News / Africa
Gaddafi's stronghold 'about' to fall!
27 Feb 2011 at 18:01hrs | Views
"The people want the fall of the regime," a crowd of several hundred people in Zawiyah chanted, using the same slogan that has echoed across the Arab world in protests against long-standing authoritarian rulers.
"This is our revolution," they also chanted, punching the air in celebration and defiance. Some stood on top of a captured tank, while others crowded around an anti-aircraft gun. Women stood on top of buildings cheering on the men below.
"Libya is the land of the free and honourable," a banner read. Another depicted Gaddafi's head with the body of a dog.
Bullet holes pockmarked charred buildings in Zawiyah, where the fighting had been most intense, while burnt-out vehicles lay abandoned in the streets.
The scene in Zawiyah, only 30 miles west of Tripoli, was another indication that Gaddafi's grip on power appeared to be weakening by the day.
Reuters correspondents found residents even in some neighbourhoods of Tripoli behind barricades proclaiming open defiance after government security forces melted away.
The U.N. Security Council unanimously imposed travel and asset sanctions on Gaddafi and close aides on Saturday, ratcheting up pressure on him to quit before more blood is shed.
It also adopted an arms embargo and called for the deadly crackdown against anti-Gaddafi protesters to be referred to the International Criminal Court for investigation and possible prosecution of anyone responsible for killing civilians.
The death toll from nearly two weeks of violence in Libya is estimated by diplomats at about 2,000.
Libyan unrest has helped drive oil above $112 a barrel. Even though Libya only produces some 2 per cent of the world's oil and Saudi Arabia has boosted production to make up for disruptions, traders fear further turmoil intensifying across the Arab world.
Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam said there was a "big, big gap between reality and the media reports" and told ABC News "the whole south is calm. The west is calm. The middle is calm. Even part of the east."
As if to reinforce that point, Libyan authorities took a group of foreign journalists to Zawiyah on Sunday apparently to show that Gaddafi's forces still held the town. But once there, it was evident that it was the rebels who were in control.
Residents told of fierce fighting for control against pro-Gaddafi paramilitaries armed with heavy weapons.
"We are finished with Gaddafi. He will fall soon. He has to go now. We are losing patience," one man, called Sabri, said in the centre of Zawiyah.
"Gaddafi is crazy. His people shot at us using rocket-propelled grenades," said one man, who gave his name as Mustafa. Another man, called Chawki, said: "We need justice. People are being killed. Gaddafi's people shot my nephew."
A doctor at a makeshift clinic in the town mosque said 24 people had been killed in fighting with government loyalists over the past three days, and a small park next to the main square had been turned into a burial ground.
"We need more medicine, more food and more doctors," said Youssef Mustafa, a doctor. There are a lot of good doctors in Libya but they cannot get into Zawiyah."
Local people said they had captured 11 pro-Gaddafi fighters, unhurt, and showed reporters two of them who were being held in a cell in the town's main mosque. Some 50,000 people, many of the migrant workers, have fled west to Tunisia since Feb. 21.
Locals in Tajoura, a poor neighbourhood of Tripoli, had erected barricades of rocks and palm trees across rubbish-strewn streets, and graffiti covered many walls. Bullet holes in the walls of the houses bore testimony to the violence.
"Gaddafi is the enemy of God!" a crowd chanted on Saturday at the funeral of a man they said was shot down by Gaddafi loyalists the day before.
The residents, still unwilling to be identified for fear of reprisals, said troops fired on demonstrators who tried to march from Tajoura to central Green Square overnight, killing at least five people. The number could not be independently confirmed.
Libyan state television again showed a crowd chanting their loyalty to Gaddafi in Green Square on Saturday. But journalists there estimated their number at scarcely 200.
There were queues of people outside most banks in Tripoli as residents waited to receive the 500 Libyan dinars ($400) the government promised it would start distributing on Sunday to give each family in an attempt to ease their grievances.
But many people did not get their money.
"They just took a photocopy of our ID and registered people on a list," said one man in the queue.
From Misrata, a major city 200km (120 miles) east of Tripoli, residents said by telephone that a thrust by forces loyal to Gaddafi, operating from the local airport, had been rebuffed with bloodshed by the opposition.
In the second city of Benghazi which broke free from Gaddafi's rule a week ago, opponents of the 68-year-old leader said they had formed a National Libyan Council to be the face of the revolution, but it was not clear who they represented.
Western leaders, their rhetoric emboldened by evacuations that have sharply reduced the number of their citizens stranded in the sprawling desert state, are speaking out more clearly to say Gaddafi's 41-year rule must now end.
"The EU had already started to work on restrictive measures such as assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo," said a statement from EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton.
"Preparations are already well under way. Formal adoption will take place as soon as possible to ensure full and immediate implementation."
Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said a friendship and co-operation treaty with Libya was "de facto suspended".
"We have reached, I believe, a point of no return," Frattini told Sky Italia television. Asked whether Gaddafi should leave power, he said: "It is inevitable for this to happen.
Talk of possible military action by foreign governments remained vague, however. It was unclear how long Gaddafi, with some thousands of loyalists – including his tribesmen and military units commanded by his sons – might hold out against rebel forces comprised of youthful gunmen and mutinous soldiers.
"This is our revolution," they also chanted, punching the air in celebration and defiance. Some stood on top of a captured tank, while others crowded around an anti-aircraft gun. Women stood on top of buildings cheering on the men below.
"Libya is the land of the free and honourable," a banner read. Another depicted Gaddafi's head with the body of a dog.
Bullet holes pockmarked charred buildings in Zawiyah, where the fighting had been most intense, while burnt-out vehicles lay abandoned in the streets.
The scene in Zawiyah, only 30 miles west of Tripoli, was another indication that Gaddafi's grip on power appeared to be weakening by the day.
Reuters correspondents found residents even in some neighbourhoods of Tripoli behind barricades proclaiming open defiance after government security forces melted away.
The U.N. Security Council unanimously imposed travel and asset sanctions on Gaddafi and close aides on Saturday, ratcheting up pressure on him to quit before more blood is shed.
It also adopted an arms embargo and called for the deadly crackdown against anti-Gaddafi protesters to be referred to the International Criminal Court for investigation and possible prosecution of anyone responsible for killing civilians.
The death toll from nearly two weeks of violence in Libya is estimated by diplomats at about 2,000.
Libyan unrest has helped drive oil above $112 a barrel. Even though Libya only produces some 2 per cent of the world's oil and Saudi Arabia has boosted production to make up for disruptions, traders fear further turmoil intensifying across the Arab world.
Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam said there was a "big, big gap between reality and the media reports" and told ABC News "the whole south is calm. The west is calm. The middle is calm. Even part of the east."
As if to reinforce that point, Libyan authorities took a group of foreign journalists to Zawiyah on Sunday apparently to show that Gaddafi's forces still held the town. But once there, it was evident that it was the rebels who were in control.
Residents told of fierce fighting for control against pro-Gaddafi paramilitaries armed with heavy weapons.
"We are finished with Gaddafi. He will fall soon. He has to go now. We are losing patience," one man, called Sabri, said in the centre of Zawiyah.
"Gaddafi is crazy. His people shot at us using rocket-propelled grenades," said one man, who gave his name as Mustafa. Another man, called Chawki, said: "We need justice. People are being killed. Gaddafi's people shot my nephew."
A doctor at a makeshift clinic in the town mosque said 24 people had been killed in fighting with government loyalists over the past three days, and a small park next to the main square had been turned into a burial ground.
Local people said they had captured 11 pro-Gaddafi fighters, unhurt, and showed reporters two of them who were being held in a cell in the town's main mosque. Some 50,000 people, many of the migrant workers, have fled west to Tunisia since Feb. 21.
Locals in Tajoura, a poor neighbourhood of Tripoli, had erected barricades of rocks and palm trees across rubbish-strewn streets, and graffiti covered many walls. Bullet holes in the walls of the houses bore testimony to the violence.
"Gaddafi is the enemy of God!" a crowd chanted on Saturday at the funeral of a man they said was shot down by Gaddafi loyalists the day before.
The residents, still unwilling to be identified for fear of reprisals, said troops fired on demonstrators who tried to march from Tajoura to central Green Square overnight, killing at least five people. The number could not be independently confirmed.
Libyan state television again showed a crowd chanting their loyalty to Gaddafi in Green Square on Saturday. But journalists there estimated their number at scarcely 200.
There were queues of people outside most banks in Tripoli as residents waited to receive the 500 Libyan dinars ($400) the government promised it would start distributing on Sunday to give each family in an attempt to ease their grievances.
But many people did not get their money.
"They just took a photocopy of our ID and registered people on a list," said one man in the queue.
From Misrata, a major city 200km (120 miles) east of Tripoli, residents said by telephone that a thrust by forces loyal to Gaddafi, operating from the local airport, had been rebuffed with bloodshed by the opposition.
In the second city of Benghazi which broke free from Gaddafi's rule a week ago, opponents of the 68-year-old leader said they had formed a National Libyan Council to be the face of the revolution, but it was not clear who they represented.
Western leaders, their rhetoric emboldened by evacuations that have sharply reduced the number of their citizens stranded in the sprawling desert state, are speaking out more clearly to say Gaddafi's 41-year rule must now end.
"The EU had already started to work on restrictive measures such as assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo," said a statement from EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton.
"Preparations are already well under way. Formal adoption will take place as soon as possible to ensure full and immediate implementation."
Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said a friendship and co-operation treaty with Libya was "de facto suspended".
"We have reached, I believe, a point of no return," Frattini told Sky Italia television. Asked whether Gaddafi should leave power, he said: "It is inevitable for this to happen.
Talk of possible military action by foreign governments remained vague, however. It was unclear how long Gaddafi, with some thousands of loyalists – including his tribesmen and military units commanded by his sons – might hold out against rebel forces comprised of youthful gunmen and mutinous soldiers.
Source - Byo24NEWS
