Petition: Help the Silent Victims of Gaddafi’s Rape Machine

[tabatha]

To the NTC

Gaddafi is using rape as a systematic method of war. Rape is happening everyday and mass rapes are taking place as we speak. The victims of such crimes are not only entitled to adequate medical treatment but also to psychological support and specialized therapy. Along the Tunisian boarder, a clinic taking care of victimized girls and women has successfully been established. Its female staff are trained to deal with these cases and has been of great support in helping the women to cope with the aftermath of their traumatic experiences.

We request that a similar clinic be set up inside Libya itself to specifically take care of the women and girls who have been traumatized by the effects of sexual abuse carried out by Gaddafi soldiers. A clinic with female staff and doctors who are specifically trained to handle rape and abuse cases is a vital prerequisite for the victims to cope with their horrific experiences and learn to live a normal life again.

It is not their fault to have been targets of a systematic machinery of war. Shaming them and abandoning them in this dire hour is only playing to Gaddafi's advantage. Support by signing the petition to NTC to ensure they receive the psychological and physical support they need.

Some links regarding the topic:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/hundreds-of-libyan-women-report-being-raped-by-gadhafi-forces-but-count-could-be-much-higher/2011/05/28/AGzjKTDH_story.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISLz8Fv0eik
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldcu5x8UTDE&feature=share

Tweeters on this topic:
@ceoDanya @ChangeInLibya @Dovenews
@LibyaFTW @MushuThaLohari And many more
@KC_Tripolitania @Tripolitania
@bugpopper @ShababLibya
Hash tag: #rapeinlibya


Thank you,
From the Libyan Community and the People who support the Libyan Community

http://www.petitiononline.co.uk/petition/help-the-silent-victims-of-gaddafis-rape-machine/2905

[tabatha]

1. Twitter feeds - hash tag #rapeinlibya - #LibyaMedicalR

http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23rapeinlibya
RT@sunnkaa: 4 those who deny #rapeinLibya as #WeaponofWar; SundayTimes journo witnesses mobile footage of gang rape. http://yfrog.com/nm3q1z


http://twitter.com/#!/LibyaMedicalR
Sign Petition to Drop Humanitarian Aid to Besieged Cities in #Libya like #Yerfen and #AlGalaa - #Feb17 -
http://goo.gl/cWqmR

[notesdev]

2. enough with the war propaganda already

There wouldn't have been a war there at all if we hadn't intentionally stirred one up.

Disgusts me to see this in one of the few places that used to be consistently anti-war.

We're raping half the planet with our illegal (both domestically and internationally) military empire. That's the rape that needs to be stopped - get your priorities straight.

[catchnrelease]

3. Why would you torture yourself?

If requests for support for women being raped disgusts you, why on earth would you click on this thread?

[notesdev]

4. it's war propaganda which disgusts me

I really have no idea whether there's any rapes going on or not and unless you're on the ground there and have firsthand information about it, neither do you.

This has one true purpose and one purpose only - to justify yet another illegal war, this time in Libya.

It is the same damn thing we heard about Saddam.

If you want to stop rape? You'll get the best bang for your buck campaigning against rape in U.S. prisons.

But that's not really what this thread is about, it has nothing to do with rape and everything do to with conjuring a justification of doubly-illegal military action.

Enough. Leave me one place on the Internet where I can read the news without getting pummeled with war propaganda - please.

[tabatha]

8. It is the brutalization of people that disgusts me.

If you think that people should stand idly by for:

a) the massacre of people
b) the massacre of plant and animal species
c) the effects of global warming (but hey, you are a denier)

I don't - and am active in all three of those activities.

I am glad that you live in a country where you can express your disgust, but are disgusted when other people try to get the same thing. That kind of hypocrisy disgusts me.

On edit: I am not pro-war. Was against Iraq, and think that the sooner the US is out of the ME the better.
However, to support Gaddafi is actually supporting war - there are a few countries in Africa that would like to get reparations as victims from Gaddafi for supporting war in their countries.

It is also sad that you equate helping women with war propaganda.

[notesdev]

22. Some of think critically

others, like yourself, simply accept unquestioningly whatever you read. Propaganda was made to work on people like you. If the world were full of people like me instead, there would be little point to the practice.

[tabatha]

24. Well, how arrogant.

Number 1. I can guarantee that I have read a ton more about Libya than you have.

Number 2 - propaganda is "is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself."

The news about the rapes in Misrata only came out after Gaddafi's troops had been pushed out of the city.
That is, it was not information prior to the war to influence one's opinion pro-war - but rather an after-the-fact accumulation of reports. Thus, your claim of propaganda falls totally flat and fails.

People who think they are right based on scanty evidence and obvious bias, rates right up there at the same level as propaganda, in my opinion.

I believed Lara Logan when she said she was brutalized. I believed Iman Obeidi, even though I was looking for cracks in her story. And I have no doubt that the English reporter who viewed videos on mobile phones of the rape of four girls between the ages of 16-20, is telling the truth.

If you doubt those, then that is your prerogative.

[notesdev]

35. Anyone who consumes mainstream media and believes it all would hold those beliefs

so excuse me if I don't give you any credit for independent thinking

show me one thing you believe that's not popular, mainstream and politically correct and I'll give you more credit.

[sabrina 1]

10. Where are the requests for the raped Immigrant women in Libya

by the 'rebels'? If this was a genuine concern for women being raped, it would be for all the victims of this new Colonial War. But it's propaganda to get support, like the 'babies in the ovens' stories for the latest Imperial war on an Arab oil-producing country.

The missing women who were disappeared by the rebel factions which human rights organizations have been trying to get attention for, are ignored by the war propagandists.

Just another sickening war, one which I nearly fell for this time.

[tabatha]

13. Are you following ICC investigations?

Does not appear so.

[Cerridwen]

14. First, it wasn't "babies in the ovens"

it was babies thrown out of incubators.

Second, it wasn't multiple reports; it was one report parroted across the media.

Third, it was in the "lead up" to war; not after we were already involved.

Fourth, create the petition if you believe so strongly.

edit because my 'space bar' and I have a difference of opinion as to what level of pounding it requires

[leftstreet]

5. +1

"Disgusts me to see this in one of the few places that used to be consistently anti-war."


:thumbsup:

[tabatha]

6. "There wouldn't have been a war there at all if we hadn't intentionally stirred one up."

Please substantiate that claim.

[JVS]

7. +1

[sabrina 1]

9. Do you have a petition for the rape victims of the so-called

'rebels'? The missing Somali women, dragged out of their homes and disappeared, feared dead after being raped? Why are we getting this one sided petition when there are so many victims on the other side also? We got this before the first Gulf War and the Second Gulf War and Afghanistan etc.

This is not what I supported when this began. It has turned into just another Western invasion of yet another Arab oil-producing country. And by the usual suspects. The same ones who just killed another 14 women and children in one of their other foreign adventures.

[Cerridwen]

11. Do you? Why not create one? You'll get signers from 'both' sides. n/t

[sabrina 1]

15. I am not a war propagandist. There already are organizations trying to

help those women, all women who have been raped, on both sides, in Libya. There are worldwide human rights organizations who have been trying to get help to find those who have disappeared. What is your point?

Mine is that those pushing for war in Libya by Western powers are using these stories to get support for yet another war and it is sickening. If they cared about women, they would care about all women. But they will not even admit that Immigrant women, and men, have been brutalized, raped and murdered by 'rebels' in Libya.

I am against this war. I was against the Iraq War and the Afghanistan war. I was FOR the Arab Spring, but Libya was never part of that, even though for a short while I thought it was.

[tabatha]

16. pushing for war in Libya by Western powers are using these stories to get support for another war

What other war?

The sequence is:

a) peaceful demonstrations in Libya
b) brutal crackdown by Gaddafi
c) intervention by NATO
d) reports of rape AFTER Misrata has already been freed

Your post makes no sense at all.

[Cerridwen]

18. sabrina, stop with the 'war propagandist' crap, okay.

We have differing opinions. That's it. To make me out a 'war propagandist,' you're going to have to find a shit-load of my posts which have historically proved such. You won't. I'm not. It's not that simple.

If there are 'organizations trying to help those women,' post the links to the information here. You want to prove your point, prove it, provide links and information.

Many 'rooting' for those fighting against gaddafi's forces in Libya are not war mongers, we're not imperialists, we're not anti-woman, we're not a whole lot of other stuff, we're not naive, and there is a whole lot of nuance going on in this situation. I know you know better.

Hell, you're going to have a helluva time finding me saying I'm "pushing for war in Libya." Or many of the others on this board, as well.

Reports about what has happened to the immigrants in Libya have been posted in the only thread to track what's happening in Libya. If you don't think they've received enough notice, I know you are capable of making sure they do receive that notice; hell, the people keeping up the Libyan thread would probably appreciate some help with input; pro or con.

Put the links and the information in the Libya update thread. That's what I'm saying. No more. No less.

[sabrina 1]

32. Yes, sorry, I was not saying you were a war propagandist.

We do have different opinions. I supported this in the beginning, until I began to notice some things that seemed different from the other revolutions, all of which I did and still do support.

I didn't say anything at first, it's not a good feeling to think you might have been duped and used to support something that was not what it seemed.

When I found that others were having the same misgivings, I did some, a lot of research, on Libya's history, past and more recent and its population, internal issues etc and things became a lot clearer.

Sorry about the reaction, I do respect that other people have different views and do respect your opinion. However I am not interested in in the Libya threads due to the fact that I and others who honestly came to a different conclusion about what is going on there, were attacked by the author of those threads.

I have posted below with some links. As one reporter said, the Black Africans in Libya and their plight, is not going to get much, if any, media attention so it is up to human rights groups to try to help them. But they are still in much danger as the racism towards them, even before this war broke out, is very real. I fear for them after Qadaffi falls. Europe doesn't want them, and had an agreement with Qadaffi to make sure they did not leave Libya and go to France and other European countries.

They still don't want them. NATO did nothing to help that ship that sank and so many died, recently and once Qadaffi is gone, NATO will make sure Black Africans do not go to Europe.

There was a whole lot that we did not know about this situation. I would be glad to discuss the topic, but not with people who do not respect the fact that people CAN change their minds about something, when they receive information they did not have before.

I know that Tabatha is a good person and really wants to help the people of Libya, you also, and so did I, and Catherina and many others, and still do. I just know this is not the way to do it.

[tabatha]

12. Do you have any evidence for what you claimed?

The rebels have not been raping women. They have been fighting Gaddafi forces in Libya not Somalia.

Please also be aware that the ICC is investigating BOTH sides, including rape by Gaddafi forces - they have reported nothing by the rebels. So, I wonder where you are getting your information from?

[PurityOfEssence]

23. You've seen this article before about the rebels' rape of migrants, so please comment

It's from Public Radio International, and it's neither new nor the only of its kind. You've responded on threads where it's been posted, and it comes from a reputable source.

Playing games about rape is most unseemly.

What's also noteworthy is that the rebels in Cyrenaica have a bad history of racism against sub-saharan Africans of a darker hue, and they used this coded racism of Qaddafi having "African Mercenaries" as part of their ploy to incite Europeans to intercede. Qaddafi has a much better record on pan-African relations. Many Arabs in Eastern Libya don't like that he treats blacker Africans as equals, just as they don't like his more liberal attitudes toward women and his more secular approach to society. The thrust of the Cyrenaican hatred of Qaddafi is that he crushed their Islamist theocratic revolt attempts in 1995-6, and when they rioted in a prison and took hostages, many of them were killed.

Qaddafi's hardly a sweetheart, but the childish binary need to portray his regime as baby-bayoneting rapist thugs and the rebels as innocent democratic lambs is pathetic and self-aggrandizing simplicity.

“The situation in Benghazi is very critical, because those Libya boys, they are going to houses and attacking our blacks, especially the Nigerians, and Ghanaians, raping our girls, stealing our money, and beating people up,” Jones said. “So we just run away from there. Most of our boys, they catch them and lock them up, so we don’t know what the situation is there.”

Jones had been working as a housekeeper in Benghazi. Her brother, an electrician named Terry David, also worked there. And he, too, said that rebels attacked him and other African migrants.

“Sometimes they hit us, anything they have in their hand. Point gun at you; sometimes blow out people’s brains,” Jones said. “So we can’t stand that, and have to run away from the country.”

Libyan Boys Rampages

[tabatha]

25. Read #17 - I had already commented.

[sabrina 1]

30. Somalians were in Libya working there before the war began.

The truth is, and maybe it would help you understand what is really going on over there, to do some research on the country itself, Black Africans were not welcome by many in Libya long before the uprising. Some Libyans did not agree with Qadaffi's policies of helping other African nations and were angry at the government for bringing immigrants from other African nations into Libya to work. There is a great deal of racism towards Black Africans in parts of Libya. It was contained, until the rebellion broke out.

Lingering questions about the killing of Black Africans in Libya

An undetermined number are in fact black Libyan citizens from the south of the country. Some African mercenaries reportedly were hanged from poles in Benghazi in scenes, even in the context of Libya, for some might seem eerily reminiscent of lynchings in the American South.

Yet, according to multiple eyewitness testimony, black Africans in general have been targeted by elements amongst the very population that is rightly clamoring for freedom in that beleaguered nation. What the world community should be concerned about is that in a country where anti-black skin prejudice by most accounts runs rampant, there continues to be a good chance that black migrant workers will pay a high price for crimes against humanity for which they are not responsible. It is already clear from reporting by Al Jazeera and other news agencies that an undetermined number of innocent black men have been killed or maimed in the ongoing rebellion.

The International Organization for Migration (IOC) in March reported that scores of black migrants fleeing across the border into neighboring Niger were attacked by Libyans, who suspected them of acting on behalf of the regime. Witnesses on the ground say they have seen grotesque examples of innocent black workers—Somalis, Nigerians, Malians—being set upon by enraged rebels

Some Libyans, now rebels, did not like Qadaffi's Pan African policies. He wanted to build up African nations and donated a lot of money to various countries to help their economies, and invited immigrants to work in Libya. Some of them were in the Libyan military, just as the US military has many foreign troops.

Even before the February rebellion, Libya was a dangerous place for Africans from the sub-Sahara. In 2000, hundreds of dark-hued migrants were set upon by Libyan youth who did not then nor now share Qaddafi’s vision of Pan-African and pan-Islamic unity

Racism in parts of Libya and elsewhere in the Arab World towards Black Africans is a reality. This is a very complex area. We do not belong there as we do not understand their problems, nor does the west care about their problems. They care about their oil.

European countries like France, had an agreement with Qadaffi to keep Black Africans from going to Europe. As a result, many who tried would end up in jail in Libya.

The recent deaths of Immigrants at sea trying to reach Europe, now that Qadaffi is not holding them any longer for the French, with NATO doing nothing to save them, has caused many to question, considering Europe does not want them, if it was deliberate.

I will never support racism, here or elsewhere. What do you think is going to happen to the one million or so Black Africans once the Qadaffi Govt. falls? Have those who are supporting this disaster even thought about that?

Up to the minute news about Libya’s black migrants is spotty. They are neither now nor have they ever been a media priority. But the picture that is emerging is of frequent assaults on those unlucky enough to be caught in the open. Thousands are being aided by the IOM, and other humanitarian organizations, in their effort to get out of Libya. Those who stay behind are wary about the outcome of the fighting, about carving out a living in Libya no matter who emerges the victor, and about surviving in a climate of historical racial animus that long preceded the rebellion.

LIBYA: Rebels execute black immigrants while forces kidnap others

Libyan Rebels Terrorize Black Africans

African migrants targeted in Libya

Human Rights Groups are Warning that Innocent Black Civilians Are Being Raped And Murdered By Rebels In The Eastern Part Of Libya

There's lots more, reports were being made early on and we did not want to believe them at first, but sometimes you have to face the truth, hard as it is.

The more I read about Libya, the more I realize how misled we were about this 'revolution'.

I do not support Imperial occupations, or Western installed puppet governments. That is what Iraq is suffering through now, and those poor people once thought the West would 'liberate' them also. The west does not liberate anyone. Today and every day, the same forces supposedly giving humanitarian aid to Libya, are slaughtering women and children in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

What makes anyone think NATO will treat the Libyans any differently?

Some of these atrocities by the rebels were reported here on DU early on:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x595080

[tabatha]

21. There was a report in early March. None since then.

Here is a press release from the The Libyan Interim National Council:

The Treatment of Detainees and Prisoners

BENGHAZI, LIBYA – 25 March 2011 – The Interim Transitional National Council (TNC) expresses its deepest regret for the various false allegations relating to the treatment of prisoners and detainees, in breach of international humanitarian laws.

The TNC would like to reiterate that its policies strictly adhere to the ‘Geneva Convention relative to the treatment of Prisoners of War’ as well as with the ethical and moral values of the Libyan society. The council conveys its regret for some individual incidents that had occurred during the first few days of the revolution and guarantees that this would not be repeated. Clear codes of conduct have been issued from the National Interim council and include:

1. Any Libyan caught whether they be military personnel or citizens recruited to cause sabotage and spread chaos, should not be titled as ‘Prisoner’ but as a Libyan brother (or sister) who has been deceived.
2. All prisoners and detainees will be provided with food, water and necessary medical assistance and will be treated humanely, without the use of aggression in any form. The TNC will vow to punish those who violate this code and will allow local and international human rights organizations to freely visit and talk to the detainees and prisoners at any time.
3. Detainees and prisoners will be allowed to contact their relatives and arrangements will be made to allow them to return home without any restrictions or conditions.
4. The Transitional National Interim Council reaffirms its strict compliance with the above and calls on all Libyan citizens to strictly abide by these codes.

I have not seen any similar statement from Gaddafi.
I have not seen any other such reports of such "rebel" behavior since the beginning of March. If you find any, please post on the Libyan thread. Both of the above were on the Libyan thread.

[Distant Observer]

17. The wages of war is monstrous. Its a curse and a crime. Pity those who promote this war of choice

[tabatha]

19. And all the war-mongering

and brutality by Gaddafi is just unfortunate. Move along, nothing to see there.

[Distant Observer]

26. If this was not a Western Agenda-driven monstrosity, then intervention in Bahrain, Yemen, Syria

where there were truly peaceful protests, brutally suppressed for months,would have been far higher on the agenda than supporting long-time armed militant factions in Libya.

To the contrary, there is evidence that the West has collaborated with those far more draconian regimes in their brutalization of their peoples.

The Libyan intervention was and is a fraud.

And the Libyan society is rent apart, sacred honor defiled, blood poured onto the sand to meet the ravenous need for dominance of the Splendid Blonde Beast -- as the arrogant Western power elite has been so aptly described.

[tabatha]

27. You seem to be very, very ,very confused.

Gaddafi has been shelling towns, water supplies, milk factories, herds of animals, homes, women, children, historic buildings, etc.

NATO has been bombing military targets.



I guess if you got what Prof. VANDEWALLE said wrong, what hope is there for you to get anything else correct?

[Cerridwen]

28. Step down for a moment, please.

I want to see if this 'person' has anything other than gaddafi inspired codswallop to recommend 'him'self.

[Distant Observer]

34. Vandawalle is a noted Libya scholar and Gaddafi critic. Did you read the BOOK written

before the Western Regime-Change project?

My point to you has been simple: Even critical historical analysis of Libya written prior to the "intervention" will show that there is no foundation for "JUST WAR," or intervention in a country's CIVIL WAR.

You and your associates seem devoted to the propagation of Allied propaganda campaign -- standard operating procedure -- designed to justify the indefensible horror they have brought to Libya. It is quite fantastic that you are able to assure yourselves that the massive assault on the ground and from the air by those seeking to topple the Libyan government is just "humanitarian self-defense" and no one is being killed, no society brutalized by this war machine.

[Cerridwen]

29. Let me know when you are finished 'cleaning up' and 'targeting'

your posts to that which you think will be most receptive to the liberal bent of this board so that I may reply. Your edits happen faster than my lowly DSL can keep up with.

[Cerridwen]

31. Fine. I have an anti-virus program to run and some hours of sleep

to attain.

You get to monopolize the board while I sleep.

After that...all bets are off.

See you on the 'morrow.

[Cerridwen]

20. Pity more, nay, condemn those who would defend the indefensible

in the name of totalitarian rule that the defenders may profit and feed on the spoils for which they, themselves did not labor but only paid with their coinage and their soul as their brethren rotted in underground cells. For they are naught but the vultures who subsist on the remains of discarded carrion.

Go read some more Prof Dirk Vandewalle

[Distant Observer]

33. The big powers constructed Libya for its "strategic reasons" and is bombing for the same.

The blood of the civil war is on the hand of the Western powers and their Oil Potentate allies in Arabia.

In 40 year the Gaddafi regime did not do the kind of destruction that this Western formentted Civil War has caused.

Prof. VANDEWALLE (Libya scholar and Gaddafi critic):"And we shouldn't forget that Libya really was created almost accidentally, as a matter of fact I often refer to it as the accidental state. In part because Libya was created by the great powers after World War II, essentially for the strategic purposes of those great powers."