Double Jeopardy - Mistreated Bears Face Eviction

101 endangered Moon and sun bears face eviction  from their home in the Animals Asia Bear Rescue Centre in a tale about greed, hubris and the abuse of power in Vietnam.   

This week  local authorities ordered that Animals Asia stop all building work at the Bear Rescue Centre ( which is currently undergoing an expansion of its facilities to house more rescued bears).  Credible stories started circulating that authorities also wanted the bears to be relocated to make room for the development of holiday villas.  Authorities then rejected the Bear Centre’s 2012 development plan.  

 Bears have always had a difficult time in this part of the world.  During the 1980s, entrepreneurs began caging moon bears and milking them for their bile daily, creating a small, but profitable, industry — first in Korea and China, then in Vietnam and neighbouring countries. Today, sun bears are also kept on farms in Vietnam.

Before being rescued by Animals Asia these bears lived their whole lives in rusting cages after being brutally trapped in the wild.  Greedy entrepreneurs today promote their bile as an ointment to enhance sexual performance in males.  It is also used as a quack hangover cure, in wine  and in toothpaste. Endangered Asiatic Bears (also known as moon bears) are particularly vulnerable to exploitation because their bile contains higher concentrations of UDCA, the substance falsely believed to be an anti-inflammatory agent).

To fully understand the cruelty of the procedure, an explanation is necessary. Bile is extracted with the aid of an ultrasound machine, catheter and medicinal pump. Bears are drugged with ketamine — an illegal general anesthetic and tranquiliser — restrained with ropes and repeatedly jabbed in the abdomen with four-inch needles until the gall bladder is found. Veteranarians  believe the process leads to leakage of bile into the body and a slow and agonising death from peritonitis. In addition to the  mental stress from years of imprisonment, these bears have missing limbs and damaged gall bladders from being jabbed with non-sterile needle.   Until the bear rescue centre came along these bears were condemned to certain death.  

The Moon Bear Rescue Centre, agreed to by the Prime Minister in Vietnam in 2008,  was considered  a great success story – a  wonderful example of cooperation between Animals Asia, the government, the Vietnamese people and supporters around the world.   Building had started on a second phase of the Centre   comprising dens, semi-natural enclosures and rehabilitation areas for the severely disabled bears.  The future aim was to construct a world class rescue centre for 200 bears that would also serve as an educational Centre to raise awareness about conservation and the welfare of bears in Vietnam.  

However, this model project for animal conservation in Vietnam is now in jeopardy because of plans by a politically-connected private company (Truong Giang Tam Dao Joint Stock company)   to build holiday villas on land that belongs to the Bear Rescue Centre.  The Tam Dao National Park Director and Truong Giang Company have been lobbying the Vietnam Administration of Forestry, within the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), to approve the land development involving the leasing of 48 hectare of TDNP land by the Truong Giang Company.  Six ha., out of this 48 ha. of land, belongs to the Center. The Director of the National Park, who has personal connections to the company*, has been spreading misinformation about the Centre and has requested the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to issue a stop work order on expansion plans and to free the way for the private land development.  They have used high level connections to override the legal rights of Animals Asia.

One might ask at this point whether a land development even makes good economic sense.  Tam dao national park is awash with villas and hotels -built on national park land - that remain unoccupied.   Any tourism potential seems directly related to the Bear Rescue Centre and the illusion, at least, of a pristine national park.  

Animals Asia has dedicated millions of dollars to develop the bear enclosures, including $240 000 to compensate families who were relocated.  It has a built a state of the art facility that is environmentally sustainable and responsible.  This land is now under threat for a profit-making venture which will no doubt have little regard for principles of environmental management.

 This is not just an issue of land grabbing. It is a matter of life and death for the bears.  The sooner Animals Asia finish construction, the sooner they can release bears onto grass, into sunshine, into their natural habitat – a normal life.  

With your help, we can prevent the forcible eviction of the bears.  These private interests are threatening something wonderful in Vietnam. A few greedy individuals, with their political connections, are violating the legal rights of Animals Asia and destroying a conservation and education project that belongs to the Vietnamese people.  Something Animals Asia, the Vietnamese people and foreign friends have worked on together.

Please spread the word about this issue and help save the bears from a terrible fate. 

 * Tam Dao National Park Director, who is co-director of the Bear Rescue Center and one of our government counterparts, is openly supporting the land demands of the Truong Giang Company.  The Tam Dao Park Director’s daughter is one of the 4 founding members of the Truong Giang Company and she holds 10% of the company’s shares.

Further Background Information (based on earlier post)

The mission of the Vietnam Bear Rescue Center (VBRC) is to rescue Asian bears from inhumane captivity.  The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) authorized the establishment of the VRBC in 2005. Since then, we have rescued  more than 100 bears.

The current facility is nearing its capacity, and a long-planned expansion of the facility utilizing 6 ha. of adjacent land is urgently needed in order for our Center  to rescue an additional 100 bears from captivity.  However, this expansion is being blocked by certain local officials who are supporting a company that wants to use the 6 ha to develop vacation homes.  These officials have requested that MARD rescinds the permits for the expansion site. 

Your  support  is called upon to ensure that all commitments made by all parties involved in this project are maintained.  

Key Issues at Stake Behind the Land Dispute: The future of our Centre (VBRC) is being threatened because the Director of Tam Dao National Park (TDNP) and the Truong Giang Tam Dao Joint Stock Company want to take control of 6 ha. of  land that have been set aside by the Government for an expansion of the Rescue Center (Phase II of the construction of VBRC).  Our sanctuary is now at full capacity with 101 bears and work has been ongoing on the expansion.   

The Pressure is On Through Heavy Lobbying: The Truong Giang Tam Dao Joint Stock Company and the Director of TDNP have been pressuring Animals Asia Foundation to relinquish 6 ha. of land since April 2011.  TDNP Director and Truong Giang Company have been lobbying the Vietnam Administration of Forestry, within the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), to approve a real estate development project involving the leasing of 48 hectare of TDNP land by the Truong Giang Company.  Six ha., out of this 48 ha. of land, belong to our Center.

Tam Dao Park Director Strikes First: In 2011, VBRC Phase II envisaged the construction of a cub house, and a double bear house with two large outdoor enclosures, as well as a second waste treatment system to accommodate the increasing number of bears being rescued and treated at the Center. 

On September 29, 2011 TDNP Director halted the construction of the second outdoor bear enclosure claiming that the construction had encroached on land owned by the Truong Giang Company and violated the National Park’s Master Plan. TDNP Director also requested MARD to close down the Bear Centre and relocate the 101 bears currently living at the Center.

Tam Dao National Park Director, who is co-director of the Bear Rescue Center and one of our government counterparts, is openly supporting the land demands of the Truong Giang Company.  The Tam Dao Park Director’s daughter is one of the 4 founding members of the Truong Giang Company and she holds 10% of the company’s shares.

A Shining Light in the Vietnamese Music Scene

The sounds of the dan bau, a traditional monochord instrument, reverberated through the back alleys of Tay Ho on a quiet Autumn day in the otherwise bustling Hanoi.  Thanh Tung, a talented Vietnamese musician and composer, played us a song he had written as a teenager, just a few years after his life changed forever. We sat silently and sipped tea in his family home as he strummed his dan bau.

Tung performing at the Australian Embassy for ACCV fundraiser

Tung is not only well known for his moving monochord performances and compositions but for his strength and perseverance as an Agent Orange victim who lost his eyesight at the age of twelve.

I first met Tung at a screening of a documentary about the ongoing effects of Agent Orange and again at an official rally at the Hanoi Opera House to mark the 50 years since Agent Orange was first inflicted on Vietnam.  Eager to find out more about his music and his involvement in the campaign for justice for victims of Agent Orange, I invited him to perform at a fund-raiser at the Australian Embassy. His moving performance showed his sophistication as a musician.  He moved seamlessly between Vietnamese, Western and original compositions, often fusing the two.  I hadn’t appreciated the beauty of the monochord instrument until Tung helped me to see it with new eyes.

As we sat in his living room with his piano, guitar and monochord taking up much of the space, Tung told us a little about the history of chemical warfare in his country. His father, Nguyen Thanh Son, a Vietnam War veteran, served in Quang Tri in Southern Vietnam, an area heavily sprayed with the toxic chemical Agent Orange. US forces, between 1961 and 1971, sprayed nearly 80 million litres of herbicides over South Vietnam, of which 61% was Agent Orange.  

The dioxins in Agent Orange have left a deadly legacy half a century later. It is scientifically difficult to prove the links between the spraying of dioxins and the serious illnesses I observed at the National Children’s Hospital on several visits over the last year.  Leaving aside the politics of the issue, what is evident for all to see is that the great grand children of people who came into direct contact with the poison, or who live in contaminated areas, continue to be born with Agent Orange-related birth defects. Dioxin in the soil continues to damage the environment and sicken the people in and around several “hot spots”. The dioxin attacks the endocrine, immune and reproductive systems of its victims with horrific consequences. In fact, the Vietnamese government estimates that 500,000 children have been born with birth defects caused by contamination with Agent Orange and two million suffered cancers and other ill effects - innocent victims of a chemical intended to harm plant life, not humans.

Tung was not born blind but gradually lost his vision. He immersed himself in his art as a way of coping.  “Music was my salvation and a way of feeling the beauty around me,” he says.

Tung’s grandfather cultivated his talent at a young age. Recyling bamboo, milk crates and other household items, he built Tung’s first dan bau, the monochord instrument he has since mastered. As his disease progressed, Tung’s grandfather read him stories, taught him brail and the guitar (after teaching himself) and painted hundreds of pictures of flowers, rivers and mountains, the change of the seasons, children and animals to fill his life with colour and images that would stay with him as he evolved as an artist.  His childhood memories and imagination filled the remaining void. Tung recalls walking along the Red River under the Long Bien Bridge with his grandfather in the moonlight. "I thought my life was like a river, turning peaceful only after the storms." He plays us his original composition "Moon and River", written during a night of sleeplessness when he endured considerable pain from his disease.  The song was written for his mother "for her love and sacrifice for the family".   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGpRbOg03p4

Overcoming the odds, Tung completed a special two-year music course in the Vietnam National Music Academy where he studied Vietnamese traditional music, majoring in Monochord Performance. When he graduated, Tung continued to study Music composition and piano.

Tung says he wants to use his profile as a musician to raise awareness about the ongoing struggles of Agent Orange victims. “I am one of the lucky ones having been given the gift of music and education.  I am very proud to have been able to fight stereotypes about what visually-impaired people can accomplish in Vietnam,” he says.

He recently appeared in a documentary by a French film maker about the  impacts of Agent Orange in Vietnam. He also showed us another documentary, recently produced in Vietnam, which focuses exclusively on his music. Late last year, he took part in an international conference for Victims of Agent Orange and Dioxin in Hanoi organized by the Vietnamese Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA) where he shared his experiences with participants from more than 20 countries and 30 organisations, including Agent Orange victims, victims of other toxic chemicals, scientists, lawyers, veterans exposed to agent orange and social activists.  

Fifty years after the first spraying of toxic chemical Agent Orange by US forces in Vietnam, the victims are still fighting for justice and compensation.  Tung’s family has not received a dime from the US Government or Monsanto, the company responsible for producing the toxin and selling it to the US Government for use in its chemical warfare in the American War in Vietnam.

The United States of America has never admitted liability, even after the National Academy of Sciences in Washington established an extensive list of diseases linked to Agent Orange,  a list that increases every year. To date, recognition has only been extended to US veterans. The Stellman Report (named after the U.S. scientist Jeanne M. Stellman) indicates that up to 4.8 million Vietnamese were directly exposed to Agent Orange.  However, Dow, Monsanto and the US government have gone to great lengths and used their immense wealth to crush any legal action that would make them accountable for their crimes. In many cases these companies have blatantly prevented claims from getting to court in the first place.  Activists at a recent film screening decried the risks of Monsanto returning to Vietnam to sell its genetically modified seed. 

“You only need to see the effects of Agent Orange on my own family to understand,” Tung says. 


At this point he leads us to the back of the living room where we had earlier glimpsed what we thought was a child sleeping.  To our surprise, this was not a child but his older sister who was born with severe brain damage and whose growth had been stunted because of the effects of Agent Orange on her immune and endocrine system.  Her disabilities have rendered her a prisoner in her family home for 38 years. As the primary care giver, Tung’s mother, a talented seamstress, has no choice but to work from home to care for her seriously ill daughter.  His father, a professional photographer (as well as Tung’s manager and official photographer!), works long hours to keep the family afloat.

Asked what support families receive in these situations, Tung says his family receives a small monthly stipend. The Vietnamese Government provides $50 million a year in monthly payments to 200,000 Vietnamese whose health has been affected by their or their parent’s exposure to the herbicides.

The Vietnamese Government has also invested millions of dollars for reforestation projects to replant mangroves and the Ma Da Forest, and to plant single species plantations of acacia and eucalyptus in the defoliated highlands to prevent further erosion. Finally, after 40 years of refusing Vietnamese requests for assistance in cleaning up the chemicals, the United States in August 2012 started its first major effort to address the environmental effects of the war. At a ceremony in Hanoi this week, the US Ambassador to Vietnam said "we are cleaning up this mess."  The $43 million over four years to clean up former US airbases "is not enough" in the eyes of those who suffered the consequences.  For Tung, "it is a little too late."

The Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange come together every year for a national day of action and bonding. On 8 August, Tung headlined a benefit concert  in Hanoi.  As he plays one of his moving compositions, the audience - all wearing orange caps - are listening in silence (unusual for a concert in Vietnam).  He plays a song about awakening and the Vietnamese spring.  Tung helps us to see the light and colour of the season.

It is clear that with his talent, tenacity and charisma, Tung will be a shining light in the burgeoning music scene, as well as the international campaign for justice for all Agent Orange victims.

Ninety Nine Bears on the Wall

The Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre in Tam Dao National Park houses 99 bears that have been rescued from cruel bear traders.  Before being rescued these bears lived their whole lives in rusting cages after being brutally trapped in the wild.  Many of these bears have missing limbs and damaged gall bladders from being jabbed with non-sterile needles to extract their bile which evil traders promote as a new "miracle cure." Coupled with the mental stress from years of imprisonment, these bears were condemned to almost certain death.

The Moon Bear Rescue Centre has been a great success story.  A wonderful example of cooperation between Animals Asia, the Vietnamese people and supporters around the world.   The Bear Rescue Centre completed phase 1 of its construction, including enclosures and a surgery, and had commenced building phase 2 comprising dens, semi-natural enclosures and rehabilitation areas for the severely disabled bears.  The future aim was to construct a world class rescue centre for 200 bears that would also serve as an educational Centre to raise awareness about conservation and the welfare of bears in Vietnam. This project was agreed to by the Prime Minister of Vietnam in 2008 and was approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in May 2009. It became an example of the excellent cooperation between Vietnam and the international community in support of conservation and animal welfare.


However, this successful project is now in jeopardy because of plans by a private company (Truong Giang Tam Dao Joint Stock company) to build a major hotel on land that belongs to the Bear Rescue Centre.   The Director of the National Park, who has personal connections to the company, has been spreading misinformation about the Centre and has requested the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to approve the hotel development and close the Bear Centre.


Animals Asia has dedicated millions of dollars to develop the bear enclosures, including $240 000 to compensate families who were relocated.  This land is now under threat for a profit-making venture. This is not just an issue of land grabbing. It is a matter of life and death for the bears.  The sooner Animals Asia finish construction, the sooner they can release bears onto grass, into sunshine, into their natural habitat – a normal life.  With your help, we can do this.  These private interests are threatening something wonderful in Vietnam. Something Animals Asia, the Vietnamese people and foreign friends have worked on together.


I am appealing to all friends and people that care about the future of the bears and who are tired of people not respecting the legal rights of others to raise this issue as far and wide as possible. I will provide further information in coming months about how you can help.


Here is more information  about the Bear Trade for those that want to read further (information courtesy of Animals Asia Foundation Vietnam).

Bear bile

Bear bile, which contains the anti-inflammatory agent, ursodeoxycholic acid, or UDCA, has long been used in traditional Asian medicine. However, bear bile farming, where the bears are caged their whole lives and milked for their bile, has been practised in Vietnam for only 20 years. Previously, bears were killed in the wild for their whole gall bladders — where the bile is stored.

Endangered Asiatic black bears (also known as moon bears) are particularly vulnerable to exploitation because their bile contains higher concentrations of UDCA than other bears’ bile. During the 1980s, entrepreneurs began caging moon bears and milking them for their bile daily, creating a small, but profitable, industry — first in Korea and China, then in Vietnam and neighbouring countries. Today, sun bears are also kept on farms in Vietnam. Under Vietnamese law, both species are listed in category 1B (critically endangered) and legally protected against hunting, trapping and imprisoning. They are also protected under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species).

Bear farming

Today, 3,567 bears are held on farms throughout Vietnam, even though bear farming has been illegal in the country since 1992. However up until now, there has been little enforcement. Most are moon bears, but sun bears are also milked for their bile. When bile farming was outlawed, farmers were allowed to keep their bears to display to visitors. All the bears remaining on farms were microchipped so the authorities could stop the poaching of bears from the wild. In reality, most are still milked for their bile and poaching remains a big problem.

Animals Asia has been negotiating with the Vietnamese government on the issue since 1999, when there were only 400 bears on farms. At that time we were ready and willing to help with a sanctuary, offering to rescue all the bears. Sadly, the farms were allowed to continue, albeit illegally.

In Vietnam, the bears are kept in small cages and their bile is extracted with the aid of an ultrasound machine, catheter and medicinal pump. They are drugged with ketamine — an illegal general anesthetic and tranquiliser — restrained with ropes and repeatedly jabbed in the abdomen with four-inch needles until the gall bladder is found. Our veterinary team believes the process leads to leakage of bile into the body and a slow and agonising death from peritonitis.

The trade

Bear bile is used in Asian medicine to treat inflammation, though its use has always been minimal, with herbal alternatives used far more frequently. Today, bear bile is more likely found in quack hangover cures, wine or toothpaste. A cheaper and more effective synthetic alternative to UDCA is used in a range of Western medicines.

In Vietnam, bear bile is sold fresh in liquid form. Since it is illegal to sell bear bile, there is no standard price. However, we are aware of bile sales ranging from US$0.50 to US$30 per millilitre. In a concentrated bear farming area such as Ha Tay, locals pay around US$1-2 per ml. In Ha Long Bay, the going price is around US$6-10 per ml. Tourists from Korea are encouraged to visit a farm during their trip to this beautiful national heritage site.

Although Vietnamese law strictly prohibits the trade in bear bile and other products, demand has increased significantly since the late 1990s. The problem in Vietnam is exacerbated by a lack of enforcement, resources and political will, but years of building up relations with the authorities at all levels is paying off, with Animals Asia now often the first point of contact to help with the rescue of illegally held bears.

The Moon Bear Rescue

In 2005, after years of lobbying by Animals Asia as well as other international and local NGOs, the Vietnamese authorities promised to act to phase out bear bile farming and in November 2005, we signed an agreement with the government to build a sanctuary and rescue 200 bears.

Animals Asia’s campaign to rescue bears from farms and to end the bear bile industry began in 1993 when our founder and CEO Jill Robinson — then working as an animal-welfare consultant for the International Fund for Animal Welfare — made an undercover visit to a bear farm in Guangdong province, China. She had never before witnessed such extreme cruelty and made it her mission to end the bile trade.

Jill founded Animals Asia in 1998 and in July 2000 signed a landmark agreement with the Chinese authorities to rescue 500 bears from farms, to promote the herbal alternatives to bile, and to work together to end bear farming in China. Since then, Animals Asia has built world-class sanctuaries in China and Vietnam, and rescued a total of 350 bears. By mid 2012, the Vietnam bear rescue centre was home to 101 bears.


 Double Jeopardy - Rescued bears face uncertain future

The mission of the Vietnam Bear Rescue Center (VBRC) is to rescue Asian bears from inhumane captivity.  The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) authorized the establishment of the VRBC in 2005. Since then, we have rescued  more than 100 bears.

The current facility is nearing its capacity, and a long-planned expansion of the facility utilizing 6 ha. of adjacent land is urgently needed in order for our Center  to rescue an additional 100 bears from captivity.  However, this expansion is being blocked by certain local officials who are supporting a company that wants to use the 6 ha to develop vacation homes.  These officials have requested that MARD rescinds the permits for the expansion site. 

Your  support  is called upon to ensure that all commitments made by all parties involved in this project are maintained.  

Key Issues at Stake Behind the Land Dispute: The future of our Centre (VBRC) is being threatened because the Director of Tam Dao National Park (TDNP) and the Truong Giang Tam Dao Joint Stock Company want to take control of 6 ha. of  land that have been set aside by the Government for an expansion of the Rescue Center (Phase II of the construction of VBRC).  Our sanctuary is now at full capacity with 101 bears and work has been ongoing on the expansion.   

The Pressure is On Through Heavy Lobbying: The Truong Giang Tam Dao Joint Stock Company and the Director of TDNP have been pressuring Animals Asia Foundation to relinquish 6 ha. of land since April 2011.  TDNP Director and Truong Giang Company have been lobbying the Vietnam Administration of Forestry, within the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), to approve a real estate development project involving the leasing of 48 hectare of TDNP land by the Truong Giang Company.  Six ha., out of this 48 ha. of land, belong to our Center.

Tam Dao Park Director Strikes First: In 2011, VBRC Phase II envisaged the construction of a cub house, and a double bear house with two large outdoor enclosures, as well as a second waste treatment system to accommodate the increasing number of bears being rescued and treated at the Center. 

On September 29, 2011 TDNP Director halted the construction of the second outdoor bear enclosure claiming that the construction had encroached on land owned by the Truong Giang Company and violated the National Park’s Master Plan. TDNP Director also requested MARD to close down the Bear Centre and relocate the 101 bears currently living at the Center.

Tam Dao National Park Director, who is co-director of the Bear Rescue Center and one of our government counterparts, is openly supporting the land demands of the Truong Giang Company.  The Tam Dao Park Director’s daughter is one of the 4 founding members of the Truong Giang Company and she holds 10% of the company’s shares.

As of today, the TDNP Director has ignored all attempts by the Vietnam Administration of Forestry and our Center’s Steering Committee to resolve the land dispute amicably. Furthermore, the TDNP Director is engaged in a misinformation campaign about our Bear Centre which we wish to constructively address with the diplomatic and media community today

or details.

Grateful thanks to photographers Ali Bullock, Eric Baccega and Mark Newman. © Anim

Freedom in Libya

NATO leaders and the National Transitional Council are declaring a victory for the Libyan people. US and European media – embedded with NATO and the rebels – have been euphoric in their reporting of the collapse of the Gaddafi regime. While the demise of a despot must always be celebrated, the sad reality is that a war waged in the name of human rights and protecting civilians has unleashed immense death, human suffering and destruction.

Fighting continues to rage throughout Tripoli and other parts of the country. Given ongoing enmities between loyalists and rebels and within the opposition movements, there is a strong possibility the situation will evolve into long-term insurgency. In the absence of institutions, infrastructure and basic services, or a basic policing presence to ensure law and order, it seems all that Libyans have to look forward to is more instability and a fight for daily survival. Looking beyond the immediate blood-lust of conflict and inevitable retribution, winning the war could prove easier than rebuilding a country devastated by 6 months of war.

The facts are often buried in the euphoria of commentary and “informed opinion” we are hearing on major news channels.  I have taken the liberty of piecing together eye witness accounts, reliable reporting and the reports of international human rights organisations, including Amnesty International’s testimonies from Tripoli residents, to illustrate the magnitude of the crisis in Libya at this point in the conflict.  

Tripoli seems to have an abundance of guns but nothing else. Formerly one of Africa's safest cities, Tripoli can now be classed as one of the world's most dangerous and volatile. Arming an entire population on the brink of collapse is never a good idea. There are few positive examples of state-building when there is an excessive accumulation of arms. One need only look at the recent example of Iraq. This nasty side-effect of escalating a war was ignored in the haste for regime change.

According to the mainstream press, seventy percent of homes in Tripoli are without running water. Most neighborhoods of the city have little or no electricity.  Fresh produce is unattainable. Medicines, oxygen, first aid products, surgical material are in short supply or non-existant.  This is in a country that only 6 months ago enjoyed the highest Human Development Index and the highest Gross National Income per capita in Africa (owing to oil revenues, a relatively small population, redistributive policies including an extensive social welfare system and subsidies for basic goods, See African Economic outlook and UN HDI reports). 

News reports and statements from international aid agencies warn of a humanitarian catastrophe in the city. Reporting from a local hospital, the Telegraph said: “As battle raged in the Tripoli streets hundreds of casualties were brought in, rebel fighters, Gaddafi’s soldiers, and unlucky civilians, laying next to each other in bed and even on a floor awash with blood, screaming or moaning in agony. Many died before they could be treated.”

The paper interviewed Dr. Mahjoub Rishi, the hospital’s Professor of Surgery: “There were hundreds coming in within the first few hours. It was like a vision from hell. Missile injuries were the worst. The damage they do to the human body is shocking to see, even for someone like me who is used to dealing with injuries.” Most of the casualties, he said, were civilians caught in the crossfire.

The Telegraph reported that Tripoli’s two other major hospitals were similarly overflowing with casualties and desperately understaffed, as were all of the city’s private hospitals.

The aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned that the city is facing a medical “catastrophe”. The group told Reuters that “Medical supplies ran low during six months of civil war [i.e., NATO bombardment] but have almost completely dried up in the siege and battle of the past week. Fuel supplies have run out and the few remaining medical workers are struggling to get to work.” The lack of fuel means that hospitals that have kept their power by running generators can now no longer do so.

Health officials in Tripoli report that blood supplies have run out at the hospitals and that food and drinking water is unavailable over whole areas of Tripoli.


An important question is who will now work the hospitals, clean the streets, provide the basic services. Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers have fled and many more will choose to leave as rebels target them in misguided retribution. 

Amnesty International has raised urgent concerns about the killing, torture and brutalization of people being rounded up by the “rebels,” particularly African migrant workers who have been singled out for retribution because of the color of their skin.

Kim Sengupta of the Independent reported Thursday from the Tripoli neighborhood of Abu Salim, which the “rebels” stormed under the cover of NATO air strikes. Known as a pro-Gaddafi area, its residents have paid the price of living in the wrong area.

“There was no escape for the residents of Abu Salim, trapped as the fighting spread all around them,” Sengupta reported. “In the corner of a street, a man who was shot in the crossfire, the back of his blue shirt soaked in blood, was being carried away by three others. ‘I know that man, he is a shopkeeper,’ said Sama Abdessalam Bashti, who had just run across the road to reach his home. ‘The rebels are attacking our homes. This should not be happening.

“‘The rebels are saying they are fighting government troops here, but all those getting hurt are ordinary people, the only buildings being damaged are those of local people. There has also been looting by the rebels, they have gone into houses to search for people and taken away things. Why are they doing this?’”

Both the Associated Press and Reuters news agencies documented a massacre perpetrated against Gaddafi supporters in a square adjacent to the presidential compound that was stormed and looted on Tuesday.

“The bodies are scattered around a grassy square next to Moammar Gadhafi’s compound of Bab al-Aziziya. Prone on grassy lots as if napping, sprawled in tents. Some have had their wrists bound by plastic ties,” AP reported.

“The identities of the dead are unclear but they are in all likelihood activists that set up an impromptu tent city in solidarity with Gadhafi outside his compound in defiance of the NATO bombings.”

AP said that the grisly discovery raised “the disturbing specter of mass killings of noncombatants, detainees and the wounded.”

Among the bodies of the executed the report added were several that “had been shot in the head, with their hands tied behind their backs. A body in a doctor’s green hospital gown was found in the canal. The bodies were bloated.”

Reporting from the same killing field, Reuters counted 30 bodies “riddled with bullets”. It noted that “Five of the dead were at a field hospital nearby, with one in an ambulance strapped to a gurney with an intravenous drip still in his arm.” Two of the bodies, it said, “were charred beyond recognition.”

An important question in all of this is whether turning Libya into Iraq (and yes, I have read all the articles analysing why this isn't Iraq) is really an exercise in liberating a country.  Once Benghazi was protected and secured, the quest for regime change was inevitably going to compromise the much vaunted mission of "protecting civilians."  Negotiating with the regime was an option on the table at many stages of the 6 month conflict.  Political freedom is important but this is rarely achievable in a situation of anarchy and lawlessness. As in Iraq, it will be a long time before Libyan citizens experience political freedoms. In the meantime, it will be a fight for daily survival. One can only hope that Libyans really do get to enjoy the freedom and prosperity that has been promised to them since Gaddafi deposed King Idris, improved living standards and ensured that Libyans got a share of oil proceeds. Maintaining these living standards and Libya's freedom from foreign interference (from foreign Governments and corporations) would be a better measure of victory. 

BOTH SIDES IN LIBYA CONFLICT MUST PROTECT DETAINEES FROM TORTURE (Amnesty International)

25 August 2011

Both sides to the ongoing conflict in Libya must ensure that detainees in their custody are not tortured or otherwise ill-treated Amnesty International said today.

The call followed reports from Amnesty International's delegation in Libya on Tuesday, which has gathered powerful testimonies from survivors of abuse at the hands of both pro-Gaddafi soldiers and rebel forces, in and around the town of Az-Zawiya.

TESTIMONIES OF ABUSE COMMITTED BY REBEL FORCES:

•    Against fighters loyal to Colonel Mu'ammar al-Gaddafi

On Tuesday, Amnesty International met officials at Bir Tirfas School which is now being used to detain pro-Gaddafi soldiers, alleged foreign mercenaries, and suspected Gaddafi loyalists.

The officials said that they would not repeat the human rights violations of the former regime. They vowed to uphold the rights of the detainees to be treated with dignity and afforded fair trials. 

In an overcrowded cell, where some 125 people were held with barely enough room to sleep or move, a boy told Amnesty International how he had responded to calls by al-Gaddafi’s government for volunteers to fight the opposition.

He said that he was driven to a military camp in Az-Zawiya, where he was handed a Kalashnikov rifle that he did not know how to use.

He told Amnesty International: “When NATO bombed the camp around 14 August, those who survived fled. I threw my weapon on the ground, and asked for refuge in a home nearby. I told the owners what happened, and I think they called the revolutionaries [thuuwar], because they came shortly after.

"They shouted for me to surrender. I put my hands up in the air. They made me kneel on the ground and put my hands behind by head. Then one told me to get up. When I did, he shot me in the knee at close range. I fell on the ground, and they continued beating me with the back of their rifles all over my body and face.

"I had to get three stitches behind by left ear as a result. In detention, sometimes they still beat us and insult us, calling us killers."

A member of the al-Gaddafi security forces, told Amnesty International how he was apprehended by a group of armed men near Az-Zawiya around 19 August as he was bringing supplies to pro-Gaddafi forces. 

He said that he was beaten all over his body and face with the backs of rifles, punched and kicked. He bore visible marks consistent with his testimony. He told Amnesty International that in detention, beatings are less frequent and severe, but take place intermittently depending on the guards on duty.

•    Against migrant workers

Detention officials in Az-Zawiya said that about a third of all those detained are "foreign mercenaries" including nationals from Chad, Niger and Sudan.

When Amnesty International delegates spoke to several of the detainees however, they said that they were migrant workers. They said that they had been taken at gunpoint from their homes, work-places and the street on account of their skin colour.

None wore military uniforms. Several told Amnesty International that they feared for their lives as they had been threatened by their captors and several guards and told them that they would be "eliminated or else sentenced to death".

Five relatives from Chad, including a minor, told Amnesty International that on 19 August they were driving to a farm outside of Az-Zawiya to collect some produce when they were stopped by a group of armed men, some in military fatigues.

 The armed men assumed that the five were mercenaries and handed them over to detention officials despite assurances by their Libyan driver that they were migrant workers. 

A 24 year-old man from Niger who has been living and working in Libya for the past five years, told Amnesty International that he was taken from home by three armed men on 20 August.

He said that he was handcuffed, beaten, and put in the boot of the car. He said: "I am not at all involved in this conflict. All I wanted was to make a living. But because of my skin colour, I find myself here, in detention. Who knows what will happen to me now?"