DUSHANBE, March 31, 2011, Asia-Plus — On Wednesday March 30, 107 people, including 48 citizens of Russia as well as 59 citizens of Belarus, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan were evacuated by a plane of Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations from Tripoli to Tunisia, the Russian MFA information and press department reports.
In the meantime, Tajik Foreign Ministry spokesman Davlat Nazriyev told Asia-Plus today that six Tajik citizens have remained in Libya to date. “All of them were probably evacuated,” he said.
According to Nazriyev, Tajik Foreign Ministry is currently taking measures to define through the Tajik Embassy in Cairo the exact number of Tajik citizens evacuated from Libya by the plane of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations last Wednesday.
As it had been reported earlier, Tajikistan last month solicited Russian help in evacuating Tajik nationals from unrest-torn Libya, as Tajikistan does not have a diplomatic mission in Tripoli. The Tajik Embassy in Cairo worked with the Russian Embassy there to help resolve the problem.
We will recall that there were 26 Tajik nationals in Libya, most of them students. In the first weeks after the armed clashes began in Libya on February 15, 20 Tajik nationals were evacuated from there due to help of the Russian Federation.
According to international media outlets, several thousand people have been killed and thousands wounded since the uprising against Colonel Gaddafi”s rule began in Libya more than six weeks ago.
The BBC reports that the UK Foreign Office says Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa is in Britain and “no longer willing” to work for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi”s regime. He reportedly flew in from Tunisia on a non-commercial flight and was questioned for several hours by British officials.
His apparent defection comes as rebels in Libya are retreating from former strongholds along the eastern coast. The rebels have now lost the key oil port of Ras Lanuf and the nearby town of Bin Jawad, and are also in full retreat from Brega. In the west, the rebel-held town of Misrata is still reportedly coming under attack from pro-Gaddafi troops, reports say.
The BBC”s reporter in the eastern coastal town of Ajdabiya says the rebels simply cannot compete with the discipline and firepower of Col Gaddafi”s forces. Most reports suggested the rebels had fled back to Ajdabiya, and some witnesses said civilians had begun to flee further east towards the rebel-held city of Benghazi. Major-General Suleiman Mahmoud, the second-in-command for the rebels, told the BBC that rebels forces needed time, patience and help to organize themselves.
According to the BBC, France and the US say they are sending envoys to Benghazi to meet the interim administration. And an international conference on Libya in London has agreed to set up a contact group involving Arab governments to co-ordinate help for a post-Gaddafi Libya.
The US and Britain have suggested the UN resolution authorizing international action in Libya could also permit the supply of weapons.
