Reply #27: Foreigners complain of harassment by Libya rebels

[pinboy3niner]

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI and KARIN LAUB - Associated Press | AP – 20 mins ago.


TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — A Ghanaian teacher cowers in his house, certain he will be grabbed at a checkpoint because of his dark skin. Armed rebels detain 19 Ukrainian cooks and oil workers for several days on unsupported claims that they are really snipers for Moammar Gadhafi.


They're among thousands of foreigners caught in a web of suspicion as rebel fighters pursue the remnants of Gadhafi's forces. Gadhafi hired some foreigners as mercenaries, but many others held ordinary jobs in Libya, and the rebels who ousted the Gadhafi regime from most of Tripoli last month often seem to make little effort to tell them apart.


"How can we be snipers?" cook Maksim Shadrov asked angrily at a training center for oil workers in Tripoli where he, his wife and 17 other Ukrainians were being held.

...


In one sign of possible change, an official for the U.N.'s main refugee agency, Sam Cheung, said several dozen Somalis were released to his group Sunday.


"We are hoping this is a model, a first transaction," Cheung said.

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http://news.yahoo.com/foreigners-complain-harassment-libya-rebels-203152935.html