Libyans complain arms embargo hits trade, fishing

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Only two ships have docked at Tripoli's once-bustling port since mid-March and a NATO-enforced arms embargo is strangling trade, Libya's coast guard and port officials say.

NATO ships and planes in the Mediterranean are helping enforce a United Nations arms embargo against Muammar Gaddafi's government, monitoring, searching and -- if they see fit -- diverting vessels suspected of carrying arms or mercenaries.

NATO said only five ships had been denied access to Libyan ports since the weapons embargo took effect on March 23.

"It is not for NATO to stop basic goods, or food and medical shipments," NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said in an e-mailed comment. "Humanitarian assistance going to Libya, including Tripoli, is not impeded and will not be impeded."

With a no-fly zone also being enforced by NATO, Libya is getting most of its supplies of food, fuel and other goods from neighbouring Tunisia, but fuel shortages have led to long queues at petrol stations.

"We can say there is a total blockade against Libya, which is making children hungry," said Omran al-Forjan, the head of Libya's coast guard, accusing NATO of contravening the Security Council resolution imposing the embargo.

"The situation has reached the point where we have been prevented from moving inside our own territorial waters and this has caused confusion and halted maritime activity even in our waters," he told reporters.

At least 10 ships had been due at the port since March 15 but seven had been turned away after NATO searches, he said.

FISHING IMPACT

Activity at the port was slow on Thursday.

A few workers unloaded a shipment of 32,000 tonnes of American rice from what port chief Naser al-Shibani said was the last commercial ship to reach Tripoli on April 17 -- supplies purchased on the open market before the war began.

A vessel carrying grain arrived on April 10, Shibani said.

NATO says a total of 18 vessels have been patrolling the Mediterranean to enforce the U.N.-mandated arms embargo.

It says a total of 484 vessels have been hailed and 11 have been boarded since the beginning of arms embargo operations. Five of those ships have been diverted, NATO says.

"If individual shippers decide not to approach ports because of the violence which the Gaddafi regime has unleashed, that is their decision," Lungescu said.

He said civilian vehicles had been used for military purposes and the embargo "applies to arms, mercenaries and related material which are likely to be used to attack civilians.

Down on the Tripoli sea front, one fisherman was still out selling his catch from plastic boxes.

"We cannot say we have been banned from fishing but what happened has negatively affected fishing," Forjan said. "They have blockaded the sea under the slogan of weapons sanctions."