On a more sober note.... Humanitarian crisis escalates in Libya

Humanitarian crisis escalates in Libya


Australian Broadcasting Corporation... http://www.abc.net/au/lateline/content/2011/S3151341.htm



Reporter: Tim Palmer

Tens of thousands of people fleeing Libya have crowded the borders of Tunisia and Egypt as anti-government forces move within 50 kilometres of Tripoli.

ALI MOORE, PRESENTER: Foreign ministers from around the world are assembling in Geneva to develop a response to the growing humanitarian crisis in Libya.

Tens of thousands of people have fled the country, crowding the borders of Tunisia and Egypt.

Inside Libya, Colonel Gaddafi is becoming increasingly isolated, with anti-government protesters taking control of a town just 50 kilometres from the capital, Tripoli.

And tonight, there are reports that opposition forces have shot down a military aircraft which had been firing on demonstrators in Misurata.

ABC correspondent Tim Palmer reports from the Libyan-Tunisian border.

TIM PALMER, REPORTER: Colonel Gaddafi remains in power and remains defiant, but the net keeps tightening. Here, anti-Gaddafi demonstrators celebrate taking control of Zawiya, just 50 kilometres from the capital, Tripoli.

PROTESTOR (voiceover translation): All of Zawiya is with us and the people do not want Gaddafi.

TIM PALMER: Zawiya's just the latest town to fall to the protesters, but it's significant because it's in the west of the country, up till now a Gaddafi stronghold. On Sunday, the faltering regime took foreign journalists into Zawiya. They claim to show that the country is calm and that force is not being used against protesters.

SEIF AL-ISLAM GADDAFI, SON OF LIBYAN PRESIDENT: The point that you are hearing rumours, false reports, please take your camera tomorrow morning, even (inaudible), go to every city in Libya, everything is calm, everything is peaceful. The point there is a big, big gap between reality and the media reports.

TIM PALMER: But Zawiya is ringed by pro-Gaddafi militia, with tanks and anti-aircraft guns and there are fears of a brutal response from them, ordered by Colonel Gaddafi.

A few kilometres closer to Tripoli in the town of Harsha, Gaddafi supporters put on a show of strength, an indication that the final push for Tripoli will not necessarily be easy for the opposition.

And it's an opposition which is starting to take some form. Libya's former justice minister has been appointed the head of a provisional government in the parts of the country no longer controlled by Colonel Gaddafi.

MUSTAFA ABDEL-JALIL, FMR LIBYAN JUSTICE MINISTER (voiceover translation): What is happening in Libya is a popular revolution led by the youth, supported by the people against oppression and against a dictator who has led Libya with a singular point of view and with a vengeful attitude and blood-thirsty soul.

Now we announce to the world that we intend to build a democratic nation with institutions that respect international obligations and treaties.

TIM PALMER: Mr Abdul is frustrated by the lack of support for the protesters by other countries and he's called for the international community to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent mercenaries being flown into the country.

The death toll of the past fortnight's unrest is estimated by diplomats to be around 2,000 and tens of thousands of people have also fled the country to escape the violence. The vast majority of them are Egyptians, but there are among them Bangladeshis, Vietnamese and Chinese workers too.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has now expressed concern about the mounting humanitarian crisis on this Libya-Tunisia border. In the past days the tide of fleeing foreign workers has accelerated; now around 10,000 a day are streaming across the frontier.

But some Westerners found escape from Libya nearly as harrowing. Among them was 50-year-old Australian Brian Walker, who was working in the south of the country.

BRIAN WALKER, RESCUED OIL WORKER: We started walking out Monday night. So, it's Sunday night - one week. It hasn't been a good week.

TIM PALMER: They were fired on by bandits before being rescued by the British Royal Airforce and flown to Malta.

BRIAN WALKER: In the back of a dump truck for a couple of days. 1,000 kilometres in a bus to get back to where we started from in the bus. And then the RAF got us out tonight. It was great.

TIM PALMER: Libya is being quickly emptied of those who kept its economy running.

Tim Palmer, Lateline.

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