The Society for Threatened Peoples STP (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker GfbV) accused Libya's head of state, Muammar al Gaddafi on Thursday of racism. He has arbitrarily had hundreds of black Africans arrested, tortured and deported, reported the human rights organisation. “Gaddafi solemnly pronounces African unity, but carries out the policies of an Arab nationalist, for whom black Africans are second-class humansâ€?, criticised the STP Africa consultant, Ulrich Delius. 149 Mali citizens have already been deported. 3,800 members of the Toubou, a black African minority in the south-east of Libya, have been expelled from their settlements by force.

The Mali citizens who were deported by air reported on their arrival in their native country last Monday that they had been treated by the Libyan police like animals. They had been maliciously beaten after their arrest, tied up and tortured. Police officers had repeatedly said to them that black Africans were like dogs and that one should have no feelings of sympathy for them. The security men had also stolen all the money in the possession of those arrested.

The black African minority of the Toubou has been systematically deported since November 2009. The houses of many Toubou families were already demolished by bulldozers on the instructions of the authorities. Several thousand Toubou were arrested because they protested against their expulsion. They were not released until they promised not to undertake any action against the destruction of their houses. Anyone protesting against the expulsion is beaten by security men. Some residents were given only a few minutes to leave their homes before the arrival of the bulldozers . Emergency accommodation was not offered.

Since December 2007 Libya has been withdrawing rights of citizenship step by step from the Toubou. Their children are not allowed to go to school any more and at the hospitals the Toubou are no longer being treated. The Libyan authorities are also refusing to extend the passports of Toubou farmers and semi-nomads who have lived in Libya for many years or to issue new identity documents. Parents have in many cases been prevented from officially registering the birth of their children. “The expulsion of the Toubou infringes Libyan as well as international law�, said Delius.

The Toubou, who number about 500,000, are the most important ethnic group in the Sahara after the Turareg. Spread over an area of 1.3 million sq. km. most of them live in the neighbouring countries of Libya, in Chad and in Niger.