Eyewitness claims of Benghazi killings

Australian Broadcasting Commission ^ | 21 February 2011 | Tony Eastly

[BlackVeil]

TONY EASTLEY: As our correspondent pointed out it's difficult to get information out of Libya but there are reports this morning that some members of an army unit in Benghazi have defected and joined the protest movement.

Libya's permanent representative to the Arab League has reportedly told journalists in Cairo that he's resigning in order to join the protests.

The Reuters newsagency is also saying that a local doctor in Benghazi says that on Sunday alone 50 people were killed in the city, many of them shot dead. The doctor told Reuters that a further 100 people had been seriously wounded.

It's impossible to verify the accounts of unrest in Libya. Here we've revoiced an account of a man who says he's an eyewitness to events in Benghazi.

EYEWITNESS (translated): The youth are surrounded. The stations were all burned and the revolutionary committees except the Fedeel battalion where there are a lot of soldiers. There is a battle there now. The injured and the dead are about 700 or 750 this evening and this is confirmed and now we are taking the wounded to hospital and there is some news that the barracks has fallen in the hands of the revolutionaries. The barracks is on fire. We don't know what's happening inside but there is news that they have fallen.

We are close by and we will soon confirm this. The dead are many. The hospitals need hospitals. If you can broadcast this, please do this as soon as possible. ... We hope you broadcast this because we have no media. ...

[BlackVeil]

Really bad.

[cripplecreek]

If you consider prison riots to be a bad thing.

[BlackVeil]

I call this a popular uprising rather than a prison riot, and I am very concerned for the people of Benghazi. Definite information is lacking, but it does sound bad. That is a ruthless regime.