Libyan rebel city of Misrata focus of UN talks on humanitarian crisis

Britain to discuss plans to ensure unfettered access for relief effort to besieged city after seven weeks of fighting

guardian.co.uk, Mark Tran and agencies, Monday 18 April 2011

Andrew Mitchell, secretary of state for international development,
will press for unfettered access for aid to Misrata. Photograph:
Geoff Newton/Allstar Picture Library

Britain will press for unfettered access to the besieged Libyan city of Misrata in talks at the UN amid deepening concern at the humanitarian situation in the town, which has been surrounded by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi for more than a month.

The international development secretary, Andrew Mitchell, will discuss plans on Monday to increase aid and medical supplies and ensure better access to the rebel-held city. Misrata has been under heavy attack for seven weeks, with hundreds of civilians killed in the effort to rout the rebels, who are reportedly better organised and disciplined than in the east of the country.

Seventeen people were killed in fighting in Misrata on Sunday, an NGO worker and an opposition activist said.

Government troops, who have pushed into the city centre from the outskirts in recent days, pounded Misrata with mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades, a resident told the Associated Press.

"Residents have become so accustomed to the sound of mortars and missiles," he said. "Snipers are still on the roofs of tall buildings shooting at anything that moves in the city centre."

Rebels fought government forces back from an area around a central produce market, regaining a small sliver of territory, said Rida al-Montasser, a local activist.

He said a hospital report that he received from a doctor, showed 17 people, including rebels, were killed and 74 others were wounded. A worker for a foreign NGO who visited the hospital on Sunday also said 17 bodies were brought in, including that of a girl shot in the head. Other children who had been shot were among the wounded, he said.

Witnesses in the city have backed up reports from Human Rights Watch that Libyan government troops have been using cluster bombs as part of their offensive. The government has denied this.

Britain has sent aid to the affected areas as well as emergency shelters, medical supplies, food and enough midwifery kits to deliver 200 babies, but Mitchell wants better access to Misrata for the relief effort.

"The humanitarian situation in Misrata is of great concern," he said. "The international community should be ready to respond, and that is why I will be meeting with the United Nations to ensure we have the right support in place. It is vital that we continue to get help, such as food, water or medical supplies, through to people. Humanitarian agencies must be given free and unfettered access to Misrata and other areas affected by fighting."

Tens of thousands of people are trapped in Misrata and other towns following more than a month of fighting which has killed at least 300 and injured upwards of 1,000, including many children. Some severely injured people are unable to be evacuated for medical attention, hospitals lack electricity and water, and people have been trapped indoors for weeks with little or no food.

The UN is concerned that consumption of untreated water from wells could lead to outbreaks of water-borne diseases. Talks on Misrata come as David Cameron said there was still "no question" of an international invasion of Libya.

The prime minister said the Nato-led air strikes on military targets had helped prevent massacres and the taking of Misrata. But while rebel forces were receiving help, including body armour and communications equipment, there was no question of going beyond the UN mandate.

"It is because we have said we are not going to invade, we are not going to occupy (that) this is more difficult in many ways because we can't fully determine the outcome with what we have available," Cameron said on Sky News. "But we are very clear that we must stick to the terms of the UN security council resolution, we must keep the support of the Arab world."

In eastern Libya, Gaddafi's forces yesterday mounted a heavy assault on Libyan rebels holding the key town of Ajdabiya in a sign that the regime is stepping up efforts to regain territory in the east of the country.

Explosions were heard for several hours in the morning, forcing some of the few remaining families to flee to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, 90 miles away.

In Paris, the French defence minister, Gérard Longuet, dismissed statements from a top Nato official that the alliance is short of aircraft. Longuet said instead that Nato's mission in Libya is hampered by a lack of ground information.

"There is no lack of planes but a lack of identification of mobile objectives," he said in an interview published on Sunday in the daily Le Parisien. "The problem is that we're missing concrete and verifiable information on identified objectives on the ground."

Related Article:

Libyan forces shell Misrata, 17 killed: rebels