U.S. to sever ties and impose sanctions on Libya, France
Moammar Gadhafi vowed to “crush any enemy” Friday, addressing a crowd of supporters in Tripoli, as he became increasingly isolated in Libya and internationally after the United States said it was imposing sanctions and cutting diplomatic ties with him while France said the Libyan leader “must go.” In New York, the U.N. Security Council discussed a French-British draft proposal for an arms embargo and financial sanctions. Earlier Friday, militias loyal to Gadhafi opened fire on protesters streaming out of mosques and marching across the Libyan capital to demand the regime’s ouster, witnesses said, reporting multiple deaths. But Gadhafi’s opponents said the day of clashes with security forces in Tripoli had left some districts in their hands. With eastern Libya already under opposition control after a week of unrest, protesters held the center of Zawiyah, west of the capital, a witness said, and laid makeshift defenses to fend off government forces after successive fierce attacks. A string of other towns were reported to have fallen to the opposition, but Gadhafi retained the defiance he has often displayed against the West over more than four decades in power. “We will fight if they want,” Gadhafi declared. “Get ready to fight for Libya, get ready to fight for dignity, get ready to fight for petroleum!” he urged the crowd of thousands gathered in Tripoli’s central Green Square, threatening to open military arsenals to his supporters and tribesmen. “We can crush any enemy. We can crush it with the people’s will,” he said, shouting and waving his fists. Later Friday, Gadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam said that his forces were holding back in fighting with rebels in western Libya and hoped that a negotiated cease-fire could be in place Saturday. Speaking in English to foreign journalists flown to Tripoli under official escort, Seif al-Islam said of fighting in two western cities: “In Misrata, in Zawiya, we have a problem. “We are dealing with terrorists … The army decided not to attack the terrorists, and to give a chance to negotiation. Hopefully we will do it peacefully and will do so by tomorrow.” The U.S. said it was closing down its embassy and moving to impose unilateral sanctions, which would be coordinated with allies and others. “[Gadhafi] is overseeing the brutal treatment of his people … And his legitimacy has been reduced to zero in the eyes of his people,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said. “We are initiating a series of steps at the unilateral level and multilateral level to pressure the regime in Libya to stop killing its own people,” he said. Carney said the sanctions would be finalized in the near future but he did not specify when or what restrictive measures would be imposed. The Obama administration said earlier this week it is studying options that include sanctions, asset freezes, a “no-fly” zone over Libya and military action. In Ankara, French President Nicholas Sarkozy said “Mr. Gadhafi must go,” becoming the first world leader to demand the ouster of the former army colonel who seized power in a 1969 coup. “The systematic violence against the Libyan people is unacceptable and will be the subject of investigations and sanctions,” he added at a news conference in Ankara with Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul. A draft resolution, circulated to members of the U.N. Security Council, said the attacks against Libyan civilians may be “crimes against humanity” warranting prosecution by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The text also calls for an arms embargo against Libya as well as travel bans and asset freezes for the country’s top leaders. The six-page draft was obtained by Reuters. “It is time for the Security Council to consider concrete action,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the 15-nation council. The draft resolution will be amended during closed-door negotiations. Libya’s U.N. ambassador, Abdel-Rahman Mohammad Shalgam, denounced Gadhafi for the first time during the Security Council meeting. Shalgam, a longtime friend and member of Gadhafi’s inner circle, had previously refused to denounce Gadhafi. Earlier Friday, Libya’s deputy U.N. ambassador said that thousands of people have been killed in the unrest but Gadhafi may kill himself rather than be caught by his opponents. “They are gathering all the bodies and they are taking them to the desert or somewhere. No one knows where are the bodies of the victims,” said Ibrahim Dabbashi, who has turned against the Gadhafi regime. European Union governments reached consensus Friday on imposing an arms embargo, asset freezes and a travel ban on Libya, but a formal decision will only be taken early next week, diplomats said. But NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said NATO members had not yet discussed trying to impose a no-fly zone to protect rebel-held areas from air attacks. In his speech, Gadhafi warned against military intervention, saying: “We will defeat any foreign attempt as we defeated Italian occupation and American raids.” “You must dance, sing, and prepare yourself … this spirit you have is stronger than any other attempt by the foreigners and the enemies to destroy us,” he told his supporters. The crowd waved pictures of the leader and green flags as he said, “I am in the middle of the people in the Green Square … This is the people that loves Moammar Gadhafi. If the people of Libya and the Arabs and Africans don’t love Moammar Gadhafi then Moammar Gadhafi does not deserve to live.” Meanwhile, residents said parts of Tripoli, apparently the last major stronghold of Gadhafi, were already beyond his control. “I think Tripoli is in uprising,” said one man in the city center. “When you go to Green Square you find it full of Gadhafi supporters. In the other areas, they went out after Friday prayers and they are demonstrating against Gadhafi.” “In some areas it was contained and in some other areas they are … firing in the air to try to disperse them,” he added. A Tripoli resident who asked not to be identified told Reuters in an e-mail that pro-Gadhafi forces had opened fire after hundreds of people in the Janzour district in western Tripoli started a protest march after Friday prayers, Hadar, a businessman who declined to give his full name, told Reuters by telephone: “I saw two men fall down and someone told me they were shot in the head.” Ali, another businessman who declined to give his full name, told Reuters by phone that he was standing with a crowd near a mosque on a road leading to Green Square. “They just started shooting people. People are being killed by snipers but I don’t know how many are dead,” he said. Militiamen opened fire on other marches in the nearby Souq al-Jomaa and Fashloum districts, where witnesses reported four killed. The reports could not be immediately confirmed. Al-Jazeera television said two people had been killed and several wounded by government forces in heavy shooting in several districts. Another channel, Al-Arabiya, said seven people had been killed. Protesters controlled some roads to the city so people from towns nearby could join the fight for the capital, a Libyan in Europe in contact with relatives in Tripoli told Reuters. The 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council unanimously adopted a resolution that denounced attacks on civilians, killings, arrests and the detention and torture of peaceful demonstrators. Witnesses in Zawiyah, an oil refining town on the main coastal highway 50 kilometers west of Tripoli, fought off government forces on several nights, according to witnesses who fled across the Tunisian border at Ras Jdir. “There are corpses everywhere … It’s a war in the true sense of the word,” said Akila Jmaa, who crossed into Tunisia Friday after traveling from the town. Other reports say Libya’s third biggest city, Misrata, 200 kilometers east of Tripoli, was also under rebel control. But Gadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam earlier said the government was in control of the west, south and center, and that his family had no intention of leaving. “We have plans A, B and C. Plan A is to live and die in Libya. Plan B is to live and die in Libya. Plan C is to live and die in Libya,” he told Turkey’s CNN Turk television. –Agencies |
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