EU Commissioner Georgieva on Libya: Humanitarian Access Zone to Misrata ?

EU focuses now on opening Humanitarian Access and eventually creating a Humanitarian Zone in Western Libya for urgent Help mainly to Misrata Seaside City, which is reportedly attacked by the Army of the Colonel Kaddafi's regime, provoking also many wounded People among the local Population, currently deprived even from suficient Water, Electricity, Food, Medicine, and other elementary everyday life and Hygienic, basic facilities, as it results from Replies given by EU Commissioner for Humanitarian aid and Crisis management, Mrs Kristalina Georgieva from Bulgaria, in reply to MEP's questions at EU Parliament in Strasbourg tonight.

- "Attempts are now being made to send in Medical Ships by Sea" to Misrata, in order to make "Medical Treatment available", Georgieva concluded in Reply to a Question by Greek ChristianDemocrat/EPP MEP Georges Papastamkos, on "what Measures" EU Commission "intends to adopt" "for the provision of Humanitarian Aid" to "Northern Africa", despite "Military .. problems".

- "We know (EU) that in Gaddafi‑controlled Areas (at the Western part of Libya) there are humanitarian Needs, but we are Restricted in getting there. We have set aside EUR 9 million even when conditions allow for us to be mobilised. We actually gave instructions to the World Food Programme as well as to other humanitarian organisations, to be Ready to help", she anounced.

 - "The critical importance of Gaddafi allowing humanitarian organisations to operate in the Western part of Libya cannot be over‑emphasised. Unfortunately this has not yet happened", EU Commissioner Georgieva critically stressed.

Because, "currently, not the whole territory is accessible" to European and International (EU + UNO) Humanitarian assistance to the People : "For the time being, we can operate in the East, (controlled by the Rebels), but not in the West, which is controlled by Gaddafi", she denounced.

+ Even UNO's "on-going Negotiations between the authorities in Tripoli and the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) have not yet resulted in an agreement on humanitarian access to Western Libya", Kristaline Georgieva observed.

Curiously, however, a ..Turkish Ship was reportedly allowed today to reach Misrata, and snatch some helpless wounded People, taking them away to Turkey, ... at the same moment that Europe and even UNO were reportedly hindered by Colonel Kaddafi's regime !..

Notoriously opposed to the EU/USA/Arab Ligue/UNO International operation "to help Libyan People", which was launched by the 18 March Paris' Summit, (See "'EuroFora"s NewsReports from Elysée palace then), Turkey, nevertheless, started recently to interfere in the Libyan Crisis, mainly by exploiting its NATO membership, (which dates from the Old period of the "Cold War" times, but was recently upgraded by concessions made to the Turkish Government when it blocked NATO's 60th Summit in Strasbourg, April 2009 : See "EuroFora"s NewsReports from that exceptionally important NATO's Summit), reportedly provoking several controversies.

At the same time, Official Representatives of the People who have revolted against the Colonel Kaddafi's Regime and are currently fighting it on the spot, started to denounce, more and more strongly, NATO's strange passivity (compared to the 19 March Summit Coalition's Fast Action, which notoriously saved Benghazi timely from imminently threatened Mlitary Attacks) :

" -The head of Libya's rebel army has condemned NATO for its slow chain of command in ordering air strikes to protect civilians, saying the alliance was "letting the people of Misrata die every day."

The besieged city of Misrata, the only big population center in western Libya where a revolt against Gaddafi has not been crushed and which faces army tanks and snipers, is now the priority...

- "NATO blesses us every now and then with a bombardment here and there, and is letting the people of Misrata die every day,"  Abdel Fattah Younes, head of the rebel forces said in the eastern stronghold city of Benghazi. "NATO has Disappointed us", he reportedly denounced, according to Reuters.

- "NATO forces "don't do anything", even though the United Nations gave them the right to act, Younis said. He said Bureaucracy means that NATO strikes sometimes come eight hours after rebels' have communicated targets.

- "The people will die and this crime will be on the face of the international community forever. What is NATO doing?" Younis questioned, according to AP.

- "Misrata is being subjected to a full Extermination." , he warned. "Water has been cut, there is No Electricity, nor Food products, there is no more Milk left for Children since 40 Days, (etc), while Kaddafi's forces are Bombarding everyday Houses, Hospitals and Mosquees with Heavy Artillerie", added AFP.

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- "Current military operations have not affected the level of humanitarian access, because it was restricted from the beginning of the crisis by forces loyal to Gaddafi", EU Commissioner noted.

- "EU humanitarian assistance is implemented through our partners, funded by ECHO or through assistance in kind from the Member States, and mobilised and coordinated via the EU civil protection mechanism. It covers the provision of assistance to people fleeing Libya on the borders with Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria, support for the repatriation of third-country nationals to their countries of origin, the provision of assistance and humanitarian protection to people with refugee status who cannot go back to their countries – they have no countries to go to – and to Libyans fleeing Libya, the financing and prepositioning of emergency stocks to provide relief aid inside Libya, and the financing of medical supplies, emergency surgery and food assistance inside Libya, to be implemented as and when specific areas become accessible", Georgieva said.

- "On the effectiveness of humanitarian assistance from the beginning, from the outset of the crisis, the most Dramatic humanitarian impact so far can be split into ... parts", Georgieva replied also to another question by Socialdemocrat MEP Balčytis Zigmantas  :

- "First, the outflow of migrant workers into Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria and Niger – there the Commission and the Member States have been very effective. We have mobilised both air and sea deployment of Member States assets so we can take people home, and a humanitarian injection into the International organisation for migration and the UN organisation for refugees so that they can help with a huge amount of people – 420 000 people – fleeing Libya.

 - "In the Eastern part of Libya to which we have access, we have provided support for medical treatment as well as for the prepositioning of Food supplies. "This is not yet a food crisis, but this is a country that imports 90% of its Food, so we must be ready"

- "There we also are helping sub‑Saharan Africans, in particular Chadians, who found themselves in a very difficult position because of the risk to their safety, being perceived to be mercenaries, being perceived to be fighters, when of course many of them are not. Helping them to get to safety, mostly in Egypt, has also been a priority", she added.

- Meanwhile, "the evacuation of European citizens has been very successful. We managed to achieve coordination between our Member States and deployed the monitoring and information centre to provide a platform for this coordination. As a result, we got the vast majority of our citizens out of Libya in the fastest and safest manner. By the time this massive evacuation was completed, there were only around 200 people left who wanted to be evacuated. Right now — as we speak — some of them have been safely evacuated by a Russian aircraft".

But, "on the question of Medical services, as we evacuated European citizens the law of unintended Consequences kicked in, because some of these European citizens had been providing medical services as part of the Libyan health service. Many nurses were evacuated, though not so many doctors. We are now making every possible effort to enable humanitarian organisations that specialise in medical care to provide access to such care for Libyans and third-country nationals in Libya".

- " We have a team of our own experts in the eastern part of the country. They have returned from an assessment mission and reported that, although there are increasing numbers of wounded people in need of medical care, the medical supplies and support — including personnel — that the intentional community is providing are broadly sufficient in the eastern part of Libya."

- "That is not the case, however, in cities like Misrata and other areas controlled by Gaddafi.", she reiterated.

Between 25 February and March 3, EU Commission "adopted about € 39 Millions Emergency decisions on Humanitarian aid operations in connection with the Libyan Crisis" in Total.