tagged w/ Political Asylum
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Jubilant Rebels Control Much of Tripoli
The New York Times...
August 22, 2011
Jubilant Rebels Control Much of Tripoli
By KAREEM FAHIM and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
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PART ONE...
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TRIPOLI, Libya — Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s four-decade-old grip on power dissolved with astonishing speed on Monday as rebels marched into the capital and arrested two of his sons, while residents raucously celebrated the prospective end of his four-decade-old rule. Colonel Qaddafi’s precise whereabouts remained unknown.
In the city’s central Green Square, the site of many manufactured rallies in support of Colonel Qaddafi, jubilant Libyans tore down posters of him and stomped on them. The rebel leadership announced that the elite presidential guard protecting the Libyan leader had surrendered and that their forces controlled many parts of the city, but not Colonel Qaddafi’s leadership compound.
The National Transitional Council, the rebel governing body, issued a mass text message saying: “We congratulate the Libyan people for the fall of Muammar Qaddafi and call on the Libyan people to go into the street to protect the public property. Long live free Libya.”
Officials loyal to Colonel Qaddafi insisted that the fight was not over, and there were clashes between rebels and government troops early on Monday morning.
Explosions and the sound of mortars could still be heard Monday morning and a rebel fighter told Al Jazeera television that pro-Qaddafi forces still controlled 15 to 20 percent of the capital. News reports quoting rebel officials said tanks had emerged from Colonel Qaddafi’s compound and had opened fire. “There haven’t been many silent minutes,” Karen Graham, a British nurse in Tripoli told the BBC, referring to the sound of battle.
NATO and American officials said that the Qaddafi government’s control of Tripoli, which had been its final stronghold, was now in doubt, and the European Union said on Monday it had begun planning for a post-Qaddafi era.
“It’s clear the regime is crumbling around him,” Alistair Burt, a British minister, said, referring to the Libyan leader.
President Obama said Sunday night that Colonel Qaddafi and his inner circle had “to recognize that their rule has come to an end” and called on Colonel Qaddafi “to relinquish power once and for all.” He also called on the National Transitional Council to avoid civilian casualties and protect state institutions as it took control of the country.
“Tonight, the momentum against the Qaddafi regime has reached a tipping point,” Mr. Obama said in a statement. “Tripoli is slipping from the grasp of a tyrant. The Qaddafi regime is showing signs of collapsing. The people of Libya are showing that the universal pursuit of dignity and freedom is far stronger than the iron fist of a dictator.”
The shocking collapse of the Qaddafi forces appeared to signal the end for one of the world’s most flamboyant and mercurial political figures, the leader of an idiosyncratic government that was frequently as bizarre as it was brutal.
Long a thorn in the side of the West after he took power in a bloodless coup in 1969, Colonel Qaddafi had managed an awkward reconciliation in recent years, abandoning his fledgling nuclear program and paying billions of dollars to the victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, which was attributed to Libyan agents.
While denying that he actually headed the government, Colonel Qaddafi created a cult of personality that centered on his Green Book, a volume both trivial and impenetrable. His decades of iron-fisted rule have produced a country, analysts say, that is devoid of credible institutions and any semblance of a civil society — a potential source of trouble in the months and years ahead.
After six months of inconclusive fighting, the assault on the capital unfolded at a breakneck pace, with insurgents capturing a base of the vaunted Khamis Brigade, where they had expected to meet resistance, then speeding toward Tripoli and through several neighborhoods of the capital effectively unopposed.
A separate group of rebels waged a fierce battle near the Rixos Hotel, a bastion of Qaddafi support near the city center. A team of rebels there captured Colonel Qaddafi’s son and one-time heir apparent, Seif al-Islam. Rebels also claimed to have accepted the surrender of a second Qaddafi son, Mohammed.
CONTINUED...
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PHOTO: Bryan Denton for The New York Times
Libyan rebels advanced Sunday into Tripoli, the capital and Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's last stronghold. By Monday, they controlled much of the city.Jubilant Rebels Control Much of Tripoli
The New York Times...
August 22, 2011... more
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Ten-year-old Relmutray Cadin Calfunao has been arrested and interrogated by Chile’s Carabinero uniformed police force. She barely survived a mysterious arson attack on her house in 2005 and has repeatedly seen police beat her parents and brothers. With most of their family in prison and to avoid further psychological damage to their youngest member, the Calfunaos decided to send Relmutray away to Geneva, Switzerland, where they say she will have the opportunity to regain a lost childhood. Relmutray is now appealing to the Swiss government for political asylum.
While Chile’s government insists there is no need for any Chilean to seek political refuge, the Calfunao family argues that through their struggle to protect their ancestral land in Chile’s Region IX – also known as the Aruacanía or Wallmapu – family members have been subject to constant police persecution, unjustified prison sentences, and torture.
“There is ample evidence indicating that since her birth, Relmutray has lived in an environment of relentless police tension and harassment,” reads a document that the Mapuche International Link (MIL) submitted to the United Nations on September 16. “She has witnessed police brutality against her parents and her community as well as personally suffering inhumane, cruel, and degrading treatment.”
On Sept. 9, Relmutray left the indigenous Mapuche community Juan Paillalef, where she grew up with her family and 14 other families, just east of Region IX’s capital, Temuco. Relmutray’s aunt, Flor Rayen, who has lived in Geneva since 1996 and does research for the United Nations' human and indigenous rights commission, returned to Chile to accompany her niece on the long journey to Europe. And during the first week of October, Flor and MIL submitted the petition for Relmutray’s political asylum to the Swiss government.
While living in Chile, Relmutray would cry every day and have constant nightmares. “Her mental state seemed to be deteriorating,” said Remultray’s sister, Carolina Calfunao (20), who is the only family member never to have been incarcerated, although she must register once a month at the district attorney’s office and is prohibited from leaving the country because of her family affiliation.
Carolina receives regular calls from Geneva in which Relmutray tells her about her new home. “She is taking swimming lessons, ice skating, and learning a new language with her classmates,” said Carolina. “She is doing all these things that she couldn’t do when she was here. Of course she’s sad to be so far away from us, but she now has the chance to live like a normal child. And, thanks to Aunt Flor, at least she is still with family.”
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A youth movement counselor giving a class last week on "leaders who sought revolution and were assassinated" held up a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. "Who did he fight for?" the Hanoar Haoved v'Lomed counselor asked in Hebrew. "He fought for black rights," answer the twenty students - teens who fled from wars and repression in Africa and are seeking asylum in Israel - in Tigrinya, English, Arabic and broken Hebrew.....................A youth movement counselor giving a class last week on "leaders who sought... more
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Three players and the assistant coach of the Iraqi squad have gone AWOL from a training camp following a match in Australia. The team had been scheduled to play matches with Lebanon and Syria following the Olympic qualifier however coach Saadi Toma informed the Iraqi FA that himself and three players would be applying for political asylum.
Iraq had stunned the footballing world this past summer by winning the Asia Cup yet the players have all voiced concern over their safety in the past. Star player Younis Mahmoud who plays club football in Qatar fears to return back to Iraq despite his heroic status whilst in the nineties players had been tortured by Uday Hussein after losing important matches.
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