{"id":428438,"date":"2011-05-23T07:37:53","date_gmt":"2011-05-23T07:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/05\/23\/eu-foreign-policy-chief-opens-office-in-libyas-rebel-held-benghazi\/"},"modified":"2011-05-23T07:37:53","modified_gmt":"2011-05-23T07:37:53","slug":"eu-foreign-policy-chief-opens-office-in-libyas-rebel-held-benghazi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/23\/eu-foreign-policy-chief-opens-office-in-libyas-rebel-held-benghazi\/","title":{"rendered":"EU foreign policy chief opens office in LIbya&#8217;s rebel-held Benghazi"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"100.5\">\n<div readability=\"96\">\n<div>\n<p><strong>STORY HIGHLIGHTS<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The EU&#8217;s foreign policy chief pledges support to Libyan rebel government<\/li>\n<li>Ashton says she discussed security reform, border management and the economy<\/li>\n<li>A Libyan psychologist is collecting reports of women who say they were raped<\/li>\n<li>Sergewa says she is giving the reports to the International Criminal Court<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>(CNN)<\/strong> &#8212; The European Union&#8217;s foreign policy chief is expected Monday to detail meetings with Libya&#8217;s rebel leaders, a day after opening an office in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in what is its clearest message that it recognizes Libyan opposition to Moammar Gadhafi&#8217;s rule.<\/p>\n<p>The briefings come as intense fighting was reported in western Libya. Elsewhere in the country NATO-led coalition warplanes pounded military targets, an effort that began in March after the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution to protect civilians by any means necessary.<\/p>\n<p>Catherine Ashton, the foreign policy chief, will brief the EU&#8217;s foreign ministers about weekend meetings where she pledged support from the 27 nation union to the chairman of Libya&#8217;s Transitional National Council.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am here today to explain and be clear about the depth and breadth of our support in the European Union for the people of Libya,&#8221; Ashton said in a statement released Sunday by the EU shortly after her meeting with Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the transitional council chairman.<\/p>\n<p>During the meeting, Ashton said she and Jalil discussed security reform, border management, the economy and civil society.<\/p>\n<p>Arrest warrants have been issued by the International Criminal Court for Gadhafi and two relatives, linking them to &#8220;widespread and systematic&#8221; attacks on civilians as they struggle to hold power in Libya.<\/p>\n<p>The court&#8217;s chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has said that the court in The Hague will investigate allegations of institutionalized rape in the war-torn country.<\/p>\n<p>A Libyan government official told CNN that Gadhafi&#8217;s government welcomes the court&#8217;s probe but that prosecutors &#8220;have not been to Libya to do an investigation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Siham Sergewa, a Libyan psychologist, has been collecting reports of women reportedly raped and beaten by Gadhafi&#8217;s forces that she says she is sharing with the criminal court.<\/p>\n<p>Sergewa told CNN&#8217;s Sara Sidner that she began collecting the reports after receiving a call from the mother of a rape victim in Ajdabiya, a town in eastern Libya that was the scene of some of the earliest fighting between rebels and government forces.<\/p>\n<p>The victim told Sergewa that she had been abducted by three or four men and taken to the desert where she was raped.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, Sergewa told CNN she has collected surveys from more than 270 women at refugee camps along Libya&#8217;s borders with Egypt and Tunisia, who allege they were assaulted by Gadhafi&#8217;s forces.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the best-known rape allegation in Libya is that of Eman al-Obeidy.<\/p>\n<p>Al-Obeidy received worldwide attention on March 26, when she burst into the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli while journalists staying there were having breakfast.<\/p>\n<p>She told reporters she had been taken from a checkpoint east of Tripoli and held against her will for two days while beaten and raped by 15 men loyal to Gadhafi.<\/p>\n<p>About six weeks later, al-Obeidy escaped Libya via Tunisia. She is now living in exile in Qatar.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, rebels on the front lines near Libya&#8217;s border with Tunisia, where a narrow finger of land controlled by rebels has become a vital supply route for the opposition, are under continued shelling by Gadhafi&#8217;s forces.<\/p>\n<p>At least four explosions rocked the town of Zintan on Sunday. Rebels said they believe the explosions were from rockets fired by Gadhafi&#8217;s forces.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Today is going hard,&#8221; one rebel fighter told CNN&#8217;s Nic Robertson. He said he has lost his brother and others in the fighting, adding that he doesn&#8217;t worry about himself. Being martyred is honorable, he said.<\/p>\n<p>He showed his gun, held together by pieces of tape.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CNN&#8217;s Amir Ahmed contributed to this report.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read this article:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/rss.cnn.com\/~r\/rss\/edition_africa\/~3\/cKiS_fikhn0\/index.html\" title=\"EU foreign policy chief opens office in LIbya's rebel-held Benghazi\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">EU foreign policy chief opens office in LIbya&#8217;s rebel-held Benghazi<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> STORY HIGHLIGHTS The EU&#8217;s foreign policy chief pledges support to Libyan rebel government Ashton says she discussed security reform, border management and the economy A Libyan psychologist is collecting reports of women who say they were raped Sergewa says she is giving the reports to the International Criminal Court (CNN) &#8212; The European Union&#8217;s foreign policy chief is expected Monday to detail meetings with Libya&#8217;s rebel leaders, a day after opening an office in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in what is its clearest message that it recognizes Libyan opposition to Moammar Gadhafi&#8217;s rule. The briefings come as intense fighting was reported in western Libya. Elsewhere in the country NATO-led coalition warplanes pounded military targets, an effort that began in March after the U.N. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-428438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>EU foreign policy chief opens office in LIbya&#039;s rebel-held Benghazi - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/23\/eu-foreign-policy-chief-opens-office-in-libyas-rebel-held-benghazi\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"EU foreign policy chief opens office in LIbya&#039;s rebel-held Benghazi - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"STORY HIGHLIGHTS The EU&#039;s foreign policy chief pledges support to Libyan rebel government Ashton says she discussed security reform, border management and the economy A Libyan psychologist is collecting reports of women who say they were raped Sergewa says she is giving the reports to the International Criminal Court (CNN) -- The European Union&#039;s foreign policy chief is expected Monday to detail meetings with Libya&#039;s rebel leaders, a day after opening an office in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in what is its clearest message that it recognizes Libyan opposition to Moammar Gadhafi&#039;s rule. The briefings come as intense fighting was reported in western Libya. Elsewhere in the country NATO-led coalition warplanes pounded military targets, an effort that began in March after the U.N.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/23\/eu-foreign-policy-chief-opens-office-in-libyas-rebel-held-benghazi\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/23\/eu-foreign-policy-chief-opens-office-in-libyas-rebel-held-benghazi\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"EU foreign policy chief opens office in LIbya&#8217;s rebel-held Benghazi\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-23T07:37:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/23\/eu-foreign-policy-chief-opens-office-in-libyas-rebel-held-benghazi\/\"},\"wordCount\":679,\"commentCount\":0,\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/23\/eu-foreign-policy-chief-opens-office-in-libyas-rebel-held-benghazi\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/23\/eu-foreign-policy-chief-opens-office-in-libyas-rebel-held-benghazi\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/23\/eu-foreign-policy-chief-opens-office-in-libyas-rebel-held-benghazi\/\",\"name\":\"EU foreign policy chief opens office in LIbya's rebel-held Benghazi - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-23T07:37:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/23\/eu-foreign-policy-chief-opens-office-in-libyas-rebel-held-benghazi\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"EU foreign policy chief opens office in LIbya's rebel-held Benghazi - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/23\/eu-foreign-policy-chief-opens-office-in-libyas-rebel-held-benghazi\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"EU foreign policy chief opens office in LIbya's rebel-held Benghazi - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"STORY HIGHLIGHTS The EU's foreign policy chief pledges support to Libyan rebel government Ashton says she discussed security reform, border management and the economy A Libyan psychologist is collecting reports of women who say they were raped Sergewa says she is giving the reports to the International Criminal Court (CNN) -- The European Union's foreign policy chief is expected Monday to detail meetings with Libya's rebel leaders, a day after opening an office in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in what is its clearest message that it recognizes Libyan opposition to Moammar Gadhafi's rule. 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