Ο πρόεδρος της νέας Λιβυκής κυβέρνησης, Μούσταφα Αμπντελζελίλ, ευχαριστεί τους Έλληνες γιατρούς!

Στην φωτογραφία ο Έλληνας γιατρός Πανάγος  Μπουρλίδης, συνομιλεί με τον Πρόεδρο του μεταβατικού συμβουλίου και Πρόεδρο της νέας Λιβυκής Κυβέρνησης Μούσταφα Αμπντελζελίλ.

Η παρουσία των Ελλήνων γιατρών στα νοσοκομεία της Λιβύης είναι σημαντική και αναγνωρίζεται από τις Αρχές της Νέας Κυβέρνησης της Λιβύης.

Με το ξέσπασμα των συγκρούσεων, Έλληνες γιατροί έσπευσαν αμέσως να προσφέρουν τη βοήθειά τους. Από το Μάιο βρέθηκαν σε ένα από τα μεγαλύτερα κέντρα νοσηλείας της Λιβύης και αυτό που δέχτηκε τους περισσότερους τραυματίες, το νοσοκομείο της Βεγγάζης! Παράλληλα, σημαντικό ήταν το έργο τους και όσον αφορά τον έλεγχο για την ύπαρξη και διάδοση επιδημιών και κολλητικών ασθενειών.

Η ελληνική ομάδα στάλθηκε στο νοσοκομείο της Αζντάμπια, όπου βρέθηκε και ο πρόεδρος της μεταβατικής κυβέρνησης, με σκοπό να ευχαριστήσει τους γιατρούς για την προσφορά τους και την ελληνική κυβέρνηση που οργάνωσε την αποστολή. Η συνδρομή των Ελλήνων γιατρών στο νοσοκομείο της Αζντάμπια ήταν συχνά απαραίτητη, καθώς το «κεντρικό» του σημείο και η εγγύτητά του στο μέτωπο αύξησαν τις ανάγκες του για περίθαλψη, αλλά και μεταφορά ασθενών.

Αυτή η παρουσία της ελληνικής αποστολής δεν πέρασε απαρατήρητη και πέρα από την κυβέρνηση, Λίβυοι πολίτες και ιατρικό προσωπικό, αναφωνούσαν και επαναλάμβαναν: «Ο Αλλάχ (Ο Θεός) να σας ανταποδώσει την ευλογία»!

ΛΙΒΥΚΗ ΚΟΙΝΟΤΗΤΑ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ

  Η Λιβυκή κοινότητα της Ελλάδας, θέλει να ευχαριστήσει την Ελληνική αποστολή για το θάρρος στις δύσκολες αυτές στιγμές που περνά ο Λιβυκός λαός. Ειδικά όμως, αναγνωρίζει την προσφορά του γιατρού κυρίου Πανάγου Μπουρλίδη, ο οποίος εκτός από την επιστημονική του βοήθεια, άφησε κομμάτια από την ψυχή του, με λόγους καρδιάς στους Λίβυους αδελφούς του. Είναι σπάνια περίπτωση αλλογενής, να έχει τους ίδιους σφυγμούς αγωνίας, στον αγώνα για την ελευθερία αυτού του καταπιεσμένου, από τον δικτάτορα Καντάφι, λαού. Τον ευχαριστούμε τόσο για την προσφορά του στην Λιβύη, όσο και για τη άψογη συνεργασία του με την Λιβυκή κοινότητα στην Ελλάδα.

 

«Παράθυρο» για παραμονή του Καντάφι

Ο Μουαμάρ Καντάφι μπορεί να παραμείνει στη Λιβύη εάν τεθεί στο περιθώριο της πολιτικής ζωής, δήλωσε χθες ο υπουργός Εξωτερικών της Γαλλίας Αλέν Ζιπέ, θέτοντας το σενάριο αυτό ως προϋπόθεση για μια πιθανή κατάπαυση του πυρός έπειτα από πέντε μήνες συγκρούσεων. Οι Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες, μέσω του εκπροσώπου του Λευκού Οίκου, θεωρούν ότι 

 

ο Καντάφι πρέπει να εγκαταλείψει την εξουσία, αλλά εναπόκειται στον λιβυκό λαό να αποφασίσει κατά πόσον θα του επιτραπεί να παραμείνει στη Λιβύη. 

 

 

Πάντως, ο υπουργός Εξωτερικών της Λιβύης Αμπντελάτι Ομπέιντι δήλωσε χθες ότι η κυβέρνηση δεν πραγματοποιεί καμία συζήτηση σχετικά με την ενδεχόμενη αποχώρηση του Μουαμάρ Καντάφι από την εξουσία. «Οι προτάσεις της Αφρικανικής Ενωσης για τον τερματισμό της σύγκρουσης στη Λιβύη δεν περιλαμβάνουν αιτήματα για αποχώρηση του Καντάφι», πρόσθεσε ο Ομπέιντι έπειτα από συνομιλίες που είχε με τον ρώσο ομολογό του Σεργκέι Λαβρόφ. O ρώσος πρόεδρος Ντμίτρι Μεντβέντεφ δήλωσε χθες ότι πιστεύει πως ένας συμβιβασμός μεταξύ των λίβυων εξεγερμένων και την κυβέρνηση εξακολουθεί να είναι πιθανός και σημείωσε πως η υποστήριξη προς τη μία πλευρά της σύγκρουσης είναι κακή για τη Λιβύη. «Πρέπει να συνεχίσουμε την αναζήτηση ευκαιριών για μια ειρηνική λύση... Θα συνεχίσουμε την αναζήτηση για έναν συμβιβασμό. Κατά την άποψή μου αυτό είναι εφικτό», δήλωσε ο Μεντβέντεφ.

Εν τω μεταξύ, όπως έγινε γνωστό, 18 αντικαθεστωτικοί αντάρτες σκοτώθηκαν και περισσότεροι από 150 τραυματίστηκαν σε μάχες με δυνάμεις πιστές στον Καντάφι για τον έλεγχο της στρατηγικής σημασίας πόλης Μπρέγκα, σημαντικό λιμάνι για τις εξαγωγές πετρελαίου με αξιόλογες πετρελαϊκές εγκαταστάσεις.

LIVE Libyan Unrest: July 21, 2011

We are tracking the latest developments to keep you updated on the situation on the ground. There are interactive maps located in the Protest map page to keep up with the latest movements. Also check out the featured twitters on the sidebar. On the Go? Follow us on Twitter @Feb17Libya for the Live updates and discussion. All updates are in Libyan local time (GMT+2)
Slovenia announced on Wednesday that it recognizes the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people.
The Slovenian government made the announcement two days after its Foreign Minister Samuel Zbogar said in Brussels that Slovenia may recognize the Benghazi-based Libyan rebel forces after elections are held in Libya.
Addressing an EU foreign ministers meeting, Zbogar said that the recognition of the NTC should be uniform throughout the European Union and that the legal framework for recognizing the Libyan rebels should be harmonized.
Also on Wednesday, Slovenian Foreign Ministry State Secretary Dragoljuba Bencina left for Benghazi, taking with her a large shipment of medicine, according to the Slovenian Press Agency.
8:28am: Libya’s rebels asked France for extra arms to help them overrun Tripoli within “days”, as they ramped up a pre-Ramadan offensive that has Moamer Qadhafi’s troops on the run in the east.
The request was made in Paris on Wednesday to French President Nicolas Sarkozy by military leaders from the rebel-held city of Misrata, a member of their delegation said.
Sarkozy held talks at his Elysee presidential palace with rebel General Ramadan Zarmuh, Colonel Ahmed Hashem and Colonel Brahim Betal Mal, as well as Suleiman Fortia, a local representative of the rebel leadership in Misrata.
“With a little bit of help, we will be in Tripoli very soon. Very soon means days,” Fortia told reporters after the meeting. “We are here in France to discuss how we can do the job.” Read full story here.
5:02am:  The White House says it is up to the Libyan people to decide whether longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi can stay in Libya if he steps down from power.
White House spokesman Jay Carney says the U.S. continues to believe that Gadhafi has lost legitimacy and needs to give up power. But he says the U.S. will not make a determination about where Gadhafi should go if that happens.
Carney’s comments come as France’s foreign minister suggested a possible way to end the conflict in Libya would be to allow Gadhafi to stay in his country if he steps down. Gadhafi insists he will neither step down nor flee the country he has led for four decades.

Dubai telecoms engineers supply Libyan rebels with mobile phone network

By: Carol Huang
They arrived by boat, worked under rocket fire and between power cuts, their goal to establish mobile phone connections for the residents of Misurata. Engineers trained in Dubai will help maintain the window to an outside world and neighbours closer to home.
The stealth telecommunications team arrived in Misurata after a stomach-churning 30-hour fishing boat ride from Malta.
Amid rocket fire and despite power cuts, they worked 12 hours a day alongside local engineers, setting up satellite dishes and other equipment. As a result, residents whose

The stealth telecommunications team arrived in Misurata after a stomach-churning 30-hour fishing boat ride from Malta.

 mobile phone networks were disabled by Colonel Muammar Qaddafi’s forces may soon be able to call their neighbours.
Ousama Abushagur, a 31-year-old Libyan-American telecoms executive living in Abu Dhabi, and his global network of donors, vendors and engineers pulled off the same feat three months ago in Benghazi. Phone lines in the de facto rebel capital in eastern Libya also had been cut.
In June, the team brought their rogue network to Misurata, Libya’s third-largest city. For months, the city had suffered some of the worst fighting since Col Qaddafi and rebel forces began battling in February.
The local workers are now running tests and verifying the identities of tens of thousands of SIM card holders in the rebel-held city before turning on the network.
Two engineers came to Dubai this month for training on how to maintain the network.

For Libyan rebels, a funeral is no somber event

As 11 fighters are laid to rest in Benghazi, the mourners celebrate their deaths as bringing the country one step closer to life without Kadafi.

Relatives and fellow fighters at the main cemetery in Benghazi carry the coffin of a Libyan rebel killed the day before near Port Brega. (Gianluigi Guercia, AFP/Getty Images / July 20, 2011)

By David Zucchino
A long convoy of dust-caked gun trucks descended Wednesday afternoon on downtown Benghazi, horns honking and guns blasting skyward.
Rebel fighters had driven nearly 150 miles from Libya‘s eastern front to celebrate the glory of 11 dead comrades — shuhuda, or martyrs. The dead men, killed the day before, lay in caskets that bounced in the beds of the trucks.
They had come home to be buried.
Gunmen accompanying the caskets fired assault rifles and pistols over the rooftops as women on balconies ducked for cover. The men chanted, “A martyr is loved by God!”
In most societies, a funeral is an occasion for solemnity and grief. In eastern Libya, the funerals of martyrs are celebrations, displays of firepower and emotional rallies that curse and condemn Libya’s autocratic leader, Moammar Kadafi.
The caskets snaked through the city toward the Hawari cemetery. The convoy had driven through the desert from Port Brega, about 140 miles southwest, site of pitched battles between the rebels and Kadafi’s forces.
The gun trucks, mounted with antiaircraft batteries and heavy machine guns, rolled through the cemetery gates, past rows of bleached white headstones. Thousands of assembled men and boys greeted them with whoops and shouts.
A whiteboard bore the names of the 11 dead men, from Martyr 1, Ahmed Sharif, to Martyr 11, Mustafa Fouzy. Martyr 4, Col. Adel Rajab Gheriani, was described as “Col. Martyr.”
When the first casket was unloaded, a great roar went up. Everyone cried out, “God is great!”
The fighters loosed deafening volleys toward the white summer sky. Some mourners had brought their own guns, and they raised them high to squeeze off shots.
A machine gun erupted, and then an antiaircraft gun. The ground shook from the blasts. Mourners grimaced and covered their ears. There was a dirty blue cloud of smoke and the acrid stench of cordite.
The martyrs were laid in a neat row in the pale, sandy soil, their graves marked with cement blocks. Each bore the red, black and green flag of the rebels.
One of the first to be lowered was Mohammed Sanoussi Fergani, just 22 when he was blown apart Tuesday by an exploding rocket outside Port Brega. He was an ammo loader on one of the rebels’ ancient Soviet-made T-55 tanks.
His father, Sanoussi Fergani, wandered among the mourners, his face aglow, screaming, “Look what Kadafi did to my boy!”

Video: Slow progress for Libyan opposition fighters

While France says Muammar Gaddafi could stay in Libya if he gives up power, revels on the ground were planning their next strategy.
Gaddafi loyalists have been making it hard for rebels to break the months-long seige. Opposition fighters have been aided by NATO strikes but the battle appears far from over.
Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid reports from the western front near Misurata.

Russia: No future for Gaddafi regime

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) hugs United Nations special envoy on Libya Abdelilah Al-Khatib (R) during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, 16 May 2011.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met Gaddafi’s foreign minister Abdelati Obeidi in Moscow today as part of Russia’s efforts to help end the war in Libya.

President Dmitry Medvedev, whose Africa envoy has met the National Transitional Council and Gaddafi’s government officials in Libya in recent weeks, said yesterday there was still a chance for compromise but that Gaddafi must give up power.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on its Twitter feed yesterday that Obeidi’s visit was Gaddafi’s initiative.
Konstantin Kosachyov, a ruling United Russia party member and chairman of the international affairs committee in the lower parliament house, said that was cause for cautious optimism.
“It means that people who are still in power in Tripoli are ready to talk and not just suppress the resistance of the population with tanks or other heavy weapons,” he said.
Kosachyov, who often serves as an informal spokesman on Kremlin foreign policy, said Gaddafi and his government should be offered guarantees in exchange for leaving power.
“Probably what can be discussed is some kind of guarantees of his personal security, the security of members of his family,” Kosachyov told reporters, reiterating that Russia would not take Gaddafi in.
Kosachyov cast Russia’s diplomacy as the “antithesis” of the approach of Western nations involved in the air campaign and which recognise the NTC as Libya’s legitimate government.
Such actions undermine diplomacy and “lead the negotiations track into a dead end”, he said.
“With the full understanding that Gaddafi’s regime really has no future and really cannot remain in power, the difference is that we are ready to continue talking to this regime in order to induce it into political contacts with the NTC and in the final result induce it to leave power, to hand it over to the Libyan people in a peaceful, democratic manner,” he said.
Dmitry Trenin, a foreign policy analyst and director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, said the visit suggested members of Gaddafi’s circle are looking for a way out but amid the diplomacy, Gaddafi still holds the key to a resolution.
“He has had many opportunities to begin bargaining, to set out some conditions in exchange for leaving his position of power, but he has not used them yet,” Trenin told Reuters.
Kosachyov, who often serves as an informal spokesman on Kremlin foreign policy, said Gaddafi and his government should be offered guarantees in exchange for leaving power but reiterated Russia would not take Gaddafi in.
For Gaddafi, “probably what can be discussed is some kind of guarantees of his personal security, the security of members of his family,” said Kosachyov.
Trenin said members of Gaddafi’s circle were eager to ensure their own future security.
“He may decide to die in Tripoli, but those around him do not want to die with him, they do not want go to the bottom with him.”
Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelati Obeidi said today that the Gaddafi government is not in any discussions about his potential departure form power, the Interfax news agency reported.
“Gaddafi’s departure is not being discussed,” Obeidi said after talks with Lavrov, according to Interfax.