Gaddafi's African 'mercenaries' leaving Libya

[ButterflyBlood]

Source: BBC World Service

The United Nations has called on all sides in the Libyan conflict to prevent acts of revenge.

It follows reports both of killings by pro-Gaddafi forces and of attacks on African troops who fought on the government side.

African soldiers recruited by Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi have begun streaming home.

A ship carrying some 260 migrant worker evacuees has now arrived in Benghazi from the capital Tripoli.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14693343

---

Gee looks like Gaddafi was never all that popular with the people of Libya after all if he has to rely on Blackwater-esque thugs to do the fighting. Now they're scattering like like the roaches they are.

[No Elephants]

1. Please God, let this be a precursor to an end to the killing.

[bhikkhu]

8. I certainly hope so...

the one thing that was troubling among many of the anti-Gadhafi forces was their absolute hatred of foreign mercenaries. They were generally looked at as being pitiless themselves, and responsible for the worst of the atrocities against the Libyan people. If they're gone, I thing everything comes down one big notch.

[pampango]

2. "The IOM says there were over three million migrants working in Libya and there is little indication

of how many will want to leave." That's a lot of migrant workers in a country with a population of 6 million.

Last March, the BBC spoke to officials in Mali who said the Tuareg were being paid $10,000 to join the Libya government forces and a further $1,000 (£613) a day to fight.

Western sources suggest that up to 10,000 Africans were recruited from countries including Sudan, Chad, Mali and Niger.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Maybe because they aren't getting paid?

[MilesColtrane]

4. Why does the BBC put mercenaries in quotes?

The foreign fighters for Gaddafi fit the very OED definition of the word.

[provis99]

7. because they were foreign migrant workers who were armed by Kadaffy.

They weren't in Libya to get jobs as mercenaries, they were there to get regular jobs, and got drafted by Kadaffy when the rebellion broke out.

[JackRiddler]

9. Actually, because they're just foreign migrant workers and the "mercenaries" were an invention...

of the actual foreign forces intervening in Libya, those from NATO. When you're the old imperialist-criminal powers conducting an invasion of a former colony, you need propaganda that defines the native resistance as foreign and paints the foreigners as friends to the native people. Bonus if you can present these "mercenaries" as "black Africans." It was no different with Iraq, when the foreign invaders managed to pin the "foreign fighters" and "terrorist" labels on the domestic insurgency against the invasion.

[LiberalLovinLug]

11. Actually, there were many paid mercenaries from other African countries

I don't know what else you would call them.
My sister works in Mali and says she knows a family where the father had left to join Kaddafi's forces. The temptation is just too great for these impoverished people. They do it for family survival. Many are not real soldiers and have never been trained.
It is not such a black and white issue....on either side.
The fog of war.

And sure there are thousands of migrant workers who were already there working other menial jobs, and it is those people I would worry about as they may be lumped in with the thousands of foreign hired soldiers and targeted for revenge.

[JackRiddler]

12. It's never altogether black and white...

but it's clear the NATO-country media right away exaggerated a foreign presence in Libya, intimating that Gaddafi's forces (which were obviously plenty strong and loyal, to have outlasted a four-month NATO assault on that scale) were practically all "black African" mercenaries.

Now this current story is about migrant workers going home, and the unrelated "mercenaries" are still being fit into the headline. That's ministry of propaganda at work.

.

[hack89]

17. Qaddafi recruited fighters in Africa

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/world/africa/16mali.html

[Prometheus Bound]

19. Thanks for the article but I wonder if you read it.

It's not at all clear that he recruited fighters from Africa according to that article. Unless you mean he recruited Libyans, who are African.

It's just a bunch of hearsay, guesses and doubts.

And the opening is about a fan club, not actual mercs.

[hack89]

20. Self delete.

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Stella_Artois]

40. Wow the Italians have invaded Libya ?!?

I'm very interesting in hearing more about this. Where are the Italian troops based ? Where did they land ? How have they convinced the people of the NTC to be their puppets !

This is HUGE !

[FLPanhandle]

5. That's the problem with mercenaries. Stop paying them and they stop fighting.

I'm sure the people of Libya will say good riddance to them.

[itsrobert]

6. There goes Haliburton's commission for placement services

n/t

[bvar22]

10. How Come...

Gaddafi's Foreign Fighters are called "mercenaries",
while the Foreign Fighters helping "The Rebels" by drooping bombs on Libyans aren't? :shrug:


You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.

Solidarity!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Arctic Dave]

13. Shhhh, irony hurts their head.

If you really want to twist their noodle, tell them the US does what MG does with it's soldiers. If you fight our wars we will pay you and give you citizenship(maybe).

[EFerrari]

14. And "roaches" no less.

Are our special forces "roaches", too or just black Africans?

[joshcryer]

18. Gaddafi called NATO mercenaries. It's touching that some here use his own terminology.

Touching in a rather disturbing way since he was opening the doors of neoliberalism and good friends with imperialists.

[bvar22]

24. Bullshit.

"he was opening the doors of neoliberalism and good friends with imperialists"

Gaddafi was the one keeping The Imperialists & NeoLiberals OUT of Africa.
The "NeoLiberals" & The World Banks, & The Global Oil Corps, & the IMF are the ones are drooping NeoLiberal Freedom Bombs on Gaddafi.
"They" are the ones who will turn Libya into a NoeLiberal Free market HELL, just like Iraq.

What is WORSE is that YOU KNOW that,
but purposely post dis-information to the contrary.

Shame!


You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.

Solidarity!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[geek tragedy]

26. Yes, Qadaffi shares your values and concerns and you share

his agenda.

Too bad your mass-murdering hero lost.

Not anti-war, just the other side.

[bvar22]

28. You're surprised?

I'm surprised that so many on DU bought the same exact propaganda that was used to justify the Invasion of Iraq.
They didn't change a thing,
just scratched OUT "Saddam", and penciled in "Gaddafi".
How quickly some choose to forget!

If you're not FOR the New WAR in Libya,
you're WITH The Communists AlQaeda The Terrorists Saddam Qaddafi!!!

Just curious, but did you support THAT Invasion/Occupation too?

Some of us have grown out of the Binary World of Middle Childhood,
and we can OPPOSE the US Military becoming involved in another Civil War in another Middle Eastern Country
without actually supporting Gaddafi.

Freedom Bombs aren't FREE,
and the Libyans WILL pay a heavy price for them.
Libya WILL be turned into a NeoLiberal Free market HELL
with the IMF, the Global Corporations, and the Global Banks owning everything,
...just like Iraq!

”Gaddafi is the perfect villain for this Anglo-French-American farce unworthy of French playwright Georges Feydeau. For all his dictatorial megalomania, Gaddafi is a committed pan-African - a fierce defender of African unity. Libya was not in debt to international bankers. It did not borrow cash from the International Monetary Fund for any "structural adjustment". It used oil money for social services - including the Great Man Made River project, and investment/aid to sub-Saharan countries. Its independent central bank was not manipulated by the Western financial system. All in all a very bad example for the developing world.”

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MD27Ak01.html

You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.

Solidarity!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[geek tragedy]

29. You praised Qadaffi as the one saving all of Africa from the evils

of neoliberalism and colonialist exploitation.

Sounds very much like you're sorry his own people overthrew his ass.

[bvar22]

30. "his own people" didn't overthrow "his ass".

You weren't paying attention.
The USA and NATO overthrew "his ass" with the help of some partisans on the ground.
It WAS a stalemated CIVIL WAR until we added our Freedom Bombs.





Study Up on :

Libya

The Middle East

Oil Wars

The History of US/British Military Interventions in the Middle East over the last 70 years

The History of the IMF in Africa

Gaddafi & The IMF

Pan-Africanism

The "Iraq Oil Law"

the Theft of Libya's Soverign Wealth Fund

Gaddafi & Development Funds for Sub-Saharan Africa




Here,
I'll even help you with a few links:

Financial Heist of the Century: Confiscating Libya's Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?aid=24479&context=va

NATO nations set to reap spoils of Libya war
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201182511546451332.html?utm_content=automateplus&utm_campaign=Trial5&utm_source=SocialFlow&utm_medium=MasterAccount&utm_term=tweets

Goldman Sachs "Lost" 98% of Libya's $1.3B Sovereign Wealth Fund Investment
http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2011/05/31/goldman-sachs-lost-98-of-libyas-1-3b-sovereign-wealth-fund-investment/

Study up on the above,
and THEN get back to me,
and we can have an intelligent conversation.

Otherwise, your empty, transparent, binary, Jingoistic Bullshit is tiresome,
and a waste of bandwidth.

[geek tragedy]

31. The people of Libya revolted against a dictator.

They were helped by outsiders. Because the dictator had tanks and fighter jets.

Of course, since those outsiders were the US and its allies, the loss of a dictator is a bad thing in your eyes.

[bvar22]

32. Well, at least that is the "Cover Story",

created for simple, binary minds that have already forgotten Iraq,
much less remembered the History of US Military Interventions in the Middle East over the last 70 years.


....but..but... THIS one is different!
I saw Star Wars and "The Rebels" are the Good Guys.
.
.
.
.
Right.

[geek tragedy]

33. So, you think the protests and initial uprising were a CIA conspiracy?

Not a surprise to see you smear the people of Libya who risked their lives to overthrow a dictator as stooges of the West.

Because, you are not on their side, but on the side of the tyrant they deposed.

[bvar22]

34. I don't know, and neither do you.

To claim this "knowledge" would be foolish,
but don't let THAT stop you.

[geek tragedy]

35. Oh come now, you know you think that.

You can't believe that the United States would side with an actual popular uprising.

After all, the United States (particularly under Barack Obama) is an actor of pure evil intent,

[geek tragedy]

27. I wish I could say that I never thought I'd see Qadaffi supporters at DU.

But, we all know that some people here will cheer for anyone who's on the opposite side of a fight with the United States.

These people think Qadaffi was their hero in fighting against neoliberalism and colonialism.

[jzodda]

37. I am with you

Its sickening that people could support Qadaffi but we have some fringe people who support all manner of crazy from Qadaffi to to the Lords resistance army (of Uganda) to the Arab raiders in Darfur to that nut in North Korea and more.

All I know is that a Libyan friend of mine who was part of the early protests was arrested and we have had no contact with him for 4 months. When his brother complained he was also taken away in the middle of the night.

How people can support Qafaffi is beyond me. Even if you despise the USA and hate your own country with a passion and hate and despise NATO I don't see how you can support what Qadaffi did to his people and others over the past 40 years.

[jakeXT]

15. WaPo:The worst treatment of Gaddafi loyalists appeared to be reserved for anyone with black skin

The worst treatment of Gaddafi loyalists appeared to be reserved for anyone with black skin, whether they hailed from southern Libya or from other African countries. Darker-skinned prisoners were not getting the same level of medical care in a hospital in rebel-held Zawiyah as lighter-skinned Arab Libyans, Eltahawy said.

Rebels say Gaddafi employed gunmen from sub-Saharan Africa to shore up his army against his own people, and those fighters have elicited intense enmity from Libyans. But many of the detainees in Zawiyah told Amnesty International they were merely migrant workers “taken at gunpoint from their homes, workplaces and the street on account of their skin color,” Eltahawy said.

The civilian leaders of the anti-Gaddafi uprising have publicly condemned reprisals against loyalist troops. But the officials are in the eastern city of Benghazi, far from the most intense fighting in recent weeks, which has been focused in western Libyan. Even in the east, the civilian leadership appears to have had little success in preventing fighters from carrying out revenge attacks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/libyan-rebels-fight-pockets-of-resistance-continue-hunt-for-gaddafi/2011/08/26/gIQAM2BpfJ_story.html

[jakeXT]

16. UNHCR concerned as sub-Saharan Africans targeted in Libya

"If they see you are African, that you are black, they will target you," said Ahmed, reached in his home. He said local residents, many of whom are armed, are in the streets, setting up roadblocks. "The situation is very difficult here," he told UNHCR. "You can't leave your home even for water."

As a result, he and other Somalis in the community with whom they are in contact are running out of vital supplies. One group of Somalis was attacked when they tried to leave their apartment in another part of the city, he said, leaving one man injured. "It's really very desperate."

Sub-Saharan Africans, especially those from Niger, Chad and Sudan, have been targeted by both sides after it became known that some sub-Saharan Africans had worked as mercenaries for the Gaddafi regime. Many migrants fled to neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia. But several hundred did not.

They are trapped in the capital as, once again, people with black skin are being accused of siding with the dictator. "Anyone who is black, they say they are against them," said Ahmed, who has family in the United States and a visa awaiting him in Tunis, if he can reach there safely.

http://www.unhcr.org/4e57d1cb9.html

[PurityOfEssence]

21. Considering the Rebels' record with darker people, if I was ethnic, I wouldn't wait to be cleansed

The conflation of "African" and "mercenary" has been outrageous from the start. The "fact" of the many imported African mercenaries was used by the rebels to help gin up the rush to war in the first place.

Repeated assertions become "facts" with time, and even though the "proof" of mercenaries has largely been dispelled, with "eyewitness accounts" of planeloads coming in largely discredited, this assertion remains. The argument was needed to bolster the lie that Qaddafi had no popular support; obviously, from the amount of time he held out, he had considerable support.

The early atrocities against anyone darker-skinned in rebel territory was largely unreported, but some entities--namely Public Radio International--had the decency to publish. Qaddafi's record on race relations is very good, not so the people in the Benghazi region or the Berbers. The Misrata locale has its own little bit of ethnic strife, too, and once again: this is AN INCREDIBLY COMPLEX SITUATION.

[EFerrari]

23. UNHCR concerned as sub-Saharan Africans targeted in Libya

GENEVA, August 26 (UNHCR) – UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres has issued a strong call for sub-Saharan Africans to be protected in Libya as reports emerge from Tripoli of people being targeted because of their colour as the city fell to rebel forces.

UNHCR spoke by phone on Friday to one scared African, Ahmed, a Somali who has been living in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and teaching at the university there, since 2007. He has stayed on in the city since anti-government protests in the North African country turned violent in February, leading to all-out war between the Muammar Gaddafi regime and rebel forces.

Ahmed said he did not feel directly threatened. But now, as rebels take over the city, he wants to leave. Since most neighbourhoods in Tripoli fell to rebels earlier this week, sub-Saharan Africans like Ahmed are again being singled out.

"If they see you are African, that you are black, they will target you," said Ahmed, reached in his home. He said local residents, many of whom are armed, are in the streets, setting up roadblocks. "The situation is very difficult here," he told UNHCR. "You can't leave your home even for water."

http://reliefweb.int/node/443422

[totodeinhere]

25. There are atrocities on both sides.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said Sunday it has gathered evidence indicating that Gadhafi loyalists killed at least 17 detainees and arbitrarily executed dozens of civilians as rebels moved into Tripoli.

http://news.yahoo.com/libya-rebels-reject-regime-offer-talk-120040958.html

It seems that some people with their own agendas only want to talk about alleged atrocities committed by one side but not the other.

[indurancevile]

36. oh please. the poster is clearly trying to balance the du storyline which is all about "one side".

[PurityOfEssence]

38. Thanks. Somehow this all seems unclear.

The Benghazi-centered rebels--and Berbers, too--have a horrible record on race, and for all his many faults, one good thing Qaddafi did was try to get rid of the latent racism against black Africans.

The four things that gall me most about our intervention are: the sugary-sweet claim to be defending imperiled innocent civilians, the disingenuous denial that oil has anything to do with it, the white-washing and dismissal of foreign influence of the rebels and the sheer ugly racism displayed by the Islamist Cyrenaican contingent.

Obama has shown himself to be far to eager to wage war, imperiously trample the Constitution and do it on his own and play with propaganda to justify aggression.

This is an ugly aggression by our country, and done illegally. I simply don't believe the propaganda that we're trying to protect innocent civilians; they were really not at risk. We also simply don't do such things. This was about regime change to overthrow a leader who had vast riches we coveted and who was prone to mess with the profit margin. When Qaddafi got the French to basically take half of what their current deal would give them in 2009 at the threat of nationalization, he was a dead man. The British and French have been thirsting for his blood ever since. The evidence is writ large and undeniable.

Since when do we give a tinker's cuss about human rights? Even parsing that argument, this set of protests was incredibly small by numbers and hardly enough to raise an eyebrow, yet to far too many, ANYTHING Obama does is obviously morally perfect. This was a war of aggression, justified by propagandistic distortions as great as any leveled at Saddam Hussein. Hussein really WAS a murderous thug, whereas Qaddafi is a piker in comparison, although still a dick.

[EFerrari]

39. The attacks on black Africans is all over the US black press.

NATO needs to do something about it and now.