SEVEN KILLED IN VIOLENT LIBYA PROTESTS
From:The Australian February 18, 2011 10:51AM
SEVEN people were killed in the Libyan city of Benghazi on Thursday, as Moamer Kadhafi's regime sought to overshadow an opposition "Day of Anger'' with its own rally in the capital Tripoli.
Meanwhile, clashes broke out in the city of Zentan, south-west of the capital, in which a number of government buildings were said to have been torched.
``Seven protesters were killed in the demonstrations Thursday at Benghazi,'' a local medical official who requested anonymity said, without giving further details.
Gunfire rang out in several parts of the city on the third straight day of protests against the long-time Libyan leader, Ramadan Briki, chief editor of the Quryna newspaper in Benghazi, said.
``It is the first time that we have heard shooting in the city,'' Briki said. ``Given the difficulties, we are unable to know if there are fatalities or not.''
Separately, lawyers demonstrated in front of a courthouse in Benghazi - Libya's second city after Tripoli - to demand a constitution for the country.
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The websites Al-Youm and Al-Manara, monitored in Nicosia, said at least four people were killed in the city of Al-Baida, 200 kilometres east of Benghazi, on Wednesday.
Sites monitored in Cyprus and a Libyan human rights group based abroad reported earlier that the anti-Kadhafi protests in Al-Baida had cost as many as 13 lives.
``Internal security forces and militias of the Revolutionary Committees used live ammunition to disperse a peaceful demonstration by the youth of Al-Baida,'' leaving ``at least four dead and several injured,'' according to Libya Watch.
Geneva-based Human Rights Solidarity, citing witnesses, said rooftop snipers in Al-Baida - a city of 210,000 inhabitants - had killed 13 protesters and wounded dozens of others.
Demonstrators opposed to the regime of Muammar Gaddafi clashed with police in the eastern town of al-Baida, according to news websites and a Libyan rights group based in London.
"Internal security forces and militias of the revolutionary committees used live ammunition to disperse a peaceful demonstration by the youth of al-Baida, (leaving) at least four dead and several injured," Libya Watch said.
The scale of the protests will be a test for Colonel Gaddafi, 68, who has been in power since 1969 - making him the longest-serving leader in Africa and the Arab world - but whose counterparts in Egypt and Tunisia have been toppled over the past month.
Before yesterday's violence, various opposition groups issued a joint statement insisting that "Colonel Gaddafi and all his family members should relinquish power", and demanding the right to stage peaceful protests.
Earlier, security forces had used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons to suppress several hundred demonstrators on the streets of Benghazi, Libya's second city.
The protests were triggered by the arrest of Fathi Terbil, a human rights lawyer for Benghazans whose relatives died in a massacre of 1200 inmates in Tripoli's infamous Abu Salim prison in 1996.
Reports said several hundred protesters armed with stones and petrol bombs had taken to the streets. It took police several hours to suppress the protests. A hospital official said 38 people had been injured and at least 20 protesters are believed to have been arrested.
The regime, rattled by the popular uprisings in the Arab world, has disrupted internet services, lowered food prices, released scores of political prisoners, offered citizens interest-free loans and announced financial support for students studying abroad.
It also organised rallies in several cities in support of Colonel Gaddafi that were given extensive coverage in the state-controlled media, while the Benghazi protests received none.
Some reports said Colonel Gaddafi, who likes to present himself as the people's champion, delivered a speech in which he said he would like to join the protests himself to improve the performance of a government in which he professes to have no role.
Britain and the European Union called on Libyan authorities to show restraint.
"We are concerned by reports of the arrest of Libyans who have called for demonstrations or spoken to the media and of violent incidents during demonstrations in Benghazi," British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said.
The US said it encouraged Libya, like countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa, to take steps to meet the hopes and needs of their people.
AFP, The Times
Note:
Videos Posted by Terror Watch
WARNING:A video of the protests and shootings is violent:
Here is video documentation from the demonstrations taking place in Libya in recent days the removal of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who is accused among other human rights violations. The protesters want economic and political reforms along with creating a constitution.
The demonstrations organized through Web sites and Facebook have brought a day of anger that took place today in several cities across the country and the presence of thousands in the streets that burned government buildings and those belonging to security forces.
And security forces loyal Milcia Gaddafi revolutionary committees, as seen in the video, do not make assumptions and firing live ammunition at demonstrators. 20 deaths reported last two days, although apparently high number result.
Muammar Gaddafi in Libya already controls 42 years
The demonstrations organized through Web sites and Facebook have brought a day of anger that took place today in several cities across the country and the presence of thousands in the streets that burned government buildings and those belonging to security forces.
And security forces loyal Milcia Gaddafi revolutionary committees, as seen in the video, do not make assumptions and firing live ammunition at demonstrators. 20 deaths reported last two days, although apparently high number result.
Muammar Gaddafi in Libya already controls 42 years
