Aid crisis on Libya’s west border

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The BBC’s Jim Muir says there is already a lot of activity from charities on the border

The situation on Libya’s border with Tunisia has reached crisis point, as tens of thousands of foreigners flee unrest in the country, the UN says.

Aid workers seem unable to cope, with new refugees pouring in as quickly as others cross over, say correspondents.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has told Western journalists he is loved by his people and denied protests in Tripoli.

His interview came amid reports that he is attempting to regain control of rebel areas in western Libya.

Col Gaddafi is facing a massive challenge to his 41-year rule, with protesters in control of towns in the east.

Witnesses said pro-Gaddafi forces tried to retake the western cities of Zawiya, Misrata and Nalut on Monday but were repulsed by rebels helped by defecting army units.

The rebels said they had killed eight pro-Gaddafi militia, but there were no opposition fatalities. There has been no word from the government on casualties.

There are fears in Zawiya that the city may be attacked from the air, but the rebels remained defiant.

“We’re not here for power, authority or money,” they said in a message aimed at Col Gaddafi.

“We are here for the cause of freedom and the price we are willing to pay is with our own blood… It’s victory or death.”

In other developments:

• Austria freezes assets of the Libyan leadership worth 1.2bn euros ($1.65bn) as Germany freezes the bank account of one of Col Gaddafi’s sons
• Libyan air force planes reportedly attacked ammunition depots in the eastern towns of Ajdabiya and Rajma
• About 400 protesters gathered in the Tripoli suburb of Tajoura on Monday – Gaddafi supporters tried to disperse them by firing in the air
• Reports say there have been long queues in Tripoli banks as people tried to collect the 500 dinars (£250; $410) promised by the government in an attempt to quell the unrest

‘Forgotten’

A spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Melissa Fleming, said 70,000-75,000 people have fled to Tunisia since violence began in Libya on 20 February.

“Our staff on the Libya-Tunisia border have told us this morning that the situation there is reaching crisis point,” she said, quoted by AFP news agency.

About 2,000 people are crossing into Tunisia every hour but once in Tunisia many of them have nowhere to go. Another 20,000 are said to be backed up on the Libyan side.

Most are Egyptian, but there are also significant numbers of Chinese and Bangladeshis.

The Egyptians are angry, complaining that they have been forgotten by their government, says the BBC’s Jim Muir on the border.

Temperatures plummeted overnight and our correspondent saw the body of a young Egyptian man who had apparently died of cold.

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Col Gaddafi told the BBC that the protesters are members of al-Qaeda

Food is being distributed but the relief effort is way behind the reality of the situation, he adds, with sanitation a disaster and many sleeping in roads and car parks.

Tented transit camps are being set up hurriedly a little further along the road, while frantic efforts are being made to charter aircraft and ships to repatriate the stranded.

A BBC correspondent on the border says the Tunisian army has fired in the air to disperse smugglers targeting refugees.

One black African refugee told the BBC he had fled the rebel-controlled eastern city Benghazi because of threats against him by opposition supporters who thought he was a mercenary hired by Col Gaddafi.

“They don’t want to see blacks in Benghazi,” he said.

“They say the president brought some blacks to fight against the Libyans, so now they decided, if they see black [man], they deciding to hunt him.”

The UN’s World Food Programme said its head, Josette Sheeran, is expected to visit the border later on Tuesday.

‘No morals’

Col Gaddafi gave an interview in the capital Tripoli for BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen, US TV network ABC, and the UK’s Sunday Times newspaper.

He accused Western countries of abandoning Libya and said that they had no morals and wanted to colonise the country.

When asked whether he would resign, he said he could not step down as he did not have an official position – and insisted that the power in the country was with the people.

Col Gaddafi challenged those, including UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who have accused him of having money abroad, to produce evidence. He said he would “put two fingers in their eye”.

Col Gaddafi said true Libyans had not demonstrated but those who had come on to the streets were under the influence of drugs supplied by Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.

He said those people had seized weapons and that his supporters were under orders not to shoot back.

But in response to the interview, the US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said the fact he was laughing at questions while “slaughtering his own people” showed that he was disconnected from reality.

World foreign ministers earlier condemned attacks on Libyan civilians and the European Union imposed sanctions including an arms embargo, asset freeze and travel ban on Col Gaddafi and his close entourage.