Residents driven from Libyan town in “collective punishment”

Summary of story from BBCNews, December 12, 2011

The 30,000 residents of the Libyan town of Tawergha, 50 km from Misrata, have been driven from their homes in what appears to be a collective punishment for alleged crimes including rape and sexual torture.

From March to May this year, Colonel Gaddafi’s forces laid siege to Misrata – and some were based in Tawergha.

The people of Tawergha – mostly the descendants of black slaves, who are poor but were patronised by the Gaddafi regime – are accused of complicity in the attempt to put down the uprising in Misrata.

The entire population of Tawergha was driven out by Misratan forces in August, an act described by human rights groups as “revenge and collective punishment possibly amounting to a crime against humanity”.

But authorities in Misrata say that they have footage taken from mobile phones as evidence that Tawerghans committed rapes.

And a man interviewed by the BBC claims that, while held captive by Tawerghans, he saw more than 20 men suffering torture to their genitals, a man being sodomised with a stick, and Tawerghan women urinating on prisoners who had been forced to lie on the ground.

Umm Saber, a woman from Tawergha now living in a Tripoli refugee camp, says: “There is no evidence that rapes occurred. They drove us out because they want our land and homes.”

Umm Bubakr, living in the same camp, says Misrata militiamen raid the LibAid-run camp nightly, taking away young men. They are not seen or heard of again, she says.