Think things couldn’t be any worse for blacks in Libya? Think again. The irony of a Black-man-led Obama Administration, NATO and other allies fretting over how to help bombed rebels who are bashing Black Africans is not lost. Those Blacks stuck in Libya with the good luck and wherewithal to make it to the Tunisian border are often stopped from crossing over by bigoted Arab Tunisian authorities. So, how did Blacks in Libya wind up in such dire straits?
Ignorance, racism and Gaddafi himself play equal parts. Fact vs. Fiction Since the anti-Gaddafi uprising began in Libya on Feb. 16, rebels have terrorized hundreds of Black migrant workers — not only robbing, beating and detaining them but also subjecting them to strip searches. The rumor that Gaddafi hired Africans from other countries to crush the rebellion may be nothing more than gossip, though.
Gaddafi may have Black henchmen in his crew, but they’re not necessarily foreigners. As Na’eem Jeenah of South Africa’s Afro-Middle East Centre told the Christian Science Monitor, “Qaddafi’s bodyguards, many of those people are actually from the south of Libya, partly because Qaddafi trusts them more than he would trust people from the north for various tribal and other reasons.”
Philadephia News
Libyan rebels may be indiscriminately killing black people because they have confused innocent migrant workers with mercenaries, the African Union says.
''The NTC [National Transitional Council] seems to confuse black people with mercenaries,'' the African Union chairman, Jean Ping, said.
He said this could be a reason the African Union has not recognised opposition forces as Libya's interim government. One third of the population is black, he said. ''They are killing people, normal workers, mistreating them.''
Mr Ping speculated that the killings could be the work of ''looters or uncontrolled forces''.
''But then the [new] government should say something, condemn this,'' he said.
''We want to see a signal that the African workers … [will] be evacuated.''
Human rights groups have expressed concerns about beatings and detentions of immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa.
''I really fear vigilante justice and retribution and attacks by civilians against other civilians,'' said Richard Sollom, deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights, who completed a fact-finding mission in Misrata in June.
Dr Sollom said his Boston group knew of about 500 Darfuris ''who are desperately trying to get out of Libya. They have no money, they are basically homeless because they are from Darfur, and they very much fear for their lives because of the colour of their skin.''
Guest workers from Sudan, Chad, and other sub-Saharan African nations have been targeted in part because former leader Muammar Gaddafi hired foreign African mercenaries, Dr Sollom said.
Human Rights Watch said that the evidence it has collected so far ''strongly suggests that [Gaddafi's] government forces went on a spate of arbitrary killing as Tripoli was falling''.
So far there have been no specific allegations of atrocities carried out by rebel fighters, though human rights groups are continuing to investigate some unsolved cases.
Associated Press reporters have witnessed several episodes of rebels mistreating prisoners or sub-Saharan Africans suspected of being hired Gaddafi guns, including an incident where about a dozen black men were detained and punched.
A transitional council spokesman, Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, denied Mr Ping's claims that rebels were responsible for such killings. ''These allegations have been made during the early days of the revolution,'' he said. ''This never took place.''
AP
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