Testimonio de la periodista independiente, Lizzie Phelan, que estuvo en Libia durante la invasión de Trípoli por parte de terroristas armados apoyados por la OTAN.
Thanks to the Stop The War for inviting me. I visited Libya twice over the past six months of the crisis. The first time I was on a peace mission and the second time I was a correspondent for Press TV and I also did some reporting for Russia Today. I left just after the so-called fall of Tripoli and I was there during that horrendous week of the fighting in Tripoli.
Dan [Glazebrook - independent analyst] has really well-contextualized how the war on Libya is a war on Africa. But I'd just like to add something -- Dan mentioned how NATO had been targeting over 100,000 soldiers in Libya, but there were also thousands of ordinary men and women -- there were a lot of women who volunteered since the beginning of the crisis to defend their country and they were armed by the government. And during that week in Tripoli when the fighting began I witnessed how ordinary men and women took up the weapons that they had been trained to use during that six months to defend their country.
I'm going to, as a journalist, talk a little bit about the role of the media and this has been an incredible media war. Dan alluded strongly to the criminalization of the Libyan government and Gaddafi.
The media said that thousands of people were about to be killed in Benghazi, but they never showed us any evidence. They said that six thousand people had been killed by the government. Human rights organizations have confirmed that approximately 250 had died from both sides.
They said that the Libyan government was attacking its own people from the air. Russian intelligence satellites have since shown us that this was impossible.
They said that the government was hiring mercenaries from elsewhere in Africa -- they never showed us the evidence. Instead we saw the videos of black Libyans and other black Africans being lynched in public squares by NATOs ground troops -- the rebels, with scores of people filming on their mobile phones and Western Special Forces looking on.
They said that Gaddafi was hated by his people, but they never showed us the 1.7 million people in a country of 6 million in Green Square on July the 1st. Or the masses in Tarhuna, in Suppa, in Bani Walid, in Sirte and across the country who demonstrated to pledge their allegiance to their leader and to the Jama Haria.
They never showed us the masses, as I said, of ordinary men and women who had accepted the government's offer of weapons to defend their families, neighborhoods and country from people who wish to condemn them to enslavement to imperialism. They said they were targeting Gaddafi's military forces -- they ignored the 33 children, 32 women and 20 men who I saw buried in the small and traditional town of Marj in Zlitan in early August.
They said on August 20th or 21st that Tripoli fell without resistance. But they didn't tell us that in twelve hours alone 1,300 people were massacred in that city and 900 were injured.
Thanks to the Stop The War for inviting me. I visited Libya twice over the past six months of the crisis. The first time I was on a peace mission and the second time I was a correspondent for Press TV and I also did some reporting for Russia Today. I left just after the so-called fall of Tripoli and I was there during that horrendous week of the fighting in Tripoli.
Dan [Glazebrook - independent analyst] has really well-contextualized how the war on Libya is a war on Africa. But I'd just like to add something -- Dan mentioned how NATO had been targeting over 100,000 soldiers in Libya, but there were also thousands of ordinary men and women -- there were a lot of women who volunteered since the beginning of the crisis to defend their country and they were armed by the government. And during that week in Tripoli when the fighting began I witnessed how ordinary men and women took up the weapons that they had been trained to use during that six months to defend their country.
I'm going to, as a journalist, talk a little bit about the role of the media and this has been an incredible media war. Dan alluded strongly to the criminalization of the Libyan government and Gaddafi.
The media said that thousands of people were about to be killed in Benghazi, but they never showed us any evidence. They said that six thousand people had been killed by the government. Human rights organizations have confirmed that approximately 250 had died from both sides.
They said that the Libyan government was attacking its own people from the air. Russian intelligence satellites have since shown us that this was impossible.
They said that the government was hiring mercenaries from elsewhere in Africa -- they never showed us the evidence. Instead we saw the videos of black Libyans and other black Africans being lynched in public squares by NATOs ground troops -- the rebels, with scores of people filming on their mobile phones and Western Special Forces looking on.
They said that Gaddafi was hated by his people, but they never showed us the 1.7 million people in a country of 6 million in Green Square on July the 1st. Or the masses in Tarhuna, in Suppa, in Bani Walid, in Sirte and across the country who demonstrated to pledge their allegiance to their leader and to the Jama Haria.
They never showed us the masses, as I said, of ordinary men and women who had accepted the government's offer of weapons to defend their families, neighborhoods and country from people who wish to condemn them to enslavement to imperialism. They said they were targeting Gaddafi's military forces -- they ignored the 33 children, 32 women and 20 men who I saw buried in the small and traditional town of Marj in Zlitan in early August.
They said on August 20th or 21st that Tripoli fell without resistance. But they didn't tell us that in twelve hours alone 1,300 people were massacred in that city and 900 were injured.
