Libya: EU sanctions against Kadhafi enacted

We have previously informed you about the planned EU sanctions against Moamer Kadhafi - Here is the update on that! 

03 March 2011, 17:22 CET

BRUSSELS, European Union sanctions against Libya's Moamer Kadhafi, his family, and leaders of his beleaguered regime accused of brutalising civilians, came into force on Thursday. A list of the 26 Libyans targeted by the 27-nation bloc published in the daily EU Official Journal signals the immediate enforcement of an asset freeze and visa ban agreed Monday. Aside from Kadhafi, the measures apply to his seven sons and his daughter, along with his wife Safia al-Barassi. Kadhafi's brother-in-law Abu Shaariya, deputy head of Libya's external security, as well as two of his cousins, Ahmed Kadhaf al-Dam and Sayyid Kadhaf al-Dam, suspected of "terrorist activities", arms dealing and involvement in assassination bids against dissidents living abroad, are on the list. The list gives names, dates and places of birth as well as job descriptions and reasons for being targeted by the sanctions, as well as passport numbers in a few cases. Also targeted are armed forces chief Colonel Massud Abdulhafez, anti-terrorist chief Abdussalam Mohammed Abdussalam, military intelligence director Colonel Abdullah al-Senussi and his deputy, Al-Barrani Ashkal, as well as the head of Libya's revolutionary committees, Omar Ashkal. Kadhafi's personal security chief Abdulqader Yussef Dibri, and Defence Minister General Abu Bakr Yunis Jaber are also on the list. The EU sanctions, which were adopted with unusual speed and rare cohesion, also called for an embargo on arms sales to Libya, in line with a UN resolution adopted last weekend. But toughening up the UN measures, the EU added names to the UN list and also slapped an embargo on sales to Libya of equipment which might be used for internal repression.
The bloc is currently eyeing added sanctions to hit Libyan companies.

And also: This is Reuters latest News on the current developments in Lybia and the actions the EU is considering, i.e. Taking at the moment. 



BRUSSELS, March 6 (Reuters) - The European Union dispatched a fact-finding mission to Tripoli on Sunday charged with reporting back on humanitarian and evacuation needs there to an EU crisis summit on Libya this week, an EU statement said. The team, headed by the head of EU crisis management, Agostino Miozzo, left for the Libyan capital from Rome on an aircraft provided by the Italian government.
"Its aim will be to assess humanitarian and evacuation efforts on the ground in Libya to make an appraisal of what may be needed in terms of additional support," the statement said. It said it was the first such international mission to the country since the recent violence erupted there. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has called a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the EU response to the crisis in Libya ahead of a summit of European leaders that will focus on Libya on Friday. "I have decided to dispatch this high level mission to provide me with first-hand, real-time information to feed into the discussions leading up to Friday's extraordinary European Council when I will update Heads of State and Government on the situation," Ashton said in the statement. An EU diplomat stressed that the aim of the mission was to gather facts, not to negotiate with the Libyan authorities. "We have people on the borders, but nobody on the ground in Libya to find out what's going on," the diplomat said. "We are not there to negotiate, but to listen, and find out what's going on the ground." Intense automatic gunfire erupted in Tripoli on Sunday, the first such outbreak in  Muammar Gaddafi's main stronghold in a two-week-old insurrection against his 41-year-old rule. Government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim denied any fighting was under way in the capital, saying the gunfire was to mark the army's recapture of several cities from rebel forces.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; editing by Michael Roddy)