Libya Protests Spread And Intensify
By Al Jazeera
21 February, 2011
Al Jazeera
Dozens have been reported dead after more violence in the Libyan capital as angry protests against embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi's 40-year rule escalate across the country.
At least 61 people were killed in clashes in Tripoli on Monday, witnesses told Al Jazeera. The protests appeared to be gathering momentum, with demonstrators saying they had taken control of several key towns in the country, including the city of Benghazi.
Another huge march under way in Tripoli on Monday afternoon was reportedly under attack by security forces using military planes and live ammunition to fire on protesters, sources told Al Jazeera.
Ahmed Elgazir, a human rights researcher at the Libyan News Centre (LNC) also told Al Jazeera that security forces were "massacring" protesters in Tripoli.
Elgazir said the LNC, based in Geneva, Switzerland, received a call for help from a woman "witnessing the massacre in progress who called on a satellite phone".
Libyan authorities have cut all landline and wireless communication in the country, making it impossible to verify the information.
Meanwhile, the Reuters news agency reported British foreign secretary, William Hague, saying he had seen some information to suggest Gaddafi had fled Libya on Monday.
However, government officials in Venezuela have denied these reports, Al Jazeera's Dima Khatib reported from Caracas. The Libyan deputy foreign minister also denied that Gaddafi had fled.
Spreading violence
News of the spreading violence in Libya came as a privately run local newspaper reported that the country's justice minister had resigned over the deadly force used against protesters.
Ahmad Jibreel, a Libyan diplomat, spoke to Al Jazeera on Monday and confirmed that the justice minister had sided with the protesters.
"I was speaking to the minister of justice just a few minutes ago... he told me personally, he told me he had joined the supporters. He is trying to organise good things in all cities," he said.
Jibreel also told Al Jazeera that key cities near Libya's border with Egypt were now in the hands of protesters, which he said would enable foreign media to now enter the country.
"Gaddafi's guards started shooting people in the second day and they shot two people only. We had on that day in Al Bayda city only 300 protesters. When they killed two people, we had more than 5,000 at their funeral, and when they killed 15 people the next day, we had more than 50,000 the following day.
"This means that the more Gaddafi kills people, the more people go into the streets."
Political asylum
Two Libyan air force jets landed in Malta on Monday and their pilots asked for political asylum, a military source said.
The pilots, who made an unauthorised landing in Malta, claimed to have defected after failing to follow orders to attack civilians protesting in Benghazi in Libya, Al Jazeera's Karl Stagno-Navarra reported.
The pilots are claiming to be Libyan air force colonels. They are being questioned by authorities who are attempting to verify their identities, while the planes are still held at Malta's airport.
The two Mirage jets landed at Malta International Airport shortly after two civilian helicopters landed carrying seven people who said they were French. Only one of the passengers had a passport.
Crimes against humanity
A spokesperson for UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon said he held an extensive discussion with president Gaddafi on Monday, and condemned the escalating violence in Libya, telling him it "must stop immediately”.
" ... The Secretary-General underlined the need to ensure the protection of the civilian population under any circumstances. He urged all parties to exercise restraint and called upon the authorities to engage in broad-based dialogue to address legitimate concerns of the population,” the spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, Libya's ambassadors at the United Nations are calling for Gaddafi to step down as the country's ruler.
Deputy Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi said on Monday that if Gaddafi does not relinquish power, "the Libyan people will get rid of him”.
"We don't agree with anything the regime is doing ... we are here to serve the Libyan people," Dabbashi told Al Jazeera.
Dabbashi urged the international community to impose a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent mercenaries, weapons and other supplies from reaching Gadhafi and his security forces.
The diplomat said the Libyan delegation also urged the International Criminal Court to investigate possible crimes against humanity committed against the Libyan people.
Civil war warning
On Monday, Libyan state television reported Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, a son of the Libyan leader, is forming a committee to investigate the incidents taking place in the country
This came hours after Saif Gaddafi warned of a civil war if anti-government protests continue to spread in the country.
Speaking on state television in the early hours of Monday morning, Saif Gaddafi blamed thugs, inmates, foreigners and Islamists for the unrest that has spread across the country since February 14.
He promised a conference on constitutional reforms within two days and said Libyans should "forget oil and petrol" and prepare themselves for occupation by "the West" if they failed to agree.
The younger Gaddafi contrasted the situation in Libya with revolts earlier this year in Egypt and Tunisia, where longtime rulers were forced step down or fled in the face of mass popular discontent.
Protesters in Libya have similarly called for Muammar Gaddafi's ousting, but his son warned against this, saying "Libya is different, if there is disturbance it will split into several states".
"You can say we want democracy and rights, we can talk about it, we should have talked about it before. It's this or war. Instead of crying over 200 deaths, we will cry over hundreds of thousands of deaths.
"Brothers, there are $200bn worth of projects at stake now. We will agree to all these issues immediately. We will then be able to keep our country, unlike our neighbours.
"Or else, be ready to start a civil war and chaos and forget oil and petrol."
But his statements have failed to hinder demonstrations. Protesters say they have taken control of several key towns, including the eastern city of Benghazi. Al Bayda and Sabha were also said to have been taken over by protesters.
Tripoli violence
Following Saif Gaddafi's speech, witnesses in Tripoli reported an escalation of violence, as supporters of his father flooded into the city's central square and confronted anti-government protesters.
Armed men in uniform fired into the crowds, witnesses said, and continuous gunfire could be heard in the background of recorded phone calls from the capital released to journalists by Libyans living abroad.
Saif Gaddafi admitted that some military bases, tanks and weapons had been seized and acknowledged that the army, under stress, opened fire on crowds because it was not used to controlling demonstrations.
Though human rights groups have said that hundreds of protesters have died, a toll they still described as "conservative," Saif Gaddafi said that numbers had been exaggerated.
He said there were 14 dead in Tripoli and 84 in Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city and the site of some of the bloodiest security crackdowns.
In a new estimate released on Sunday, Human Rights Watch said at least 233 people have died so far.
Doctors and eyewitnesses throughout Libya have offered widely varying death toll but have reported many hundreds of injured, even in Benghazi alone.
'Desperate speech'
Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst, said Saif Gaddafi's speech appeared "desperate".
"It sounded like a desperate speech by a desperate son of a dictator who's trying to use blackmail on the Libyan people by threatening that he could turn the country into a bloodbath," Bishara said.
"That is very dangerous coming from someone who doesn't even hold an official role in Libya - so in so many ways, this could be the beginning of a nightmare scenario for Libya if a despotic leader puts his son on air in order to warn his people of a bloodbath if they don't listen to the orders or the dictates of a dictators."
"It's also fascinating how he threatened the West with chaos in Libya and then threatened Libyans with Western intervention, because, as he put it, that would turn Libya into a decentralised country allowing various Islamist groups to take over, which the West would not allow," Bishara said.
Awad Elfeituri from the Libyan Information Centre in Qatar told Al Jazeera that the young Gaddafi "is in a state of panic now. I think he is trying to send a message to the west, I don't think he was talking to the Libyan people".
Elfeituri said the Gaddafi regime was still trying to do its best to hold onto power. "I don't think they will surrender easily," he said.
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