MISRATA, Libya – Moammar Gadhafi's forces showered the port area of this
besieged rebel city with rockets just minutes after an international aid ship
docked there Wednesday, killing four people as part of the regime's increasingly
bloody attempt to choke off Misrata's remaining lifeline.
The attack caused panic among hundreds of stranded migrant workers and
fleeing Libyans who were trying to board the Red Star One, a ferry chartered by
the International Organization for Migration. In the chaos, some families were
separated and the boat had to redock twice to sort it all out.
The timing of the shelling suggested Libyan forces were deliberately trying
to disrupt the evacuation. Othman Belbeisi, an IOM official, said rockets
started flying just minutes after he and others first stepped off the ferry.
"The whole place was shaking and people started running in different
directions," he said.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the regime should cease
hostilities in Misrata port and allow the IOM to provide relief to civilians
caught in the fighting.
He said the U.S. was making available an additional $6.5 million in
assistance to IOM to help evacuate people from Misrata and for other operations
in Libya.
On Tuesday, a senior Libyan official said the Libyan army would do what is
necessary to block sea access to Misrata, already besieged by land for the past
two months. Last week, Gadhafi's troops were caught laying sea mines, disrupting
shipping as NATO struggled to clear a safe access route to Misrata's port. The
Red Star One had waited at sea for three days before risking the approach on
Wednesday, aided by a tug boat.
Misrata is the main rebel stronghold in western Libya, which remains largely
under Gadhafi's control, while the rebels have been holding on to most of the
east. Since the uprising against Gadhafi broke out in mid-February, the two
sides have largely been locked in a stalemate. The international community's
bombing campaign, launched in mid-March, has kept Gadhafi's forces from
advancing to the east, but has failed to give the rebels a clear battlefield
advantage.
In Benghazi, the opposition stronghold in eastern Libya, rebel military
spokesman Col. Ahmed Bani depicted the bombing of Misrata's port as a crime
against humanity. He also reported heavy fighting in the southeastern town of
Kufra.
Bani was asked if the rebels were hoping that some foreign governments would
offer ground troops to support their cause.
"We have the men on the ground, we have the will, the courage, what we need
is proper armaments to carry it out," he replied. "It's our country and better
for us to fight for our freedom ... rather than others sacrificing themselves
for us."
In Europe, support for giving funds to the Libyan rebels — presumably to buy
arms, equipment and munitions with which to overthrow Gadhafi — seemed to be
growing as distaste for a long air war increased. Officials from countries
involved in the military campaign will likely announce ways to help the rebels
financially as they meet Thursday in Rome.
At the United Nations, meanwhile, the prosecutor of the International
Criminal Court said he has evidence that Gadhafi's security forces have
systematically attacked civilians in trying to crush the armed uprising.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the U.N. Security Council he would seek arrest
warrants in coming weeks against three Libyans who he said appear to bear "the
greatest criminal responsibility" for crimes against humanity. He did not name
them.
Misrata has been especially hard-hit during the fighting, with Gadhafi trying
to break resistance in western Libya, his only chance of clinging to power in a
possible partition of the country.
Thousands of migrant workers were stranded in Misrata when the anti-Gadhafi
uprising broke out. In recent weeks, migrants were gradually evacuated on aid
ships, with those left behind living in a squalid tent camp near the port.
Aid officials said a man, a woman and two children in the camp were killed by
Wednesday's rocket attack.
Saka Yossie, 27, a worker from Ghana, said he was in the camp when Grad
rockets hit. "We were just sitting there when the bombs came down," he said.
"They died right in front of us."
Yossie said he'd spent six weeks in the camp, sleeping in a tent with very
little food and water. "Now I thank God for taking me from this place," he said
just before stepping aboard the ferry.
The ferry started taking on passengers shortly after the shelling.
Some migrant families arrived in the back of a pickup truck with their
belongings. Then dump trucks arrived, their backs packed with hundreds of male
migrants, mostly from Niger and other impoverished African countries. The
migrants poured out of the trucks and raced to board the ship, many carrying no
luggage.
The migrants were being given priority because they have no place to stay in
Misrata, aid officials said.
However some 300 Libyans, mostly families with children, also tried to get on
board. Some rushed the boat, ignoring calls to stop. At that point, the boat
surprisingly took off, apparently to prevent overloading, but leaving about 400
people on the dock.
The boat's surprise departure caught many on the wrong side, and the ship had
to redock twice more.
Among those boarding were 36 patients to be evacuated to Benghazi, the rebel
stronghold in the east. Four were in improvised intensive care units. A woman
with Down syndrome kicked and screamed as a group of men carried her aboard. An
old man was pushed on in a wheelchair, and an old woman struggled aboard with
her walker.
Just before the final departure, someone from the medical team said that one
of the ICU patients was in unstable condition and needed to get off the ship.
Medics wheeled the injured man's bed near the back door. The man was
unconscious and a medic helped him breathe with a hand pump. Dr. Dimitrios
Mognie of the International Medical Corps said the man's trachea had been
ruptured and he needed surgery. Hospital crowding had meant he couldn't get it
in Misrata, so he was headed to Benghazi.
But his condition deteriorated in the chaos.
"There's a 90 percent chance he'll die on the ship, so it's better for him to
stay and die here," Mognie said. AP
