BOOMING SMUGGLING INDUSTRY AFTER MUBARAK
The United States and the international community have been quick to approve and applaud the resignation and disappearance of the former Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak. However the situation that has been left behind is one of anarchy, particularly in the Negev Desert.
We have just done a story about smuggling where weapons are being smuggled into Gaza from Egypt by Bedouins. This is occurring much more easily than they ever were before because no longer are soldiers manning the Egyptian/Gaza border. Mubarak was actually a good friend of Israel, so ironically his disappearance has actually increased the instability in that part of the region. Israel's fear is that weapons which are been smuggled into Gaza in greater numbers are really being used against them.
Already in the last three months there have been two attacks on a natural gas pipe-line which supplies a quarter of Israel's electricity, which comes from Egypt. The perpetrators are believed to have been Bedouins or somehow the perpetrators are connected to the increased smuggling into Gaza.
ISRAELI/PALESTINIAN REACTION TO OSAMA’S DEATH
Israeli leaders have welcomed the assassination of Osama Bin Laden. What is interesting though, is that the Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman says that half an hour before the operation was carried out, Israel was informed of its existence. Now not a lot has been made of this in either the Israeli or the international media but it's interesting nonetheless. Certainly Lieberman makes the point that in no way did Israel contribute to the operation itself. Yesterday Israel increased security around its main airport, Ben Gurion, and at American governmental offices here, but other than that it hasn't increased general security alerts either within the country itself or abroad for Israeli citizens. Nonetheless high-level security meetings are ongoing in order to assess the threats and implications of Osama's assassination.
One of the concerns Israel has is that militant organisations in Gaza affiliated with Al Qaeda could now use his death as an excuse to launch attacks against Israel. News of Bin Laden's death attracted a difference of opinion amongst Palestinians themselves, although the Palestinian Authority publicly welcomed the killing. As can be expected, Hamas has vehemently criticised the murder calling Bin Laden, "a holy warrior".
Some of the questions which are been asked is why the Americans were able to capture him at this time and whether there is significance in that timing. Another point that's been raised is whether this will give the USA an excuse to move their troops out of Afghanistan and perhaps concentrate them in Libya and elsewhere. These are some of the discussions taking place and the questions been asked at this point in time. What is certain, however, is that from the Israeli point of view the assassination has been widely welcomed.
BROKEN PROMISES IN THE HOLY LAND
I reported on quite a sad story in Israel - Chinese workers who came to Israel to work in the construction industry. There're an estimated 11 000 Chinese labourers in Israel and most of them fill the gap left behind by Palestinian labourers who escaped Israel during the two Intifadas. Israel considered it unsafe to give work permits to Palestinians as most of the terrorist activities that occurred inside of Israel in those years were committed by Palestinians. A new workforce was therefore needed which paved the way for many Chinese labourers to come to Israel to find work.
The problem is that many of these Chinese labourers bought visas to get into Israel that turned out to be illegal. I spoke to some people who paid up to $ 31 000 for a five-year work visa that in reality was only valid for one year. Many of these labourers had to borrow money back home to pay for these visas. They then came to Israel and after a few months or so found that their work visas were invalid. This left them in a terrible situation where they hadn't raised enough money to return home and fearful that if they do eventually return home, they’ll be unable to pay off their debts there.
In Israel they are considered illegal citizens and so the government is trying to deport them back to China. They have little or no work and many live in desperate situations sleeping in caravans and working long hours for little pay if they're lucky enough to get a job in the first place. Compounding this problem is that some of them have had children while in Israel. I met a woman whose son was born in Israel and speaks Hebrew as a first language. He doesn't even know Chinese ! He feels that this is his home and that if he is deported, he'll be leaving behind the only life he knows.
GOODBYE LIBYA
I left Libya about three weeks ago-sorry about not posting sooner. I've just been trying to catch up on things. Thank you so much to everyone who sent me emails asking about my safety and well-being. I've been very touched by all your concerns.
I'm in contact with all the journalists who were stationed in Tripoli with me and they've all left. Most journalists have been rotated so there's now a new bunch stationed there. I'm, of course, keeping a watch over events in Libya and at the moment there is a stalemate there. According to Libyan authorities there was an attempt on Gadaffi's life this week, however, that was unsuccessful. I, for one, certainly don't miss being there.
THE LIST
A list turned up at dinner two nights back - the names of 26 journalists who had to leave by the next morning. No explanation was given, other than a few mumblings that their visas had expired. But it can't be true because some of the teams had arrived only three days earlier and it was perhaps just 'bad luck' that all the French were on the list, CNN wasn't, and neither was Russia Today. It was quite comical actually - journalists were slapping each other on the back as a sign of congratulations if you'd made the "blacklist". My poor Italian friend - him and I do lives at the same time every morning at 7am - if it wasn't for us the AP live position guys would actually be able sleep in a little later - he was on the list twice (!!) and he was frantically running around trying to convince the powers-that-be that he had to stay. He got a reprieve until Saturday as he argued he had a live show on Saturday; I'm wondering what his next excuse will be. In the end everyone got to stay and we're all leaving tomorrow. I think the hotel is going to look a little empty after some 30 of us bail out of here tomorrow.
But it's proving problematic trying to pay the bill. None of my credit cards work, and I've phoned my bank in South Africa and they've promised me everything is in order. I am in shock! Not at the Libyan visa system - but that my bank answered the phone!
There was a scramble for a bus for a trip to Misrata today. Not all the journalists were able to get on and there some pretty peeved faces walking around the hotel right now. I reckon one of the Chinese journalists who was forced to stay has the right attitude :"Hell, so I'll have to eat the buffet for lunch and then go to the Turkish bath!" was his response! But then again he's one of the recent arrivals.
Been busy all day with a story that Russian journalists have gone missing in the east of the country. It's strange because I think it's the first time rebel fighters have taken journalists hostage. Normally it's Gadaffi's men who do it - and what's more the rebels have always been the ones to take the journalists to the frontline, to embed us, to want us to tell the world what's happening here. Am watching this story, and also the capture of four foreign journalists - one of whom is South African - by Gadaffi's forces in the west of the country. Maybe it is time to get out ...
FREEDOM TRAIN
I had to laugh. The government is organising three trips a week from the hotel to the Libyan/Tunisian border for journalists. We call them the "freedom trains". I saw off about 20 journalists this morning - we all looked at them with wonder in our eyes as they journeyed out on their road to freedom! They'll be driven to the border and then in a few hours the van will return with the latest load of journos who don't know what's waiting for them ... Ha, ha. Jokes aside, many of them have been waiting - probably for days - at the border to be picked up. My freedom train is calling ... looks like I'll be leaving on Saturday. Mixed feelings about that - I'd like to stay and be part of this story, especially if something is happening - but if we continue to sit around and wait in the hotel - like we've been doing for days now - I think I will go slow-ly mad.
There's a rumour something will happen today. I can't possibly imagine what! But I sure as hell wish it would happen quickly – at least before Saturday!
There was a trip yesterday to Az Zawiya - I didn't go as I'd been there three weeks ago. From the sounds of things I missed nothing. The journos that went all left the hotel muttering 'they'd better not be taking us on a stupid PR tour again," and most returned with that lost expression in their eyes, the expression of defeat and just about giving up after another morning of wasted time. One thing though, they were taken to a police station and some of the photographers were able to capture on film photographs that had been strewn across the floor of people being tortured. Wonder why they’d been forgotten there ...
Oh, I really enjoy one of the French correspondent's sense of humour here. He says his office hasn't phoned him in two days. He says he's scared that if he phones in they'll be like, "Oh, you're still in Tripoli? Why you still there?" Ha, ha. But I'm not laughing that much... I could very soon be in his position... He says a few of his work friends emailed him and said they were moving his office computer and shifting his belongings around. He told me he's worried that when he returns they'll have just taken over his office. (If any of my friends read this, do not even think of trying this out on me - it will so not be funny!)
Last night I chatted with a Libyan "businessman" who just happened to be in the hotel lobby, mixing with the journalists. The topic of Eman al-Obeidy, the Libyan woman who says she was raped by 15 of Gadaffi's men, came up. Now, let me say that I've met this "businessman" a few times before, and he strikes me as an intelligent person but in all seriousness he said that Eman is a prostitute, that waiters and journalists all smelt alcohol on her and that she doesn’t have any parents, which is a little chilling when I think about the poor elderly couple who’ve been on TV sobbing their hearts out about their daughter. CNN did a phone interview with her - Eman said they'd poured alcohol into her eyes so she couldn't see her rapists; she said she'd been kept in a room with other women who were also being raped; that there was a 16-year-old there who was too terrified to scream so they didn’t tie her hands and feet up like they did Eman’s - and she was the one who had untied her and helped her escape. The businessman asked me how Eman had known to come to this hotel, where she’d gotten money for the taxi from, why the security at the hotel entrance had let her in, why that within four hours of her appearing in our hotel there was a demonstration in Bengazi and protestors were holding banners with her photograph on .... I think this guy’s got it wrong, but some of his questions do worry me; also the fact that we never saw her face on that TV interview that CNN did. But what worries me the most is that intelligent people really believe what this man does ....
Long Live Libya.
MIDNIGHT PRESS CONFERENCE THAT NEVER HAPPENED
Well Seif Al-Islam turned up at our hotel last night so we know where he is. I got a phone call to come downstairs by one of the nice AP guys at around eleven pm (who then apologised this morning for waking me up - ahem!) but it was true, Seif arrived, and the expectation from all the journalists was that he could make some big announcement. Nothing. He spoke privately with BBC and CNN and left all of us standing with all our cameras lined up, microphones wired, and wondering stupidly what was happening. I still don't understand why he and his father don't talk to all of us when we are all here - but then again, maybe the American/British audience is the audience he wants and he can take very specific questions from their journalists? I haven't seen so many cameras before - it's like journalists and cameramen climbed out of the woodwork to capture what we thought might be some big announcement, especially seeing all the talk is that there is a proposal on the table that includes Seif and his brother overseeing a transition to a constitutional democracy.
But, as is now normal, Seif didn't hold a press conference with most of us and we were left to the wisdom of the government spokesperson, Moussa Ibrahim, who we see every day anyway. He kind of contradicted himself. He said only the Libyan people would decide if Gadaffi would remain at the helm of political change, while also saying that Gadaffi had to be the one to move the country forward politically. It's really a non-starter because the opposition and most in the international community will not even begin to entertain the idea of a post-Gadaffi Libya with Gadaffi and/or one of his sons still in power.
One of the journalists told me he was phoned the other night by one of the minders and told to come downstairs as they wanted to talk with him. The journalist turned around and said "F** you!". The person phoned again a few minutes later and reportedly said, "Best you come!" So the journalist went down, listened to - what he described to me - as an hour long lecture about Libyan politics, after which the minder said he appreciated that the journalist now understood the situation and he in turn would recommend that he not be deported the next day! Such is life at the five-star Rixos hotel. I know it's a million times more difficult to report from the frontline in eastern Libya where the fighting's on the go, but trust me there's a different kind of pressure here. We now call the convoys taking journalists out of here to the Tunisian border, the "freedom buses."
Had a funny mishap during this morning's live crossing to RT. The technical director in Moscow, while we were testing sound before my live transmission, asked if I could ask the cameraman to move the microphone closer to me as my voice was quite soft. I looked at the cameraman. He looked at me. And we picked the microphone up from the floor and clipped it to my jacket - we'd completely forgotten to mike me! Reminds me of the time my producer was holding the reflector (piece of material that adjusts the sun rays to reflect on my face) when he got a call from the studio director - "Tell the idiot holding the reflector to stop moving it so much and hold it properly!"
BATHING WITH THE UNWANTED
I shared a Turkish bath yesterday afternoon with those among us journalists who're fast becoming personas non grata here in Libya. The French and the Italians! The French teams (there are two TV crews here that I know of) admit that lately they've been keeping quiet when interviewing people on the streets - they simply say they're Belgian TV. I actually think they're right. It might be unethical but does one really want to risk ones life for something like this? Obviously it's a different story if they're interviewing an official, but I doubt an official will pull a gun and shoot them dead like a protestor on the street might .... Tempers here are running high. Every few hours there's a new group of pro-Gadaffi supporters in front of our hotel screaming and shouting.
As for the Italians, their foreign minister has now echoed Paris' line, saying that Rome will only recognise the Opposition Council as the legitimate voice of the Libyan people, and that the Tripoli regime has no future. I wonder how long it will be until the government here kicks all these journalists out? They kicked out a journalist from one of the English papers two nights back. I was told he was phoned at midnight and told that "they" wanted to meet with him and that "they" (minders/government) were unhappy with his latest article. Then they called him back and said they were no longer coming to his hotel to meet with him, but he must just be in the Rixos (hotel) lobby at 9am in the morning, ready to be taken out of the country. It's almost ironic - it's like being kicked out by the government is a compliment to ones work!
I was speaking to someone in the Russian embassy. There's a ship leaving today from Libya with about 150 or so Ukranians on board. He said that the biggest problem here is that Libyans don't understand what democracy is. I think he was joking (although I'm not sure) when he said that most people here understand democracy to mean "women and alcohol"!
The rumour is that Saif Al-Islam, Gadaffi's eldest son, is not in Tripoli today and wasn't yesterday, so where exactly is he? The government is still saying nothing about possible behind-the-scenes deals but there's definitely something in the air ...
TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW
Today's the day the government promised that two female journalists (one who speaks Arabic and one who speaks English) could meet with Eman al-Obeidy, the Libyan woman who burst into our hotel and said she'd been raped by 15 of Gadaffi's men. Let's wait and see if they keep that promise. Personally I'm not so sure it's going to happen, although the government is going to be hard pressed to ignore the questions we ask about her at the end of just about every press conference. Her family lives in rebel-held eastern Libya where she's become the face of their fight against Gadaffi. I was quite moved when the mother said that if the government keeps insisting she's a prostitute that will bring eternal shame on the whole family.
My sense - as well as other journalists here - is that the situation is fast becoming a stalemate which makes a political solution the only way forward. But I'm confused how this would work, as Gadaffi himself is as defiant as ever - although we've not heard from him in person in days - but I can't imagine him or any of his supporters accepting an exit plan. (Although he of course would not have to explain himself to his supporters.)
But then, a trusted aid of his son, Saif Al Islam, was in London this Wednesday to discuss what we're being told is a settlement plan for the family. It's all very strange because no-one here will even entertain the idea. And then you can't help but ask where exactly would the Gadaffi family go to? Africa? Asia? So most journalists here suspect there is something going on behind-the-scenes, but it could take a long time for some kind of settlement plan to be worked out.
There's now a tour for foreign journalists to the United Nations building in Tripoli. I'm going to give it a miss - in part because my cameraman has returned to Moscow and also because last time we went there we were "entertained" by a group of children chanting pro-Gadaffi songs.
Where is Gadaffi? No word from him - delivered in person - for two weeks now.
One of the translators summed up Libya for me pretty well. Every time we ask for something we're told to wait. He says in this country "IBM" (as in the computer brand) stands for "Insh'allah Boukra Maleish" which translates into "If Allah wants it (which often he doesn't - as in give us an interview/show us proof of civilian deaths) ... tomorrow (as in we'll deal with it tomorrow) and when tomorrow comes .... "Maleish -I'm sorry!"
FURY FRIDAY
A reader commented that I'm sounding bored with what's happening here. Sorry. I don't mean to belittle the situation at all. I think it's just the mood among us journalists in Tripoli. A group of us were talking at breakfast and remembering when we first arrived here some five weeks back (I love the way everyone remembers exactly how many days they've been here - I'm 31 and counting...) and for how during the first two, possibly three, Fridays we would try to get out and go film prayers at the mosques, or at least ask the government minders if they'd take us. Now we don't even ask. I wonder - is it a clever tactic by the government? Say 'no' so many times that eventually we stop asking - or land up moving around with this permanent zoned-out aura around us. Actually I don't think it's a conscious attempt by the government (I'm not sure they've thought it through so carefully) but it is certainly a by-product of being stopped from doing just about everything.
The reader asked what I sense, hear, feel? I sense fear among the hotel staff. The regular staff were Turkish and they disappeared weeks ago; now occasionally workers come in and many of them are Algerian and Moroccan. One of the woman journalists told me that a young cleaning woman just started crying in her arms the other day because her uncle had been killed in the fighting. I sense the government is tightening up its reigns and I also sense that those 'looking after us' don't actually know what to make of the situation or how to 'sell' it better to the western media.
What do I feel? My feelings fluctuate between boredom and sometimes a bit of fear and panic. This morning, at around 4:30am there was music blaring from two cars at the entrance to the hotel and gunshots fired repeatedly into the air. And then about twenty minutes later there was a woman screaming in the corridor. These incidents might be unrelated (I'm told the minders have started having parties late into the night and there certainly are a lot more non-journalists staying in the hotel) but a group of us had a serious conversation about whether or not the two incidents were connected and whether it possible that the people outside were trying to get into the hotel. Shows you that underneath it all many of us believe a raid by pro-Gadaffi protestors on this hotel is a very real possibility. (Incidentally my gut instinct when the shots were being fired outside was to pull the curtain tighter - I need to re-awaken the journalist inside!)
One of my TV colleagues told me he was in the news headlines today - his channel advertised they were coming to him later in the broadcast and then got so caught up in domestic news they simply forgot to cross to him. That's the talk here - Libya is still an important story, but for how much longer? And as always, only until another headline knocks us out of the way.