Human rights lawyer: 100 Darfuris killed in Libya

Salih Mahmoud, a lawyer and defender of human rights, expressed distress that more than 100 Darfuris in Libya have been killed in the turmoil there. He said that the killings were incited by the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, which had pointed to the participation of Darfuris as mercenaries for the regime of the embattled Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi.Salih Mahmoud, who has won several international awards for his defense of human rights, called the Foreign Ministry’s announcement about Darfurians fighting in Libya “an incitement to hatred.” He said it was also a betrayal of the hundreds of thousands of people from Darfur in Libya, putting their lives in danger.

The lawyer called on the international community to intervene to protect and evacuate Darfuri citizens in Libya.

In 2007, Salih Mahmoud was voted the Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament, and he had received in 2006 the International Human Rights Award of the American Bar Association.

Radio Dabanga has received other reports of violence against Darfuris in Libya. At least 17 Darfuris disappeared in the towns of Masrata and Tripoli. One witness in Masrata told Radio Dabanga that 14 Darfuri men living in a house in Masrata were taken by anti-regime protesters and thereafter disappeared. He added that three other Sudanese disappered in Tripoli a week ago. Many Sudanese are trapped in their homes for fear of being killed by rebels.