AJC Denounces Deadly Violence of Libyan Regime

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Feb 20, 2011, 11:20 ET

NEW YORK, Feb. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC is calling on the international community to condemn unequivocally Libya's brutal use of deadly force against those protesting the Qadhafi regime.

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AJC has been receiving regular reports in recent days of both massacres and execution-style killings by the Libyan government to suppress those demonstrating against Qadhafi's reign, which began when he seized power in 1969.

"While there has understandably been much focus in recent weeks on the dramatic events in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Bahrain," said AJC Executive Director David Harris, "far less media attention, especially in the United States, has been paid to Libya, where the death toll has surpassed by far anything we have seen elsewhere in the region."

"There has been a steady stream of reports from Tripoli, Benghazi, Misurata, Al-Baida, and other Libyan cities," Harris continued, "of Qadhafi-controlled security forces and foreign mercenaries killing hundreds of innocent people, including children, in cold blood, of the suppression of Internet and other internal means of communication and information, and of inadequate medical care for the wounded. These reports are alarming and must be investigated immediately."

"We call on the international community to raise its voice loudly and quickly, and to make clear that such abhorrent behavior will not be countenanced," Harris concluded. "For starters, the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council should convene a special session on the alarming situation in Libya. Turning a blind eye to unfolding events or conducting business as usual with Libya must not be options at such a moment of massive human-rights violations. The Libyan people are seeking, at long last, to exercise the right to determine their own future. That right needs to be supported."

SOURCE American Jewish Committee