed the question of who might still be enforcing his rule.
It is a puzzle that military analysts say reflects the singular character of the
society he has shaped — half tribal, half police state — for the past 41 years.
“It is all shadow and mirrors and probably a great deal of corruption as well,”
said Paul Sullivan, a professor at Georgetown who has studied the Libyan
military.
Colonel Qaddafi, who took power in a military coup, has always kept the Libyan
military too weak and divided to do the same thing to him. About half its
relatively small 50,000-member army is made up of poorly trained and unreliable
conscripts, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Many of its battalions are organized along tribal lines, ensuring their loyalty
to their own clan rather than to top military commanders — a pattern evident in
the defection of portions of the army to help protesters take the eastern city
of Benghazi.
Colonel Qaddafi’s own clan dominates the air force and the upper level of army
officers, and they are believed to have remained loyal to him, in part because
his clan has the most to lose from his ouster.
Other clans, like the large Warfalla tribe, have complained that they have been
shut out of the top ranks, Professor Sullivan noted, which may help explain why
they were among the first to turn on Colonel Qaddafi.
Untrusting of his officers, Colonel Qaddafi built up an elaborate paramilitary
force — accompanied by special segments of the regular army that report
primarily to his family. It is designed to check the army and in part to subdue
his own population. At the top of that structure is his roughly 3,000-member
revolutionary guard corps, which mainly guards him personally.
Then there are the militia units controlled by Colonel Qaddafi’s seven sons. A
cable from the United States Embassy in Libya released by WikiLeaks described
his son Khamis’s private battalion as the best equipped in the Libyan Army.
His brother Sa’ad has reportedly used his private battalion to help him secure
business deals. And a third brother, Muatassim, is Colonel Qaddafi’s national
security adviser. In 2008 he asked for $2.8 billion to pay for a battalion of
his own, to keep up with his brothers.
But perhaps the most significant force that Colonel Qaddafi has deployed against
the current insurrection is one believed to consist of about 2,500 mercenaries
from countries like Chad, Sudan and Niger that he calls his Islamic Pan African
Brigade.
Colonel Qaddafi began recruiting for his force years ago as part of a scheme to
bring the African nations around Libya into a common union, and the mercenaries
he trained are believed to have returned to Sudan and other bloody conflicts
around Africa. But from the accounts of many witnesses Colonel Qaddafi is
believed to have recalled them — and perhaps others — to help suppress the
uprising.
Since the Libyan military withdrew from the eastern border, Egyptian officials
said, tens of thousands of Egyptians — many of whom had worked in Libya’s
oil-propelled economy — have fled back to Egypt. About 4,200 crossed over on
Sunday, a similar number on Monday, and about 20,000 on Tuesday, when border
security collapsed.
The Egyptian authorities said the migrants brought the bodies of three people
killed in the crackdown on Benghazi, five people wounded by bullets and 14
others who were taken to a hospital with serious injuries. Many complained that
they had been attacked and robbed by the mercenaries, officials said.
Mustafa Said Ahmed, 26-year-old accountant who had worked in Benghazi, said in
an interview that he saw 11 people killed by the mercenaries in “a massacre”
after the noon prayer last Friday.
The country’s long-serving interior minister, Gen. Abdel Fattah Younes al-Abidi,
said Wednesday that he had decided to resign after the people of Benghazi were
shot down with machine guns.
In an interview with CNN, he said he had argued against Colonel Qaddafi’s
intention to use airplanes to bomb that city, the nation’s second largest,
warning that it would kill thousands. State media, however, claimed he had been
kidnapped by “gangs.”
The justice minister has already resigned for similar reasons. Two Libyan
bombers diverted to Malta rather than bomb civilians, and on Wednesday a Libyan
newspaper reported that a third Libyan military pilot had downed his bomber in
the eastern province rather than carry out a mission to bomb Benghazi.
After nightfall on Wednesday, witnesses reported sporadic bursts of gunfire
around Tripoli neighborhoods. But they said the streets seemed eerily deserted.
Green Square, which had been a rallying point for pro-Qaddafi forces, had only a
few hundred left in it. And the state television headquarters, which had been
heavily guarded, was left almost unattended.
Elsewhere, there were signs that Colonel Qaddafi’s forces were refortifying. For
the first time, witnesses said, at least four army tanks had rolled into the
streets of the capital.
Kareem Fahim reported from Baida, Libya, and David D. Kirkpatrick from the
Tunisian border with Libya. Reporting was contributed by Sharon Otterman, Mona
El-Naggar, Neil MacFarquhar and Liam Stack from Cairo.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: February 23, 2011
An earlier version of this article misstated the location of Misurata. The city
is roughly 130 miles east, of the capital, not west.
February 23, 2011
The New York Times
By KAREEM FAHIM
SHAHHAT, Libya — Opponents of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi held a former state
radio station in this town on Wednesday, which they had renamed Free Libya and
clearly intended to keep.
Stationed in front of the gate were burly guards with enormous machines guns and
ammunition belts slung over their shoulders. Not far away, other armed men
guarded an airport, and throughout the rebellious eastern half of this country,
the protesters set up checkpoints and flew the old Libyan flag.
But at the radio station, Hamdi Zaidy, a former Libyan ambassador to Nigeria who
has joined the antigovernment protesters, asked that any conversations about the
state of the country be conducted outside of the building. “Qaddafi could bomb
at any time,” said Mr. Zaidy, who was armed with a tiny Italian pistol.
One of the guards was actually a medical student. Mr. Zaidy said he was unsure
whether the student knew how to use his machine gun.
Committed but ragtag, and with no weaponry to match a state’s power, Libya’s
rebels anxiously awaited Colonel Qaddafi’s fall and hoped that their fellow
citizens — and especially Colonel Qaddafi’s air force pilots — would join their
side.
Though cities all along Libya’s eastern coast appeared to be controlled by
Colonel Qaddafi’s opponents, supported by defecting soldiers and police
officers, that control seemed tenuous and largely subject to the whims of the
colonel’s feared militias and mercenaries, along with helicopters and fighter
planes.
Alongside that fear was a determination to succeed, if only because for many of
the protesters, failure to remove Colonel Qaddafi would mean death.
Others decided it was better to leave, and minivans filled with Egyptians
streamed toward the border on Wednesday, past a cluster of people waiting for
scarce cooking gas in Baida and past lines that formed at a gas station near the
coastal town of Darnah.
Rumors circulated about the scale of the carnage in Tripoli, the capital,
thought to number hundreds of deaths. Two people who spoke to relatives in
Tripoli said the security forces had started staking out hospitals in order to
arrest wounded protesters.
Mustafa Mohamed Abd al-Jalil, who recently quit his post as the justice minister
and joined the protests, said different units of the security forces, led by
three of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons, were still stationed around Tripoli.
Mr. Jalil, who was appointed to his post by one of the sons, Seif al-Islam
Qaddafi, in 2007, said there were rumors of disagreements among the sons but no
rift. He said that mercenaries had been arrested in eastern Libya, many of them
coming from Chad and Niger, and that most of them had been hanged.
As he saw it, Colonel Qaddafi was teetering, and there was little chance he
would survive. “If Tripoli falls, he will kill himself,” Mr. Jalil said. “Or the
people close to him — maybe one of his sons — will kill him.”
In the meantime, Libyans focused their anger on the leader’s effigy, drawing
Colonel Qaddafi as a clown in graffiti on a wall, or kicking a fallen poster of
him at the La Abraq Airport, which had been the scene of a fierce battle last
week. As the protesters told the story, a group of citizens traveled to the
airport last week after hearing that mercenaries flown in by Colonel Qaddafi had
arrived to put down the rebellion.
With eyes bruised from a beating and lacerations on his wrists, Rafaa Saad
Younis said that he was among the group that went to the airport, but he said
that he was taken hostage along with two dozen other people by a group of
mercenaries and soldiers. He said the security forces killed people “in front of
my eyes.”
Nothing set off both anger and talk of brutal revenge like the mercenaries.
Cellphone videos were passed around among friends, showing black men, dead or
being beaten.
Not far from the radio station, teenagers from Chad were among about 200 people
detained in a school, people the government apparently sent to put down the
uprising. Some said they belonged to the brigade supervised by Khamis Qaddafi,
one of the colonel’s sons.
In one room, 76 men practically slept on top of one another, and one of them,
Osman Ali, said they had come from the southern Libyan city of Sabha, which is
loyal to Colonel Qaddafi. He said he and his fellow prisoners, along with
hundreds of other people, were asked to attend a pro-Qaddafi rally in Tripoli
last week, and then were put on a plane.
They were flown to Benghazi, he said, and were then sent to an army base that
was surrounded by angry citizens. Mr. Ali said he and the other men never picked
up weapons, but, he added, “We’re ashamed of what we did.”
It was no surprise that the revolt started here, in a part of Libya ignored by
the government, said Mahmoud Mabrouk, whose niece was killed in last week’s
violence. “It was a very oppressive regime, and this area was deprived,” said
Mr. Mabrouk, who was visiting the Shahhat radio station. “If you go to Tripoli,
you will see new projects and job opportunities for people.”
The reasons for the revolt were not all economic. The recent uprising started
with an old memory: the police last week arrested a human rights lawyer
representing the relatives of more than 1,000 detainees, mostly from eastern
Libya, who were massacred in 1996 at a Tripoli prison.
Eastern Libya was also a center of resistance against the Italian occupation in
the early 20th century, Mr. Mabrouk said. He mentioned Omar al-Mokhtar, who
fought a guerrilla war against the Italians and was hanged in 1931.
With Colonel Qaddafi’s posters gone, Mr. Mokhtar’s face almost alone decorates
the streets of eastern Libyan towns.
Why the Disruption of Libyan Oil Has Led to a Price Spike
February 23, 2011
The New York Times
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
HOUSTON — Crude oil prices reached $100 a barrel in the United States on
Wednesday, the highest price in more than two years, as Middle East oil flows
were interrupted this week for the first time since the region’s turmoil began.
Multinational oil companies have curtailed production in Libya as protesters
engage in violent confrontation with the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
Analysts estimate that as many as a million barrels of Libyan oil a day have
been removed from world markets in recent days, and investors fear that more oil
production could be disrupted if the unrest spreads to other crucial producing
nations, like Algeria.
More broadly, economists are concerned that if oil prices stay high this year,
they could slow the already fragile global economic recovery. As a general rule
of thumb, every $10 increase in the price of a barrel of oil reduces the growth
of the gross domestic product by half a percentage point within two years.
Libya produces less than 2 percent of the world’s oil, and exports little to the
United States. But the high quality of its reserves magnifies its importance in
world markets.
Libya’s “sweet” crude oil cannot be easily replaced in the production of
gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, particularly by the many European and Asian
refineries that are not equipped to refine “sour” crude, which is higher in
sulfur content. Saudi Arabia has more than four million barrels of spare
capacity and has promised to tap it if necessary, but that capacity is mostly
for sour grades of oil.
Should the turmoil in Libya last for more than a few weeks, oil experts predict
that European refiners will be forced to buy sweet crude from Algeria and
Nigeria, two principal sources of sweet crude for the United States. That would
probably push up American gasoline prices, which have already risen 6 cents a
gallon over the last week to an average of $3.19 for regular grade.
“It will force all sweet crude refiners into a bidding war,” said Lawrence J.
Goldstein, a director at the Energy Policy Research Foundation, an organization
partly financed by the oil industry. “Quality matters more than quantity.”
Sweet crude is particularly well suited for producing diesel fuel, which is far
more popular as a transportation fuel in Europe than in the United States. Sour
crudes are more expensive to refine, but American refineries are typically
outfitted with equipment to refine them because so much oil imported to the
United States comes from Latin America, where many oil reserves are sour.
The last time there was a shortage of sweet crude, in 2007 and early 2008, oil
prices surged to more than $140 a barrel, although that shortage was caused
mostly by spiraling demand and not a sudden cut in supply.
The price of the benchmark American oil, West Texas Intermediate, briefly
touched $100 on Wednesday before settling at $98.10 in New York trading, up
$2.68 from Tuesday. In London, the benchmark Brent crude rose $5.47, to $111.25.
A gauge of jet fuel prices, known as Gulf Coast jet fuel, soared 10.7 cents, to
$2.99 a gallon in the spot market on Wednesday, putting pressure on airlines to
raise fares. Meanwhile, diesel prices have risen 4 cents in the last week, to
$3.57 a gallon, the highest level since October 2008.
Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy and Economic Research, a
consultancy firm, said the Brent benchmark was headed for $120 a barrel while
West Texas Intermediate would reach $110 “in the near term.”
That could easily push the national average price for a gallon of regular
gasoline to $3.50, which economists say would cut into consumer discretionary
spending, like dining out. Typically, every one-cent increase in the pump price
of gasoline takes more than $1 billion out of consumer pockets over a year.
Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group, said in a
research note that the turmoil “will slow the economic recovery this year, as
both consumers and businesses look on with concern and begin to reconsider their
spending plans.”
Still, the United States remains less directly vulnerable than most European or
Asian nations because its large refineries can process both sweet and sour
crudes. A versatile refinery fleet makes the United States an exporter of both
diesel and jet fuel.
If supplies of sweet oil become tight, the United States can release supplies
from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but that would probably have only a
marginal effect on prices.
Europe is most immediately affected by the Libyan crisis. More than 85 percent
of Libya’s exports go to Europe, with more than a third of that going to Italy.
Most of the rest goes to Asia. About 5 percent is sent to the United States.
ENI, the Italian oil company, Repsol of Spain, Total of France, Statoil of
Norway, and BASF, the German chemical and energy company, have halted much if
not most of their oil production in Libya and moved personnel out of the
country.
In a research note, Barclays Capital estimated that around one million barrels a
day of production had been shut down, or more than half the country’s total.
Much of Libya’s oil producing capacity and its port facilities are in the
eastern part of the country, where the government has lost the most control.
That leaves the eyes of the oil world on neighboring Algeria, another country
with a history of unrest. Algeria is the seventh-biggest source of American oil
imports.
There have been sporadic protests against high food prices and unemployment in
Algeria over the last several weeks, including at least two large demonstrations
in Algiers demanding the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
“You have a powder keg in Algeria with social problems, ethnic problems and an
Islamist organization blended together and overlapping,” said Michael J.
Economides, a professor of engineering and energy economics at the University of
Houston. “Many refineries would go into paroxysm if they lose Libyan and
Algerian oil.”
Most Middle East oil production is controlled by national oil companies that
operate as virtual state agencies and coordinate their security needs with the
national militaries.
But that is not the case in either Libya or Algeria, where American and European
oil companies have invested heavily over the last decade to bolster production
that had been lagging. Foreign companies have shown in Libya, and to a lesser
extent in Egypt, that they will shut down exploration and production and close
their offices rather than jeopardize the safety of their employees.
Christine Hauser contributed reporting from New York.
Yemen President Says He Wants Protesters Protected
February 23, 2011
Filed at 7:12 p.m. EST
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemen's president said Wednesday he had ordered his security
services to protect protesters, stop all clashes and prevent direct
confrontation between government supporters and opponents.
The directive came at the end of the day when security forces in the southern
port of Aden used tear gas and fired bullets in the air to disperse hundreds of
protesters, and government supporters wielding clubs attacked demonstrators in
the capital Sanaa.
Amnesty International said two people were killed in Sanaa, the first fatalities
in the capital since unrest began about two weeks ago.
"This disturbing development indicates that the heavy-handed tactics which we
have seen the security forces using with lethal effect against protesters in the
south of Yemen are increasingly being employed elsewhere," said Philip Luther,
Amnesty International's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.
"If the authorities continue in this manner, more demonstrators will inevitably
be killed."
Yemen, an impoverished country with a weak central government and an active
branch of al-Qaida, has been swept up in the protests inspired by successful
uprising in Egypt and Tunisia. The demonstrators are demanding that U.S.-backed
President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power for 32 years, step down. But he has said
he will step down after national elections in 2013.
"The Government of the Republic of Yemen will continue to protect the rights of
its citizens to assemble peacefully and their right to freedom of expression,"
Saleh said a statement issued by Yemen's Embassy in Washington.
Earlier Wednesday, thousands streamed into a square in Sanaa to bolster
anti-government protesters after club-wielding backers of Saleh tried to drive
them out.
In the Red Sea port of Hodeida, Saleh supporters attacked a group of
anti-government protesters injuring at least 10, according to activists who were
taking part in the demonstration.
Security forces in the southern port of Aden used tear gas and fired bullets in
the air to disperse hundreds of protesters, officials said.
Seven legislators who belong to Saleh's ruling Congress Party resigned from the
group because of the situation in the country and said they will form their own
independent bloc, member of parliament Abdul-Aziz Jabbari said. The resignations
raise to nine the number of legislators who left the party since protests began.
Also Wednesday, Interior Minister Gen. Mouthar al-Masri met with the U.S.
Ambassador Gerald Feierstein and a British envoy, who both expressed concerns
about "unjustified violence" against protesters, security officials said.
The ministry said in a statement that al-Masri told the diplomats security
forces were neutral and protecting pro- and anti-government gatherings.
In recent days, activists have been digging in, setting up encampments in some
areas.
In Sanaa, protesters have been camping in a square near Sanaa University. On
Tuesday, they came under attack by pro-government forces who witnesses say swung
clubs and fired in the air.
But the government forces failed to dislodge the protesters, and thousands more
streamed into the square in support Wednesday, including academics, writers,
artists and scholars.
Thousands of protesters, many of them students, marched through the streets of
the port of al-Mukalla in eastern Yemen, chanting, "The people want the downfall
of the regime."
Demonstrators overturned and set fire to a government car and threw stones at
the police who fired tear gas and rubber bullets.
A 16-year-old was seriously injured when a tear gas canister struck his face,
medical officials at a hospital said.
A 19-year-old wounded in Aden last week died of his injuries Wednesday, medics
said. His death brought to 13 the number of demonstrators killed since the
crisis began nearly a month ago.
February 23, 2011
The New York Times
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN and NADIM AUDI
MANAMA, Bahrain — A day after one of the largest pro-democracy demonstrations
this tiny Persian Gulf nation had ever seen, its king was in Saudi Arabia, a
close ally and neighbor, to discuss the unrest engulfing the region.
The visit of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa on Wednesday, reported by The
Associated Press, came just as the aging Saudi ruler, King Abdullah, returned to
the country after three months of medical treatment in the United States and
Morocco.
Even before King Abdullah landed in Riyadh, the capital, the Saudi government
announced that it would pour billions of dollars into a fund to help its
citizens marry, buy homes and start their own businesses, The Associated Press
reported, citing state television. Reuters said the package was estimated at $35
billion.
King Hamad had already attempted his own payout — offering $2,650 to every
Bahraini family in the days before large protests broke out more than a week ago
— but the economic concession was not enough to stem the surging tide of
opposition from the country’s Shiite majority. As in Saudi Arabia, the ruling
class of Bahrain is made up of members of its Sunni minority.
In a nation of only 500,000 citizens, the sheer size of the gathering on Tuesday
in Bahrain’s capital, Manama, was astonishing. Tens of thousands of men, women
and children, mostly members of the Shiite majority, formed a ribbon of protest
for several miles along the Sheik Khalifa bin Salman Highway as they headed for
the square, calling for the downfall of the government in a march that was
intended to show national unity.
“This is the first time in the history of Bahrain that the majority of people,
of Bahraini people, got together with one message: this regime must fall,” said
Muhammad Abdullah, 43, who was almost shaking with emotion as he watched the
swelling crowd.
But for all the talk of political harmony, the past week’s events have left
Bahrain as badly divided as it has ever been. Its economy is threatened and its
reputation damaged. Standard and Poor’s lowered its credit rating this week,
Bahraini authorities canceled next month’s Bahrain Grand Prix Formula One race —
a source of pride for the royal family — many businesses remain closed, and
tourism is down.
On one side of the divide is the Sunni minority, which largely supports King
Hamad, as the protector of its interests. On the other is the Shiite majority,
which knows the changes it seeks will inevitably bring power to its side. The
king began releasing some political prisoners on Tuesday night, and the crown
prince, Sheik Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, has called for a national dialogue to
try to bridge differences, preserve the monarchy and unite the nation. But so
far in Bahrain there is no substantive dialogue between the sides. There is a
test of wills, as the Sunnis fight to hold on to what they have and the Shiites
grapple for their fair share after years of being marginalized by an absolute
monarchy that has ruled the nation for two centuries.
“I’m really excited, but I don’t know what is going to happen,” said Fatima
Amroum, a 25-year-old woman in a black abaya who was quietly texting as she
watched the procession on Tuesday. “I’m a little scared of uncertainty; we might
get what we demand, but freedom will be chaotic at the beginning.”
The days of protest and repression have mostly been about the Shiites speaking
up and the Sunnis cracking down. But on Monday night, in the wealthy
neighborhood of Juffair, tens of thousands of pro-government demonstrators
poured into Al Fateh Grand Mosque to express their support for the embattled
king.
The pro-government crowd borrowed some of the opposition’s slogans, including
“no Sunni, no Shia, only Bahraini.” But that was where the call for unity
started and ended.
This was an affluent crowd, far different from the mostly low-income Shiites who
took to the streets to demand a constitutional monarchy, an elected government
and a representative Parliament. The air was scented with perfume, and people
drove expensive cars. In a visceral demonstration of the distance between Sunni
and Shiite, the crowd cheered a police helicopter that swooped low, a symbol of
the heavy-handed tactics that have been used to intimidate the Shiites.
“We love King Hamad and we hate chaos,” said Hannan al-Abdallah, 22, as she
joined the pro-government rally. “This is our country and we’re looking after
it.”
Ali al-Yaffi, 29, drove to the pro-government demonstration with friends in his
shiny white sport utility vehicle. He was angry and distrustful. “The democracy
they have been asking for is already here,” he said. “But the Shias, they have
their ayatollahs, and whatever they say, they will run and do it. If they tell
them to burn a house, they will. I think they have a clear intention to disrupt
this country.”
On that point there is agreement: the Shiite opposition does want to disrupt,
but with peaceful protests aimed at achieving its demands. The public here has
learned the lessons of Egypt’s popular uprising and the power of peaceful
opposition.
“I feel freedom like I never felt it in my life, but I’m also a little worried,”
said Hussein al-Haddad, 32, as he marched with the Shiite protesters on Tuesday.
“What is going to happen next?”
Last Monday, Shiites tried to hold a “day of rage,” modeled on the uprisings in
Tunisia and Egypt that forced out autocratic presidents. The police gave no
ground, firing on crowds with tear gas and rubber bullets and leaving one man
dead, shot in the back. The next day, at the funeral, another man was killed the
same way.
The protesters marched into Pearl Square, the symbolic center of Manama, the
capital, and set up camp. In the early morning hours, the police raided the
camp, killing three men. Then on Friday, a group of unarmed protesters tried to
march into the square. The army opened fire, and one young man, Abdul Redha
Mohammed Hassan, was left with a bullet in his head. He died Monday and was
buried Tuesday.
The army’s attack on unarmed civilians shocked even the government’s supporters,
and the military was withdrawn. The demonstrators poured back in, setting up a
camp and a speaker’s podium and making it clear that they would not leave until
their demands were met. The first demand, now, is the dissolution of the
government and an agreement to create a constitutional monarchy.
“They are the ones who made the demands grow bigger,” said Mohammed
al-Shakhouri, 51, as he watched a procession of thousands follow the coffin of
Mr. Hassan to the cemetery for burial.
The government seems to have accepted that violence will not silence the
opposition and has shifted its strategy. It has set up a press center to get its
message out and is working with a public relations firm.
The opposition has stuck with its tactic of peaceful protest. On Tuesday, the
Shiite political parties, chief among them Al Wefaq, called for the
demonstration to start at the Bahrain mall and march into Pearl Square. Even the
organizers were surprised as turnout swelled, packing the eastbound side of the
highway from the mall to the square.
“It is a revolution,” said Hussein Mohammed, 37, a bookstore owner and volunteer
for Al Wefaq. “It is a big revolution. It is unbelievable.”
J. David Goodman contributed reporting from New York.
Qaddafi Holds On in Tripoli as Estimates of Death Toll Soar
February 23, 2011
The New York Times
By KAREEM FAHIM and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
TOBRUK, Libya — Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya kept his grip on the capital
on Wednesday, but large areas of the east of the country remained out of his
control amid indications that the fighting had reached the northwest of the
country around Tripoli.
Libyans fleeing across the country’s western border to Tunisia reported fighting
over the past two nights in the town of Sabratha, home of an important Roman
archeological site 50 miles west of Tripoli. Reuters reported that thousands of
Libyan forces loyal to Col. Qaddafi had deployed there.
“The revolutionary committees are trying to kill everyone who is against
Qaddafi,” said a doctor from Sabratha who had just left the country, but who
declined to give his name because he wanted to return.
There were also reports of fighting in Misurata, a provincial center 130 miles
to the west of the capital. A witness said that messages being broadcast from
the loudspeakers of local mosques were urging people to attack the government’s
opponents, following Colonel Qaddafi’s call in a defiant television address
Tuesday night for citizens to assist in eliminating opponents of his regime. A
local radio station that had been broadcasting opposition messages was reported
to have been attacked.
In Rome, meanwhile, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Wednesday
estimated the death toll in Libya at 1,000. Noting that the situation was
chaotic, Mr. Frattini told reporters that he also believed estimates that more
than 1,000 Libyan civilians had been killed in the clashes in recent days
“appear to be true.”
Libyan state television pushed back against the resignation of the country’s
long-serving interior minister, Abdel Fattah Younes al Abidi, who announced his
defection to the opposition Tuesday night, urging the Libyan Army to join the
people and their “legitimate demands.” State media, however, claimed he had been
kidnapped by “gangs.”
Mr. al Abidi said on Wednesday in an interview with CNN that Col. Qaddafi had
ordered the people of Benghazi, now under control of the opposition, gunned down
with machine guns, and that he had argued with Col. Qaddafi’s intention to use
airplanes to bomb that city, the nation’s second largest.
In Tripoli, the capital, the streets were relatively quiet Wednesday morning, a
resident said, but armed mercenaries were still in the streets . A bloody
crackdown drove protesters from the streets on Tuesday, and residents had
described a state of terror.
“All the government buildings in Tripoli are burned down,” one resident said.
“But the mercenaries, they have weapons. The Libyans don’t have weapons, they
will kill you.”
After a televised speech by Colonel Qaddafi, in which he vowed to track down and
kill protesters — whom he called cockroaches — “house by house,” thousands of
his supporters had converged in the city’s central Green Square on Tuesday
night, wearing green bandannas and brandishing large machetes.
Many loaded into trucks headed for the outlying areas of the city, where they
occupied traffic intersections and appeared to be massing for
neighborhood-to-neighborhood searches.
“It looks like they have been given a green light to kill these people,” one
witness said.
Human Rights Watch said it had confirmed 62 deaths in two hospitals after a
rampage on Monday night, when witnesses said groups of heavily armed militiamen
and mercenaries from other African countries cruised the streets in pickup
trucks, spraying crowds with machine-gun fire.
The death toll was probably higher; one witness said militia forces appeared to
be using vans to cart away bodies.
But as they clamped down on the capital, Colonel Qaddafi’s security forces did
not appear to make any attempt to take back the growing number of towns in the
east that had in effect declared their independence and set up informal
opposition governments. For now, there is little indication of what will replace
the vacuum left by Colonel Qaddafi’s authority in broad parts of the country
other than simmering anarchy.
Only around the town of Ajdabiya, south of the revolt’s center in Benghazi, were
Colonel Qaddafi’s security forces and militia still clashing with protesters
along the road to the colonel’s hometown, Surt.
The widening gap between the capital and the eastern countryside underscored the
radically different trajectory of the Libyan revolt from the others that
recently toppled Arab autocrats on Libya’s western and eastern borders, in
Tunisia and Egypt.
Though the Libyan revolt began with a relatively organized core of longtime
government critics in Benghazi, its spread to the capital was swift and
spontaneous, outracing any efforts to coordinate the protests.
Colonel Qaddafi has lashed out with a level of violence unseen in either of the
other uprisings, partly by importing foreigners without ties to the Libyan
people. His four decades of idiosyncratic one-man rule have left the country
without any national institutions — not even a unified or disciplined military —
that could tame his retribution or provide the framework for a transitional
government.
Condemnations of his brutal crackdown mounted, from Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton to the United Nations Security Council to the Arab League, which
suspended Libya as a member. High-profile aides and diplomats continued to
defect, among them a senior aide to the president’s son, Seif al-Islam Qaddafi
and the country’s ambassadors to the United States, India and Bangladesh.
In his second television appearance in two days, Colonel vowed on Tuesday to die
as a martyr for his country. “I will fight on to the last drop of my blood,” he
said.
Wearing a beige robe and turban and reading at times from his manifesto, the
Green Book, Colonel Qaddafi called the protesters “cockroaches” and attributed
the unrest shaking Libya to foreigners, a small group of people distributing
pills, brainwashing and young people’s naïve desire to imitate the uprisings in
Egypt and Tunisia.
He urged citizens to take to the streets and beat back the protesters, and he
described himself in sweeping, megalomaniacal terms. “Muammar Qaddafi is
history, resistance, liberty, glory, revolution,” he declared.
In Tobruk, an eastern city that joined the uprising almost as soon as it began,
a resident watching the speech in the main square reacted by throwing a rock at
Colonel Qaddafi’s face as it was broadcast on a large television. And in a cafe
not far from Tobruk, Fawzi Labada, a bus driver, looked incredulously at the
screen. “He is weak now,” he said. “He’s a liar, a big liar. He will hang.”
In Tripoli, however, the reaction was more chastened. One resident reported the
sound of gunfire during the speech — presumably in celebration, he said, but
also in warning. “He is saying, ‘If you go to protest, all the shots will be in
your chest,’” he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of
reprisals.
“We are unarmed and his warning is very clear,” he added. “The people are
terrified now.”
The gap between Colonel Qaddafi’s stronghold in Tripoli and the insurrection in
the east recalled Libya’s pre-1931 past as three different countries —
Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica — and underscored the challenge facing its
insurrection.
Many analysts have suggested that Colonel Qaddafi seemed to fear the development
of any national institutions or networks that might check his power, and he has
kept even his military divided into battalions, each loyal mainly to its own
officers.
That has set the stage for heavy defections during the revolt — rebels in the
east said some government forces had simply abandoned their uniforms to join the
cause. But it also means that Libya’s military is unlikely to play the
stabilizing role its Tunisian or Egyptian counterparts did.
Foreign companies and Libyan factions focused intensely on the fate of the
country’s substantial oil reserves. The Italian oil company Eni confirmed that
it had suspended use of a pipeline from Libya to Sicily that provides 10 percent
of Italy’s natural gas.
Opponents of Colonel Qaddafi tightened their control of their area around
Ajdabiya, an important site in the oil fields of central Libya, said Tawfiq
al-Shahbi, a protest organizer in Tobruk.
Tripoli remained under an information blackout, with no Internet access and
limited and intermittent phone service. Colonel Qaddafi’s government has sought
to block all foreign journalists from entering the country or reporting on the
revolt.
But the uprising in the east cracked open the country on Tuesday as the Libyan
military retreated from the eastern border with Egypt and foreign journalists
poured through. The road from the border to Tobruk appeared to be completely
under the control of Colonel Qaddafi’s opponents, and small, ragtag bands of men
in worn fatigues ran easygoing checkpoints and flashed victory signs at
visitors.
Except for those guards, there was little to suggest an uprising was under way.
Shops were open along the road, which was full of traffic, mostly heading out of
Libya.
Tobruk residents said neighboring cities — including Dernah, Al Qubaa, Bayda and
El Marij — were also quiet, and effectively ruled by the opposition.
The government lost control of Tobruk almost immediately, according to Gamal
Shallouf, a marine biologist who has become an informal press officer in the
city.
Soldiers took off their uniforms on Friday and Saturday, taking the side of
protesters, who burned the police station and another government building,
smashing a large stone monument of Colonel Qaddafi’s Green Book. Four people
were killed during clashes here, residents said.
Salah Algheriani, who works for the state-owned Gulf Oil company, talked about
the sea change in Tobruk, where everyone was suddenly full of loud opinions and
hope, including the hope that young people might stop leaving the country for
Europe.
“The taste of freedom is very delicious,” he said.
The protests began with a relatively organized network of families in Benghazi
who had all lost relatives in a 1996 prison riot. Many were represented by the
same lawyer, a prominent Qaddafi critic in the region, and his arrest last week
set off their uprising.
But the revolt in Tripoli appears far more genuinely spontaneous and unorganized
than the Benghazi uprising or, for that matter, the revolutions that toppled the
leaders of Tunisia or Egypt. The lack of organization now raises questions about
the ability of the mostly young rebels in the capital to regroup after the
Qaddafi government’s retaliation.
Protesters in other parts of the country have vowed in recent days to send
reinforcements to their fellow citizens in Tripoli, but Qaddafi supporters have
set up roadblocks to prevent entry into the city.
Still, even in Tripoli, some protesters who had retreated into their homes vowed
that they would return to the street.
“It is too late,” one said. “I don’t think anyone is prepared to listen to
Qaddafi anymore, and it is not one town or one area. It is the whole country in
an uprising.”
Kareem Fahim reported from Tobruk, Libya, and David D. Kirkpatrick from the
Tunisian border with Libya. Reporting was contributed by Sharon Otterman, Mona
El-Naggar, Neil MacFarquhar and Liam Stack from Cairo.
February 23, 2011
Filed at 3:09 a.m. EST
By REUTERS
MANAMA (Reuters) - Shi'ite Muslim protesters filled streets in Manama on
Tuesday demanding the fall of the Sunni-run government in the biggest protest
since unrest began last week, while the return of a key opposition figure was
delayed.
Tens of thousands of opposition supporters marched to Pearl Square -- the focal
point of the week-long protests in central Manama -- to press demands for
political reform in a country dominated by the Sunni Muslim minority.
Led by opposition groups such as Wefaq and Waad, it was the first organized
demonstration and followed spontaneous protests by a rising youth movement
relying on social media.
"We want the fall of the government" was the most common chant. "Some want the
family out but most (want) only the prime minister (to quit)," said protester
Abbas al-Fardan. "We want a new government, the people need to rule the
country."
The protesters want a constitutional monarchy, in contrast to the current system
where Bahrainis vote for a parliament that has little power and policy remains
the preserve of an elite centered on the al-Khalifa family.
The al-Khalifa dynasty has ruled Bahrain for 200 years, and the family dominates
a cabinet led by the king's uncle, who has been prime minister since
independence in 1971.
Hassan Mushaimaa, leader of the opposition Haq movement, had said on his
Facebook page on Monday that he wanted to see if the island nation's leadership
was serious about dialogue or if it
would arrest him and was due to arrive on Tuesday evening.
Mushaimaa, who is based in London, is one of 25 people on trial since last year
over an alleged coup plot but a statement by King Hamad bin Isa on Monday hinted
that the trial would be shelved, allowing Mushaimaa an unhindered return.
But Mushaimaa was unabled to board his flight to Bahrain in Beirut where he had
landed earlier for a planned stopover.
Abbas al-Amran, who described himself as a friend of Mushaimaa, told Reuters
from London that Mushaimaa's name had probably still been blacklisted on
security lists.
"He could not catch any other flight tonight so probably he will fly tomorrow,"
he said.
State media said the king had ordered the release of convicted prisoners whose
names would be released on Wednesday and a stop to ongoing court cases --
opposition figures said they understood this to mean the trial will be shelved.
"We're expecting this even though we don't know for sure," said Jasim Husain of
the Shi'ite Wefaq group.
It was not clear if this would be enough to bring opposition groups into a
dialogue that King Hamad has asked his son, the crown prince, to conduct.
"His royal highness continues to call for all Bahrainis to engage in this new
process (of dialogue) to move away from polarization and ensure that
sectarianism does not take root," government spokeswoman Maysun Sabkar told a
news conference.
She said the crown prince had met some opposition leaders in recent days, though
opposition groups say no dialogue has begun yet. Sabkar said she had no
information on prisoner releases.
PEARL SQUARE
Inspired by peaceful uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, protesters set up camp at
Pearl Square after security forces tried to break up their protest but then
withdrew last week.
Seven people died and hundreds were wounded, and the violence led U.S. Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton to condemn government attempts to crush the
demonstrations, limiting the government's room for man oeuvre.
But Bahrain, host to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, remains a key U.S. ally, and Chairman
of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen had words of support for the
leadership on Tuesday.
"The crown prince and the king took bold steps a couple of days ago by pulling
their forces off the street ... He clearly has taken steps to engage the
opposition, if you will," Mullen told reporters in the United Arab Emirates.
"I think those are positive steps and we will see where it goes from there,"
Mullen said.
The Sunni monarchy has been seen by the West and Arab allies as a bulwark
against the influence of Shi'ite power Iran. Neighboring Saudi Arabia, the
world's top oil producer, has a restive Shi'ite minority of its own in its
Eastern Province.
In a speech to the Kuwaiti parliament on Tuesday, British Prime Minister David
Cameron praised security cooperation with Gulf countries but said people should
get their rights.
"History is sweeping through your neighborhood," he said of protests that have
also taken place in Kuwait, Algeria, Libya, Yemen, Morocco, Jordan and Iraq as
well as Iran.
"Not as a result of force and violence, but by people seeking their rights, and
in the vast majority of cases doing so peacefully and bravely," Cameron added.
Kuwait has the most advanced democratic tradition in the Gulf region, in most of
which Western-backed dynasties have given their people little right to political
representation. But Kuwaiti police clashed this week with hundreds of stateless
Arabs known as Bidoon who want Kuwaiti nationality rights.
The Bahrain government denies it treats Shi'ites unfairly and in a rally widely
covered by state television on Monday, thousands carried Bahraini flags and
signs supporting unity and the dialogue proposed by the government.
A resolution read at the rally rejected any attempt to question the government's
legitimacy, but also called for the release of prisoners of conscience.
Shi'ites account for about 70 percent of the population but are a minority in
Bahrain's 40-seat parliament because of an electoral process that they say shuts
them out.
On Monday the government canceled the March 13 opening race of the motor racing
Formula One season in Bahrain.
Mushaimaa's Haq movement is more radical than the Shi'ite Wefaq party, from
which it split in 2006 when Wefaq contested a parliamentary election. Wefaq's 17
MPs resigned last week in protest at the state's use of violence against the
protesters.
(Writing by Andrew Hammond; editing by Tim Pearce)
CAIRO | Wed Feb 23, 2011 1:58am EST
Reuters
1:58am EST
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's key portfolios of defense interior, foreign,
finance and justice were unchanged in a cabinet reshuffle, state television
confirmed on Tuesday when it broadcast the swearing in ceremony for the new
ministers.
The list of new ministers included changing the veteran oil minister, as well as
introducing politicians who had been opposed to the rule of Hosni Mubarak, who
stepped down from office on February 11 after widespread protests.
Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who leads the ruling military council and
has been defense minister for about 20 years, took the new ministers' oaths of
office.
But the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's biggest opposition group, said the new
cabinet showed that Mubarak's "cronies" still controlled the country's politics.
"This new cabinet is an illusion," Brotherhood senior member Essam el-Erian
said. "It pretends it includes real opposition but in reality this new
government puts Egypt under the tutelage of the West," he added.
"The main defense, justice, interior and foreign ministries remain unchanged,
signaling Egypt's politics remain in the hands of Mubarak and his cronies,"
Erian said.
Mubarak reshuffled his cabinet shortly after protests erupted on January 25 in a
bid to assuage anger against his 30-year rule, but rage continued to build until
his ouster on February 11.
The Brotherhood and youth protesters had demanded that all Mubarak's ministers
must be changed in the new government sworn in ahead of parliamentary and
presidential elections.
The latest reshuffle brought into the cabinet a few opposition figures including
Yehia el-Gamal, deputy prime minister, the Wafd party's Mounir Abdel Nour as
tourism minister and Tagammu party's Gowdat Abdel-Khaleq as minister of social
solidarity and social justice.
Both Wafd and Tagammu had often been close to Mubarak's government.
The Center for Trade Unions and Workers Services (CTUWS) said the government's
appointment of Ismail Ibrahim Fahmy as new labor minister showed it continued to
"co-opt formal labor unions and the labor ministry," it said in a statement.
Fahmy was the treasurer of the general union for workers syndicates in Egypt.
"We warn of the dire consequences of defying the will of the workers and their
legitimate right to enjoy union rights," CTUWS said.
Egyptian online democracy activists called for a demonstration on Tuesday to
demand the removal of the country's interim government, saying it contains too
many old faces.
"The call for the million-man march on Friday would show people's anger and
frustration," Erian said.
(Reporting by Cairo Bureau; Writing by Edmund Blair and Marwa Awad)
February 23, 2011
The New York Times
By HELENE COOPER and MARK LANDLER
WASHINGTON — President Obama broke four days of silence on Wednesday to
“strongly condemn” the Libyan government’s violent crackdown on protesters and
said his administration was considering a range of responses to the bloody
clashes unfolding in the oil-rich North African state.
Calling it “imperative that the nations and peoples of the world speak with one
voice,” Mr. Obama said he was dispatching Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton to Geneva next Monday to meet with top diplomats on how to respond to
the crisis. “The suffering and bloodshed is outrageous, and it is unacceptable,”
Mr. Obama said at the White House after meeting with Mrs. Clinton. “These
actions violate international norms and every standard of common decency. This
violence must stop.”
Mr. Obama made no mention of the Libyan strongman, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi,
reflecting the administration’s worry about the safety of American diplomats and
their families in Tripoli, where a ferry meant to evacuate Americans was still
stuck at the port, penned in by high winds in the Mediterranean. Mr. Obama has
been coming under fire from critics who said he has not been tough enough
against Colonel Qaddafi in the wake of the violent crackdown by pro-Qaddafi
forces against demonstrators.
In his remarks Wednesday, Mr. Obama said that the Libyan government has a
“responsibility to refrain from violence,” adding that “it must be held
accountable for its failure to meet those responsibilities.” But he did not call
for the resignation of Colonel Qaddafi, who vowed on Tuesday to fight against
the uprising until “the last drop of my blood.”
Mr. Obama now joins the list of American presidents bedeviled over the past 40
years by the man whom Ronald Reagan called the “mad dog of the Middle East.”
Administration officials said they were considering sanctions to try to
influence Colonel Qaddafi. The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, refused
to say whether sanctions might include a no-fly zone over Libya, but Mrs.
Clinton, without addressing the no-fly option, said Tuesday that “everything
will be on the table.”
She said the administration “will look at all the possible options to put an end
to the violence, to try to influence the government.”
But foreign policy experts were quick to point out shortcomings in both economic
sanctions and a no-fly zone. In the case of sanctions, the United States cannot
do much by itself against Libya because the two countries only recently
re-established diplomatic relations, and America has little economic influence
there.
The United States will work with other countries on multilateral sanctions, but
that would have to be done through the United Nations, which means involving
countries like China that do not like imposing sanctions.
Setting up a no-fly zone would be even more difficult — it would most likely
have to be enforced by NATO and establishing rules of engagement would be
difficult. In addition, the Arab League would be likely to balk at what its
members would consider an infringement on Libyan sovereignty, foreign policy
experts said.
Mr. Obama’s announcement came as senior diplomats fanned out across North Africa
and the Persian Gulf. The under secretary of state for political affairs,
William J. Burns, was in Tunis on Wednesday after stopping in Cairo. Jeffrey D.
Feltman, the assistant secretary responsible for the Middle East, began a trip
that will take him to Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
Meanwhile, administration officials were working furiously, with an eye on
weather maps, to move the ferry of Americans out of Tripoli. With 35 diplomats
and their dependents in the country, as well as about 600 other American
citizens, the administration has worried that threatening Colonel Qaddafi
personally could provoke him to take Americans hostage.
On Monday, the State Department ordered its diplomats to evacuate Libya. But the
effort has been hampered by a shortage of seats on commercial flights and the
refusal of Libyan authorities to allow flights chartered by the United States
government to land in Tripoli. The State Department chartered a ferry, with a
capacity of 575 people, to sail from the Mediterranean island of Malta to
Tripoli.
But rough seas delayed the ship’s arrival, a senior official said, and made
several consular officers aboard seasick on the passage over. Now the ship is
tied up at a pier in Tripoli, waiting for the seas to calm.
The frantic effort to get diplomats and other citizens out of Libya filtered
into a meeting Mrs. Clinton held with Brazil’s foreign minister, Antonio
Patriota. When Mr. Patriota told her Brazilian nationals were seeking to leave
Tripoli, a senior administration official said, Mrs. Clinton told him there was
still space on the American-chartered ferry.
As the administration grappled with the tenor of public remarks on Libya until
it could evacuate Americans, administration officials continued to give
Bahrain’s besieged royal family time to demonstrate that its offer of dialogue
with protesters there was genuine. Mrs. Clinton and other officials praised the
offer, as well as Bahrain’s decision to release 23 political prisoners, as a
positive step.
The administration’s modulated approach, officials said, reflected both the
royal family’s decision to pull back its security forces, as well as the
recognition that the unrest in Bahrain was not a black-and-white case of
economically frustrated young people rebelling against an autocratic regime. The
protests have laid bare the resentment of a Shiite majority discriminated
against by a Sunni leadership.
Bahrain dispatched a former police chief who is close to the royal family to
plead its case with the administration. The special envoy, Abdul Latif
al-Zayani, said he encouraged American officials to lend public support to a
dialogue proposed by the crown prince, Sheik Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa.
Protesters have demanded the resignation of key government officials as a sign
of Bahrain’s commitment to change.
“We have all it takes to be a successful role model for the region,” Mr.
al-Zayani said in an interview Tuesday. “This is an opportunity to show that
there is a peaceful way to resolve these things.”
United States and Other Nations Step Up Libyan Evacuations
February 23, 2011
The New York Times
By J. DAVID GOODMAN
Whether by plane or bus, ferry or foot, tens of thousands of foreign citizens
— including hundreds of Americans — were scrambling to find a way out of Libya
on Wednesday as forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi fought to maintain
control of a shrinking portion of the oil-rich country.
Turkey appeared to have had the most success in spiriting its people out of the
country, packing more than 5,000 onto ferries and planes that left over the last
several days.
The United States, after being turned down for permission to land a chartered
plane in Tripoli, sent a ferry Wednesday that was expected to transport about
600 people, mostly Americans, to Malta. The ferry arrived in Tripoli Wednesday,
the State Department said, but its departure was delayed by high seas.
The State Department has said several thousand United States citizens, most of
them holding dual citizenship, were in Libya when the uprising against Colonel
Qaddafi began.
As wealthier nations rushed to coordinate rescues, migrant workers from poorer
nations in Asia and Africa — the majority of the work force there, according to
an immigration expert — were fending for themselves, with their home countries
unable to organize evacuations. Many crossed the borders into Tunisia and Egypt
by foot or in buses piled high with luggage.
Those fleeing the country, as well as those who had not yet found a way out,
described scenes of chaos and deprivation. Protesters claimed that the
opposition was taking control of cities close to the capital, Tripoli, where
Colonel Qaddafi has mobilized mercenaries and militiamen to defend his
stronghold.
One worker, Suang Upara from Thailand, reported that Libyans had burglarized the
place where he had been living with other migrants.
“They used knives to threaten us and stole everything from us,” Mr. Upara, 29,
said in a phone interview from Benghazi, where more than 200 people were
reported to have been killed in a government crackdown.
He said that he was subsisting on one small loaf of bread each day and dirty
water filtered through tissue paper.
Chinese reports said that a site run by a Chinese construction company in
eastern Libya had been attacked by armed looters who forced nearly 1,000 workers
out of their dormitories.
The daunting nature of the evacuation led several nations to turn to others for
help. Turkey, which said it had mounted its largest evacuation effort ever, said
21 countries including Russia and the United States had asked for assistance in
helping their citizens to leave. Officials in Ankara said that a 27-year-old
Turkish worker had been killed in Tripoli, but they gave no details.
Israel, meanwhile, agreed to allow about 300 Palestinians into the West Bank
even though they did not have residency documents for the territory. While the
Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, welcomed Israel’s offer, he had asked for
thousands to be allowed entry, according to the official Palestinian news agency
Wafa.
The International Organization for Migration, an intergovernmental agency,
estimates that as many as 1.5 million migrants were working in Libya at the
start of the strife, which appears to have led to the deaths of hundreds of
Libyans. Many of the migrants came to work in the country’s construction
industry, which had been booming, and in its rich oil fields.
The huge numbers of people forced to flee quickly were exacerbating fears in
Europe that countries like Italy would be flooded with needy people, leading
Italy’s foreign minister to refer to a possible “biblical exodus.”
Although Turkey had rescued thousands of its citizens by Wednesday, about 25,000
were still stranded. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Turkey would
keep ferries running nonstop and was expecting at least some to carry medical
and food supplies for Libyan civilians.
With civilian flights overwhelmed by the numbers of people trying to leave,
governments from around the world were trying to send ships and chartered
aircraft.
Two Italian naval vessels headed to eastern Libyan ports to rescue citizens from
Benghazi and other cities where airports were damaged.
The Chinese government moved to evacuate about 2,900 of its estimated 30,000
workers from Libya, the Xinhua news agency reported. And the Foreign Ministry of
Jordan said that a Royal Jordanian plane carrying 285 citizens was expected to
arrive from Libya and that another 90 crossed safely by land into Egypt on
Wednesday.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy, chief spokesman for the International Organization for
Migration, said that many migrants from poorer nations were “bunkering down for
the moment.”
“Over the past 18 hours,” he said Wednesday, there were “only four nationals
from Guinea who have made it to Tunisia.”
“That’s certainly not representative of the sub-Saharan Africans employed in
Libya,” he said. “It’s a trickle.”
On Wednesday, Italy’s foreign minister, Franco Frattini, warned lawmakers that
as many as 300,000 migrant workers in Libya could seek refuge in Europe, with
many ending up in nearby countries, including Italy and Greece.
“We are not asking Europe to distribute the immigrants across its territory, but
we are asking for a serious mechanism on how to split the economic and social
burden of an immigration wave,” he said. “Europe needs to assume its duties.”
But Mr. Chauzy said those sorts of warnings were premature. For those who cannot
flee by air or sea, the major points of exit will continue to be Egypt and
Tunisia, he said.
As migrants poured across both borders, Mr. Chauzy said there were reports that
African workers desperate to leave but lacking money were trying to reach
Libya’s southern border with Niger — a desert trek of more than 1,000 miles.
“It’s pretty awful,” he said, “even in the best of times.”
Reporting was contributed by Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul; Brian Knowlton from
Washington; Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem; Poypiti Amatatham from Bangkok; Mona
El-Naggar from Cairo; and Rachel Donadio from Rome.
Thank you for publishing “Libya’s Butcher” (editorial, Feb. 23) and for calling
on the international community to end Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s violence against
Libyans.
I have just returned from Tripoli, where I was helping carry out an education
project financed by the United States government, and where I witnessed
protesters marching in the middle of the night toward Green Square under the
rumble of gunfire and the possibility of tear gas.
Young Libyans should be praised for the incredible courage they are showing
against one of the world’s most contemptible dictators. Yet many in Tripoli are
also afraid of renewed isolation or civil war.
The international community and especially the United States must use all their
leverage to stop the killing by the Libyan leader of his own people, and they
must not abandon the revolutionaries of Libya and other Middle East and North
African countries as they make the transition from dictatorship. The people of
the region deserve more.
Sabina Henneberg
Palo Alto, Calif., Feb. 23, 2011
•
To the Editor:
You call Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi a “butcher” but then propose that the United
Nations should initiate “a thorough investigation” regarding purported “crimes
against humanity” and “re-impose a ban on all arms sales to Libya.”
Now how do an investigation and a new embargo stop Colonel Qaddafi from
continuing to slaughter his own people? Answer: they don’t.
What needs to be done (as a start) is to launch an attack on Libya’s airfields
and show the Qaddafi regime that the wholesale slaughter of civilians is
unacceptable to the world community. Of course, this won’t happen, as armchair
diplomats will continue to talk about the dangers of intervention while
innocents die.
Outrage that is not backed up by force is meaningless.
Steven Morris
East Hampton, N.Y., Feb. 23, 2011
•
To the Editor:
Re “Qaddafi Orders Brutal Crackdown as Revolt Grows” (front page, Feb. 23):
Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya says he will kill protesters “house by house.”
Will that be enough for the United Nations to remove Libya from the United
Nations Human Rights Council? Or, more important, will it be enough for the
United States to withdraw from this dreadful council?
Jeff Baird
Chicago, Feb. 23, 2011
•
To the Editor:
The United Nations Security Council must immediately isolate Col. Muammar
el-Qaddafi’s regime through multilateral sanctions and no-flight zones.
As for oil, OPEC members must open spare capacity to meet Libyan supply
reductions, as Saudi Arabia’s oil minister has said OPEC was ready to do (“Oil
Price Soars as Libyan Furor Shakes Markets,” front page, Feb. 23). This is
difficult to do quickly, so there must also be robust, multilateral solutions to
safeguard Libya’s oil industry from collapse.
Ultimately, humanitarian concerns must take priority. The world must act quickly
and cannot stand by in the face of a crisis that is reminiscent of Rwanda,
Cambodia and countless other cases of butchery.
We shamefully failed to address these horrors adequately. Now we are failing the
Libyan people.
Steven T. Brothers
Cambridge, Mass., Feb. 23, 2011
The writer, a major in the United States Army, is a graduate student at the
Center for Middle East Studies at Harvard University. His views are his own and
not those of the United States Army or government.
•
To the Editor:
Instead of doing nothing but breast-beating, why don’t the Security Council, the
United States, the European Union and the various and many other organizations
representing the civilized world announce loudly and broadly that any and all
Libyan military or security personnel who take part in actions causing death or
injury to Libyan civilians will be viewed and treated as war criminals in many
parts of the world and be subject to prosecution before appropriate tribunals in
the future?
That might at least put them on notice and cause them to hesitate before using
force against the Libyan people. It is surely better than watching and repeating
ad nauseam that we have little control over events taking place in the
much-beleaguered nation.
Geoffrey Abrams
New York, Feb. 21, 2011
•
To the Editor:
Re “Unrest Spreads, Some Violently, in Middle East” (front page, Feb. 17):
People throughout the Middle East are risking their lives to confront repressive
regimes and press their demands for democracy and social justice. In the event
of the fall of entrenched dictatorships, who can legitimately administer these
nations’ transition to democracy?
Sadly, there is no precedent or blueprint that can guide such a transition.
Revolutions traditionally offer fertile ground for new dictators to seize
control. Alternatively, the very uncertainty of this moment may offer a unique
opportunity to all those factions jockeying for power to participate in the
establishment of representative government.
What is needed is an interim constitution, created under the auspices of the
United Nations, that could be quickly carried out, wherever and whenever needed.
It would provide a framework for forging a permanent constitution. In the
meantime, the United Nations would provide logistical support for maintaining
the necessary systems like water, food, communications and so on as well as
keeping the peace.
I can think of no worthier mission for the United Nations than to provide such a
blueprint to nurture fledgling democracies.
