Empire Again Punishes The People To Force Regime Change For Resource Control

My goodness, where have we seen this shit before?

Libya faces fuel crisis as oil supplies dwindle

"Police officers in riot gear and armed with wooden staves have been manning fuel pumps at a petrol station in Tripoli as long queues of cars caused traffic chaos in western Libya, amid fears that the Gaddafi regime is running out of its most precious commodity.

Queues of vehicles, sometimes five or six deep, stretched up to half a kilometre from some petrol stations last week, most of which are shut behind makeshift barriers. Two men in a queue near the city of Zuwara said they had been waiting for five days in the hope of a fresh delivery.

At the few stations around the capital, where cars were inching forward, armed soldiers and police attempted to keep order as motorists and pedestrians carrying containers jostled to get served. Fights sometimes break out, according to locals.

The Libyan government has blamed the fuel crisis on its own "mismanagement of distribution". But deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim also accused the international community of "trying to starve the Libyan people by cutting all supplies to 5.2 million people in the south and the west of the country".

The dearth of fuel is the most obvious sign of the economic impact of the crisis that has engulfed Libya for more than two months. But cigarette prices have doubled in the past month; bread is in short supply since Egyptian bakery workers fled the country; cash withdrawals from banks have been capped as the government faces a currency shortfall; many shops are shuttered as both supplies and customers dwindle.

Nato has confirmed that 18 warships are patrolling waters outside Tripoli's port to inspect cargo ships that could be carrying arms or other materials of potential military use to the regime. The sea embargo does not include deliveries of food, drugs or other basic needs, Nato said. However, the terms of UN resolution 1970 covers any product deemed by Nato intelligence as destined for the Libyan military that could be used to attack civilians. "This can include the interception of oil tankers," a spokesman said."

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