[D66] Sirte residents flee in droves

[Henk Elegeert]

Sirte residents flee in drovesATUL ANEJA

[image: Internally displaced Libyans flee from the city of Sirte in Libya on
Sunday. Rebel forces stopped battling for the home town of Libya's ousted
leader Muammar Qadhafi on Sunday, giving chance the civilians to leave the
besieged city.]
Internally displaced Libyans flee from the city of Sirte in Libya on Sunday.
Rebel forces stopped battling for the home town of Libya's ousted leader
Muammar Qadhafi on Sunday, giving chance the civilians to leave the besieged
city.

Fearing heavy fighting as forces loyal to Libya's new leadership prepare for
a full-scale assault, residents of Sirte are streaming out of the embattled
city, whose fall is likely to wrap up resistance by fighters loyal to former
Libyan leader, Muammar Qadhafi.

The flood of Sirte residents travelling across the desert road in overloaded
cars, pick-up vans and trucks followed a 48-hour notice to leave that was
issued by the Transitional National Council (TNC), the anti-Qadhafi alliance
that now loosely controls most of Libya. The coastal city of Sirte, is Mr.
Qadhafi's hometown, and has been his political bastion. But a barrage of
artillery exchanges, encirclement of the city by TNC loyalists, and
sustained aerial bombardment by NATO warplanes is forcing residents to seek
safe havens. Many are heading for the nearby city of Misurata, but some have
decided to encamp in the desert, in the hope of an early return to their
homes, after the upcoming battle for Sirte is over, which they assume will
be brutal but short.

Hundreds of residents who are fleeing are narrating a tale of a full-scale
humanitarian crisis that is developing in Mr. Qadhafi’s stronghold, where
his loyalists are readying themselves for a possible last stand, against TNC
fighters, backed by NATO. For those inside the city, food supplies are
running out, while hospitals, short of oxygen and essential medicines are
hard-pressed to cope with the steady flow of the wounded.

On Saturday, a team of aid workers from the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC) was given a safe-passage by the TNC and the pro-Qadhafi
forces to visit hospitals in Sirte. The Red Cross managed to supply medical
kits for 200 injured people, body bags and 400 liters of fuel to run
generators. However, because of heavy firing that unexpectedly began, it was
unable to visit the city’s main, Ibn Sina hospital.

The urgency of residents to rush out of Sirte was partly driven by the panic
caused by flyers, dropped by NATO planes, which asked people to leave
immediately.

NATO wants the fighting to end quickly and has already signaled its keenness
to wrap-up its mission in Libya. A top commander of the United States for
Africa, Carter Ham has said that NATO could begin its withdrawal from Libya,
as early as next week. Gen. Ham added that NATO’s pull-out could begin as
soon as the TNC had established "reasonable control" of the main population
centers. He pointed out that finding Mr. Qadhafi and forcing his exit would
not be the yardstick for ending NATO's mission in Libya.

Despite the heavy turbulence that is being experienced during the
transition, there are some early signs, however fragile, of normality
returning to Libya following Mr. Qadhafi’s withdrawal from Tripoli.

The oil giant ConocoPhillips has become the first U.S. major to buy Libyan
oil after international sanctions, imposed earlier had ended.

However, the oil sector, the backbone of Libya’s future economy, has not
been left unscathed during the course of the conflict. For instance, it is
estimated that it would take around six months to restore some out of the
four oil fields owned by Waha Oil Company, a Libyan-American Joint venture.
Pro-Qadhafi forces have damaged some of the oil fields belonging to this
company, which was, before the Libyan civil war began, pumping nearly
half-a-million barrels of oil per day.

A Turkish Airlines plane from Istanbul on Saturday became the first
international airliner, to ferry passengers to Tripoli’s Mitiga airport,
after the no fly zone over Libya was imposed in March.

But in the Libyan capital, tensions are running high, caused by friction
between the armed fighters, many of whom are Islamists, who had descended to
force Mr. Qadhafi’s exit but have stayed on, and the local residents who are
resenting their gun-toting culture as well as the proliferation of weaponry
in their city.
AP
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