When you just don't give a damn any more

Rape



The way the case of Libyan lawyer Iman al-Obeidi was treated, and continues to be treated by the Gaddafi regime is horrific, tasteless, despicable and nothing short of what would expect from the madness that pervades Tripoli.
Ms Obeidi risked life and limb to burst into the Rixos hotel to tell Western journalists of how she was beaten and raped by members of the Gaddafi regime - simply because her papers identified her as a Benghazi resident.


Having been to Libya and having met Gaddafi, I might offer some insight. Staff of the Rixos Hotel, men and women, immediately pounced on the woman, despite the attempts of journalists to shield her. These people are not Gaddafi minders, or employees - or at least, not officially. What the West needs to understand is that in Libya, to get a job, you have to be a loyal Gadaffi supporter. And you have to remain as so. I had first hand experience of this in Libya - Sirte to be precise. Normal staff watch your every move, and they report on you every day. What you eat, what you say, what you do in your room... that's the way it goes.

Her involuntary cowering reaction was clear enough to see, she was petrified, but they would not shut her up. Waitresses even tried to pull a bag over her head to shut her up, but it was only when a Gaddafi lackey intervened that she was properly silenced. A minder frogmarched the woman out of the building and to a waiting car. He put his hand over her mouth and tried to literally shut her up. He did not succeed and parts of this incredibly brave woman's story have now been made public as she struggled to speak and to show the bruises on her face and thighs to the media who were present. She claims she was gang-raped by 15 men, drunk on whisky, who proceeded to put her through living hell. 

"Her involuntary cowering reaction was clear enough to see, she was petrified, but they would not shut her up. Waitresses even tried to pull a bag over her head to shut her up, but it was only when a Gaddafi lackey intervened that she was properly silenced"

One journalist who tried to forcefully ask where they were taking Mrs al-Obeidi, was tackled and moved out of the way, and that was it, she was gone.

As the West tried to check on her whereabouts, the regime's propaganda machine, fronted by the Moussa Ibrahim, told the world that the woman was safe with her sister and inferred that she was a prostitute who brought this shameless attack on herself. In the meantime, the Libyan authorities claim to have fired those who accosted the woman in the hotel and other staff have been told "not to interfere in affairs with journalists". It is clear that there are two wars, the ground war and the propaganda war.

It 

is stomach churning to say the least, but what else can one expect from this regime?

The woman's parents have now come forward and spoken in an interview with Al Jazeera. They claim their daughter is still being held by the police and the mother, proud, bitter and anguished, all in one, tells of the Gaddafi regime's shameless attempt at buying her silence. Her family has been promised anything they want to get her to retract her claims. The mother said: "I don't feel ashamed, instead my head is up high."

The mother says she received a phone call from an unidentified caller who said: "Whatever you ask for, you will get: build a new house or get the money."  This is the Gaddafi regime. This is Gaddafi's Libya. This is hell on earth.

The faces of the Libyan uprising

Real stories

Her pained face says it all. This beautiful woman is Galea, or Galia. She was interviewed by the BBC about the uprising in Libya, as she demonstrated in Benghazi, to try to and draw attention to the plight of people in Misurata. She implores the news crew to convey her message to the coalition, she tells them that she has been trying to call friends and relatives for days, but the phone lines are out.

She tells the camera the little of what she knows, there is no water and electricity in Misurata, the people are running out of food and Gaddafi forces continue to bombard the town while snipers continue to try and pick off resistance.

The blurry footage and screen grab does not do justice to the beauty of the woman. As she speaks eloquently and in measured tones, the passion on her face accentuates her good looks. She wears a traditional headscarf, yet from the way she speaks, it is clear that she is educated, possibly a teacher, or a doctor. She tries to keep her emotions under control, but she cannot quite manage it, she gets stuck in what she is trying to say: “I hope, I hope… I hope, the UN bombs him, so we can free Libya”.

“I am a software engineer. I have a wife and kids. Do you really think I want to be here with a rifle, fighting off Gaddafi’s thugs? No, I should be at work, providing for my family. If I lived in the West, I would be trying to work some overtime to save for a summer holiday, or to buy a flat screen TV. But no, I live in Benghazi and it is our time to throw off 41 years of dictatorship”

But like Galia, there are thousands. Their faces are with us today, but they will fade away into obscurity over time. Thousands of young men and women are taking up the struggle. Mohammed, 33, also spoke to the BBC. He tells the news crew that he did not want to take up arms, but cannot stand the sight of more innocents being ripped to shreds by heavy weaponry.

“I am a software engineer. I have a wife and kids. Do you really think I want to be here with a rifle, fighting off Gaddafi’s thugs? No, I should be at work, providing for my family. If I lived in the West, I would be trying to work some overtime to save for a summer holiday, or to buy a flat screen TV. But no, I live in Benghazi and it is our time to throw off 41 years of dictatorship,” he said.

The pleas are the same. The aspirations are the same. The grief is the same. We live just next door, and yet we are curiously detached from it all. Let us be completely frank, for all the declarations by Maltese politicians past and present, the Maltese and the Libyan people are not blood-brothers and sisters. But, we do share common aspirations of a better life, freedom of expression and for fundamental human rights. The woman I decided to use as the face for this article is one of many others with a similar voice and views. She is a proud young Libyan woman, probably aspiring to find a husband and build a family to raise in a free and secure environment. These are the people that deserve our help, our compassion, our support and action.

Boots on the ground have been ruled out, but we owe it to these people to give them a fighting chance to rebuild a free Libya. The fight will be long and hard, but if the Libyan people can retake Adyabijah and hold onto Misurata, then they will have a chance to fulfill their destiny.

The real picture in Tripoli emerges

Gaddafi

As journalists continue to delve deeper into the psyche of Tripoli, it is becoming increasingly more apparent that Gaddafi does not enjoy the support he is attempting to portray through propaganda.

As the vice-like grip on power begins to loosen as a result of the air strikes against him military assets and compounds, ordinary Libyans are daring to speak their mind, albeit anonymously, to Western media.

The consensus is clear: “Gaddafi must go”. Ordinary Tripoli residents are reaching out through shopkeepers who often get a chance to have a quick word with journalists out of sight of their minders. They have told the West that the Green flag-waving youths are either brainwashed and in the inner circle of Gaddafi, or are simply paid thugs.

"While the UN approved action to safeguard the lives of civilians, through the imposition of a no-fly zone and other necessary measures, it is becoming clearer and clearer that the Libyan people are going to need help if they are to push west and overthrow the regime"

It is, however, important to note that Gaddafi, perhaps like David Koresh, is surrounded by a good number of fanatical maniacs who will stick by him till the end. The cracks are also beginning to appear within the core of the regime as senior members of Gaddafi’s entourage begin to make contact outside of Libya to try and go into self imposed exile. The right thing to do morally would be refuse such requests, but if we are truly looking to help Libyans in their cause, then these requests might be accepted as they will hasten the regime-collapse.

There is no way back now. While the UN approved action to safeguard the lives of civilians, through the imposition of a no-fly zone and “other necessary measures”, it is becoming clearer and clearer that the Libyan people are going to need help.

News began to filter out of Misurata yesterday where rebels and the few citizens that remain were given a reprieve as Coalition air strikes pounded artillery and tank positions outside the town. It is not yet clear as to whether the siege has been completely broken, but it has surely evened the odds somewhat in terms of militia fighting with sticks, stones and anything they can scavenge.

Although armed, the Libyan rebels can hardly be described as an army. It is merely a collection of Libyan people, fired up and determined to seek freedom from Gaddafi. Many are worried that the East may become an Islamist State and that the West, with or without Gaddafi might become a puppet nation constantly at risk of incursion by fanatics somewhere down the line. On the other hand, the Benghazi council has told the West’s reporters in Paris that the new Libya will be secular and democratic.

One hopes that the rebels  can take advantage of the corridors of opportunity being afforded to them by the strikes. But what can anyone really expect from a bunch of kids, dads and uncles with only assault rifles and no military training.

Perhaps if the coalition succeeds in destroying all, or the great majority, of Gaddafi’s heavy weapons, then the people of Libya might have a chance to revive the popular movement that initially wrested so many towns and cities from Gaddafi’s sphere of control.

The possibilities are endless, but the reality is that the Libyan people need help. We are sure that there must be boots on the ground in terms of special forces. No one else could plot co-ordinates so well and guide the aircraft and missiles to their targets unless they could get eyeballs on targets in the field.

A one year battle lost

Austerity measures

Portugal has lost a one-year long battle to stave off a European bailout. As the world’s attention was diverted to the human tragedy in Libya, the disaster in Japan and protests around the world, everyone forgot about Portugal.

For a whole year, the government battled to implement round after round of austerity measures to prevent a bailout. On Wednesday, the government resigned as parliament voted against a government motion to introduce another round of measures.

The news came as European leaders began to make preparations to leave for Brussels, for the European Council meeting, which began yesterday. The agenda set for the council meeting was originally employment, economic growth and fiscal consolidation.

As ever, the rug has been pulled from underfoot. While it might have been plausible to believe that the summit meeting might have been taken over completely by the Libya issue, it now seems more likely to have a rerun of the Greece-bailout summit.

The agenda was more or less the same as this summit’s, but all items were shelved for a later date as European leaders tried to reach a decision, late into the night, on whether or not to give a bailout, and how it would be implemented.

Portugal, or rather the former Portuguese government, had insisted all along that it would not need a bailout and that it had both the parliamentary backing and the right plan to avoid default.

It is clear now, that while the former government led by Jose Socrates made a good effort, it was always going to be too little, too late. Portugal was the last bulwark to guard against strife for Spain.

"It is clear now, that while the former government led by Jose Socrates made a good effort, it was always going to be too little, too late"

But as it became increasingly more obvious that Portugal cannot afford to borrow off the commercial markets, it is becoming increasingly clear that Spain will be next. The European Union, from the start, said it could afford to bail out Greece, Ireland and Portugal at a push. But the money simply does not exist to bailout Spain if it needs it in the future.

The Spanish nation is beset by rampant unemployment, a huge deficit and a massive public debt. Jobs are not being created and its economy is barely moving. Luckily though, there has been a reprieve in the banking sector as some ratings were recently upgraded.

While the attention of Europe should be focused on the potential human tragedy that might unfold in view of the Gaddafi crisis, it is sad that money will once again take centre stage. However, this is not all that surprising, considering that we do live and work in a Capitalist economy.

On a local level, the Prime Minister will more than likely focus on the need to stop scaremongering in the tourism sector. He will also be likely to dedicate a lot of his time to David Cameron, who sits next to him during all functions. With the ongoing issue of Libya, one is sure that the pair will have a lot to say to each other. One side will likely raise the issue of refugees and the other on the potential use of Malta for logistic support. What is surely of interest to both is oil. British Petroleum has made a massive investment in Libya while Malta has always been under Gaddafi’s shadow in its search for oil.