Focus-Libya: The country is suffering a humanitarian emergency too
ROME, Italy, August 29, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The worrying situation in various parts of Libya, including Tripoli, and the need for rapid action by the United Nations to help the hardest-hit members of the population are the focus of Italy’s diplomatic activity. Activity that has indicated and followed the course of action – through the unfreezing, for the time being, of 300 million euros – of using Libyan assets to help the population and pave the way for economic recovery.
Meanwhile, ENI’s Chief Executive Officer, Paolo Scaroni, is due to arrival in Benghazi today. The goal is to reach agreement with the TNC for ENI to supply oil and gas to the “new” Libya, with payment in oil once the fields are operating again.
The humanitarian emergency and the unfreezing of Libyan assets were the focus of a long and cordial phone conversation between Minister Franco Frattini and his British counterpart, William Hague, on 27 August 2011. The two Foreign Ministers agreed on the priority need to reach rapid agreement on “unfreezing” Libyan assets abroad to enable the country’s economy to recover. They hope that in the coming week (beginning 29 August) agreement will be reached in New York on a United Nations Resolution. They also discussed the importance of a rapid and if possible coordinated re-opening of European embassies in Tripoli. As Frattini reiterated, Italy, like Great Britain, is ready to open its embassy and hopes to see other countries do the same.
A confidential report sent a few days ago by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Envoy, Ian Martin, and obtained by a blogger who follows the UN, also analyses the economic situation of the civil war-torn country. The report estimates that gross domestic product (GDP) could collapse, by 47%. To help the civilian population and the new government, the idea is to use the Gadaffi regime’s assets which were frozen by the international sanctions. And in fact, 2 days ago the Security Council unblocked 1.5 billion dollars to use for humanitarian aid. But according to Ian Martin, the sanctions actually entailed the freezing of 150 billion dollars in total, 100 times the amount released yesterday.
The UN has proposed that police forces be sent to Libya, a country “submerged by light weapons” and where order must be restored. The proposal is being considered by the TNC, which will assess whether ground personnel should be allowed to enter the country, the condition being that they must come from Arab or Muslim countries. The proposal was made by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is convinced of the need to step up the pace of restoring order and stability to Libya. A country where chaos currently reigns and which is suffering widespread shortage of all manner of supplies. Speaking at the UN headquarters in New York, the Secretary General stressed the need for urgent humanitarian aid in the immediate term, especially in the health and basic public services, and for education and water purification and distribution services.
In the medium term, Ban explained that efforts should be focused on support for elections, justice and public order, and on economic recovery and the reconstruction of the institutions and the rule of law. The situation in Libya is a complex one, which the UN, according to a confidential report, plans to tackle through a mission of 200 military observers, 190 police officers and officials to monitor the elections. For the time being, however, there are no plans to send UN military personnel, or “blue helmets”. The task of the military observers, who would come from two as yet unspecified UN countries, would be to monitor and control the end of the uprising.
The TNC has drawn up a possible identikit. It is willing to assess the UN proposal, but only if the observers are from “Arab or Islamic” countries, as stated by the Chairman of the TNC, Mustafà Abdel Jalil, in Benghazi. This possibility was also aired recently by Italian Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa, who categorically excluded any intervention on the ground by the Italian army. “We cannot rule out the presence of UN troops”, he said, “as long as they come from Arab or African countries, and not from Europe”.
SOURCE
Italy – Ministry of Foreign Affairs
