’I have received information today, that after the statement by Col. Gaddafi today, the attack on people has started in the western parts of Libya’
UNSC STATEMENT WEAK
MUTINY
MASS EVACUATIONS
The tense emergence of Muammar Gaddafi yesterday confirmed the that the revolution in Libya is going in the right way, and that the end of the dictator may be close and connected to the resilience of the popular revolutions in the face of his threats of further genocides looming on the horizon.
Fresh footage of the Libyan regime's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters has confirmed reports of the military's use of heavy weaponry against civilians. Images, taken at a hospital in the eastern city of Benghazi, show severely wounded and dead protesters. This comes as more than 1,000 Libyans have so far been killed during the military airstrikes in the capital Tripoli.
Reports suggest that the victims could have been killed by fighter jets and helicopter gun-ships. "It's not entirely clear how these men were killed, it could have been by fighter jets, it could have been by helicopter gunships, it could have been by mortar, it could have been by heavy machine guns," AFP quoted Martin Fletcher, an editor with The Times newspaper as saying on Wednesday.
The newspaper says it has obtained shocking footage of corpses with bodies blasted off and severed torsos in the Libyan hospital. "One thing is abundantly clear, they were not killed by tear gas or by batons or by methods of suppressing peaceful protests that are generally considered the outer limits of what is acceptable," Fletcher added.
Gaddafi, who swept to power 42 years ago in a bloodless military coup, delivered a televised address on Tuesday in which he vowed to fight on to his "last drop of blood" and urged his supporters to take to the streets to confront the pro-democracy protesters.
The Libyan deputy ambassador to the UN said that Gaddafi's statements are a signal for his minions to start genocide against Libyan people. “I have received information today, that after the statement by Col. Gaddafi today, the attack on people has started in the western parts of Libya. I hope the information I get is not accurate, but if it's right, it will be a real genocide,” Ibrahim Dabbashi told reporters.
Dabbashi also called on the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, to investigate what he described as genocide and crimes against humanity committed by Gaddafi during the ongoing unrest in the country.
Referring to the UN Security Council's Tuesday statement that called on the Libyan government to stop the violence against its people, Dabbashi said he had hoped for a stronger message from the international community.
The brutality of the crackdown has led many top Libyan officials to quit. Libyan Interior Minister Abdel Fatah Yunes has announced his plan to resign and called on the military to join forces with the people against Gaddafi.
Earlier, two Libyan air force pilots defected to Malta in their aircraft after refusing to carry out the regime's orders to bomb civilians. Reports indicate that two Libyan naval ships have also fled to Malta after refusing to follow orders to open fire on pro-democracy protesters in the port city of Benghazi.
Governments continue to scramble by air and sea to evacuate their nationals from Libya.
The United States has chartered a ferry to evacuate US citizens from Libya on Wednesday, urging them to get to a designated port in Tripoli "as soon as possible".
The British government has ordered a warship, the HMS Cumberland, in readiness for a possible sea-borne evacuation of British citizens stuck in the north African country.
William Hague, the British foreign secretary, said on Tuesday that his country was also seeking to send a charter flight to Libya, but the aircraft had yet to receive the necessary permission to land.
Two civilian ferries from Turkey and one military ship were expected to arrive in the hard-hit eastern city of Benghazi on Tuesday to evacuate about 3,000 Turkish citizens after the country was unable to get permission to land at the city's airport.
Meanwhile, about 5,000 Egyptians have returned home from Libya by land and about 10,000 more are waiting to cross the Libya-Egypt border, an Egyptian security official said.
Some people were still getting out on regularly scheduled flights, but many countries were sending planes to fetch their citizens, with Serbia, Russia, the Netherlands and France reporting they had permission to land in Tripoli.
Greek officials later said the country was ready to evacuate 15,000 Chinese nationals by transferring them by merchant ships to the Greek island of Crete.
In addition to the continuing commercial Alitalia flights, Italy was prepared to mobilize four to five C-130 aircraft, navy ships and, if necessary, even military troops to help with any possible evacuation of Italians, said Ignazio La Russa, the defense minister.
Peru has suspended diplomatic ties with Libya, becoming the first country to take such a measure as the world begins losing patience with Gaddafi, Peruvian President Alan Garcia announced on Tuesday.
