Libya’s Security Chief Arrives in Cairo. L'Otan bombarde les émetteurs de la télévision libyenne - LIBYE. La mort du général Younès révèle les divisions au sein des insurgés - LIBYE. La trop belle histoire d’une guerre Libyenne ! | Grotius.fr. En Libye, le sol doit être en mousse tant le silence est lourd quand les bombes s’enfoncent. Certes, on signale des victimes et des dégats collatéraux, mais pas en trop grand nombre. Juste assez pour que personne n’oublie que l’Otan mène la guerre à Kadhafi et gobe sans broncher le récit que les alliés, France en tête, nous en fait. Et que la presse passe en boucle. L’histoire s’annonçait bien : vous verrez, nous dit-on, comment des rebelles Libyens, mal équipés et manquant d’entraînement mais armés de courage pourront, grâce à l’appui de chasseurs bombardiers étrangers, gagner leur liberté, virer leur dictateur.
C’était si beau et les images étaient si belles, qu’ils furent bien peu nombreux à aller voir ailleurs, juste sur les côtés. Mais comment faire disparaître du récit officiel le million de personnes qui depuis 3 mois fuit les combats ? L’absence d’images vint ainsi la première escamoter les faits, suivie de près par la tromperie sur les appellations. Libya's homegrown weapons. Libya's rebels: Where are the weapons from? Stephanie Koorey is an Adjunct Research Associate at Monash University. Libya's rebels appear to be armed in a fairly predictable way.
The basis of their armoury seems to come from weapons taken from state stockpiles in battle and from defecting Libyan officers. The literature refers to these as 'battle-captures', or euphemistically, 'leakage'. In Libya's case, it's clearly a flood. Libya was one of the largest purchasers of conventional military equipment in the developing world in the 1970s and 80s.
While the USSR was its main supplier, others — such as Italy and France – also became suppliers. And Libya's coming in from the cold in the early 2000s — which included lifting the 1992-imposed arms embargo in 2003 — opened the door for new deals. Footage shows the rebels with standard iconic revolutionary-style wooden-buttstock Kalashnikov (AK) automatic rifles — quite likely sourced from Libyan Government arsenals.
Western countries have been vocal in their refusal to arm the rebels. Des hélicoptères et des soldats français en Libye. L’opération militaire menée par l’Otan en Libye a franchi un palier. La France a envoyé des hélicoptères d’attaque pour soutenir les insurgés dans leur combat contre les forces du colonel Mouammar Kadhafi . Rattachés à l'aviation légère de l'armée de terre française, une vingtaine d’hélicoptères ont été embarqués à bord du bâtiment de projection et de commandement "Le Tonnerre ", qui a quitté la base navale de Toulon dans la nuit du 17 au 18 mai dernier, selon les informations révélées par le blog spécialisé et confirmées par Europe 1.
Des hélicoptères auxquels s'ajoutent quelque 450 hommes. "Pas de changement de stratégie", pour Juppé Alain Juppé a confirmé l'information lundi, depuis Bruxelles. Si le ministre a répété que l'engagement de troupes françaises au sol était exclu, l’envoi d’une force héliportée peut laisser présager un engagement plus poussé des forces françaises. Une tentative d'intimidation. Libyan generals defect; South African leader meets with Gadhafi. South African leader arrives in Libya NEW: Two large explosions are heard early Monday near TripoliMore than 100 Libyan soldiers defect, along with eight generalsGadhafi says bombing by NATO must come to an end, South African president saysPresident Jacob Zuma meets with Gadhafi; doesn't say he will step down Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Fresh explosions rang out early Tuesday near Tripoli, hours after South African President Jacob Zuma held talks with Moammar Gadhafi and signalled he was ready to accept an African Union plan for a cease-fire.
Around 12:45 a.m. Tuesday, a pair of large blasts were heard about five minutes apart, as jets flew over the capital of Tripoli. A Libyan government official said the first strike hit Abu Sita, a former military turned construction site about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the city center. There was no immediate indication of where the second explosion occurred. Libya opposition: 'We really need money' Ragtag rebels holding down Zintan Mistrata hospital hell. Libya: Is it better if Qadhafi wins? Crispin Rovere is a Phd Candidate at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, ANU. With the Libyan campaign entering a predictable stalemate and some now advocating disregarding UN resolution 1973 in favour of invasion, it's important to re-examine how all this relates to meeting the fundamental strategic objectives of protecting civilians from state orchestrated violence.
The UN resolution was passed on the basis of the Responsibility to Protect Doctrine (R2P). This dictates that in cases where crimes against humanity are perpetrated by a government against its own people and where military intervention would credibly improve the situation for the affected group, then as a last resort, state sovereignty gives way to foreign intervention in that circumstance. Yet despite the comparisons being liberally thrown about, Libya is not Rwanda, Kosovo, Srebrenica and certainly not the Holocaust. Libya is a civil conflict between one armed group against others. But where is the evidence? Libye : Sarkozy envoie des conseillers militaires et promet plus de frappes. Libya: Little commitment to R2P norms. Operation Odyssey Dawn is designed to save Libyan civilians from slaughter, and it is tempting — as Graeme Dobell has indicated — to regard it as evidence of the 'responsibility to protect' (R2P).
This norm is about breaching state sovereignty when political leaders are unable or unwilling to provide security for their citizens. As both the Arab League and UN Security Council referred explicitly to R2P, it would seem — at least in rhetoric — that this idea is catching on. But I'm not sure this is the case. While liberal democracies and UN agencies have certainly used R2P lingo, their palpable reluctance to step up in Libya belies the international community's more self-interested concerns.
To be sure, UN Resolution 1973 was passed relatively quickly, as Security Council resolutions go. Yet, after the Arab League decided to back a no-fly zone, it still took several long days before the Obama Administration got comfortable with the idea. This is not surprising. Photo by Flickr user B.R.Q. L'OTAN serait à court de munitions en Libye. Les forces de l'OTAN engagées dans les opérations aériennes en Libye sont à court de munitions. C'est le constat surprenant que dresse, samedi 16 avril, le Washington Post, qui cite, sans les nommer, de hauts responsables américains et de l'Alliance atlantique.
Pour le journal, cette pénurie met en lumière les limites du Royaume-Uni, de la France et des autres pays européens à mener dans la durée une opération militaire relativement modeste. Depuis le début des opérations, fin mars, 800 missions de bombardement ont été menées par la coalition. En première ligne au début des opérations, les Etats-Unis ont abandonné les frappes à leurs alliés – France, Grande-Bretagne, Belgique, Norvège, Danemark, Canada – pour se concentrer sur des missions de reconnaissance et de soutien logistique. Cette pénurie de munitions toucherait principalement les bombes à guidage laser, les plus utilisées par la coalition. Le régime libyen a démenti avoir recours à de telles armes. Global Security Newswire - Turkey Seen Tying NATO Missile Shield to Libyan Mission.
PrintShareEmailTwitterFacebookLinkedIn A Western diplomat said Turkey has tied its participation in the NATO air campaign in Libya to plans to erect an alliance missile shield in Europe, Hürriyet Daily News reported on Wednesday (see GSN, Nov. 9, 2010). "I think they are two interconnected issues," an unidentified European Union diplomat told the Turkish newspaper. Ankara is lobbying heavily for the alliance and not the United States to assume command of the missile shield NATO agreed upon at a November 2010 summit in Portugal, the diplomat said. The system would connect and enhance national missile defenses, and would incorporate U.S. plans to deploy sea- and land-based interceptors around Europe. A NATO command center at the Turkish İzmir military base is being used to monitor the no-fly-zone established for Libyan aircraft.
The center had been slated to be shut down in 2010 "We have said from the very beginning that the missile shield should be under NATO's command. Why did China acquiesce to UN resolution1973. Action humanitaire en Libye. Britanniques et Turcs prennent l’UE de vitesse. Nicolas Gros-Verheyde / Libye / (BRUXELLES2) Turcs, Britanniques et Américains ont décidé de coordonner leurs efforts pour répondre aux besoins urgents humanitaire en Libye. Une équipe de planification humanitaire va être basée à Ankara ; un conseiller britannique va les rejoindre a annoncé le DFID, le département de la coopération britannique.
D’ores-et-déjà des premières opérations ont commenté : les Britanniques portant leur effort sur l’est de la Libye, autour d’Ajdabiya, les Turcs sur Misrata et l’ouest de la Libye. Cette action s’inscrit en complément (!) De la mission de l’Union européenne en cours de préparation (EUFOR Libya). Action du DFID britannique Le département de la coopération (DFID) a annoncé envoyer 2.100 tentes pris sur le dépôt de Dubai pour permettre d’héberger plus de 10.000 personnes chassées de leurs foyers. Task force humanitaire de la Royal Navy Le Liverpool en exercice de tir missile anti-aérien Sea Dart au large de l'Ecosse, fin mars (crédit : Royal Navy) Libya: The West's responsibility to protect Arabs. The imposition of the no-fly zone over Libya has illustrated the inability of Arab states to effectively deal with the dilemma that the UN-endorsed concept of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) presents.
Non-interference in the affairs of other Arab states has been the mantra often quoted but not always observed in recent years. Yet when sovereignty is considered a privilege and not a right as the concept of R2P dictates, the political upheavals across the region present the Arab states with a dilemma that they have been reluctantly, and selectively, forced to address. If ever there was a reason for presenting a united front among Arab states and vigorously upholding the ideals of R2P in the Arab world, then Libya presented such a case. Qadhafi had few friends in the region given his penchant for lecturing his fellow leaders at various Arab summits and there was no sectarian dimension to the conflict to distract possible participants. Diplomatically there appeared to be good resolve. Turkey, Indonesia Call for Ceasefire in Libya. Turkey and Indonesia on Tuesday called for a ceasefire in Libya and promised to help rebuild the country, as rebels and government forces battled for key eastern cities under a UN no-fly zone.
The call came after Muammar el-Qaddafi’s regime on Friday rejected an opposition offer of a truce provided his forces ended their assaults on rebel-held cities. Turkish President Abdullah Gul said it was time to “stop the bloodshed”, following talks in Jakarta with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. “We discussed this issue… to stop the bloodshed in Libya. Infrastructure should not be destroyed,” he told a joint press conference at the state palace, according to an Indonesian government translator.
“It is not possible to have a closed regime [in Libya] … Democracy will come to this region and people in Libya should not suffer anymore.” In a joint statement, the two leaders “stressed the importance of the preservation of the sovereignty, national unity and territorial integrity of Libya”. Libya: Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa 'defects to UK' 31 March 2011Last updated at 05:21 Britain says Moussa Koussa is quitting Colonel Gaddafi's regime Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa is in Britain and "no longer willing" to work for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime, the UK Foreign Office says. He flew in from Tunisia on a non-commercial flight and was questioned for several hours by British officials.
"He travelled here under his own free will. He has told us he is resigning," said a Foreign Office spokesman. His apparent defection comes as rebels in Libya are retreating from former strongholds along the eastern coast. The rebels have now lost the key oil port of Ras Lanuf and the nearby town of Bin Jawad, and are also in full retreat from Brega. In the west, the rebel-held town of Misrata is still reportedly coming under attack from pro-Gaddafi troops, reports say. 'Own free will' A British Foreign Office spokesperson said: "We can confirm that Moussa Koussa arrived at Farnborough Airport on 30 March from Tunisia. About-turn Covert action. Libye : l'Otan prend le relais de la coalition internationale - Les révolutions arabes. Les opérations sur la Libye. Qui commande qui ? Qui contrôle quoi ? Synthèse. Nicolas Gros-Verheyde / Libye / (BRUXELLES2/Synthèse) Sur les interventions militaires en Libye, la confusion règne, habilement entretenue, par plusieurs des acteurs du dossier.
Il n’y a pas une opération en Libye mais quatre, voire cinq (si on compte la mission Frontex). Tour du(des) propriétaire(s)… La répartition des tâches paraît claire sur quatre de ces cinq missions. L’opération « No Fly Zone » devant passer sous contrôle de l’OTAN dim 27 mars. Il ne reste, en fait que, sur la « protection des civils », le partage des tâches entre OTAN et Coalition reste encore à préciser (1). La première réunion du groupe de contact a lieu à Londres le 29 mars 2011.
Un partage de moyens et une confusion des rôles Avant tout, il faut savoir qu’il n’y a pas d’étanchéité totale entre toutes ces opérations. Il faut savoir aussi que les commandants ont plusieurs casquettes. Le contrôle du ciel « No Fly zone » (OTAN) Nom de code : « Odyssey Dawn » (USA), « Harmattan » (france) / Ellamy (Uk). InShare0. Reader riposte: Gareth Evans and R2P. Andrew Farran, a former diplomat, senior lecturer in international law at Monash University and Vice-President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, writes: A comment if I may, adding to that of Sam Roggeveen's on Gareth Evans' piece in The Age yesterday.Gareth Evans states that there can only be one justification for military intervention in Libya: protecting the people being murdered by Gaddafi's.While the Security Council's resolutions are a giant half-step to the further formulation and development of the 'responsibility to protect' (R2P) principle in international law, they could nonetheless have the perverse effect of increasing the long-term danger to civilians and others in Libya if their scope is observed too rigidly.Mr Evans is emphatic in saying that the resolutions prescribe both the scope and the limits of what should be done and could 'hardly be clearer'.
Hundreds missing in Libya - U.N. experts. Source: reuters // Reuters Rebel fighters take cover during a shelling along the Benghazi -Ajdabiyah road near Ajdabiyah March 24, 2011. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA, March 24 (Reuters) - Hundreds of people in Libya are reported to have disappeared after being rounded up by security forces in the past few months and may have been tortured or executed, U.N. human rights experts said on Thursday. Taken collectively, the "wave of enforced disappearances" could amount to a crime against humanity, they said.
Allegations of disappearances include Libyans who called for demonstrations against Muammar Gaddafi as well as members of the armed forces who refused to fire on protesters or joined them, one of the experts told Reuters. Enforced disappearances may amount to a crime against humanity when perpetuated in a systematic way and individuals can be held criminally responsible, it said in a statement. The U.N. La situation en Libye est catastrophique. Témoignage… Libya's Terrorism Option.
Qadhafi does his bit for norms. What intervention in Libya tells us about the neocon-liberal alliance - By Stephen M. Walt. La guerre de Libye : un fragile soutien diplomatique. La presse au Moyen-Orient divisée sur l'opération en Libye. Several Arab states to join coalition, U.S. official says. Breaking News: In an interview with the B... Libye : quel est "l'effet final recherché" ? Zeal of Libyan rebels may not be enough to triumph. Doubts about Libya.
Libye: le Conseil de sécurité décide d’instaurer un régime d’exclusion aérienne afin de protéger les civils contre des attaques systématiques et généralisées. Kadhafi joue la carte du cessez-le-feu. Libye : Bataille aux portes de Tripoli - Monde. La France ouvre l’offensive en Libye… sous commandement Américain. U.S.-led coalition begins attacks on Libya's air defense systems.
AJELive: US military: Last night in... Libya: Six injured as US team botches rescue of downed airmen | World news.