In Libya, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s regime has launched a counter-offensive to take back several cities captured by opposition forces in a popular uprising that began February 17th. Gaddafi’s forces are attacking opposition fighters with helicopter gunships, fighter planes and tanks in several cities, including Bin Jawad, Tobruk, Ras Lanuf and Misurata. There are conflicting reports about the capture and recapture of several strategic towns. Casualty figures are unconfirmed, but Al Jazeera reports dozens have been killed.
Meanwhile, the United Nations is launching an appeal to help 600,000 people within Libya who are expected to need humanitarian aid. The U.N.’s latest figures show nearly 200,000 people have fled the country since the fighting began. That number is expected to double.
The mood in Benghazi is quite different than the mood last week. It’s no longer one of euphoria. There’s a very clear sense that this is an armed rebellion; any hopes of a peaceful revolution have long faded. One of the signs in several places in the square reads, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.” Everyone realizes they’re in for a very long battle with Gaddafi and his heavily armed forces.
Libya, like many oil-rich countries in the region, has a very large migrant labor force. It’s nearly one-and-a-half to two million people, mostly from Africa and Asia. During this uprising and heavy violence from Gaddafi’s forces, it’s natural that most of the migrant population has been trying to leave and desperate to leave. But one of the tragedies of what’s happened is, with Gaddafi’s use of mercenaries to attack Libyans, many of these mercenaries have come from other African countries, a lot of them from sub-Saharan Africa. So there has been this dangerous logic of racism that’s been perpetrated, as well, where anyone who is perceived to be from sub-Saharan Africa is sometimes identified as being a mercenary. So a lot of the workers from sub-Saharan Africa have gotten caught up in this violence in a rather unfortunate and tragic way.
Most people on the ground, as well as the authorities of the rebel forces, are very clear that they don’t want any form of foreign intervention. They want to see this Libyan revolution take place entirely with—by the Libyans themselves. They want to achieve this victory. They want to oust Gaddafi. However, they do appreciate the fact that Gaddafi has incredibly heavy weapons that he’s using against his own people.
– More at democracynow.org