Posted on 04/19/2011 10:42:30 AM PDT by keat
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - The United Nations appealed on Tuesday for a ceasefire in the Libyan city of Misrata, saying at least 20 children had been killed in attacks by besieging government forces on rebel-held parts of the city.
Libya's third city, where hundreds are believed to have been killed by shelling and sniper fire from Muammar Gaddafi's forces, is the main focus of efforts to protect civilians caught up in the Libyan leader's bid to put down an armed rebellion.
But at the same time Western powers are looking for ways to support the rebels in their efforts to topple Gaddafi.
Britain said it would send military officers to advise the rebels on organization and communications, but not train or arm fighters.
And Italy said the international Libya Contact Group was seeking ways to allow the rebels to sell oil produced in the rebel-held east despite a U.N. embargo on Libyan oil sales.
Nine weeks after the rebellion broke out, inspired by uprisings against autocratic rulers elsewhere in the Arab world, a NATO-led air campaign designed to keep Gaddafi's forces out of the air and prevent attacks on civilians has failed to halt the bombardment of Misrata, a city of 300,000 people.
"Fifty days into the fighting in Misrata, the full picture of the toll on children is emerging -- far worse than we had feared and certain to get worse unless there is a ceasefire," said Marixie Mercado of the U.N. children's fund UNICEF.
"We have at least 20 verified child deaths and many more injuries due to shrapnel from mortars and tanks and bullet wounds," she told a news briefing in Geneva.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
So the UN unilaterally declares war on Libya and then after several weeks of attacks calls for a “truce”. Makes sense.
Maybe the rebels should surrender, they will be well treated, NATO always sees to that.
Let me get this straight. Gaddafi kills innocent children, so UN wants rebels to surrender to be killed by Gadaffi, too. Am I missing something? Does the UN really think people are that stupid? (Holland, Belgium, Arabs, don’t answer that).
Half-hoping NATO next orders Israel to stop defending itself against the Arab savages so we can see how NATO’s Israeli No Fly Zone works out. Would also be a real eye-opener for America’s brain-dead liberal Jews, too.
Even if true (Big ‘if’), how do we know that the deaths weren’t at the hands of the rebels?
Word is the officers won’t be issued boots. In keeping with the U.N. mandate.
If the UN wants a “truce,” it means that they want Kaddafi to surrender, or to hold back from taking the city, and give them time to regroup.
Not very likely.
Yes, no boots on the ground, just sandals and sneakers.
You can bet there will be US troops in Libya real soon.
The stooges who love the Unpunished Nazis here in America (Liberals, Free Traders, Globalists) will lie their way into sending US ground troops.
Seems that the same America-hating stooges do not mind if the Mexican Drug Cartels are shooting everything up just across the border in Mexico....but hey lets send more US troops to help some Islamics...
This was a debacle. We should NOT have intervened. At all.
“UN shocked over discovery that people die in war”
UN representatives today expressed great dismay over the discovery that people do in fact, die in war.
“We are bureaucrats and global warming alarmists,” said one UN member who refused to be identified over concerns he would be laughed out of his next cocktail party.
“We figured that we’d just make one of our regular proclamations, at worst perhaps a strongly worded letter and KaDaffy would just give up and we’d send him a few billion American dollars to rebuild and bribe his people with. I mean, we ARE the UN after all. This killing stuff is just beyond the pale. KaDaffy isn’t supposed to kill people. What does he think this is about? Does he think this is some kind of kinetic military action or something? This is WAR! People aren’t supposed to Die in a WAR!”
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