TURKISH SHIP EVACUATES WOUNDED FROM LIBYA CITY
Turkey chartered a car ferry, put mattresses down on the car decks, and sent it out to Misurata. When it had spent four days at anchor waiting for permission to put into port, the Turkish prime minister gave the order for it move in regardless, and dispatched an armed guard to make sure it wasn’t attacked.
TURKISH SHIP EVACUATES WOUNDED FROM LIBYA CITY
(Reuters) Sunday, 3 April – A Turkish ship rescued 250 wounded from the besieged Libyan city of Misrata on Sunday, but left behind thousands of people pleading to be evacuated, a Turkish diplomat and witnesses said.
Swathed in bandages, evacuees on board gave one of the most detailed accounts yet of conditions in Misrata, the last major rebel-held city in western Libya, and surrounded by government troops after rising up against Muammar Gaddafi in mid-February.
“It is very, very bad. In my street, Gaddafi bombed us,” said Ibrahim al-Aradi, 26, who had wounds in his groin.
“We have no water, no electricity. We don’t have medicine. There are snipers everywhere,” he told Reuters.
Others spoke of Gaddafi’s forces bombing mosques and houses.
“When Gaddafi’s men hear the NATO planes they hide in houses and mosques. When the planes are gone they destroy them,” said Mustafa Suleiman, a 30-year-old computer engineer.
“Even the big supermarket was destroyed. Some of my friends were killed. We have no vegetables, no fruit, only bread. Gaddafi wants to kill Misrata by fighting and starvation,” Suleiman said.
Guarded by heavily armed Turkish police special forces, wounded men of all ages lay on mattresses on one of the car decks of the ship, a white car ferry called the Ankara chartered by the Turkish government. They had wounds in all parts of their bodies, and were being attended by Turkish medics.
Hamen, a Libyan doctor who was accompanying the men, said: “Misrata is terrible. I have seen terrible things. Thirty people killed in one day. These are my patients. I must stay with them but I want to go back.”
TURKISH FIGHTER PLANES
Turkey’s foreign minister ordered the ship into Misrata after it spent four days out at sea waiting in vain for port authorities to give permission to dock, said Ali Akin, head of consular affairs with the Turkish foreign ministry.
It arrived under cover from 10 Turkish air force F-16 fighter planes and two navy frigates, he told Reuters. He said the ship had to make a hasty departure with the wounded and 100 of their relatives after a large crowd pressed forward on the dockside hoping for passage out of Libya, including 4,000 Egyptians.
“It’s a very hard situation. We had to leave early.”
The hospital committee in Misrata had told Turkish authorities that 120 needed to leave on the ship but far more were eventually put on board, he said. “There is no room in the hospital so they treat some and send them back to their homes,” said Akin. “This meant it was not easy to collect them.”
The ferry docked in the eastern Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi on Sunday to pick up more wounded before heading to a port in Turkey.
As the ship arrived and blew its foghorn, several hundred rebel supporters waiting at the dockside burst into chant, crying: “The blood of martyrs is spilled for freedom” and “Muammar Gaddafi: Misrata has real men.”
Ayman Mohammed, a 25-year old man with a badly burned face who was waiting on the dockside in a wheelchair to be carried onboard, said he was happy to be among the evacuees.
He said he was in his car when he was hit by a bomb in Ras Lanuf, an oil town which has seen fighting between rebel forces and troops loyal to Gaddafi. “I will come back to Benghazi. I want to kill Gaddafi,” he said.
Others waited for news from their trapped families. “My family is in Misrata … uncles, cousins. I have had no contact,” said Tihani Aktal, 30, tears streaming from her eyes. “We don’t know if they are dead or alive.”
Akin, who said he was on assignment in Benghazi, added that Misrata port was still under the control of the rebels fighting forces loyal to Gaddafi.
(Writing by Ibon Villelabeitia and Tom Pfeiffer; editing by Myra MacDonald)
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Not bad for a country that dragged its feet about joining coalition action and whose prime minister recently picked up the Gaddafi prize for human rights.
Now, what is Malta waiting for?
Shhh, Corinne, not so loud, as the PM’s laison officer is taking a nap, jahasra.
It’s not the liaison officer’s job to take the initiative. That’s the job of the big cheeses.
True, but he is the sop to the big cheeses’ conscience, you know, the fella we point to proudly when asked what is our humanitarian contribution.
Yes Corinne, we should send our patrol boats to escort an improvised hospital with one of the Gozo Channel ferries manned by the SAG and provide air cover with our newly bought Beech airplane.
Weren’t contributors here telling us that we have a ‘corraggio fuggiamo’ army of a handkerchief sized island?
Are you comparing Malta with Turkey? Get real.
[Daphne – John, if Malta charters a car ferry as Turkey has done, it won’t have to provide its own armed guard. Turkey provides its own armed guard because it can. Malta can ask for cooperation: an armed guard provided by others. That’s why it’s called a coalition. But hang on! We have refused to be part of it, so we’re screwed on the humanitarian aid bit as well. Now do you see what comes of refusing to play ball? You want to be on your own, and others say ‘OK’.]
You got it all wrong, John. The ones firing “coraggio fuggiamo’ jibes were saying that even our handkerchief-sized island armed forces can make a valid contribution. As part of a coalition. The ones praising Malta to high heaven, on the other hand, want an army of toy soldiers to man roadblocks outside Gianpula and parade on St George’s Square.
How do you propose that the injured be brought to Malta, if not on an improvised hospital ship under armed guard?
Malta need not provide any of its own ships. That’s why charters exist.
Incidentally, a Malta-registered vessel was in Libya up to two nights ago, but in Tripoli, not Benghazi or Misurata. The Glyfada wasn’t shelled or prevented from leaving. How do you explain that?
“…..even our handkerchief-sized island armed forces can make a valid contribution.”
How?
Oh god. Go back a couple of weeks and find my posts back then. If we send even one soldier to Sigonella as teaboy, that’s a contribution. It is recognised by the coalition. It counts. It has political impact. It brings us economic return. It makes us new friends and allies. If you don’t understand this post, then go back to reading Tom Clancy or de Marco’s memoirs. I don’t know which.
But for your benefit, here’s a five-second lecture on “Micronation Contribution to Military Coalitions” by H.P. Baxxter:
http://www.isaf.nato.int/troop-numbers-and-contributions/iceland/index.php
See that? 2 soldiers. Two. But they’re on the list. NATO’s official list on NATO’s official website. They’re doing something. They’ll be at the final victory parade.
We’ll be nowhere.
As a token contribution we should send quantity two AFM soldiers to Sigonella.
You must be joking.
[Daphne – They’ll be fighting each other for the chance to go, John. Also, your reasoning is specious: the expression ‘it’s the gesture that counts’ applies also to these situations. Let’s say you invite somebody to a birthday party. He turns up and tell you ‘Sorry, but I didn’t buy you a present because I couldn’t afford to buy one as nice as those all your other guests have given you. So I’m giving you nothing.’ ]
John Schembri, you leave me no choice but to call you ignorant, and stupid too, because of the conclusions that you draw.
The AFM’s contribution to the EU’s monitoring mission in Georgia (EUMM GEORGIA) is exactly two (2) soldiers. It was all over the newspapers when they were depoloyed and the government lauded their efforts and sang their praises. But you seem not to know this. That’s ignorance.
Then there’s stupidity. Because the whole point of a coalition, or of an alliance like NATO, is to allow every little member to bring their effort to bear, no matter how small.
H.P . Baxxter, you’re good at calling names.
I find all this hullabaloo about sending two soldiers to the front as a token military aid which would make us the laughing stock.
“Oh look, we’re part of the coalition, we sent two Maltese soldiers to Sigonella” . U hallina!
I’m sure that you would have criticized our government even if it sent a whole platoon to Misurata.
You know as much as I do that we do send soldiers abroad.They are not only good for parades.
Laughing stock is when you stay out of the coalition.
Besides, you contradict yourself from start to finish. When I give you an example of a mission on which we sent two soldiers, you imply that it was the right choice, and then you say that we’d be a laughing stock if we did the same in Libya.
The figure of two was an example of the smallest “contingent” possible. We could send fifty to join the coalition against Gaddafi. But you brush aside the argument with the ultimate in Maltese logic: “U hallina!”
Yes you are stupid, and now you’ve proved it yourself. And the tragedy is that our government is moulded in your image, not mine.
I’m not contradicting myself at all. In my opinion and in the opinion of many others, it is not wise to send our willing and able soldiers (not operetta or coraggio fuggiamo soldiers) to this mission because Malta is not supporting an attack on Libya but as it said from the beginning, it wants a ceasefire.
The Maltese government wants a ceasefire and you want to attack.
[Daphne – You can’t stop at saying that you want a ceasefire. What do you want AFTER a ceasefire? And how do you plan to make what you want happen?]
Our soldiers were sent on peacekeeping and anti piracy missions.
It happens that Minister Borg is in command, not you Baxx.
[Daphne – He isn’t. The prime minister is. And he is obliged to consult the head of the Armed Forces.]
How can he be consistent if he sends Maltese soldiers to this operation when he is insisting on a ceasefire?
[Daphne – John, you ARE contradicting yourself. I’m butting in because Baxxter usually pops in late in the day.The UN itself has called for a ceasefire, but it is the UN which mandated the current military action. The fact remains that without shooting and killing, nothing is going to happen to force Gaddafi and his family out. Without shooting and killing, they will stay. That has become increasingly clear and that is why calls for a ceasefire have decreased and not increased. Sometimes it takes war to avert an even bigger disaster. It’s not as though you haven’t had the lessons of history on that. It’s all very well to talk about being on the side of life, but Tonio Borg has not had to answer the question: if he had been in Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici’s shoes in 1986, what would he have done? Would he have saved the lives of Gaddafi and his family, or would he have let them be killed, thereby saving the lives of the many thousands who have died because of them in the last 25 years, including the ones who are dying now?]
Now who’s stupid?
People in the army are good at following orders not dictating foreign policy.
[Daphne – Baxxter isn’t stupid at all. I think it is more than obvious (and I haven’t a clue who he is or even that it’s a he for that matter) that he is extremely sharp. Nobody said that the army should dictate foreign policy. But various people here have criticised our government’s foreign policy, and with good reason, too.]
Daphne, the point which I wanted to drive home here wasn’t whether we should attack or call for a ceasefire; my point was that if Tonio Borg is sticking to his guns for a ceasefire he’s being consistent when he does not send soldiers with the coalition.
[Daphne – It’s not up to Tonio Borg to ‘send soldiers’. The foreign minister is not the decision maker on that one.]
If we send soldiers, like some contributors here want, we will be dropping our ceasefire stand and support the attack on Libya.
[Daphne – Bollocks. Hillary Clinton keeps calling for a ceasefire and it hasn’t stopped the US launching 192 Tomahawk missiles. You’re speaking about unilateral disarmament – a Very Bad Idea. Divest yourself of your weapons when the enemy is still mad for killing, and you’re a dead man. Imagine if everyone had to follow Malta’s lead and not send in the military because we want a ceasefire. Where would we be then? Oh, that’s right – just exactly where we were on that panic-stricken Thursday when Benghazi was about to be attacked and the UN Security Council hadn’t voted yet. Can’t you see you’re talking hogwash.]
Gonzi and Tonio believe that through a ceasefire some sort of a solution for this crisis can be found. You and Baxxter think differently.
[Daphne – Yes, and guess what. We’re right and they’re wrong. What can I say? Too much friendship with Muammar Gaddafi has left them both hamstrung and unable to properly assess his personality.]
Today I heard Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici explaining on RTK that the offer for a hospital is not for Mater Dei but if say Médecins Sans Frontières want to set up a hospital for the wounded they will find the government’s cooperation for its setup. Mater Dei is bursting from the seams with patients waiting in the corridors.
[Daphne – Oh wonderful. So now they’ve started contradicting each other. The prime minister offers Materi Dei and the minister of the interior (who is not responsible for hospitals) says no. It’s so obvious that they don’t know whether they’re coming or going, and that they’re thinking on the hoof and not planning at all. As if Medecins Sans Frontieres needs Malta’s cooperation. Is that our government’s idea of humanitarian aid – waiting for an aid organisation to do it all? Pathetic. Tal-biki.]
http://multimedia.lastampa.it/multimedia/nel-mondo/lstp/34722/
Photo-coverage of wounded evacuated by Tukish ship from Misrata and Benghazi.
Maltese patrol boats escort ship carrying medical supplies into Misrata, ship also picks up injured and heads to Malta. Dream on yor. We could be the mouse that roared but we are stuck with the mouse that squeaked.
I wonder what passengers paid Air Malta and Virtu Ferries for their heroic evacuation from Libya at the start of the protests.
But where is our humanitarian aid to the injured? Gonzi’s offering our hospital services to them was all bull. It took the Turks and the Tunisians to go to their rescue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kej4c7F1Hf0&feature=relmfu
http://feb17.info/media/video-tunisian-ship-arrives-in-misrata/