Dubai: Approximately 2,000 people, including 200 women, are missing in the Libyan town of Zawiya, said Libyan sources in contact with rebel authorities in the country.
Since the unrest began in Libya approximately 2,000 people have gone missing in the strategic town of Zawiya, and there are unconfirmed reports of sexual violence being used against women and children by forces loyal to embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
In focus: Unrest in the Middle East
"This is part of [Muammar] Gaddafi's strategy of cleaning every beit-beit and zenga-zenga (home and alley)", said Khalid Al Aqeeli, secretary general of the Geneva based Human Rights Solidarity organisation which liaises between the rebel authorities in Benghazi and humanitarian organisatinos in Geneva.
Zawiya, he said, is facing the biggest crisis in Libya as it is almost completely under the control of the Gaddafi regime and has almost no access to humanitarian aid.
A Libyan resident of Ireland who has helped set up a hotline with human rights organisations for reports of abuses said the number of those missing in the west of the country could be "far higher".
"It's impossible to determine the situation precisely," he said, adding that since phone networks have been interrupted, most of his information had been coming from those who managed to leave the country or those who manage to slip in to smuggle humanitarian aid and come back out.
"We had a hundred calls a day before," he said. "Some go out of their way to call us so they are not caught. People in the west are petrified. They can't leave their homes," he said.
Fear of retribution
He did not want to reveal his name in fear of retribution for his family in western Libya.
There have also been indications that forces loyal to Gaddafi have been using sex as a weapon in an organised manner, said Al Aqeeli. Some of the Gaddafi forces caught by rebel forces were found to have condoms and sexual performance enhancement pills.
He said that was particularly worrying because seven of those caught separately were recently found to have AIDS.
The news comes as the International Criminal Court said on Tuesday that it has evidence that the Gaddafi's regime planned to put down protests by killing civilians.
In Tripoli alone, approximately 8,000 people are missing, 600 have died and 2,000 have been injured since the unrest began in the country in the middle of March, said Al Aqeeli, citing rebel sources.
Phone networks
Mobile phone networks in the east of the country continue to be jammed, said Aqeeli, but rebel authorities are "working on getting them restored".
They were jammed by rebel authorities to prevent the regime in Tripoli from tapping into phone calls between rebel leaders and between fighters, as well as to prevent regime officials from contacting Gaddafi loyalist fighters advancing eastwards to rebel-held territory.
"[The rebel authorities] are working on getting new equipment that will enable us to separate the east's phone network entirely from the west's, following which the phone network will be restored," he said.
Al Aqeeli said the equipment was coming from non-state groups, but did not disclose their names.
Oil export to start
Libyan rebels were set on Tuesday to begin exporting oil for the first time since mid-March after a tanker capable of holding $100 million worth of crude docked at an eastern port.
The Liberian-flagged tanker "has docked in Tobruk," Michelle Bockmann, markets editor of shipping news and data provider Lloyd's List, said in London. "The boat is expected to be loaded on April 6."
Earlier, Bockman said the ship was "a Suezmax tanker and it's able to load one million barrels, or about 130,000 tonnes of oil. So it's over $100 million ' (70.5 million euros) worth of crude."
The rebels would neither confirm nor deny reports the ship was due yesterday, calling it a matter of "national security".
With input from AFP
