I have been watching with interest the situation in Libya. It seems foreign mercenaries have been shooting and bombing the local population and the death toll is somewhere between 3 and 500 people killed.

No one has mentioned the elite Libyan troops. Silvio was aware of them, see photo.

America has Green Berets and the Brits the SAS but Libya has the Green Nuns. This crack force I am sure is on high alert and waiting for the order to swing into action.

The colonel does have a force of female bodyguards.

Very loyal, very nasty.

To give you an idea of the country, let me tell you about one particular man - an associate of Gaddaffi.

In Benghazi, where I worked for ten years, is a good university. Courses are taught in English, mainly from English text books. The students and faculty are bright. (with some stupid lapses)

One day in the campus a poster of the Leader of the Revolution was defaced, some ruderies scribbled on it. The culprits were caught and punished. The punishment was that they were stood on chairs with nooses around their necks. Then one guy came along and kicked over the six chairs. No more problems from those six students, nor from the rest of the student body.

A few weeks after this event the director of the project upon which I was working retired, and I went to the client's offices to meet the new director. It was the chair-kicker. He had got the directorship as a reward for his good work.

I was none too happy about this at the start, but after a few weeks I found that I could go to him with my problems (supplies stuck in port, failure to pay my invoices on time, so on) and these things were very quickly resolved. So he wound up with a very good project, finished on time and within budget, to the highest European standards. Everyone walked away happy. (and very relieved to do so).

The Chadese that are said to be used in suppressing this protest are both hated and feared by the Libyans, especially in Benghazi. I was having problems with property theft on the site and in our compound. I was advised to get some security guards from Chad, which I did. These are guys about two metres tall, black as your hat, dressed in white robes and turbans. At night they look frightening.

When they turned up on site I found them good fun, cheerful workers and very concientious. And the pilfering stopped immediately. You go out on the beach at night and see one of these guys coming towards you, it does seem scary - just a white apparition with no face ('cos it's so black) and coming straight at you.

And these are the guys who beat the living shit out of the Libyan army a few years ago, when there was a dispute over the Libya/Chad border. The Libyan army went down there in full battle array, tanks, planes, the lot. The Chadese laid minefields, then got in their Toyota pick-ups and drove off. The Libs came on, got stuck in the minefields and desert sands, the Chadese returned in their Toyotas, machine-guns mounted in the tray of each pick-up, drove around shooting anything that moved, then drove off again. This happened day-after-day. The Libs gave up in the end. In Benghazi there were funerals after every weekend - about 300 soldiers every week for a couple of months. Don't know about the rest of the country, but Benghazi, a town of around 300,000, was hit hard.

it has been quoted the African and Eastern euro trops are being paid 18,000 Pounds sterling per kill ! ,

I read about that war. Apparently .50 cal armor piercing rounds can disable a Russian tank, at least the ones that Libya had.

I am surprised there is not more discussion about the situation on Thai Visa.

Seems it has all the makings of a great vehicle for expressing viewpoints of the basic leaders of the numerous idealogical groups here.

A number of diplomatic officials have already resigned which says to me the war is won and Gaddafi on the way out.

There are so many sub stories involved.

The family fight about the Coke franchise.

Since Berlusconi's election victory in 2008, Italy has re-asserted its position as Libya's main trading partner. The oil-rich North African nation, for its part, has continued to purchase stakes in Italian companies.

The state-controlled Libyan Investment Authority is a major shareholder in Italy's largest banking group, Unicredit, while other investments span the Italian telecommunications, textile, building and automobile sectors. There is even a Libyan stake in the country's most popular football club, Juventus.

Italy imports about 25 per cent of its oil and 33 per cent of its natural gas from Libya, where Italian state-controlled energy giant Eni has a strong presence.

U.S. options to influence events in Libya are limited, unlike in Egypt and Bahrain where Washington was able to bring pressure to bear as a long-time ally and benefactor. U.S. foreign aid to Libya was less than $1 million in 2010.

Brits are evacuating.

Mr Hague said he was seeking landing clearance for a charter flight to arrive within the next 48 hours and a Royal Navy frigate was being re-deployed to waters near Libya.

I am wondering what the people will do with the Green Nuns when Gaddafi is deposed. Surly the ladies must have cell phones. Has no one thought to call them? Where are they going to go? Maybe the US could hire them to fight pirates? I imagine they are busy typing resumes right now. Or they could open a club in Pattaya.

Thanks for the information, Marky. Very interesting situation. And scary.