Libya: leaders say 'to fight to death'

Although government restrictions have complicated the task of compiling a tally, Human Rights Watch said 233 had been killed since last Thursday while the International Federation for Human Rights (IFHR) put the toll at 300-400.

IFHR head Souhayr Belhassen said several eastern cities, including the second city of Benghazi and Sirte, had fallen to demonstrators after army units formerly loyal to Kadhafi had defected.

Libya's al-Jamahiriya Two television and al-Shababia radio were both forced to halt broadcasts after their offices were ransacked, witnesses said.

Although they did manage to resume broadcasts, a number of witnesses said protesters had torched other public buildings in the capital overnight, including police stations and offices of the governing People's Committees.

While his 68-year-old father has yet to address the nation since the unrest erupted last week, his son Saif al-Islam took to the airwaves on Monday to condemn the uprising as a foreign plot that would be crushed.

"Libya is at a crossroads. If we do not agree today on reforms ... rivers of blood will run through Libya," he said in a fiery but rambling speech.

"We will take up arms ... we will fight to the last bullet. We will destroy seditious elements. If everybody is armed, it is civil war, we will kill each other... Libya is not Egypt, it is not Tunisia."

But his insistence the regime would not share the fate of its two north African neighbours and crumble in the face of a popular revolt did not convince those in Tripoli.

"We can hear gunfire outside. It hasn't stopped all day," a resident of a suburb east of Tripoli said by telephone.

"When we heard the unrest was approaching, we stocked up on flour and tomatoes. It's definitely the end of the regime. This has never happened in Libya before. We are praying that it ends quickly."

Witnesses arriving at the western border into Tunisia said that police had abandoned the city of al-Zawiya which had sunk into chaos.

"Libyans are burning everything in sight and they are attacking public buildings," said one witness at the border.

AN assault on Moamer Kadhafi's 41-year rule of Libya spread to Tripoli as protesters torched police stations.

Barely a week after his neighbour Hosni Mubarak was forced from office, the Middle East's longest-ruling leader sent out a warning that he was ready for a fight to the death, despite growing signs that his grip on power was loosening.

The president of Yemen, another ruler who has chalked up more than three decades in power, also defiantly insisted he would only exit if defeated at the ballot box but faced growing calls to quit.

And a top exiled opposition figure said he planned to return to Bahrain, fuelling pressure on the ruling royal family for reform.

While there was fresh violence in several Arab cities, the most dramatic events were in Tripoli where the sound of heavy gunfire broke out in downtown areas for the first time since the uprising began in eastern Libya.

"It's hard to tell who is firing: plainclothes police, supporters or opponents of Kadhafi," said another, who added that he had seen three bodies.

A Libyan newspaper reported that the justice minister had resigned in protest at "the excessive use of force" while several ambassadors, including the envoy to the Arab League, also quit.

Portugal sent a military plane to Tripoli to evacuate its nationals and those of other EU countries while several other European governments warned against all but essential travel.

Norwegian energy giant Statoil said it had begun evacuating non-Libyan staff working in Libya while British energy group BP said it too was making preparations to evacuate some of its staff.

Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh, the region's second longest-ruling leader, also struck a note of defiance against a growing clamour for his departure.

"If they want me to quit, I will only leave through the ballot box," Saleh told reporters as protesters, including opposition MPs, gathered outside Sanaa University.

In the country's south, police shot dead a protester in Aden, where protests have raged killing 12 people and wounding dozens since February 16. And tens of thousands of Huthi rebels rallied in northern Saada to demand Saleh's ouster.

While Yemen is the poorest Arab country, wealthy states have also been caught up in the wave of unrest.

In Bahrain, where a mainly Shiite population has long chafed against being ruled by a Sunni royal family, protesters geared up for a rally they hoped would bring tens of thousands to the central Pearl Square on Tuesday.

"We will stay here for as long as it takes," said student Qassem Hassan, as he passed out fruit and water to protesters.

Hassan Mashaima, leader of Bahrain's opposition Haq movement, said he would return to Manama on Tuesday, despite the threat of terrorism charges.

The unrest has also spread to Morocco where five burned bodies were found in a bank set ablaze during protests on Sunday in the northern town of Al-Hoceima demanding limits on the powers of King Mohammed VI.

 

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