LIBYA: Around 150 families of displaced Misrata residents seek refuge in a mosque near Sirte

Record ID: 452155

  • Title: LIBYA: Around 150 families of displaced Misrata residents seek refuge in a mosque near Sirte
  • Date: 27th September 2011
  • Summary: MEN AND CHILDREN STANDING AROUND CHILDREN SEATED ON DOORSTEPS
  • Embargoed: 12th October 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Libya
  • Country: Libya
  • Topics: War / Fighting,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA8MPWFWGHD3P2CSZ9PE4XBFOOD
  • Story Text: Around 150 families of displaced Misrata residents were seeking refuge in a mosque 2-3 kilometres east of Sirte city centre on Monday (September 26).
    For the rebels who toppled Muammar Gaddafi, the new Libyan era has ushered in unbounded political freedom and deep personal joy.
    For the families that fled from the predominantly black town of Tawargha, in the outskirts of Misrata, around 40 kilometres from the centre, it brought fear.
    The rebels' elation at victory turned into rage in Tawargha, where inhabitants had previously enjoyed Gaddafi's favour. The town had been the staging point for attacks on the nearby city of Misrata, 200 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli, and withstood months of shelling by Gaddafi's forces.
    Seized by the rebels last month, the town is now partly in ruins, its population dispersed. Residents complained of revenge attacks and abductions, at the hands of anti-Gaddafi fighters after their homes were burned down and the neighbourhood purged.
    Seeking refuge from violence, the families fled to Muammar Gaddafi's hometown Sirte, one of the last bastions of pro-Gaddafi resistance in Libya.
    "We have left all our belongings but the war-- these kids are fine one moment and at another they could get involved in something and then you have a problem- it is a situation of fear. It needs time, the wound is not a superficial one," said Hasan Miser, a native of Tawargha, who is now hiding in the mosque.
    National Transitional Council (NTC) forces have provided food to the families thus far, but an NTC commander for the local area, Mohammed, said it was insufficient.
    "There are currently families here who have arrived and are staying in the safety of the mosque. Of course there are shortages, like children's milk and such. They should be provided with such provisions and they should be taken care of and really they should have been able to come to a better place," said Mohammed.
    Mohammed called on aid groups to assist with provision of water, food and medicine for the elderly and infants.
    The treatment of African migrants and dark-skinned Libyans is an early test of the new rulers' vows to build a democratic state, which their European and U.S. backers feel would justify their intervention against Gaddafi on humanitarian grounds.
    Race and skin colour were already dividing lines for Libyans, and as in other north African Arab states, many people have a dismissive attitude toward black Africans.
    But the atrocities attributed to black mercenaries during the uprising against Gaddafi, as well as the allegiance some regions populated by dark-skinned Libyans showed him in the war, have given the race question a new and deadly currency.
    Salim Gaddafi, another native of Tawargha said the families felt safe in the Misrata mosque.
    "Here we feel safe. As long as we are here, together, we feel safe here. Here there are families and children and women and pregnant women... and we want to distance ourselves from the places of battle," Salim said.
    But the mosque now lies within a conflict zone, as fighters backing Libya's interim rulers on Monday prepared to renew their advance into the coastal city, following a NATO aircraft bombing of targets which sapped the resistance of the deposed leader's troops.
    Fuelled in part by accounts of a black mercenary role in suppressing an abortive Tripoli uprising in February many African migrants and dark-skinned Libyans fear a campaign of violence against them which leaves them little hope of a future in Libya.
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