Laye, thanx for forwarding brother Saiks' response. I have no idea why it didn't make it here on its own but I'll wring your small neck for that at another time. For now, let me try to explain Libyan society a little bit along the lines of brother Saiks' impressions. In Libya, there are white Libyans (majority) and Black Libyans. Both of these colours are represented proportionally in the regular Libyan army. These men and women in the REGULAR Libyan army virtually abandoned base and a good number defected to the side of the people. That is why it was easy for the Libyan Revolutionary Front to overrun these regular army garrisons and munitions depots. It was from this army that the two pilots who first defected landed in Valetta, Malta. During this phase of the Revolution, Gadhafi suffered shameful defeat as the Libyan Revolutionary Front gained territory. There are irregular militias set up by Gadhafi's sons. These militias draw from Mercenaries/soldiers of fortune/contract soldiers etcetera from Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia, Palestine, Serbia, Ireland, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Al-Qaa'Ida, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladeh, Soudan, Tchad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Guinea Bissau, La-Guinea, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Venezuela, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, Malaysia, India, South Africa, Congo, Australia, China, North Korea, and Russia. In these militias, even though there were other ethnicities and nationals among their ranks, the black Africans formed the majority in the infantry and were earning the least in payments. A good number of them had been given empoyment and or scholarships by Gadhafi and later pulled from their jobs and schools and forcibly or coercively conscripted in the Militias. If you have a family member who was working or studying in Libya, please ask them about what I share with you. They were supervised and coordinated by the mercenaries from the other whiter nations. So those who are visible or are seen through the camera's lens as roaming to kill Libyan citizens, WERE mostly the infantrymen - Black Africans. When Gadhafi and his family realized the soldiers of the regular army (sleighted in terms of weapons and emoluments for years) have been deserting in drobes and cities are falling like dominoes, he ordered the militias to indiscriminately bomb regular army barracks, munitions depots, and arrest regular army officers (a good number of whom were massacred and buried in mass graves or burned alive). Then the militias became the face of the Libya regular army. They were able to regain some of the towns and villages lost to the Revolutionary Front in the first phase. As they approached the outskirts of Benghaazi with the intention to cleanse that whole historic town, that was when Resolution 1973 of the UN kicked in to save the day. Up to that point, the visuals of the Libya army was that of marauding black African mercenaries/soldiers of fortune/contract soldiers etcetera. If you look at the Tripoli and Benghaazi brigades brother Saiks, you will see a good number of BLACK LIBYANS. In Libya, I can tell a Black Libyan from a black African Mercenary. First, they were mostly labourers and students on scholarship by Gadhafi. So they were easy to identify. They do not have Libyan papers. One mistake the Militia leaders and coordinators made was that they did not issue these Black Africans Libyan papers like their white rcenary counterparts were given in order that they may blend in with the general society. Secondly, most of their white counterparts defected either to The New Libya Army, NATO, or the Qatar Contingent because they stood to earn more, longer, with these outfits. The Black mercenaries were left holding the bag for Gadhafi, a bag that grew ever heavier because they had no way to escape or even defect if they had wanted to. So when it came time to avenge the deaths of Libyans, these Black Africans, more readily identifiable and a readymade target for reprisal on account they could not defect without being killed first, became sitting ducks. Their former whiter coleagues were even turning them in and locating them for NATO and the New Libya Army. It is amid this despair and fateful resignation that the camera lens captures the images of black massacres and public outrage against Blacker mercenaries. I can forgive Libyan citizens who are fighting for their lives and the lives of their families, for spewing venom against anyone black. I have also always known the racist nature of the general Libyan, pro or con Gadhafi. And of Gadhafi himself. So no news there. As a black African, I am terribly disappointed in any blacks who accepted gifts of work or study or payment for mercenary service from Gadhafi. EVEN IN THE RUSE OF A NAME OF ISLAM. I am even more disappointed in South Africa and other Black African nations for not supporting the legitimate fight of Libyans for their Freedom and Sovereignty, much like the ANC had been engaged in.The fact that Gadhafi supported the ANC as he was formenting conflict in other parts of Africa should have given South Africa pause. Nonetheless, the good fight of the ANC and anti-apartheid forces such as myself, risks being sullied by this unreasonable position of the current South African government and the AU. The part of the AU will however change and that organisation will undergo some sober transformation in the days and months to come or my name is not Haruna. -----Original Message----- From: Laye Jallow <[log in to unmask]> To: GAMBIA-L <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Mon, Aug 29, 2011 7:59 pm Subject: [G_L] Fwd: Reply From Siaks - Re: Is the African Union still backing Gaddafi? - Inside Story - Al Jazeera English ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: samateh saikou <[log in to unmask]> Date: Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 4:34 PM Subject: Bambalaye please helh to,post this reply,idid try but it was rejected,thanks To: [log in to unmask] “Now that Qaddafi is on the way out, I wonder how the no-recognition stance would help convince Libyans that being black does not equate to pro-Qaddafi.” Malanding Seriously, I see no reason why the proof of the burden should be put on the shoulders of the African leaders, in this case. I am definitely sure that you have not been visiting some of the Libyan and Arab social medias during this crisis, to see their outright racist comments. Had we been living in an ideal world, some of these comments would have be taking to be instigation to genocide against black people in Libya , but the fact is that the battle for ideas in this world is temporally been won by those who control the mass media. The reaction of Cameron to the British uprising, for example his call to move against social media and branding every protest as a result of the breakdown of the family etc would have been attributed to that of an African dictator had we not known the Author. Now you must not be taken away by the propaganda that has been paid for since the start of this war.Gadaffi has been known to have supported arm groups and organizations all over the world ,who believe and have convinced Gaddafi that they are fighting a just war, for example, the ANC, the Sandinistas, Kokoi ,Charles Taylor etc Many of us might disagree with some of these characters and organization and even call some of them terrorist organization but to say that; “For years it was common knowledge within and outside Libya, that Qaddafi employed mercenaries and a disproportionate number of these are Africans “ Is outright wrong. What has he been using these “mercenaries “ for ?.It would be wonderful for sake of documentation if you are able to let me know. However what I know is that in the Libyan national army there are black Africans ,as it is the case in the USA ,in Britain and almost all of Europe. And not only Black African ,but also Arabs ,Europeans from other countries. It is these African who have been single out and called “machineries” since day one of the conflict. Libyans known very well that there are Serbs and other Arabs in their national army fighting for Gadaffi, they did not go around their streets looking for non Arab libyans or white people. And to say that there are more Black Africans that non Arab Libyans in the Libyan national army might be over exaggerated. Secondly when Qatar, recruited and hired white machineries to help Nato and the rebels in the conflict, what was the name given to these mercenaries ?they were called Contractors. Did you ever ask you self why is it that mercenary in Libya are only those with black skin and those with the white skin are call “Contractors”. There is more to this conflict than the mere desire for freedom for the Libyan people. For Freedom Saiks -- -Laye ============================== "With fair speech thou might have thy will, With it thou might thy self spoil." --The R.M ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤