Amnesty: Tensions rise in Benghazi, Gaddafi forces attack
Amnesty International: Tensions rise in Benghazi as al-Gaddafi forces mount attacks
By Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International crisis researcher.
Courtesy of Amnesty International - (Libya):
The situation has significantly deteriorated in
Benghazi and elsewhere in eastern Libya in the past few
days. Since Sunday, while Colonel al-Gaddafi’s
spokespeople reiterate that their forces are observing a
ceasefire, armed al-Gaddafi loyalists – who people
identify as members of the lijan thawriya (Revolutionary
Committees), groups of loyalists who acted as informers and
intelligence gatherers, among other tasks, and were
omnipresent in towns and villages all over Libya – have
sprung into action in the city, carrying out targeted and
indiscriminate armed attacks.
These individuals are
seemingly acting in small groups and appear to be composed
of al-Gaddafi loyalists who have been keeping a low profile
since last month’s takeover of the eastern towns by
pro-reform demonstrators (some here refer to these as
“sleeper cells”) and who have possibly been joined by
other al-Gaddafi loyalists or members of armed forces loyal
to al-Gaddafi who entered the towns pretending to be
ordinary people.
Such ways of operating are extremely
difficult to monitor. Among the victims of such attacks is a
family of three – a child and his parents – who were
shot in the town on Saturday (19 March).
I saw the
child, a young boy of four (according to the doctors, though
he could be five or six), on Sunday in the intensive care
unit of one of the main hospitals. He had been shot in the
chest (upper left side, near the left armpit).
The
doctors are hopeful that he will pull through but his father
died hours after reaching the hospital and, according to the
doctors, there is no chance of survival for his mother, who
was shot in the head and lay in a coma in a bed next to him
in the hospital.
On Sunday, while I was in one of the
city’s hospitals, a firefight broke out in a small square
outside the hospital’s main gate. First the body of a
young man was brought in. He had been shot three times in
the throat; obviously the work of a well trained
sniper.
He had no identification documents or mobile
phone on him and was said to have been shot by al-Gaddafi
loyalists. As the firefight outside the hospital died down
several bodies (between two and four – they were covered
by blankets and I did not linger to check) were brought in
to the morgue on the back of a pick-up vehicle by the
thuwwar(revolutionaries), who said that the bodies were
those of some of the al-Gaddafi loyalists who had initially
opened fire near the hospital.
Another firefight was
also reported in another area in the south-west of the city.
On Saturday (19 March) a rocket, seemingly fired by forces
loyal to Colonel al-Gaddafi stationed on the outskirts of
the city, landed in the car park of a hotel (the hotel where
I am staying), fortunately causing no harm to anyone but
resulting in a fair bit of worry to staff and guests alike.
Such cases, which fortunately remain limited in number so
far, have caused a drastic and palpable increase in fear and
tension around town.
So, while fears that tanks and
heavy armour belonging to Colonel al-Gaddafi’s armed
forces would enter the city have receded after their
positions on the outskirts of the city were targeted and
destroyed on 19 March by international coalition forces, the
residents of Benghazi are now confronted with a new
challenge.
It is still too early to assess whether
these armed individuals will be able to carry out more than
sporadic attacks. One can only hope that such attacks will
cease but for now the atmosphere is quite different from
that I had experienced in the previous three weeks I have
spent here, when there was no such sense of
insecurity.
People in Benghazi and the rest of the
east have hardly slept for almost a week now. First (from
the middle of last week), as forces loyal to Colonel
al-Gaddafi advanced eastwards (towards Benghazi) with heavy
armour, people were terrified at the prospect of the likely
reprisals that these forces would carry out against those
who participated in the pro-reform demonstrations last month
(15 to 21 February).
Last Tuesday (16 March), as most
foreign journalists were leaving Benghazi and heading
eastwards to Tobruk, close to the Egyptian border, a young
woman who has been active in the protest movement and who I
won’t name for her own safety, told
me:
“Gaddafi’s forces shot dead so many peaceful
protesters and abducted many others who remain
disappeared. If they come back into Benghazi the
retribution against the population will be extremely harsh.
I fear for myself and my children, and I fear even more for
all those young people who took to the streets with no
weapons other than their dreams for a better future and
whose optimism and determination gave us all the courage to
raise our heads and speak out against four decades of blind
repression.
People went out to demonstrate peacefully
and openly, they did not hide their faces; everyone is very
vulnerable if Gaddafi’s forces come back into Benghazi and
other towns; there will be noone to protect us. We are
scared.”
On Thursday (18 March) night, the UN
Security Council resolution authorizing a no-fly zone and
other measures aimed at protecting the civilian population
was very much welcomed and people in Benghazi and all over
eastern Libya. The celebrations involved too much reckless
celebratory firing in the air for my liking – what goes up
eventually comes down and people can and do get killed and
injured as a result.
Many people here agree but nobody
seems to have much authority over the thuwwar, who are
mostly young, inexperienced and totally unaware of the
danger such actions can pose to themselves and to others.
One of the people I visited yesterday (20 March) in one of
the hospitals, a 20-year-old university student, had been
injured by one of the many “celebratory” bullets fired
on Thursday (18 March) night. He was standing with friends
watching the post-UN Security Coucil celebrations when a
bullet came down on top of his head; the X-ray showed that
the bullet travelled downwards and lodged itself inside his
scull, by his left
ear.