Libyan rebels rounding up and arresting black people [Archive]

GX.

5th September 2011, 09:19

Left out from that story is the fact that the "they're all mercenaries" line is, as you might expect, completely bogus:

The basis of this is rumours, disseminated early in the rebellion, of African mercenaries being unleashed on the opposition. Amnesty International's Donatella Rivera was among researchers who examined this allegation and found no evidence for it. Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch similarly had not "identified one mercenary" among the scores of men being arrested and falsely labelled by journalists as such

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/30/libya-spectacular-revolution-disgraced-racism

Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director for Human Rights Watch, said that of the hundreds of suspected mercenaries detained in the east, all had turned out to be innocent workers or native Libyans enlisted in the regular army. "I cannot speak for the west of the country, in Tripoli, where reports of mercenaries being used are widespread, but of all the people interviewed by Human Rights Watch so far, we have not identified one mercenary," Mr Bouckaert told The Sunday Age.
He also condemned some media outlets for purporting to identify alleged mercenaries, saying the reports were untrue. "There have been several cases of journalists sneaking into detention areas, taking photographs of people and then turning around and describing them as mercenaries, but those reports were untrue," he said.

http://www.theage.com.au/world/africans-targeted-as-rebels-hunt-mercenaries-20110305-1bivv.html

So apparently this is just racism fueled by irresponsible journalism.

EDIT: More news coming in that there are plans for an Islamist State. I have an even harder time buying that one.