ICRC to clear explosives from Libya's Sirte, Bani Walid

[tabatha]

by Staff Writers
Geneva (AFP) Nov 7, 2011

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Monday it will begin this week to clear unexploded munitions in Libya's Bani Walid and Sirte, where several civilians have been hurt or killed by explosives.

"The ICRC will clear unexploded munitions in Sirte and Bani Walid, focusing on the contaminated areas that pose the greatest threat to civilians, especially some of the least destroyed neighbourhoods where people are attempting to return to their homes," said the relief agency in a statement.

ICRC expert Guy Marto said there have been several confirmed casualties in Sirte, including an eight-year-old girl who lost her arm while playing with an explosive device.

"Our immediate goal is to ensure that further deaths and injuries among civilians are kept to an absolute minimum," he said.

In Zlitan, to the west of Misrata, some 30 people have been hit by weapons in farmlands and other parts of the region.

The relief agency has cleared almost 1,400 warheads, munitions, grenades and mortar shells across Libya since March.

http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/ICRC-to-clear-Sirte-Bani-Walid-bombs-20111107

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. I do not envy those doing the actual work

[tabatha]

2. 4 of the workers were recently killed in Zintan I think.

Gaddafi forces were the only ones to lay mines.

[Prometheus Bound]

3. The UN's Program Mgr for the Joint Mine Action Coord. Team in Libya says the rebels also used mines.

On Mines, UN Defends TNC of Libya as on Reprisal, No SOFA in Abyei?
By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 1 -- When the UN held a press conference Tuesday about landmine usage in Libya, one expected them to at least mention that some of the use was by the rebels or Transitional National Council.

But when Inner City Press asked about the documented usage by rebels of Belgian made PRB-M3 anti-vehicle mines on the side of the main road into Ajdabiya, the UN's Program Manager for the Joint Mine Action Coordination Team in Libya Max Dyck quickly defended the TNC. Video here from Minute 8:15.

He urged to "take it into context, saying it was "done early in conflict, in March." (Actually, it was filmed as late as April 17, 2011). Dyck continued, "This issue's been addressed with the NTC... That was the only incidence of landmine use by the NTC revolutionaries."

When Inner City Press tried to ask a follow up question, the Deputy Spokesman did not allow it (while allowing the next correspondent to follow up).
http://www.innercitypress.com/libya1mines110111.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Personally I don't care who put them in

[Prometheus Bound]

6. The poster said only one side planted mines. The truth matters.

[tabatha]

7. See #5.

NTC did not authorize the planting of mines. Truth matters.

[Prometheus Bound]

8. You wrote: "Gaddafi forces were the only ones to lay mines."

Truth matters.

[tabatha]

9. I should have been more explicit.

Gaddafi forces were the only ones authorized to lay mines.

Your implication was that the rebels have been authorized to do so.

If forces from the US laid mines and were not told to do so, one cannot claim that the US laid mines.
Renegade troops did.

[tabatha]

5. From Human Rights Watch that has not pulled punches for either side

APRIL 29, 2011a
Libya crisis: Rebels vow not to use landmines

(New York) - The de facto opposition authority in Libya, the National Transitional Council, has formally pledged not to use antipersonnel and antivehicle landmines, Human Rights Watch said today. The council also promised to destroy all mines in its forces' possession.
...

Hufter and Omar Hariri told Human Rights Watch on April 20 that they had not authorized the transfer of mines to Misrata or their placement around Ajdabiya. They said they had ordered the recently laid landmines to be cleared and promised to punish those who laid them.

http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/04/29/libya-rebels-pledge-not-use-landmines

The TNC never approved or ordered the use of mines, and they took action against those that did ordering them to remove them.