/ 25 August 2011

‘South Africa, send your doctors to Libya’

'south Africa

While South Africa remains firm in its refusal to free up Gaddafi’s frozen assets for Libya’s National Transitional Council, the asset freeze has left the country short of basic medical supplies.

The president of the South African chapter of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Dr Prinithia Pillay, told the Mail and Guardian that funds set aside for medical expenditure were among the assets frozen when the UN blocked Gaddafi’s assets in February.

The medical emergency has urged Pillay to call on South African doctors and nurses to volunteer in Libya. She said “the daily bombing of the capital had left children traumatised” and hospitals short of essential medicines and staff to treat patients.

The NTC’s representative to South Africa, former Libyan ambassador Abdulla Alzebedi, also told the M&G that he was concerned that medical supplies, fuel, water and food were in short supply in Libya, following almost seven months of conflict in the country.

In response to the shortages of fuel, essential medicines and food in Libya, the ANC Youth League has slammed Nato for supporting rebel fighting that has reduced “a functioning country” to a disaster zone. “You can’t hold people hostage. You claimed to resolve a crisis but took people from living in prosperity into living through a humanitarian crisis,” youth league spokesperson Magdelene Moonsamy told the M&G.

Asset
The United Nation Security Council, of which South Africa is a member, was expected to vote on Thursday evening on whether to unblock frozen assets amounting to $1.5-billion to help the NTC start running the country. Although, South Africa had agreed on Wednesday that Libyan money frozen by the UN in February should be released for humanitarian purposes, it has spoken out against sending money to the NTC.

South Africa has said all week that it would not recognise the NTC officially until President Jacob Zuma takes part in a high-level meeting with the AU on Thursday night, and meets with the AU’s Peace and Security committee again on Friday.

Western nations have criticised South Africa’s reticence on the matter, with the United Kingdom’s prime minister, David Cameron, urging Zuma on Thursday to capitulate on the UN vote and exhorting the AU to recognise the NTC.

Professor Shadrack Gutto, the head of African studies at Unisa, said South Africa’s refusal to unblock assets for the NTC was symbolic, as the motion to unblock the asset freeze had enough support to carry the vote, even if South Africa voted against the proposal.

But Gutto said South Africa’s criticism of supporting the NTC financially was a way of standing up to the UN and repeating how unhappy it was with Nato’s military support of the Gaddafi opposition, despite having voted in favour of UN intervention in Libya.

Gutto also said that the freeze of Gaddafi’s assets had hurt the ordinary Libyan citizens.

He said that the UN-sanctioned freeze, which South Africa had voted in favour of, had been twofold in its intentions.

It stopped Gaddafi accessing funds so that he couldn’t harm opposition forces but it also stopped the government from functioning and supplying basic services such as water and power.

It was meant to bring regime change, he added.

“And to bring about regime change one has to encourage the population to think of their government as illegitimate and ineffective and therefore dysfunctional. By making the population suffer, they would turn against Gaddafi,” he said.

Gutto said that now that “Gaddafi had no chance of ruling again, the UN is suddenly concerned with the welfare of the Libyan people” and were pushing to have funds unfrozen for the NTC to start running the country.

The ANC Youth League said that the rebel-led NTC would be a puppet of the imperialist regime that supported their stand against Gaddafi.

Humanitarian crisis
While the debate over funding rages, humanitarian assistance is needed.

Dr Pillay said that MSF staff treated all the wounded and sick who needed attention and did not take sides in conflict. In order to remain impartial, it did not accept funding from governments.

She said fighting in Tripoli had hampered MSF access to the city but teams of healthcare workers have been working in cities throughout Libya, including Benghazi and Misrata.

This week MSF sent more doctors, who had been waiting on standby in Tunisia, into the capital. But some days doctors have been housebound due to fighting between rebels and pro-Gaddafi supporters in the capital. “If you are not safe, you can’t help people,” she said, adding that the organisation has been monitoring the safety of all its volunteers.

The 40-year-old aid organisation is active in 70 countries around the world but said that Tripoli was in particular need of additional medical staff.