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Death Toll In Libya Protest ’Hits 84’: Report

20 February 2011 02:42 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. A leading human rights group claims up to 84 people have been killed in three days of protests in Libya, amid reports snipers fired at mourners in the eastern city of Benghazi, APA reports quoting â€œâ€Sky News.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) cited witnesses and hospital sources as saying it is the worst unrest faced by Libya’s leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Protests against Colonel Gaddafi’s 40-year rule, inspired by uprisings in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt, have been met with force.
HRW said 35 people died on Friday alone with the biggest protest focused in the restive region around Benghazi, 600 miles east of the capital Tripoli.
According to Alex Rossi, Sky News correspondent in Cairo, the situation in Libya was "extremely volatile".
Describing very strong scenes of unrest in Benghazi, he said: "At least 35 people... had been taken to the morgue. Most of those people shot with live ammunition."
As thousands gathered to mourn the dead on Saturday, snipers began shooting at the crowd.
Up to 15 people were killed and scores more were wounded, according to hospital sources.
Earlier, reports said special forces attacked hundreds of protesters, including lawyers and judges, camped out in front of a courthouse in Benghazi.
They fired tear gas at protesters in tents and then cleared the area after many fled carrying the dead and injured.
Following the attacks, police were seen to be leaving the streets, forcing many in the city to set up neighbourhood patrols.
"We don’t see a single policeman in the streets, not even traffic police," a lawyer in Benghazi said.
People feared that pro-government forces would soon follow up the encampment raid with house-to-house attacks.
Internet access has also been cut in the city, removing one of the few ways Libyans can get information out about the anti-government protests in the country.
There were further reports that Facebook and Twitter had also been shut down in the capital of Tripoli, while the city was said to be full of government supporters.
Further restrictions on foreign media have also made it difficult to establish the full extent of the violence.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague urged Libya to stop using force and asked governments in the Middle East to respond to the "legitimate aspirations" of their people.
"I condemn the violence in Libya, including reports of the use of heavy weapons fire and a unit of snipers against demonstrators," Hague said in a statement. "This is clearly unacceptable and horrifying."
HRW said the deaths in the city happened when security forces opened fire on people protesting after funeral processions for people killed in earlier violence.
There has been no official word on the number of dead.
"We put out a call to all the doctors in Benghazi to come to the hospital and for everyone to give blood because I’ve never seen anything like this before," the group quoted a senior hospital official in Benghazi as saying.
"Special forces who have a very strong allegiance to Colonel Gaddafi are still fighting desperately to gain control, to gain ground, and the people are fighting them street by street," a local resident was reported as saying.
While the level of unrest has not previously been seen before in the oil exporter, Libya-watchers say the situation is different from Egypt, because Col Gaddafi has oil cash to smooth over social problems.
Mr Gaddafi is also respected in much of the country, though less so in the Cyrenaica region around Benghazi.
::Arbor Networks, a US-based security company, has said that internet traffic in the North African country abruptly ended late on Friday night.
:: Libyan authorities have also thwarted foreign journalists attempting to enter the country by refusing entrance visas.