The UK’s ITN news has broadcast an exclusive story from besieged Misurata after a journalist and cameraman managed to circumvent the net of Gaddafi’s control and enter the city from the sea.
The footage and the report are shocking, to say the least. We know that Misurata has been at siege for over a month, but with no access to the rebel side, we could only but imagine what life must be like.
Teachers, shop owners and taxi drivers have left their day jobs and taken up arms to fight off Gaddafi’s forces. They are fighting a well-drilled army, and are holding their own – managing to keep control of about two-thirds of the city.
As the report was made, gunfire was sprayed around. Citizens, holed up in shell-ravaged buildings, duck for cover and immediately take up defensive positions to brace for a Gaddafi assault.
It never comes. But what does come is a mortar round – dropped right onto a garden where children are playing. The news team is there soon after the round has hit – two boys are wrapped in blankets and are carted off to hospital. One dies on the way with severe shrapnel wounds to the back. The other survives.
The news team notes that the hospital is a dire affair. Many doctors, some previously resident in the UK, returned to their hometown when hostilities broke out. A cancer surgeon who used to live in London now tries to save the limbs of injured fighters, civilians and children. As one man is wheeled into hospital on a stretcher, defiantly saluting the rebel council with the stump of his severed hand, a boy is brought in after he was shot through the leg.
The misery and the suffering is palpable. The news crew notes that while they were putting together the report, they hear plenty of Gaddafi fire and a good amount of rebel fire. But they did not hear one NATO aircraft.
As the new team was led by the rebels to a high-rise building, they were forced to crawl under open windows on their bellies, for fear of sniper fire. This is the true face of war.
We have watched the gallant charges and disorganised retreats by both pro- and anti-Gaddafi forces. But this is the first time that we have been brought real, raw footage of the atrocities which are taking place in Misurata.
This sort of violence is what the UN resolution was passed for – the protection of civilians in Libya. While NATO wrangles with coalition members about the effectiveness of its strikes, people are bleeding to death in this brave and lonely outpost in the west of Libya. While the Transitional National Council needs help in the east, these people, these poor, poor citizens of Misurata are screaming for help. They are being massacred in their homes and in their streets. Their children are targets of the Gaddafi forces. The screw is being turned ever tighter. NATO needs to up its game. These people have been holding onto rock and concrete, street corner by street corner for over a month, they need help and they need it now. Perhaps everyone should watch this: http://www.youtube.com/v/ZQcDbhJw5Hc?version=3