LYBIA DEATH TOLL RISES TO 104 / EVACUATE PINOYS TRAPPED IN LYBIA - MIGRANTE
MANILA, FEBRUARY 21, 2011 (AFP) Demonstrators supporting the Libyan people's protest against the regime of President Moamer Kadhafi rally at Lafayatte Park in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Saturday (Sunday in Manila). AFP PHOTO]
TRIPOLI: The death toll from an iron-fisted crackdown on protests against President Moamer Kadhafi in eastern Libya has risen to at least 104, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said, as demonstrators on Sunday braved the streets of the restive city of Benghazi.
"Our researcher in Libya has confirmed at least 104 deaths," HRW's Tom Porteous told Agence France-Presse from the organization's London office, with the overall toll based on reports from witnesses and medics.
"We are very concerned that under the communications blackout that has fallen on Libya since yesterday that a human rights catastrophe is unfolding," he said.
According to witnesses, the bloodshed peaked in Libya's second largest city of Benghazi on Saturday when mourners heading to the funerals of people killed by security forces targeted a military barracks on the way to the cemetery.
They threw firebombs at the barracks and troops responded with live rounds in which "at least 12 people were killed and many more [were] injured," said Ramadan Briki, chief editor of the Libyan newspaper Quryna, citing security sources.
Before the latest round of bloodshed in Benghazi flared on Saturday, HRW said that security forces had already killed more than 80 anti-regime protesters in eastern Libya.
"Security forces are firing on Libyan citizens and killing scores [of them] simply because they're demanding change and accountability," it said.
After regime opponents used Facebook to mobilize the initial protests, the social networking website has since been blocked and Internet connections have been unreliable, according to Tripoli and Benghazi residents.
HWR said that thousands poured into the streets of Benghazi and other eastern cities on Friday, a day after clashes in which 49 people were killed, including two policemen who were reportedly lynched in the city of Al-Baida.
Libya's attorney general, Abdel-rahman al-Abbar, ordered on Saturday an inquiry into the violence in the east, an official in Tripoli told Agence France-Presse.
68-year-old Kadhafi is the longest-serving leader in the Arab world. His oil-producing North African state was a longtime Western pariah, but its relations with Europe and America had markedly improved in recent years.
US President Barack Obama has condemned the use of violence against peaceful protesters in Libya, while Britain, France and the European Union have urged the country's authorities to exercise restraint.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague urged Libyan authorities to rein in the security forces, and Washington had cautioned American citizens to steer clear of the country, particular in the restive east.
Meanwhile, Libyan authorities announced the arrest of dozens of non-Libyan Arabs across the country for allegedly stoking the protests.
Those detained were members of a "foreign network [and were] trained to damage Libya's stability, the safety of its citizens and national unit," the state news agency Jana said.
Kadhafi himself has made no public comment about the unprecedented challenge to his four-decade rule, part of a regional wave of popular uprisings that have already toppled the regimes of Libya's neighbors Tunisia and Egypt. AFP
FROM THE DAILY TRIBUNE
Migrante asks Noynoy to evacuate 1,700 OFWs trapped in Libya 02/21/2011
Receiving a direct call from its affiliate in Libya, a Filipino migrant rights group yesterday said there are about 1,700 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who are trapped at the ongoing airport construction in Benghazi, Libya.
John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle East regional director, said Gil Lebria, Migrante country coordinator in Libya, informed him about the request of the trapped OFWs to the Philippine government for an immediate evacuation as protest against the Libyan government is brewing.
Last Feb. 19, citing local reports, Libyan government forces fired on the protesters in the Eastern City of Benghazi, killing at least 15 persons and wounding many others when the government tried to suppress the protesters calling for an end of Moammar Gadhafi's 42-year reign in Libya.
It was reported that Internet has been shut up and the only available form of communication is by telephone and cell phone, but is expected to be cut soon.
Monterona said, quoting Lebria, the 1,700 OFWs convey their serious concerns for their safety as the peace and order situation in Benghazi is getting worst because the incumbent regime is determined to crash the protests initiated by thousands of its nationals.
"There are about 25,000 OFWs working in Libya; 16,000 of them are nurses, while the remaining are professionals and construction workers," Monterona said.
"What worries them is that their passports and other pertinent travel documents are with their employers; in case of emergency they could not easily get it, thus it poses a problem to get out of Libya," Monterona added.
"Lebria informed me that the 1,700 OFWs would like to convey to the Philippine government through its embassy in Tripoli about 800 kilometers far from Benghazi, that they should be given food as they run out of food supplies and worse they could not get out of the project site," Monterona added.
Lebria managed to call the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli, Libya and conveyed the worries of the 1,700 OFWs but instead he and the rest of his co-workers were advised to stay at their barracks until further notice.
"We knew that the Philippine Embassy in Libya had already requested P50 million for the evacuation plan of the more than 25,000 OFWs here in case the situation get worst, but the embassy still waiting to receive reply from the DFA in Pasay," Monterona averred.
"We are calling the Aquino government through the DFA to seriously consider the unfolding of events amid the escalation of protest and clashes in Bahrain, Yemen and Libya and prepare for evacuation plans along with the release of the needed budget like the assistance to the nationals fund intended for emergency repatriation of OFWs caught during war or internal strife in these countires," Monterona said.
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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