Video of the Benghazi woman claiming she was kidnapped and raped.

[wintera]

I can't see another thread about this, forgive me if there is one. A Benghazi woman went to a hotel where a lot of journalists were staying to try and speak out about what had happened to her. Here is the video : -

news.sky.com/skynews/video

And more on the story, as a follow up

news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Iman-al-Obeidi-Rape-and-Torture-Allegations-Arrests-Made-After-Woman-Burst-Into-Tripoli-Hotel/Article/201103415960967?lpos=World_News_Carousel_Region_1&lid=ARTICLE_15960967_Iman_al-Obeidi_Rape_and_Torture_Allegations%3A_Arrests_Made_After_Woman_Burst_Into_Tripoli_Hotel

Another video here

Facebook page here

www.facebook.com/pages/Free-Iman-Al-Obeidi/204101406285342?sk=wall

as a link:

www.facebook.com/pages/Free-Iman-Al-Obeidi/204101406285342?sk=wall

Chilling stuff isn't it - what's the betting she reappears in a day or two looking dead eyed and saying it was all a 'misunderstanding'

I fear you may be right Nancy66. That video is horrendous but extremely important.

How many other women and men are in that position right now?

Pity the UN is such a toothless monster, they should be stepping in to these crises, they learned nothing from Bosnia or Rwanda. Seem quite happy to allow atrocities to happen which leads to the question - what is their purpose?

The account I'd heard was that she was seeking to have her report of rape taken seriously. Rape was used as a tool of war in Bosnia during the civil war. There is no fighting yet in Tripoli; it remains likely that this is crime, not part of anything organised by the Government.

Whether she reappears, whether she gets justice; we'll have to wait and see.

"Pity the UN is such a toothless monster, they should be stepping in to these crises, they learned nothing from Bosnia or Rwanda."

The UN are stepping in, that's why we have the "no fly zone".

However someone has to drive the UN to get involved, in the case of Libya many nations pushed for the issue to be discussed. When we're already involved in so many conflicts around the world unfortunately there isn't the resources or the willpower to go and try and sort out every country where bad things happen.

Did anyone see the follow up interview on Sky news where they 'grilled' a Libyan official asking when they would be able to interview the women. The official said it would hopefully be in a day or two but they had to ask permission from her father or brother first .

I fear she wont be seen alive again

So many things about this video disturb me. Am shocked at the behaviour of the women who come and try and restrain her. One of them actually throws something over her head to shut her up. Apparently they work at this particular hotel. Awful! Also hate it when the man in the brown leather jacket comes up and covers her with his body. Can you imagine how that must feel if you have been held against your will and raped? It's just unbearable to think about. I hope she is ok.

That struck me too when I saw the video, women colluding.. [shudder]

The whole thing is horrendous! Poor woman, and SO BRAVE!!

Here is the latest on this story. She has now herself been arrested - it's not totally clear what is going on (unsurprising): she is being investigated for making the names of her alleged attackers public, apparently for going to the international media instead of the police.

www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=1270071037#!/video/video.php?v=1959500667690&comments

A YouTube video and song in English from the demonstration in Manchester on Sunday in support of Eman.

The UN are stepping in, that's why we have the "no fly zone".

We do but I fear this is worse than doing nothing. As I said recently on another thread, having a no fly zone is all well and good but unless we're going to put boots on the ground, we can achieve nothing.

What's our mandate? To protect civilians? How? It seems to me like we're the rebel's airforce. We're bombing pro-Gadaffi forces but not rebel's. The latter are not organised nor do they hold heavy weaponry. So given none of the coalition have the desire or mandate deploy soldiers, I fear all we are doing is delaying the inevitable. Gadaffi will just hole up in his strongholds until the coalition attention moves elsewhere then finish the rebels once and for all.

"unless we're going to put boots on the ground, we can achieve nothing."

Acting to all intents and purposes as the coalitions air force, rightly or wrong, means that it's possible that we can achieve something. I also would not be at all surprised to find out that we've got special forces on the ground assisting the rebels and are passing reconnaissance information to them as well. The rebels potentially have a much better view of the conflict than Gadaffi does, well some of the "higher up" rebels anyway, and if they are able to share that information is actually a very good question.

"What's our mandate? To protect civilians?"

I was thinking about this the other day... It's arguable that the rebels are civilians, they're certainly not a uniformed government military force. And that places the mandate in a very interesting light...

We've taken away the input of the Libyan Air Force and what heavy armour Gadaffi has now can't be moved out in the open, and they're the two types of equipment that the rebels seem to lack. So we have levelled the playing field. Whether it's now level enough for the rebels to win is a fair question.

I remember a rather chilling phrase used instead of "level playing field" in Bosnia: it was "level killing field".

There are more international meetings today about what NATO's continuing role will be. It will be interesting to see what emerges. Also possibly in the UN - Russia is beginning to speak out about what it describes as NATO's providing air cover for rebel assaults. If it encourages the rebels to attack further towns and cities, this doesn't look like protection for the civilians who live in those places.

I suspect all we've really done in "levelling the playing field" is to force a stalemate.

That said, I was discussing this with my OH earlier and like she said did we have a choice? Is this just the lesser of the two evils? The other alternative is to stand idly by whilst Gadaffi slaughtered his own kind.

But in my opinion, we either do the job right or don't do it at all. So either we go in there properly and boot him out. Or we leave it alone. I fear wars fought based on political compromises are just doomed to failure.

They've decided how best to silence her is to do this to her . God but she was brave to even attempt to speak out.

There is an Avaaz petition up and running for Eman al-Obeidi, loads of signatories already, but more needed:

www.avaaz.org/en/free_iman_al_obeidi/?cl=998670482&v=8753