TRIPOLI, Libya — The U.N. humanitarian chief said Monday that the Libyan government has promised her access to the besieged rebel city of Misrata but with no guarantees that the assault by Moammar Gadhafi’s forces would cease.
A Libyan official said the government is willing to set up “safe passage” out of Misrata, the only city still partly held by rebels in Gadhafi- controlled western Libya. But at the same time, a witness in Misrata reported Monday that government forces continued to pound the city with rockets and artillery.
At least 267 people have been killed in Misrata, Libya’s third-largest city, during more than seven weeks of siege, New York-based Human Rights Watch said Monday. It said the final toll is likely higher. After inspecting impact sites and talking to witnesses, the group accused Libyan forces of launching indiscriminate rocket and mortar attacks on residential neighborhoods.
The Libyan government has denied firing heavy weapons, including rockets and tank shells, at the city but has turned down repeated requests by foreign journalists based in the capital of Tripoli to go to Misrata. Journalists in Trip oli are not allowed to tour western Libya independently, without government minders.
Valerie Amos, the U.N. humanitarian chief, said she demanded in a meeting with Libyan officials in Tripoli on Sunday that the U.N. be permitted to visit Misrata and other towns to assess the humanitarian needs there.
“I have been given those assurances,” she said Monday, speaking in Benghazi.
However, she added that she received “no guarantees with respect to my call for an overall cessation of hostilities, to enable people to move, to enable us to deliver supplies.”
Libyan regime spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said the deal with the U.N. includes access for international agencies. He did not explain how the arrangement would work or say whether this would include a halt in fighting. The Libyan authorities have insisted they are only responding to attacks by rebels, not taking the offensive.
Early Monday, nearly 1,000 people — among several thousand stranded in the area of Misrata’s port — boarded an aid ship sent by the International Organization for Migration.
Most of the passengers were migrant workers but also included 100 Libyans, among them 23 wounded in the fighting. The organization said at least 4,000 additional migrants are stranded in the port area, including women and children.
