Libya: Tunisia indignant over border clashes

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: BBC

Tunisia has condemned a violation of its territory after fighting between Libyan rebels and forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi spilled over the border.

Tunisia said it had informed Libya of its "extreme indignation".

Rebels and pro-Gaddafi troops were fighting for control of the border post between Dahiba and Wazin, which rebels captured a week ago.

Shells fired by pro-Gaddafi forces are said to have landed within Tunisia.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13234859?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[pampango]

2. BBC: Pro-Gaddafi troops 'captured in Tunisia'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13242157

Libyan government forces have been captured by Tunisian troops after crossing the border in pursuit of rebel fighters, reports say.

Tunisian TV said Libyan forces in about 15 vehicles entered the town of Dahiba before being overpowered by Tunisian troops and surrendering their weapons.

There has been fighting between Libya leader Col Muammar Gaddafi's forces and rebels over a nearby border post.

Tunisia has strongly condemned the violation of its territory.

[Igel]

3. Countries adjacent to a war zone have a special set of problems.

One is that to remain neutral they offer either both sides passage or they deny both sides passage. Otherwise they're taking sides and it's an act of war. Note that the near-embargo on Libya already amounts to a declaration of war: Anything Libya does against one of the embargoing powers would be acceptable and none of them should whine about it. (There's this great tendency to think that acts of war that we do are okay and it's our right to bear no responsibility for them, while even accidents by the other side are intrinsically intentional and must be punished in the extreme.)

But the idea of passage also gets to the idea of hot pursuit. If you chase your enemy to the border and into a neighboring state there are two options. Either you stop, and effectively allow the other state to decide whether to give them shelter and let them use the territory as a base of operations or to take steps to eradicate the problem. Traditionally, if a state was not able to deal with the problem of a parasitic hostile force in their body politic they'd turn a blind eye as their neighbord dealt with the problem simply because to do otherwise would be to sponsor a mercenary force in a war. Can't deny that for too long.

So hot pursuit was in previous centuries considered acceptable; if nothing else, it forces the host state to stop being weaselly. In the 20th century hot pursuit was ignored; individual states caught essentially pulling pud while their territory is used for hostilities usually vehemently protest, trying to preserve their weasel-hood for as long as possible.

Tunisia's essentially saying that their sovereign territory is to be used as a rebel base, and that they will use their military to defend the rebels. Libya has hot-pursuit coverage for what it did. That leaves Tunisia declaring war on Libya (a second time).

[Bosonic]

4. Report: Gaddafi forces attack Tunisia border town

Source: J Post

TUNIS - Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi are attacking the Tunisian town of Dehiba, near the Libyan border, with small arms and artillery, two local residents told Reuters on Friday.

"Intense shooting is taking place now in central Dehiba. This started around two hours ago. People here cannot come out. The battle started after the (pro-Gaddafi) brigades attacked the rebels positioned in Dehiba."

Read more: http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=218414

[dipsydoodle]

5. Posted earlier today in LBN

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4831705

[Bosonic]

6. oops, somehow missed that.