Colonel al-Gaddafi has publicly made clear his readiness to kill those who oppose him in order to stay in power.
My Twitter feed was a string of indictments on Monday. Libyans were telling the world that they are being massacred.
On my screen were the names of Libyans’ killed friends, new ones appearing every few hours. Messages in Arabic and in English all said the same thing: It seems that the world is not watching, that Arabs are looking the other way, and that the Libyan people have been forsaken by human rights organizations, the United Nations and all the countries and peoples of the world, western and Arab.
On February 17 Najla Abdurrahman wrote an article for the Foreign Policy website entitled, “What If Libya Staged a Revolution and Nobody Came?” Its subtitle: “Libyans are giving up their lives to overthrow Muammar al-Qaddafi. But is anyone paying attention?”
Najla Abdurrahman describes the failure of the international news agencies, including the Associated Press and Aljazeera, in covering the Libyan revolution accurately. In the following days images of the dead in Libya have been shown on different Arabic television stations, but not all of them, and few, it seems, are watching.
Libyan activist Fathi al-Warfali, based in Switzerland, asked Reuters “where is Amnesty International?”
As Amnesty has been scrambling to prepare a public statement and an action, it was and still is unclear that world leaders would heed Amnesty’s call to act immediately to stop the bloodshed, or that news organizations that have not been covering the Libyan government’s violence would change course now. In a press release today Amnesty described the UN Security Council’s response as falling “shamefully below what was needed to stop the spiralling violence , and called for concrete action, including an immediate arms embargo and assets freeze.”
Our Chicago protests are a response to this. It is to tell the Libyans who feel alone that they are not alone. That we stand in solidarity with them, calling for the end of bloodshed, using the means available to us. We stand for justice in Libya as we stood for justice in Egypt. We acknowledge that as peaceful protest is a human right here, it should be there.
Below are some of the Tweets from the past few days. Those interested in joining the Chicago demonstrations can join us at Daley Plaza every day from 6:30 to 7:30 pm until the violence ends.
@TripleM – Muhammad M. Mansour
#WTF #Arabs are you still counting on #Egypt to resolve the situation in #Libya! Would you allow such a #massacre if it were a GCC country?@nohaelagrab – noha el agrab مصرية
Wa7ed…Etneen…El Sha3b El 3arabi Feiiin?? #Libya #Egypt #Arabs@FouzAbdullah – Fouz Abdullah
لقد أسمعت لو ناديت حيا ولكن لا حياة لمن تنادي صدقت بأنني ميت ولكن كشفت الحال ما بين الأعادي #libya #bahrain #revolution #arabs@Hala_Seif – hala seif
A Real Massacre!!#libya why the hell everyone is quite about it!!#UN #Arabs@ibyafidammi – libya fidammi
God Bless #Qatar for being the first Arab country to officially denounce the atrocities in #Libya. Where are the rest of the#Arabs?@ladyb84 B
seriously #world take ur time in condemning a massacre, think about it a couple of more days while more ppl die #libya #feb17 #un#us #arabs@niametany – Niam Itani
#Help #Libya NOW Where is #UN #Obama #Arabs ?! #GENOCIDEin the 21st century!@TheSufiWarrior – Sufi Warrior
Why are the #Arabs and #Muslims waiting for the west to intervene? Why aren’t they doing their brotherly duty? #Libya needs you!@kanlina – lina kanaan
The world has the blood of the libyan people on its hands, they are silent as war machine of Gadaffi is killing them #Arabs #Egypt#Libya@OnlyOneLibya – ProudLibyan
Oh world, Oh #Egypt, Oh #Arabs help your Libyan brothers,#Gaddafi is massacring us, pray for us! #Libya #Tripoli #Benghazi@mba_lb – Mahmoud Moughrabi
200 were killed in the name of #freedom in #Libya by #militias and no one is doing anything #un #us #Arabs ??!@Abdullah_SH – Abdullah Esharif
#arabs #USA #UK #France #Germany all world silent abt #libyatragedy evn they know the deaths increasing evryday they support regime #feb17@FreeTunisianow – bashir tounsi
Where is #redcross #un #usa #arabs #obama we don’t need ur regrets later we need actons now stop the planes full of killers going to #libya
Dear libyan brothers we are body and souls with you. We pray for you. Freedom has no price or value you will overcome very soon insha'Allah
FREEDOM FOR ALL ARAB PEOPLES ITS TIME NOW
Well what you see on the news now and everybody is paying attention but the wait and see attitude is prevailing. Nobody steps up until they see dead people swimming in the streets of Libya. Muammar al-Qaddafi's pronouncement that he would become a martyr in the end and would not step down. We can see Iraq sequel for now. This time it's Muammar al-Qaddafi not Saddam is the man of the hour. Then stories of dirty laundry will come out. Let's wait and see.Right?
make love not war!
Dear libyan brothers we are body and souls with you. We pray for you. Freedom has no price or value you will overcome very soon insha’Allah
FREEDOM FOR ALL ARAB PEOPLES ITS TIME NOW
Well what you see on the news now and everybody is paying attention but the wait and see attitude is prevailing. Nobody steps up until they see dead people swimming in the streets of Libya. Muammar al-Qaddafi’s pronouncement that he would become a martyr in the end and would not step down. We can see Iraq sequel for now. This time it’s Muammar al-Qaddafi not Saddam is the man of the hour. Then stories of dirty laundry will come out. Let’s wait and see.Right?
make love not war!
There are still people who believe that revolution in the Arab world is a mirage.
There are those who doubt on the close relationship that this countries have among themselves (Egypt, Tunisia, Benghazi, Iran, Morocco and Libya now).
But the reality falls like a lead rain from its own weight. A complicated reality and difficult to predict, nothing like that, had ever happened before.
This is not only the hungry revolution, but also of freedom, of dignity, of enough, and especially the individual’s rights over the economic.
There are not protests against the U.S., Israel or against the passivity of Europe. It is just a massive cry against corruption and a call for democracy.
Not even Qaddafi's hatred against his own people nor his tanks could stop the strength of a population that is to throwing themselves into the future.
I wonder where is the generous European response who as US has sacrificed the freedom of these peoples for their own prosperity.
I wonder, why nobody has responded yet to streets full of wounded and dead bodies.
The world is crying out for equality and now all nations have the moral duty to help this world crying. We are all sailing in the same boat, a boat sailing stunned to a great change of cultural, religious and economic preconceptions, but this new society will require the West complicity and support.
Yes…you are right, Marc,
Nobody steps up until they see dead people swimming in the streets of Libya. Do yo now why? because European liders are more concerned with how it will deal with mass immigration from Libya and neighboring countries that in the blood that is flowing in the Libyan streets.
Our political leaders have shown again a great lack of knowledge and foresight on the Middle Eastern countries. Once again they have shown its own shame in their indifference for inability to avoid human tragedies and defend persons rights.
Now the European countries that sold arms to Qaddafi will have to take responsibility for each of the dead commited on Libya streets.
There are still people who believe that revolution in the Arab world is a mirage.
There are those who doubt on the close relationship that this countries have among themselves (Egypt, Tunisia, Benghazi, Iran, Morocco and Libya now).
But the reality falls like a lead rain from its own weight. A complicated reality and difficult to predict, nothing like that, had ever happened before.
This is not only the hungry revolution, but also of freedom, of dignity, of enough, and especially the individual’s rights over the economic.
There are not protests against the U.S., Israel or against the passivity of Europe. It is just a massive cry against corruption and a call for democracy.
Not even Qaddafi’s hatred against his own people nor his tanks could stop the strength of a population that is to throwing themselves into the future.
I wonder where is the generous European response who as US has sacrificed the freedom of these peoples for their own prosperity.
I wonder, why nobody has responded yet to streets full of wounded and dead bodies.
The world is crying out for equality and now all nations have the moral duty to help this world crying. We are all sailing in the same boat, a boat sailing stunned to a great change of cultural, religious and economic preconceptions, but this new society will require the West complicity and support.
Yes…you are right, Marc,
Nobody steps up until they see dead people swimming in the streets of Libya. Do yo now why? because European liders are more concerned with how it will deal with mass immigration from Libya and neighboring countries that in the blood that is flowing in the Libyan streets.
Our political leaders have shown again a great lack of knowledge and foresight on the Middle Eastern countries. Once again they have shown its own shame in their indifference for inability to avoid human tragedies and defend persons rights.
Now the European countries that sold arms to Qaddafi will have to take responsibility for each of the dead commited on Libya streets.