Libyan television on Tuesday dismissed as “lies” allegations that security forces are massacring protesters, after embattled leader Moammar Gadaffi spoke publicly for the first time since the revolt began.
The broadcast came as international outrage over Libyan security forces’ brutal crackdown deepened, with the United Nations Security Council to meet later on Tuesday at the urging of Libyan diplomats who have quit in protest at Gadaffi’s regime.
“They say there are massacres in several cities, towns and neighbourhoods of Libya. We must fight against these rumours and lies which are part of psychological warfare,” wrote al-Jamahiriya Two state television on a red ticker.
This information “aims to destroy your morale, your stability and your riches”, it added.
Witnesses in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, had reported “massacres” in certain neighbourhoods after the state channel had announced security forces were assaulting “dens of terrorists”.
Gadaffi (68) appeared on Libya television late on Monday night to scotch “malicious rumours” that he had abandoned the oil-rich North African nation in the face of protests that flared a week ago in the east of the country.
“I am going to meet with the youth in Green Square” in downtown Tripoli, said Gadaffi in what state television called a live broadcast from outside the strongman’s home.
“It’s just to prove that I am in Tripoli and not in Venezuela and to deny television reports, those dogs,” he said as he stood under a silver umbrella while about to step into a car. Rain lashed Tripoli on Monday evening.
Despite the brief 22-second appearance, Gadaffi’s grip on Libya appeared increasingly shaky as loyalists quit and fighter pilots defected after being ordered to fire on demonstrators.
Government buildings ablaze
The uprising has spread to the capital, with gunfire rattling Tripoli, where protesters attacked police stations and the offices of the state broadcaster — Gadaffi’s mouthpiece — and set government buildings ablaze.
Human rights groups say the Libyan government’s crackdown has killed between 200 and 400 people. Residents of two districts in Tripoli said by telephone there had been “a massacre”, with gunmen “firing indiscriminately” in Tajura district.
Another in Fashlum said helicopters had landed what he called African mercenaries, who opened fire on anyone in the street, killing many people.
“It’s definitely the end of the regime. This has never happened in Libya before. We are praying that it ends quickly,” one resident of east Tripoli told Agence France-Presse in Cairo by phone.
A Latin American expatriate living in Tripoli’s upscale Gargaresh suburb reported seeing several burnt tyres and a torched truck and car during a brief outing on Monday.
“We passed a barricade manned by men armed with Kalashnikovs,” he said, adding: “I was very scared, they had arrested a couple of Africans.”
Terrified expatriates were hunkered down with their families awaiting evacuation from Libya, and said pictures of Gadaffi had been torn in Gargaresh, “which earlier was full of his supporters”.
More than 1 000 Chinese construction workers in Libya were forced to flee after gun-wielding robbers stormed their compound, stealing computers and luggage, their employer and state media in Beijing said.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he spoke personally with Gadaffi by telephone for 40 minutes and “forcefully urged him to stop the violence against demonstrators”, a UN spokesperson said.
Libya diplomats from the UN to Australia either resigned in anger — including Tripoli’s ambassador to India, Ali al-Essawi, a former trade minister — or openly protested.
“My resignation is because of the massive violence against civilians in my country,” al-Essawi told AFP by telephone. “Yesterday they started to use airplanes to bomb civilians demonstrating peacefully. This is unacceptable.”
Defectors
Two Libyan fighter pilots — both colonels — flew their Mirage F1 jets to Malta and said they had defected after being ordered to attack protesters in Benghazi, Maltese military sources told AFP.
Libya’s justice minister, Mustapha Abdeljalil, had also reportedly resigned in objection to “the excessive use of force”.
Benghazi, Libya’s second city and an opposition stronghold in the east, fell to anti-regime demonstrators after military units deserted, the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (IFHR) reported.
IFHR said protesters also controlled Sirte, Tobruk in the east, as well as Misrata, Khoms, Tarhounah, Zenten, Al-Zawiya and Zouara, closer to the capital.
Libyan state television said late Monday security forces were battling “dens of terrorists” in a sweep that had killed a number of people, without specifying where or who was being targeted.
It also reported Gadaffi’s son, Seif al-Islam, as saying the military had launched strikes on arms depots outside urban areas. But the television said he denied “reports that the armed forces had bombarded the cities of Tripoli and Benghazi” after al-Jazeera reported air raids in the capital. — AFP