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LIBYA - UPDATES ON KEY EVENTS
BBC LIVEUPDATES
March 18, 2011
- At last a protection of sort for
the cockroaches of Libya as UN authorises
no-fly zone over Libyan air space.
It was not an easy diplomatic
victory. It took the skills of envoys from France, the United
Kingdom, Lebanon and the United States to get it through. There
had been doubts that the UN Security Council resolution would be
bogged down by a veto from such members like Russia and China,
but in the event buttressed by the Arab League's call for such a
no-fly zone to be established,
the
resolution was passed. According to
the
BBC ten UN Security Council members backed
the resolution while five abstained thus ensuring that the
minimum of nine votes needed for such a move were satisfied. UK
Prime Minister David Cameron will later today brief the Cabinet
as well as the House of Commons on what this will mean for
British forces in another overseas assignment. Foreign Minister
William Hague said it was a "positive response to the call by
the Arab League" for measures to protect Libyan civilians. The
opposition forces have been rejoicing while the
pro-Khaddafi forces in Tripoli have been
swearing and condemning the move. The people referred to as
cockroaches by their own head of state will now heave a sigh of
relief with some insisting that this should have been done ages
ago. This no-fly zone was what was needed in Sierra Leone during
the days of the AFRC/RUF coaliton of evil, otherwise known as
the beasts when that helicopter gunship piloted by a Sierra
Leonean bombed and strafed areas occupied by civilians perceived
to be in opposition to the junta. Thousands were killed
immediately in such attacks while many more were left with
horrific injuries.
Update: 12.45 gmt
- The Libyan Foreign Minister has just ended a press conference
in which he stated that Libya has ordered an immediate ceasefire
and an end to hostilities as well as the protection of all
civilians within the borders of the country. This as UK and
French pilots are believed to be already on their way to enforce
the no-fly zone.
Update: Saturday March
19, 2011 - Coalition forces attack tanks,
military vehicles and other ground and military facilities in
Libya. First reports say more than a hundred and ten
Tomahawk cruise missiles hit more than
twenty targets fired from UK and US naval forces.
Operation Odyssey Dawn is launched.
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March 21, 2011
- Libya admits using "willing human shields". This adds to the
war crimes list of the Khaddafi regime.
Libya has admitted that it has
been using what the government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim called
"willing human shields" giving the
impression that the civilians located/relocated to possible
coalition forces target areas went to these places of their own
accord. This is in breach of the Code of War making the regime
and the chief operatives candidates for the International
Criminal Court, the ICC, for war crimes and other crimes under
the ICC books. Pictures of mothers, youths and young children
including babies carried in the arms of mothers should provide
ample evidence that war crimes are being committed as it is the
duty of the Libyan government headed by Khaddafi to protect the
lives of civilians. Deliberately putting them in harm's way in
this manner shows just how desperate and irresponsible that
regime has become. Civilians in Sierra Leone were used in a
similar manner by the AFRC/RUF coalition of evil otherwise known
as the beasts where civilians were forced out to shout "We want
Peace" even as armed men within their numbers launched missile
attacks against ECOMOG positions. Those who carried out such war
crimes are now a part of Ernest Bai Koroma's bodyguards led by
the chief human rights abuser, rapist and murderer Idrissa
Kamara also known as Leatherboot.
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Friday August 7, 2009
- UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon calls
for tougher action against perpetrators of sexual violence
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon
has told an open session of the United Nations Security Council
on "Peace, Security and Women" that the world body needs to take
tougher action against perpetrators of sexual violence. He told
the Security Council that "...parties to armed conflict continue
to use sexual violence with efficient brutality,.....like a
grenade or a gun, sexual violence is part of their arsenal to
pursue military, political, social and economic aims" adding "In
Burundi, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the fighting may have ended
but sexual violence persists on a very serious scale"
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice
told the Council that efforts must be stepped up "to ensure that
rapists and other perpetrators of sexual violence are identified
and punished" and said the United States will support domestic,
international, or hybrid bodies that investigate and prosecute
these crimes...Efforts to combat sexual violence must be placed
squarely on the political agenda as well when countries are
searching for lasting stability and peace". Today's meeting is
part of the world body's effort to concretise measures contained
in
UN Security Council Resolution 1820 of
2008 aimed at ending rape and other forms of
sexual violence in conflict and post conflict zones.
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Thursday March 3, 2011
- Aftermath of the events in Libya.
Director of top UK educational institution, the LSE, resigns
over fund linked to Khaddafi. How much did Khaddafi give to
Tejan Kabbah and Ernest Bai Koroma?
Sir Howard Davies has quit as
Director of the London School of Economics a top school of
thought in all things worth studying more especially as they
relate to geopolitical events. The Director is reported as
saying that he had to quit upon reflection that the receipt of
some three hundred thousand pounds (£300,000.00) from a Khaddafi-linked
foundation was out of order. This was not the only link between
Sir Howard and the Libyan regime. According to
the
BBC the former Director said he regretted
visiting Libya to advise Colonel Khaddafi about financial
reforms. "I have concluded that it would be right for me to step
down even though I know that this will cause difficulty for the
institution I have come to love," he said. Here is an example of
how principled people behave even as our Speaker of the Sierra
Leone Parliament keeps burying his wretched head in sand of
denial over making Khaddafi an MP in the House of Legislature.
The question that must be exercising the minds of Sierra
Leoneans now must be - How much money did former President Ahmad
Tejan Kabbah and present President Ernest Bai Koroma receive
from Khaddafi as the Libyan leader tried to give his image a
face-lift? This, even though all in Sierra Leone who have been
following the war machinery in the country knew the role of
Libya in our troubles and the slaughter, rape and mutilation of
hundreds of thousands. Sierra Leone does not need a Wikileaks
expose to reveal these amounts and the assorted gifts. Now is
the time for the two men, Tejan Kabbah and Ernest Bai Koroma to
come clean. We await developments.
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Monday February 28, 2011
- The story so far - Sierra Leone disowns one of its own
citizens and MP. Colonel Khaddafi trapped, besieged, abandoned
and now spurned by former friends like President Koroma
As betrayals go this must be on
top of the pile...could even rival if not beat that of Brutus as
he sinks the final blow into the dying and unbelieving Caesar
causing that arrogant man of Ancient Rome who would be king to
say the oft-quoted question - "Et tu, Brute?". Indeed Khaddafi,
embattled and now hated by his own people for what he had done
to them, more so in the recent past and groping for friends who
would stand up for him would be saying to himself - Et tu,
Justice Abel Stronge; Et tu, Ernest Bai Koroma; Et tu to all
those who drank deep from the bloody wells of gifts lavished on
them by a man who would be Kings of Kings and President of
Africa. Even as Speaker Abel Stronge exposes himself to ridicule
stating that Colonel Khaddafi was never made an MP, one would be
tempted to ask the befuddled Speaker of the House why a
Parliament in recess over Yuletide was convened on New Year's
Day 2009 to receive the Libyan leader. One of the country's top
newspapers
AWOKO
has the story of how the debate was ignited in Parliament
including Speaker Abel Stronge's ill-advised and humiliating
performance of a denial. Oh that we had men (and women) of
stature and principles. The great Eddie Turay Sierra Leone's
High Commissioner to the UK - are you listening?
MORE
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WANTED
- A STATEMENT ON THE MASS MURDERS OF CIVILIANS FROM THE SIERRA
LEONE PRESIDENT AND PARLIAMENT
A friend in need
is a friend indeed or words to the effect that call on true
friends to help each other in times of crisis. Now since Colonel
Khaddafi of Libya is also a citizen and an MP of Sierra Leone,
it behoves the Presidency and Parliament to go to the aid of a
fellow citizen Colonel Khaddafi. Why the deafening silence?
Why are the
internet flying toilets of President Koroma's propaganda
machinery keeping quiet? Why, why, why? Please say something
about your embattled citizen.
After all, Colonel
Khaddafi should not only be counted as a friend and citizen when
he doles out gifts...it is at times like these that
beneficiaries should stand up for him!!!!
And while thinking
of what to say as Libyan aircraft and heavy weapons including
anti-aircraft guns are trained on unarmed protesters, it is
gratifying to note that Libyan diplomats at the United Nations
are now calling on the UN Security Council to intervene in Libya
with one of the diplomats putting the International Criminal
Court, the ICC on notice that Colonel Khaddafi must be arrested
and tried for war crimes, crimes against humanity and mass
murder.
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Monday February 21, 2011
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WANTED - ONE MUSTACHIOED AND
BEARDED TERRORIST: CRIME - WAR AGAINST THE PEOPLE AND MASS
MURDER
Just last evening Khaddafi's son
Sayf al-Islam 38, was on national television telling the people
that those who fired on unarmed civilians were troops untrained
in riot control and today the defection of two Libyan pilots
ordered to attack protesters and who have now landed their
fighter jets in Malta clearly nails the
lie in this rather lame excuse for the murder of innocent
citizens. The whereabouts of Colonel Khaddafi may be the subject
of speculation for now, but what is not in dispute is that this
man who wanted to be the all-conquering ruler and President of
Africa has now succeeded in making himself a candidate for the
International Criminal Court, the ICC in the Hague. He, together
with his sons and close buddies who have ordered the murders of
their own citizens must be made to answer for the blood of the
innocent in Libya. News that a number of Libyan diplomats
resigning their posts in protest at the brutal and murderous
crackdown on protesters is a welcome sign that must be seized
upon by all nations concerned about human rights and democracy.
This is the time when the nearest US fleet should be heading for
Libyan waters to effect a no-fly zone making sure that all the
planes taking part in those massacres are shot down.
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Sunday February 20, 2011
- Murder in Libya as Khaddafi's hired
killers fire area and other heavy weapons against protesting
citizens. European Union under pressure to act. Reactions needed
from President Ernest Bai Koroma as well.
It has been murder most foul...a
massacre of civilians protesting against the repressive rule of
Libyan leader Colonel Khaddafi with some reports suggesting that
hospitals are being overwhelmed and mortuaries over-filled as
the death toll rises. Some reports say mortar rounds were fired
into the protesters even as heavy machine guns opened up with
large calibre shells devastating flesh and bones of those hit.
And worryingly, the protesters have been talking of seeing hired
gunmen from sun-Saharan Africa being deployed as killer
squadrons with specific instructions to murder and maim Libyan
citizens in their own country. Speculations are now rife as to
what countries have been supplying the killers...and given the
close ties Ernest Bai Koroma has with the Colonel (he made him a
Sierra Leonean citizen as well as an MP of our Parliament) the
Sierra Herald would want a statement from President Koroma on
what a Sierra Leonean citizen and MP is reported to be doing to
Libyans in their own God-given country.
The
BBC has been following what's going on in
the country despite a clamp down on journalists with internet
and other connections to the outside world interrupted.
Another update from Freetown - The Sierra
Herald has been informed that though a statement from President
Koroma could be in place, given the manner in which Colonel
Khaddafi was made a citizen and an MP of Sierra Leone without
any word of dissent from the opposition, it is imperative that
Sierra Leone's Parliament make a statement now on one of its
citizens using such brute force to quell protests in Libya. It
was the shameless and self-serving Parliamentarians who took
upon themselves, Speaker Stronge included, to make that knave of
a Khaddafi a citizen of our beloved country.
MORE
Update:
Monday February 21,
2011 - 0630 gmt.
Protests reach the capital Tripoli. Colonel Khaddafi's son Sayf
al-Islam goes on TV to say those murders were committed by army
units not trained in riot control. Blames everybody within and
outside the country except his father and his clique. Claims
Libya is on brink of civil war and is ready to die for the
country. Echoes of the Johnny Paul AFRC as reports say
helicopter gun ships were used against civilians. Khaddafi holed
up in an unknown location...desertions from the army...the
regime becomes more isolated. Pundits say the end of Khaddafi is
not a question of how, but when as protests gain momentum.
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Sunday January 16, 2011
- Tunisia - people power triumphs once again as agents of
deposed President form killing squads to target those suspected
to be behind the mass protests
Tunisian President Zine El Abidine
Ben Ali actually believed he had succeeded in emasculating all
opposition within the country he had ruled for over twenty
years. His security forces were well equipped, well-fed and in a
number of cases were given free license to take whatever action
against his perceived opponents. Many were forced to flee his
police state where, like in Siaka Stevens's Sierra Leone
"careless talk" became a crime punishable by any measure warped
brains could conjure up. And so when the people could stomach it
no longer and rose as one to voice their opposition in street
protests, it was the security forces who opened fire on their
own people using guns, bullets and other repressive
paraphernalia bought with the people's money, with the people's
sweat. Faced with the massive popular revolt Ben Ali made
concession after concession, promise after promise. The
protesters were unimpressed. He saw the signs and fled with tail
firmly stuck between wretched legs. There's a limit to the
patience and endurance of the people. Indeed.
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