Anti-Black African Genocide Underway in Libya

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Anti-Black Racism Among Libyan Rebels

This blog post quotes and links to numerous articles reporting black African civilians facing harassment and violence from Libyan "rebels" who justify their atrocities by making up stories about Gaddafi using black mercenaries against them. If black people are being subjected to this kind of brutality simply because they're black, wouldn't that be technically genocide?

More on Libyan anti-black racist attitudes: ‘Funny’ Anti-Gaddafi Cartoons Reveal Rebel Racism, Anti-Semitism

Genocide has unfortunately been happening around those region for sometime now... Its very sad though!

No doubt there is misplaced racism and over reaction (not unusual in North Africa) but there is also some truth to Gaddafi "encouraging" black african migrants and mercenaries to fight for him. Ive been reading first hand accounts, with quotes, for months. These aren't second hand tweets from third parties looking to spread rumors. You can find more than this link:

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/fe ... 05627.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12647115

But I read that early in the conflict, the local Tuareg tribes were aligning with anti-Gaddafi forces. They are black skinned berbers from the Sahara. Hard to say which group of Tuaregs are doing what, and where.

The "rebels" aren't exactly Saints themselves. A lot of them are Al-Qaeda sympathizing Islamists. We should be extremely weary of supporting them.

Obama was too shot sighted to see we should have kept the Gaddafi regime in power. Letting the Egyptian government fall was risky but probably inevitable, and Obama screwed that up pretty bad too. At least in Egypt there was a slight chance that militants could be kept out of the power vacuum and Obama didn't take it. We should have backed the outgoing regime in Yemen as well. After a decade of heavy US involvement in the middle east it's clear why dictatorships in the region are a necessary evil: their subjects are psycho!

Yes, that's the right wing fear mongering position. That arabs can't be trusted to govern themselves so we should back dictators. But dictatorships breed anger and they don't allow it to be released toward themselves. It has to go somewhere and the West is an all too convenient target.

We were happy for Eastern Europe. We should be happy for the Arabs.

Genocide is the destruction of a race or ethnic group. What you are describing are some wrongful acts, but are they eliminating black folk from Libya? Are these acts made to exterminate blacks in Libya? No extermination, no genocide.

ruveyn

We should not be involved, period.

Yes, yes, yes. You are right.

Let us put an end to the Forever War.

ruveyn

You support Ron Paul and are likely an isolationist. Good for you.

More Republicans are becoming Isolationist these days as well. John McCain just called them out on it last week. The same thing happened under Clinton. Republicans make sharp turns toward isolationism when Democrats are in office. Then they go back to being hawks when the Democrats leave.

Non-interventionism is not isolationism. I'd post the Thomas Jefferson quote again but I don't want to risk sounding like a broken record. Besides that, I have big problem with the way this war is being waged. Obama unilaterally got us involved in this war without even approaching congress. Wholly unconstitutional and a gross abuse of power that would even make Bush blush.

And yes, most opposition to the wars is just partisan politics as sad as it is. The same democrats who chided Bush for his illegal wars and his infringing on civil liberties are now cheerleading Obama as he does the same thing. There is only one party in this country and that is the war party.

The Democrats voted for Gulf 2. They used other calculus. Wrong both times (gulf 1 and 2) but the point is that they are not as disciplined in the use of scorched earth opposition as the Republicans. Plus the Republican base feels deeply humiliated by the gains Democrats have made and demand total opposition now.

As for getting authorization, the WH argument against authorization was that we aren't fighting in Libya and no servicemen are in danger. We are supplying materials, technical know how, and a few drones. The British and French are fighting this war now. They can argue about it all they like but he result will be some sort of negotiated agreement, as always.

Back on topic...

Unfortunately whenever authoritarianism keeps the lid on pre-existing ethnic or sectarian tensions [Jugoslavia for example but many many post colonial states have followed the same course] and then the lid is taken off you get a period where the suddenly 'liberated' peoples exact revenge on eachother for percieved grievances such as 'you collaborated', 'you profiteered' etc, etc.

If this is going on in Libya then it is going on, and while advice can be offered and pressure brought to bear external intervention is generally only delaying the process running it's course. I have no quick and easy 'fix' ideas to offer, I do think that the selective intervention policy of the 'west' with regards this time of upheaval in north Africa and the middle east is ill advised and will come back to haunt us. This policy of supplying air support to the rebels in Libya while allowing the Saudi regime to support it's wahabist allies to abuse human rights elsewhere can only be seen as biased and will cause resentments to rise. I think that it will ultimately be seen as the 'west' taking revenge on Ghaddafi by proxy and leaving all others to their respective fates.

peace j

Al Jazeera is a primary voice in the arab world and they have been staunchly pro-arab spring and had a lot of friendly coverage of the intervention. Qatar, where AJ is based, has even sent jets. So it's difficult to say what the final perception will be. Last time I checked there was no international appetite for further intervention in the arab world so it's not just us, or just the West.

I've heard that charge over and over, but I have yet to see any evidence for it.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Libyan rebels are justified in believing that black african mercenaries have been hired to fight them because it's true.

It's unfortunately also true that black african non-mercenaries in Libya would do well to get the heck out of Libya or else they might be mistaken for a mercenary.