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Defiant Gaddafi vows to die as martyr, fight revolt
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Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi speaks on national television from Tripoli in this February 22, 2011 still image taken from video footage.
Credit: Reuters/Libyan State Television/HO
TRIPOLI |
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A defiant Muammar Gaddafi said on Tuesday he was ready to die "a martyr" in Libya, vowing to crush a growing revolt which has seen eastern regions break free of his 41-year rule and brought deadly unrest to the capital.
Swathed in brown robes, Gaddafi seethed with anger and banged the podium outside one of his residences that was damaged in a 1986 U.S. bombing raid that attempted to kill him. Next to him stood a monument of a fist crushing a U.S. fighter jet.
"I am not going to leave this land. I will die here as a martyr," Gaddafi said on state television, refusing to bow to calls from his own diplomats, soldiers and protesters who braved a fierce crackdown to clamour in streets for him to go.
Huge popular protests in Libya's neighbors Egypt and Tunisia have toppled entrenched leaders, but Gaddafi said he would not be forced out by the rebellion sweeping through his vast oil producing nation of just 7 million people, which stretches from the Mediterranean into the Sahara.
"I shall remain here defiant," said Gaddafi, who has ruled the mainly desert country with a mixture of populism and tight control since taking power in a military coup in 1969.
The White House said the international community must speak with one voice in response to the "appalling violence" in Libya and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States would take "appropriate steps" in time.
But Washington has little leverage over Libya, which was a U.S. adversary for most of Gaddafi's rule until it agreed in 2003 to abandon a weapons-of-mass-destruction program and moved to settle claims from the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Gaddafi had declared war on his people and told a news conference she would back sanctions on Libya if Gaddafi did not stop the violence.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon accused Libya of firing on civilians from warplanes and helicopters. The U.N. Security Council met in closed session to discuss the crisis and the U.N. high commissioner for human rights said "systematic attacks" on civilians may amount to "crimes against humanity."
GADDAFI DEFIANT
But Gaddafi was unrepentant. Anti-government protesters were "rats and mercenaries" who deserved the death penalty, he said in the rambling, 75-minute speech. Gaddafi said he would call upon the people to "cleanse Libya house by house" unless protesters surrendered.
He urged Libyans to take to the streets to show their loyalty. "All of you who love Muammar Gaddafi, go out on the streets, secure the streets, don't be afraid of them ... Chase them, arrest them, hand them over," he said.
Libya's official news agency quoted him as telling Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that "Libya is fine, its people are ... holding on to its security."
But British Foreign Secretary William Hague said there were "many indications of the structure of the state collapsing in Libya." Britain and other European nations have said they are trying to evacuate nationals from Libya by plane.
Several hundred people held a pro-Gaddafi rally in Tripoli's central Green Square on Tuesday, a Reuters reporter there said. "Our leader!" and "We follow your path!," they chanted, waving green Libyan flags and holding aloft portraits of Gaddafi.
"There are several hundred (Gaddafi) supporters making their way into the city center. They are in cars, making lots of noise and carrying his portrait," said a resident of the Mediterranean coastal city of 2 million, which is key to controlling Libya.
There are no jobs for these mostly young — under age 30 — protesters, no matter what happens. And that bodes ill for years to come throughout the region, and anyplace else where similar protests are likely to soon occur, including Latin American and African countries with high unemployment and no job prospects in sight.
Even America with its stubbornly high jobless and underemployment rate is not immune. Across the USA, hundreds of thousands of civil servants face layoffs or having their jobs reduced to part-time work — hardly enough income to pay the mortgage and other bills. We already see signs of large future protests with the current demonstrations in Wisconsin.
Nor is Britain immune.
Of course the conditions/situation could be considerably worse, such as Australia which has been pounded — and continues to be — by severe and economy busting weather conditions. This is something that could happen elsewhere on the planet at any time, given the rapid climate change that is sweeping meteorological history under the carpet as Nature changes the rules, and makes what were considered normal weather expectations forever useless.
Adding to the woes is that the world’s stock market values are apt to collapse as a result of all the aforementioned.
We do live in interesting times.
There are no jobs for these mostly young — under age 30 — protesters, no matter what happens. And that bodes ill for years to come throughout the region, and anyplace else where similar protests are likely to soon occur, including Latin American and African countries with high unemployment and no job prospects in sight.
Even America with its stubbornly high jobless and underemployment rate is not immune. Across the USA, hundreds of thousands of civil servants face layoffs or having their jobs reduced to part-time work — hardly enough income to pay the mortgage and other bills. We already see signs of large future protests with the current demonstrations in Wisconsin.
Nor is Britain immune.
Of course the conditions/situation could be considerably worse, such as Australia which has been pounded — and continues to be — by severe and economy busting weather conditions. This is something that could happen elsewhere on the planet at any time, given the rapid climate change that is sweeping meteorological history under the carpet as Nature changes the rules, and makes what were considered normal weather expectations forever useless.
Adding to the woes is that the world’s stock market values are apt to collapse as a result of all the aforementioned.
We do live in interesting times.
What are the sources for the information about what’s going on in Libya? Are we getting factual information or is this the quality of the information we got on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Some very iffy reporting here.
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