Gaddafi bombs hospitals

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Benghazi - Teams of South African doctors who have been running a frontline battlefield emergency trauma hospital in Libya have been evacuated to safety following intense fighting. The 12-member team, including specialist surgeons from Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Libya, Cuba, Japan and Denmark, were tactically withdrawn from Ajdabiya to Benghazi late on Sunday. The team, part of SA humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers, had taken over the emergency rooms at Ajdabiya Hospital. The organisation brought medicines and equipment worth more than R3 million to Libya. The withdrawal followed intense fighting in the eastern town of Brega. In recent days, Brega has been bombarded by government naval ships, artillery and fighter jets. More than 3 000 rebels are fighting government forces around Brega and the outskirts of Ajdabiya. The fighting comes as Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s opposition, the Interim Transitional National Council (ITNC), masses a sizeable military force in Benghazi to retake towns lost to troops.

The new frontline comes after troops took a number of ITNC-controlled areas over the previous 48 hours, including the oil-producing town of Ras Lanouf, where fighting continues to rage.

Fighting around Ras Lanouf saw the South African medical team being put on high alert on Saturday.

Since falling, Ras Lanouf has been reinforced with hundreds of additional troops, tanks, artillery weapons, fighter jets and attack helicopters.

Brega’s main hospital and clinics have been shut after repeatedly being shelled over the past four days.

Other concerns include reports of Gaddafi ordering attacks on foreign journalists, banning the distribution of blood supplies to injured civilians, and allowing medical treatment only for his fighters in areas held by government forces.

Relatives of Libyan doctors working with the Gift of the Givers team on Sunday frantically contacted loved ones after a government minister announced that Ajdabiya Hospital and other eastern regional hospitals were now legitimate military targets and would be attacked by military forces.

No explanation was given for designating hospitals as targets.

Gift of the Givers founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, who is leading the team in Libya, said they were evacuated because of safety concerns.

“These concerns include the increased attacks on journalists; the well-being of our Libyan team members, who if caught would be executed as traitors; the murder of doctors and injured civilians; and the government’s announcement that hospitals are now military targets. While we have been evacuated, it does not mean our work will stop. We are here to do a job, and wherever we are needed we will go.

“While we were initially to be based in Brega and Ajdabiya, the fighting has now seen us moving to Benghazi – the ITNC’s second line of defence. Our orthopaedic, vascular and general surgeons, who are forming the backbone of two hospitals in the city, are to be used to treat critically wounded people. We have all been placed on alert and will, if necessary, be deployed to battlefield hospitals. The team that we have will deal with whatever is thrown at us,” Sooliman said.

He added that communication and developing trust with the ITNC and local doctors, who have lived in fear for 42 years, was difficult.

“There is a general leadership crisis, which is feeding into the hospitals and exacerbating the chaos. If the challenges are not resolved and we continue to get huge numbers of casualties, many will die. We have to overcome this and win the hearts and minds of people if we are to save lives,” Sooliman said.