Unrest in Libya
Posted Feb 22, 2011 07:21:56 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CAIRO, Egypt – A Libyan opposition activist and a Tripoli resident say the streets of a restive district in the Libyan capital are littered with the bodies of scores of protesters shot dead by security forces loyal to longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi.
Mohammed Ali of the Libyan Salvation Front and the resident say Tripoli’s inhabitants are hunkering down at home Tuesday after the killings and warnings by forces loyal to Gadhafi that anyone on the streets would be shot.
Ali, reached in Dubai, and the Tripoli resident say forces loyal to Gadhafi shot at ambulances and some protesters were left bleeding to death. The resident spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Western media are largely barred from Libya and the report couldn’t be independently confirmed.
Elsewhere about 100 protesters denouncing Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi are rallying outside Libya’s consulate in Dubai in a rare political demonstration for the tightly regulated United Arab Emirates.
The rally Tuesday has been watched by police, but allowed to continue. Protesters have chanted slogans against Gadhafi, whose 42-year rule is under unprecedented pressure from an uprising that is struggling to oust the authoritarian ruler despite a vicious crackdown.
Political protests are typically stamped out quickly in the UAE, which is ruled by a federation of powerful sheiks.
The UAE has no parliament, but has an advisory panel picked by a small group of voters.
And Germany’s foreign minister says international sanctions against Libya will be inevitable if the country’s regime continues to put down protests violently.
Guido Westerwelle didn’t elaborate on what kind of sanctions Libya might face but said Tuesday he had asked the German ambassador to the U.N. to seek a Security Council meeting on the situation.
Westerwelle says it is time for the Libyan leadership to learn from recent events in neighbouring countries and that “the best way to stability is the way of democracy.”
He says: “A ruling family that threatens its own people with civil war is finished.”
