With witnesses saying that the rebel-held city of Zedaya has been torn "down to ashes," the Libyan national council has asked the international community to "protect the Libyan people from any further genocide and crimes against humanity without any direct military intervention on Libyan soil."
MSNBC runs the report:
The source in Zawiya also told BBC that children as young as five were among the dead.
"I don't know how many are dead — they tore Zawiya down to ashes," the BBC quoted the witness as saying.
Peter Beaumont, a reporter for The Guardian newspaper in the U.K., said in Twitter messages that "all evidence we are hearing sounds like something awful in Zawiya ... My source in Zawiya unreachable since yesterday. Sounds very very grim."
Phone lines and Internet services have been cut.
"Many buildings are completely destroyed, including hospitals, electricity lines and generators," he said. "People cannot run away, it's cordoned off. They cannot flee. All those who can fight are fighting, including teenagers. Children and women are being hidden."
Tanks were firing everywhere, he said.
As reported in a diary by Conchita, the aim of the use of international force would be to prevent Gaddafi's aircraft from committing a crime unprecedented in the history of contemporary counter-revolutions, that of making strafing runs against the crowds of civilians demonstrating peacefully in the streets of Tripoli or elsewhere.
Rejecting calls for international boots on the ground, the Council has called for a short and specific list of airstrikes which would help level the field by destroying key runways and preventing Gaddafi's jets from taking off:
-- the airport of Sirte, 500 kms to the east of the capital,
-- military airport located at Sebah, in the south of the country, near the Chadian border. The latter serves as a beach head for the shuttling of mercenaries.
The witness, speaking by phone on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisal, said Gadhafi's tanks and fighting vehicles were roaming the city and firing randomly at homes.
The measured call for help by the rebels and the debate within the international community advances complex ethical questions over the treatment of liberation movements and international interventions in such internal struggles. The new "referee" role being debated seems to say that a peoples' struggle is their own, but clear and open war crimes will not be tolerated.
From Conchita's action list:
A thank you to Sen. John Kerry,
http://kerry.senate.gov/...
for pushing for a no-fly zone in Libya
You can also call his office: (202) 224-2742.
Secretary Hillary Clinton 202-647-5291
You will only be able to leave a message at 202-647-5291, but Monday - Friday you can reach a live human being at the office of the Deputy Secretary of State.
Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg 202-647-8636
Ask Mr. Steinberg to relay the message to Secretary Clinton.
Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA)
Assistant Secretary Jeffrey D. Feltman 202-647-7209
Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs
Philip J. Crowley 202-647-6607 @PJCrowley
PJ Crowley tweets regularly. You can tweet him to support humanitarian aid and a NFZ in 140 characters or less.
Contact your own congress members:
http://www.contactingthecongress.org/