By Polly Johnson
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa
BENGHAZI, Libya – Human Rights Watch reported on Sunday that at least one hundred and seventy-three people have been killed in Libya since anti-government protests began on Wednesday.
The demonstrations took a turn for the worse on Saturday, when Libyan security forces launched a brutal crackdown on protestors. A deadly cycle emerged over the weekend, as troops, using machine-gun and heavy weapons fire, attacked funeral marches, killing protestors and creating more funerals.
One doctor in Benghazi told the BBC how most of the victims being brought to the city’s hospital received gunshot wounds. “Ninety percent of these gunshot wounds were mainly in the head, the neck, the chest, mainly in the heart,” she said.
The Libyan pro-democracy protests come amidst events in Tunisia, which saw the fall of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January, and in Egypt, where long-time leader Hosni Mubarak stepped down on February 11. Anti-government protestors in Libya are protesting four decades of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s rule.
Like in Egypt, social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are playing a prominent role in the protests, as people are using the sites to share information and images. Yet, information being transmitted via the Internet has been difficult to verify, as the Libyan authorities have imposed media restrictions. And unlike in Egypt, foreign media are largely absent from the country.
So far, the events in Libya have proven to be the bloodiest of the protests that have occurred in North Africa and the Middle East.
Egypt began to see a return to normal life over the weekend, as banks planned to reopen and the Supreme Military Council said that workers should go back to their jobs.
Egypt is currently acting under emergency law, which allows detentions without charges or trial. Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq said that lifting the law so soon after a revolution would be premature.
The commission working on drafting new constitutional amendments said a progress report might be produced as early as Sunday.
For more information, please see:
BBC – Libya unrest: Scores killed in Benghazi ‘massacre’ – 20 February 2011
Human Rights Watch – Libya: Governments Should Demand End to Unlawful Killings – 20 February 2011
New York Times – Cycle of Suppression Rises in Libya and Elsewhere – 19 February 2011
Washington Post – Cairo begins to resume everyday business – 19 February 2011
