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| Gaddafi said that the world did not understand the Libyan system that puts power in the hands of the people |
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has said that he is not a president and so cannot resign his position, and that power is in the hands of the people, during a televised public rally in the capital, Tripoli.
“Muammar Gaddafi is not a president to resign, he does not even have a parliament to dissolve,” Gaddafi said on Wednesday, his third pu8blic appearance since the uprising, surrounded by dozens of supporters in a large ballroom for a ceremony to mark 34 years of “people power”.
“Attacks on me are seen by Libyan people as attacks on their symbol and dignity.
“The foreigners want Gaddafi to step down, to step down from what? Gaddafi is just a symbol for the Libyan people… This is how the Libyan people understood it.”
He said that the world did not understand the Libyan system that puts power in the hands of the people.
“The people are free to chose the authority they see fit,” he said.
”We put our fingers in the eyes of those who doubt that Libya is ruled by anyone other than its people,” he said, referring to his system of “direct democracy” which he outlined in his Green Book political manifesto, launched in 1977
“I have always said that the Libyan people are free [in managing their own business].”
He did however announce that he was willing to discuss constitutional and legal change without armed conflict or chaos.
Gaddafi added there were no protests in the second largest city, Benghazi, Derna, or the eastern town of al-Baida … that it all started with sleeper cells taking over weapons and security stations.
He said that terrorists released prisioners from jails and included them in their forces.
“These are criminals not political prisioners … there are no political prisioners in Libya … We had to destroy the weapons storages to prevent them from falling into the hands of the terrorists.
He repeated his claim that al-Qaeda was behind the popular uprising against his 41-year rule and promised to fight to the last man and woman.
“Sleeper cells from al-Qaeda, its elements, infiltrated gradually … Suddenly it started in al-Baida… The sleeping cell was told to attack the battalion … and it took arms from police stations.
‘Brainwashed’
“The soldiers went home and left their battalion” while the al-Qaeda cells “took the weapons and control of the town. It was the same situation in Benghazi,” whcih is under the control of the rebel forces.
But he said “we will fight to the end, to the last man, the last woman … with God’s help.”
Gaddafi said in a previous speech that protesters were brainwashed by Osama bin Laden and had their milk and coffee spiked with hallucinogenic drugs.
Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland, reporting from Benghazi, said that Gaddafi’s claim that al-Qaeda is behind the unrest will have some resonance in the West.
Amid continued tensions, the Libyan leader also reiterated oil fields in the country were safe but added that foreign companies were concerned of “gangsters”.
He added that if Western companies choose to leave, they will be replaced with “Indian and Chinese companies”.
Gaddafi also called for the United Nations and NATO to investigate what had happened in Libya, saying that he saw a conspiracy to colonise Libya and seize its oil.
“I dare you to find that peaceful protesters were killed. In America, France, and everywhere, if people attacked military
stores and tried to steal weapons, they will shoot them,” he said.
stores and tried to steal weapons, they will shoot them,” he said.
He urged the United Nations and NATO to “set up fact-finding committees” to find out how people were killed.
However, he also warned that if the United States or other foreign powers entered Libya they would face a bloody war.
| Libyan warplanes have bombed the oil refinery and port town of Marsa El Brega on Wednesday. “It’s now an air attack. We just watched an air force jet from Libyan air force fly over Brega and drop at least one bomb and huge plumes of smoke are now coming out over Brega,” Al Jazeera’s Tony Birtley said as a battle between pro-Gadhafi forces and opponents continued. The warplane from Gadhafi’s air force struck a beach near where the two sides were fighting at a university campus. The witness says the blast raised a plume of sand from a dune but caused no casualties, apparently an attempt to scare off the anti-Gadhafi fighters besieging regime forces in the campus. Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi are also reported to have regained control of two strategic towns in the country’s northwest. The bombing of Brega and reports about the fall of Gharyan and Sabratha came as Gaddafi appeared on state television once again. “They tried to take Brega this morning, but they failed,” Mustafa Gheriani, a spokesman for the February 17th Coalition, an anti-government group, told the Reuters news agency. “It is back in the hands of the revolutionaries. He is trying to create all kinds of psychological warfare to keep these cities on edge.”
Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland, reporting from Bengazi, Libya’s second largest city now controlled by rebels, described the situation in the Brega region as fluid. ” I think it’s fair to say that here is a fair amount of fighting going on in that area,” she said. Earlier the Associated Press news agency quoted Ahmed Jerksi, manager of the oil installation in Brega, as saying that pro-Gaddafi forces took control of the facility at dawn without using force. There were conflicting claims about the casualties from these battles. Located between Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte — still under government control — and the opposition-held eastern port of Benghazi, Brega also sits near ethnic fault lines between tribes loyal to Gaddafi and eastern groups opposed to him. Government forces were also reported to be battling to regain control of rebel-held towns close to Tripoli, trying to create a buffer zone around what is still Gaddafi’s seat of power. Our correspondent said an air raid carried out by forces loyal to Gaddafi reportedly targeted a weapons store about 6km outside the eastern town of Ajdabiya. Witnesses told the Associated Press news agency that they saw two warplanes bomb the town’s eastern outskirts at 10am local time. They also said pro-Gaddafi forces were advancing on the town. “I see two jets bombing now,” one witness said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Another witness said rebel forces were rushing to the western side of Ajdabiya to meet the advancing pro-Gaddafi force. Repeated air raids Libyan forces have launched repeated air raids during the two-week revolt but all of them have been reported to target facilities that store weapons in areas controlled by the rebels. Wednesday’s developments come as the US sent warships to the region as part of a Western effort to pile more pressure on Gaddafi to stop his violent crackdown and step aside.
The destroyer USS Barry moved through the Suez Canal on Monday and into the Mediterranean Sea. Two amphibious assault ships, the USS Kearsarge, which can carry 2,000 marines, and the USS Ponce passed through the canal on Wednesday. The White House said the ships were being redeployed in preparation for possible humanitarian efforts but stressed it “was not taking any options off the table”. “We are looking at a lot of options and contingencies. No decisions have been made on any other actions,” Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said. The US says Libya could sink into civil war unless Gaddafi quits amid fears that the uprising - the bloodiest against long-serving rulers in north Africa and the Middle East – could cause a humanitarian crisis. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has cautioned that ”Libya could become a peaceful democracy or it could face protracted civil war”. But Gaddafi remains defiant and his son, Saif al-Islam, has warned the West against launching military action, insisting that his father would neither step down nor go into exile. |
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