Tuesday, March 1, 2011

'Refugee crisis' on Libyan boundary

The scenario on Libya's border with Tunisia has achieved crisis point, as tens of a large number of foreigners flee unrest inside the country, the UN says.

Help employees appear unable to cope with the influx, say correspondents. Some 140,000 have gone to Tunisia and Egypt.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has advised Western journalists he's loved by his men and women and denied protests in Tripoli.

His interview arrived amid reviews that he's attempting to regain control of rebel areas in western Libya.

Col Gaddafi is facing a huge problem to his 41-year rule, with protesters in control of towns inside the east.

Witnesses stated pro-Gaddafi forces attempted to retake the western metropolitan areas of Zawiya, Misrata and Nalut on Monday but have been repulsed by rebels aided by defecting army units.

The rebels stated they'd killed 8 pro-Gaddafi militia, but there have been no opposition fatalities. There has long been no term from your authorities on casualties.

You'll find fears in Zawiya that the town could possibly be attacked from your air, but the rebels remained defiant.

"We're not
right here for energy, authority or income," they stated in a message aimed at Col Gaddafi.

"We are right here for your cause of independence and the value we're prepared to pay is with our very own blood... It is victory or death."

In other developments:

* The Red Cross is requesting access to western Libya, amid unconfirmed reviews of attacks on medical doctors and summary killings of individuals
* Austria freezes property with the Libyan leadership really worth 1.2bn euros ($1.65bn; £1.02bn) as Germany freezes the bank account of a single of Col Gaddafi's sons
* Libyan air force planes reportedly attacked ammunition depots inside the eastern towns of Ajdabiya and Rajma
* About 400 protesters gathered inside the Tripoli suburb of Tajoura on Monday - Gaddafi supporters attempted to disperse them by firing inside the air
* Studies say there have been long queues in Tripoli financial institutions as men and women attempted to gather the 500 dinars (£250; $410) promised by the authorities in an try to quell the unrest

'Forgotten'

A spokeswoman for your UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Melissa Fleming, stated 70,000-75,000 men and women have fled to Tunisia since violence began in Libya on twenty February. A similar quantity have gone to Egypt, where most have been able to proceed their journeys onward.

"Our employees about the Libya-Tunisia border have advised us this early morning that the scenario there's reaching crisis point," she stated, quoted by AFP information agency.

About 2,000 men and women are crossing into Tunisia every single hour but when in Tunisia numerous of them have nowhere to go. One more twenty,000 are stated to be backed up about the Libyan facet.

Most are Egyptian, but you can find also considerable figures of Chinese and Bangladeshis.

The Egyptians are angry, complaining that they've been forgotten by their authorities, says the BBC's Jim Muir about the border.

Temperatures plummeted overnight and our correspondent found the body of a youthful Egyptian man who had apparently died of cold.