Tuesday, 22 February 2011

'I will die a martyr': Gaddafi calls on supporters in furious speech on Libyan TV | News

'I will die a martyr': Gaddafi calls on supporters in furious speech on Libyan TV

Nabila Ramdani
22 Feb 2011


Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi vowed to fight on and die a "martyr" this afternoon, as he called on his supporters to take back the streets from pro-democracy protesters in a furious appearance on state TV.

Gaddafi, dressed in brown robes and turban, spoke from a podium in a bombed out building that appeared to be his Tripoli residence - hit by US airstrikes in the 1980s and left unrepaired as a monument of defiance.

He declared himself "a warrior" and proclaimed, "Libya wants glory, Libya wants to be at the pinnacle, at the pinnacle of the world."

"I am a fighter, a revolutionary from tents... I will die as a martyr at the end."

His comments came after Libya's ambassador to the US today called for an end to Gaddafi's "dictatorship regime" as tens of thousands of foreigners fled the country to avoid the violence.

Ali Aujali urged the despot to step aside to avoid further bloodshed as a growing number of ambassadors and high-ranking officials resigned.

Mr Aujali said on ABC's Good Morning America: "I resign from serving the current dictatorship regime, but I will never resign from serving our people until their voices reach the whole world, until their goals are achieved.

"I need the United States to raise their voice very strongly. This regime is shaking and this is the time to get rid of it. Please help the Libyan people. They are burning. We need the world to stand by us."

Thousands of foreigners have left by air and hundreds fled across the border to Egypt. Government forces were reportedly shooting on sight protesters in the capital Tripoli.

In the eastern town of Al Bayda, Marai Al Mahry, 42, told Reuters by telephone that 26 people including his brother had been shot dead by Gaddafi loyalists.

He said: "They shoot you just for walking on the street. The only thing we can do now is not give up, no surrender. This is genocide." There were no reliable figures on casualties but New York-based Human Rights Watch said 233 had been killed before last night when gunships and fighter bombers reduced parts of Tripoli to rubble.

State television showed a bizarre 22-second video last night of Gaddafi denying claims he had fled.

The dictator, apparently relaxed, held an umbrella as he sat in a van.

He said: "I am in Tripoli and not in Venezuela. Do not believe the channels belonging to stray dogs. I wanted to say something to the youths at the Green Square and stay up late with them but it started raining. Thank God, it's a good thing."

Opposition groups said it was unlikely that the video was made in Tripoli. "Gaddafi's forces are mainly using planes to kill people now," said one. "The idea that he would be driving around Tripoli is ridiculous."

Eastern cities including Benghazi are said to be under rebel control. The International Federation for Human Rights said Sirte, Tobruk, Misrata, Khoms, Tarhounah, Zenten, Al-Zawiya and Zouara were in protesters' hands.

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has called for an international investigation into Libya's use of machineguns, snipers and military planes to suppress the protests and said that "widespread and systematic attacks against the civilian population may amount to crimes against humanity".

Reader views (21)

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Say what you like, that boy can accessorise. How he managed to get something made, to match the exact shade of his temper is incredible. A new career beckons.

- two20, eastbourne, 22/02/2011 20:15
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Jonathan Smythe, Perth, Australia

Shame on us? Why? What if Gaddafi had used the Weapons from Britain against someone that you don`t like. . . . . indeed, do you even have evidence that a British made device has been used against a demonstrator - and please don`t quote a gutter press item, give us some real evidence.

While we`re at the old "shame on you" , how`s about shame on you for the way Australia has treated the aborigine people, the New Guinea people, the New Hebrides people.

- Rowland, Kingston up the Thames, 22/02/2011 19:27
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It looks like Gadaffi will go down fighting, and be carried out feet first. There's nothing so ungrateful as a mob cheesed off by 4 decades of autocratic rule.

- dhan raj, basildon, 22/02/2011 19:14
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"I will die as a war criminal" more like - at the end of a well-deserved noose.

- Baron von Richtofen, Biggin Hill, 22/02/2011 18:38
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A major clue to his determination is that he is currently in charge of a country with Africa's largest oil reserves. I don't see him giving up on that easily. Greed can be a SERIOUSLY strong motivator to 'bravery'.

- Rogan, Irving, 22/02/2011 18:23
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'I will die a martyr'. Well, he is 50% correct.

- Daddy, Kensington, 22/02/2011 17:54
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I wonder if Ghaddafi looks up websites of newspapers around the world to see what they are saying about him. If so, Hi there Ghaddafi. Get lost you cowardly loser! And don't even think about coming to Devon.

- Dave, Devon, 22/02/2011 17:46
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More Desert Rat than Desert Fox these days.

- dhan raj, basildon, 22/02/2011 09:31

Dhan

In Britain Desert Rat is an honourable term, Gaddafi's no Desert Rat. But he is as mad as a March Hare whose friend was a hatter, presumably also mad.

- Stephen C, London, 22/02/2011 17:28
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Well, the sooner the better!

- John Markham, New York, USA, 22/02/2011 17:28
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Oy you lot, stop making nasty comments about a good friend of Princess Tony. If Blair was happy to grovel to the nutter then we shouldn't be cruel. There must be a decent wedge in it for someone - or did PT clear him out?

- Peter M, Abu Dhabi, UAE, 22/02/2011 17:25
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Martyr? No, he's a vain, greedy, power hungry, despot who has been propped up by various European countries in exchange for oil.

I'm surprised that the Americans haven't already intervened to remove him and install Haliburton as the next president.

- Adam, London, 22/02/2011 17:18
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Now is the time to get rid of the despot, says colonel Gaddafi's U envoy.

Oh no its not, he is just a big softie really and is very missunderstood, says Mrs Clegg.

- Jimmy, Camden London, 22/02/2011 16:51
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No, you will die a coward.

- Bloke, Lambeth, 22/02/2011 16:51
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And you British saw fit to export arms, including planes, machine-guns and the tear-gas which he is now using against his own people (like you never knew this was a risk?). Shame on Britain. Shame on you all.

- Jonathan Smythe, Perth, W. Australia, 22/02/2011 13:41
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"Gaddafi clings to power"....but not to reality it seems !

- jb, sussex, 22/02/2011 12:33
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The genie is out of the bottle and no amount of murderous force will put it back. These protesters having nothing to lose any more. They can't retreat because they'll be targeted by Gadaffi and his state police if they do and the world will watch and do nothing. However, once the madman has gone, other dictatorships will fall like dominoes.

- Baron von Richtofen, Biggin Hill, 22/02/2011 12:27
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Retire to Saudi? Theres a pretty high number of ex dictators / ex warlords living in luxury in London - no need to go somewhere as restrictive as Saudi!

- redsquare, london, 22/02/2011 12:09
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GOOD LAD !!!!

- Phil, London, 22/02/2011 11:39
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So we've had dealings with a nutter for 42 years. Some foreign policy!

- ALEX, LONDON, 22/02/2011 10:38
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Typical brit. Blaming the weather, just like Osborne and Johnson because the trains don't run on time.
Gadaffi should call it a day throw in the towel and retire in exile to Saudi Arabia, where all the ex dictators seem to end up. More Desert Rat than Desert Fox these days.
Having said that the biggest coup for People Power would be to bring down the wretched Saudi Regime from whence most of the extreme Islamism arises.

- dhan raj, basildon, 22/02/2011 09:31
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That nice Mr Cameron is off to the middle east to sell weapons and torture equipment to the dictators who cling to power. Isn't it good that we pay all these taxes to make such things possible?

- Conspiracy Factualist, London UK, 22/02/2011 08:35
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