Showing posts with label Middle east protests. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Middle east protests. Show all posts
Sunday, February 20, 2011

Slaughter in Libya

    The numbers vary from news source to news source but it seems certain that the number of people murdered by Libyan security forces is over 100.

    According to the Independent, Human Rights Watch (HRW) estimates the death toll at 104 people have been killed since the start of protests in Libya. It believes, however, that this is a conservative estimate.

    The crackdown prompted about 50 Libyan Muslim religious leaders to issue an appeal, sent to Reuters, for the security forces, as Muslims, to stop the killing:

    "This is an urgent appeal from religious scholars, intellectuals, and clan elders from Tripoli, Bani Walid, Zintan, Jadu, Msalata, Misrata, Zawiah, and other towns and villages of the western area," said the appeal. We appeal to every Muslim, within the regime or assisting it in any way, to recognize that the killing of innocent human beings is forbidden by our Creator and by His beloved Prophet of Compassion (peace be upon him)...Do NOT kill your brothers and sisters. STOP the massacre NOW!"

    Libya's state news agency unsurprisingly has accused outside agencies for fomenting discontent” "a foreign network trained on how to create clashes and chaos so as to destabilise Libya."

    Witness accounts have been hard to verify independently because Libyan authorities have not allowed foreign journalists into the country since the protests erupted and local reporters have been barred from travelling to Benghazi. Mobile phone connections have often been out of service and Internet service in Libya has been cut off. However, People in Tripoli said they had Internet access late on Saturday.

    A Benghazi resident said security forces were confined to a compound from which snipers were firing at protesters. "Right now, the only military presence in Benghazi is confined to the Command Centre Complex in the city. The rest of the city is liberated," he said late on Saturday.

    Whether this is true or not remains to be seen

    The Telegraph’s reports are even starker, although one cannot be sure how much is rumour and how much is fact.

    According to the Telegraph Gaddafi has made use of foreign mercenaries tanks and helicopter gunships to put down demonstrations. It states that fighting has also broken out in the cities of Al-Bayda, Ajdabiya, Zawiya, and Darnah (These seem mainly to be in the Eastern part of the country, close to Benghazi),
    .
    Protestors in Ajdabiya even claimed that it was now a "a Free City" after the HQ of Gaddafi's Revolutionary Committee was burned down on Friday, along with 14 other buildings.

    Whether much of this is also true remains to be seen

    One thing that is certain – Gaddafi is in some trouble and is being utterly brutal in crushing dissent (even by the standards of the region).

    Will he fall? I certainly hope so but I have no idea how easily hope can turn to reality.Source URL: https://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/Middle%20east%20protests
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Sunday, January 30, 2011
    I know I have been silent on recent events in Tunisia and Egypt, partly because I have been preoccupied but mainly because there are plenty of people out there who can analyse the state affairs much better than I ever could.

    The turn on events has come as a huge surprise to me. Who would have thought that the self immolation of a street vendor not much more than a month ago could have precipitated all of this? I don’t believe that this has been orchestrated by the West regardless of the Telegraph’s revelation . Nor do I believe that they are an Islamist front.

    The protests appear to be the release of a hell of a lot of pent up anger, be it unemployment, spiralling food prices, anger with corrupt and repressive leaderships/Sometimes all it takes is a single spark to light the fires of anger. Mohamed Bouazizi seems to have ben just that spark (apologies if the metaphor is inappropriate given his form of protest).

    Where will this end up? Who knows. I hope to hell that it leads to better things for millions of people who people who deserve so much.

    There is a serious risk that fundamentalists like the Muslim Brotherhood could hijack the protests. That is something that will be, to say the least, unwelcome (a huge understatement!). But this by no means inevitable.

    We can only see what happens. This is for the people of Tunisia and Egypt (and, and, and) to sort. Here's hoping that it leads to better things for them.Source URL: https://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/Middle%20east%20protests
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