Gaddafi keeps his word: no aid allowed

When he last spoke on Libyan state television in that hall full of frozen men and chanting women, Muammar Gaddafi said that no foreign aid or humanitarian assistance would be permitted into Libya, and that in terms of his Green Book, it would be considered high treason (punishable by death) to ask for it because it opened the door to recolonisation.

Now BBC World reports:

1414GMT: Dr Ahmed Sewehli, a spokesman for Libyan Doctors Relief, has told the BBC that the Libyan authorities are not allowing doctors and medical supplies over the western border with Tunisia. “It is quite bewildering. [Col Gaddafi] is not allowing his own people to be treated for the injuries that of course he and his regime have been causing,” he added.

1411GMT: Baroness Amos also told the BBC that getting help to rebel-held areas which had come under attack by government forces was essential: “You would normally have a situation where the Libyan Red Crescent would get access and where we could support them with a flow of supplies. To have the Benghazi Red Crescent and the Libyan Red Crescent ringing us up and saying: ‘We can’t get in, we urgently need you to call for access,’ is unprecedented.”