Tawargha

2012-02-16 "S.O.S. Libya Report"
[http://libyasos.blogspot.com/2012/02/report-libya-16-february-2012.html]
Racist demolition in #Libya the same as in #Palestine -Houses of black Tawargha people bulldozered by new government. Public was accustomed to seeing this in Gaza, where the Israel is demolishing houses of Palestinians with bulldozers as part of the punishment. Today the same method and the same punishment, but in Libya, particularly in Misurata, where bulldozers are demolishing houses of black Tawargha Libyans.
Bulldozers are demolishing houses of black Tawargha Libyans
Photo shows one of the buildings in Al Goshi neighborhood getting bulldozered, while everyone is busy, taking advantage of the anniversary of Nakba for the Implementation of scheme of ethnic cleansing of the black-skinned Tawargha Libyans.




2011-09-12 "Libya – The Racist Revolution – Tawargha"
[http://humanrightsinvestigations.org/2011/09/12/libya-the-racist-revolution-tawargha/]
As our regular readers will be aware, we have been reporting on the fate of the people of Tawergha since the local rebel commander Ibrahim al-Halbous, said he was going to wipe the town off the map. We reported the storming of the town, with NATO support, and the extremely worrying reports of prisoners in shipping crates and the people of the town being “handed over to the red cross,”  which they weren’t (see ‘Tawergha no longer exists, only Misrata’ [http://humanrightsinvestigations.org/2011/08/13/tawergha-no-longer-exists-only-misrata/]).
We relayed the reports from Diana Eltahawy of Amnesty International about the inhabitants who managed to flee being persecuted in Tripoli [http://humanrightsinvestigations.org/2011/08/31/amnesty-racist-rebel-atrocities-libya/].
Andrew Gilligan, a reporter from The Sunday Telegraph, now reports from Tawergha [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8754375/Gaddafis-ghost-town-after-the-loyalists-retreat.html]:
[begin excerpt]
This pro-Gaddafi settlement has been emptied of its people, vandalised and partly burned by rebel forces. The Sunday Telegraph was the first to visit the scene of what appears to be the first major reprisal against supporters of the former regime.
“We gave them thirty days to leave,” said Abdul el-Mutalib Fatateth, the officer in charge of the rebel garrison in Tawarga, as his soldiers played table-football outside one of the empty apartment blocks. “We said if they didn’t go, they would be conquered and imprisoned. Every single one of them has left, and we will never allow them to come back.”
[end excerpt]
Andrew Gillighan is a serious reporter and he even mentions the racial context:
[begin excerpt]
And as so often in Libya, there is also a racist undercurrent. Many Tawargas, though neither immigrants nor Gaddafi’s much-ballyhooed African mercenaries, are descended from slaves, and are darker than most Libyans.
Along the road that leads into Tawargha, the Misurata Brigade has painted a slogan. It says, “the brigade for purging slaves [and] black skin.”
[end excerpt]
We have to say, the racist element is more than an undercurrent, but if more journalists had reported the truth rather than turning a blind eye, refusing to report or to investigate then perhaps lives could still be saved.
In this context we should just mention the ”reporting” of so-called journalists such as Chris Stephen who has been in Misrata for weeks writing pro-war, pro-NATO propaganda for the benefit of the Guardian’s readership and failing miserably to report on the racist atrocities and ethnic cleansing.
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Update (12 September) – The Washington Post [http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/in-libya-the-peril-of-being-black/2011/09/09/gIQAY2FoFK_print.html] reports Human Rights Watch Emergencies Director Peter Bouckaert as confirming: “It really is racist violence against all dark-skinned people, this situation for Africans in Tripoli is dire.”
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Update (14th September) – The ethnic cleansing of Tawergha is now being made permanent with the seal of approval of Mahmoud Jibril [http://humanrightsinvestigations.org/2011/09/14/tawargha-the-final-solution/].
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Please click here for a comprehensive update on the Tawergha [http://humanrightsinvestigations.org/2011/09/26/libya-ethnic-cleansing-tawargha-genocide/]