GADDAFI KILLED IN LIBYA – XI
The Frame: Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi killed in hometown battle
WARNING: GRAPHIC PICTURES INSIDE THE LINK ABOVE
AL JAZEERA – GRAPHIC PICTURES OF GADDAFI KILLED
Muammar Gaddafi killed video by al jazeera tv news
Muammar Gaddafi killed video by al jazeera tv news – YouTube
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Moammar Kadafi killed in fall of Surt
Many pictures inside link:
http://framework.latimes.com/2011/10/20/kadafi-captured/#/0
Reports were spreading Thursday that deposed Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi was captured and killed in the fall of his hometown of Surt.
The information center for the rebel military in the nearby city of Misurata issued a statement saying “the tyrant” had been arrested in an assault on Kadafi’s hometown. Earlier Thursday, the coastal city was reported to have fallen to forces loyal to Libya’s new government.
Warning: Some images in this gallery are graphic.
More photos: Moammar Kadafi through the years
54 comments
thit min
October 21, 2011 at 6:54 pm
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/video/skyworld-25537618/secret-burial-for-ousted-dictator-27023195.html#crsl=%252Fvideo%252Fskyworld-25537618%252Fsecret-burial-for-ousted-dictator-27023195.html
Kyaemon
October 22, 2011 at 12:08 am
Row over Muammar Gaddafi’s body delays burial plans
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15398866
Wyre Davies has been to see the bodies of the former Libyan leader and his son – this video contains disturbing images
Continue reading the main story
Libya Crisis
* As it happened
* Revolution ‘still has far to go’
* The challenges ahead
* The Muammar Gaddafi story
Col Gaddafi’s burial has been delayed by differences among officials about what should be done with the body.
Under Islamic tradition burial should have taken place as soon as possible. But Libya’s oil minister said the remains may be kept “for a few days”.
It is unclear whether the ex-leader will be buried in Sirte, where he was captured on Thursday, in Misrata where the body has been taken, or elsewhere.
Meanwhile Nato is expected to declare an end to its Libya campaign.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the death of Muammar Gaddafi meant Nato’s military intervention had reached its conclusion.
“Clearly the operation is coming to its end,” he told reporters.
Questions mounting
The BBC’s Caroline Hawley in Tripoli says the authorities now have to decide how to deal with Col Gaddafi’s death and in particular his burial.
They have said they will conduct a secret burial and there is some speculation that they might even try to bury him at sea, as happened with al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, to prevent any grave being turned into a shrine, she adds.
Oil Minister Ali Tarhouni told Reuters news agency that Col Gaddafi’s body was not going to be released from a morgue in Misrata for immediate burial.
“I told them to keep it in the freezer for a few days… to make sure that everybody knows he is dead,” he said.
Asked about the burial arrangements, he said: “There is no decision yet.”
Our correspondent says the National Transitional Council (NTC) needs to co-ordinate with the fighters who captured him in his hometown of Sirte and who have taken him to Misrata, where his bullet-ridden body is now lying in cold storage.
Reuters news agency quotes senior NTC commander Abdel Majid Mlegta as saying members of the colonel’s tribe are in contact with anti-Gaddafi fighters to discuss the possibility of taking on the task of burying him.
Meanwhile, questions are mounting as to exactly what happened in Col Gaddafi’s last moments following his capture.
Acting Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said Col Gaddafi had been shot in the head in an exchange of fire between Gaddafi loyalists and NTC fighters following his capture in his hometown of Sirte
Video footage suggests he was dragged through the streets.
An NTC fighter told the BBC he found the former Libyan leader hiding in a drainage pipe and he had begged him not to shoot.
Misrata’s chief forensic doctor, Othman al-Zintani, told to al-Arabiya TV that full autopsies would be carried out on the bodies of Col Gaddafi and his son Mutassim – who was also killed in Sirte on Thursday.
The process could take from few hours to a full day, he said.
‘Major concerns’
Senior NTC member Mohammed Sayeh told the BBC he doubted that the colonel was deliberately killed, but added: “Even if he was killed intentionally, I think he deserves this.”
He added: “If they kill him 1,000 times, I think it will not pay back the Libyans what he has done.”
In Washington, White House spokesman Mark Toner urged Libya’s interim leaders to determine the circumstances of Col Gaddafi’s death “in an open and transparent manner”.
Earlier on Friday, UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay called for a full investigation.
Her spokesman Rupert Colville told the BBC that the killing could have been illegal.
“There are two videos out there, one showing him alive and one showing him dead and there are four or five different versions of what happened in between those two cell phone videos. That obviously raises very, very major concerns,” he said.
“People get killed in wars and that is recognised clearly in international law. On the other hand, it is also very clear under international law that summary executions, extra-judicial killings, are illegal.”
However, our correspondents say few Libyans are worried about the manner of their former dictator’s humiliating end. Celebrations continued late into the night across Libya.
The NTC is expected to formally announce the liberation of the country on Saturday in the eastern town of Benghazi.
Nato’s seven-month campaign of air strikes was carried out under a UN mandate authorising the use of force to protect civilians in Libya.
Nato has carried out some 26,000 sorties and almost 10,000 strike missions.
Col Gaddafi, who came to power in a coup in 1969, was toppled in August. He was making his last stand in Sirte alongside two of his sons, Mutassim and Saif al-Islam, according to reports.
There are conflicting reports as to the whereabouts of Saif al-Islam.
On Friday he was reported to be fleeing south towards Niger, according to NTC commander Abdul Majid Mlegta.
Kyaemon
October 22, 2011 at 12:13 am
As it happened: Libya’s Col Gaddafi killed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15387872
Minute by Minute Report with pictures
1231:
Rumours are reaching us that Col Muammar Gaddafi has been captured and is wounded. A senior NTC figure told Reuters news agency the ex-Libyan leader had been trying to flee Sirte.
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1504:
There have been fears over reprisals following about seven months of violence in Libya. Two EU leaders – Herman van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso – are now stressing the importance of a “broad based reconciliation process”.
Libyans have been celebrating in Martyrs’ Square, Tripoli, after hearing reports that Col Gaddafi – who ruled the country for 42 years – was killed in Sirte.
Kyaemon
October 22, 2011 at 12:18 am
Confusion Surrounds Gadhafi Burial Plan
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204485304576644560261709714.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories
The confusion over the circumstances of the death of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi evolved on Friday into uncertainty about his burial, amid nationwide celebrations of a new chapter in Libya’s history.
The deposed leader was shot and killed on Thursday while revolutionaries seized his last remaining stronghold, his hometown of Sirte………
Kyaemon
October 22, 2011 at 12:24 am
Qaddafi’s Death Places Focus on Arab Spring’s ‘Hard Road’
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/world/africa/qaddafis-bloody-end-points-to-difficulties-ahead.html?_r=1&hp
…….But with the removal of Mr. Ben Ali’s strong hand, the Tunisian elite has been bitterly divided by many of the questions soon to confront Libya, especially the role of Islam in their new society, law and government. In the final days of the election campaign, the biggest secular-liberal party has pledged to try to build a governing coalition that excludes the Islamists, while the leader of the Islamists said his party members would “take to the streets” if they deem the election stolen.
Nor has either Tunisia or Egypt resolved the frustrations of the legions of jobless youths who enlisted in the revolts for reasons of bread and butter, not civil liberties. In the hard-pressed southern Tunisian town of Kasserine, for example, many say that they are so disillusioned with the lack of change — lack of jobs — since the revolution that they no longer plan to vote. “They want me to vote so they can get a seat?” said Mabrouka Nbarki, 43, whose 17-year-old son was one of the dozens of young people killed in Kasserine during the revolt.
“Why would I vote?” she said, weeping. “There is no point.”
Kyaemon
October 22, 2011 at 12:38 am
Khadafy reportedly begged for mercy before death
Anthony Shadid, Kareem Fahim,Rick Gladstone, New York Times
new york times October 21, 2011 04:00 AM Copyright new york times. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Friday, October 21, 2011
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/21/MN8I1LKCFI.DTL&tsp=1
Misrata, Libya —
Moammar Khadafy’s last moments Thursday were as violent as the uprising that overthrew him.
In a cell-phone video that went viral on the Internet, the deposed Libyan leader is seen splayed on the hood of a truck and then stumbling amid a frenzied crowd, seemingly begging for mercy. He is next seen on the ground, with fighters grabbing his hair. Blood pours down his head, drenching his golden brown pants, as the crowd shouts, “God is great!”
Khadafy’s body was shown in later photographs, with bullet holes apparently fired into his head at what forensic experts said was close range, raising the possibility that he was executed at the hands of anti-Khadafy fighters.
The official version of events offered by Libya’s new leaders – that Khadafy was killed in a cross fire – was not supported by the photographs and videos that streamed over the Internet all day, raising questions about the government’s control of the militias in a country that has been divided into competing regions and factions.
The conflicting accounts about how he was killed seemed to reflect an instability that could consume Libya long after the euphoria fades about the demise of Khadafy.
Watching for weeks
For weeks, as the fight for Sirte, Khadafy’s hometown and final redoubt in the eight-month conflict, reached a bloody climax, NATO forces and Libyan fighters had watched for an attempt by Khadafy loyalists to flee and seek safety elsewhere. Soon after dawn, they did, leaving urban bunkers in the Mediterranean town and heading west, said a senior Western official in Europe knowledgeable about NATO’s operations in Libya.
Around 8:30 a.m. local time, a convoy slipped out of a fortified compound in Sirte, the scene of one of the Libyan civil war’s bloodiest and longest battles and a city that was on the verge of falling to Khadafy’s opponents.
Before the convoy had traveled 2 miles, NATO officials said, it was set upon by a U.S. Predator drone and a French warplane. With the attack the convoy “was stopped from progressing as it sought to flee Sirte but was not destroyed,” French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said.
Only two vehicles in the convoy were hit, neither carrying Khadafy, a Western official said. But the rest of the convoy was forced to detour and scatter. Anti-Khadafy fighters rapidly descended on the scene, telling Reuters they saw people fleeing through some nearby woods and gave pursuit.
A field leader in Sirte, who gave his name to Al Jazeera television as Mohammed al-Laith, said Khadafy fled from a Jeep in the convoy and dived into a large drainage pipe. After a gunbattle backed by his guards, he emerged, wearing military-style khakis. Al-Laith told Al Jazeera that the former Libyan leader had a Kalashnikov in one hand, a pistol in the other.
“What’s happening?” al-Laith quoted him asking as he came out.
The video on Al Jazeera shows Khadafy wounded, but alive. The network quoted a fighter saying that he begged for help. “Show me mercy,” he was said to have cried. There was little of that, in the video at least.
Beaten by fighters
One fighter is seen pulling his hair, and others beat his limp body. Two fighters interviewed by Al Jazeera said that someone struck Khadafy’s head with a gun butt.
Omran Shaaban, 21, a Misrata fighter who claimed to have been the first to find Khadafy, said he was already wounded in the leg and chest and bleeding in the drainage pipe and then whisked away to an ambulance. Precisely how he died after that, Shaaban said, was unclear.
By all accounts, he was then taken in an ambulance to Misrata, a coastal town to the west that fought perhaps the most ferocious battle against Khadafy’s government and whose fighters still celebrate their reputation for martial prowess.
At least one of Khadafy’s feared sons, Muatassim, also was killed Thursday, Libyan officials said, and there were unconfirmed reports that another, Seif al-Islam, had been captured or wounded.
No videos or photos appeared to show Khadafy alive after the ambulance spirited him away from Sirte, though there was a debate Thursday over who exactly was responsible for his death.
Revolts documented
A remarkable feature of the Arab revolts, even Libya’s earliest days, is the degree to which almost every incident is documented, usually by cell-phone camera images. They are almost instantly fed to the Internet and satellite channels, or ferried by e-mail.
A flurry of images followed Khadafy’s death. In one, broadcast by Al Jazeera, his body is half naked, bleeding on the pavement. Even more dramatic is a video posted on YouTube. Celebrating fighters surround his corpse, which appeared to have been washed. Clearly visible is a gunshot wound to his forehead.
“It looks more like an execution than something that happened during a struggle,” said Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner.
This article appeared on page A – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Kyaemon
October 22, 2011 at 12:46 am
Commentary: End of Gaddafi’s life initiates new era in Libya
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-10/21/c_131203309.htm
…..The international community should now ponder the role they should play in helping Libya back to the path of stability and development.
It is hoped that the choice of the Libyan people should be respected, and their interests should be taken care of.
As Gaddafi’s life ceased in the flames of war, Libya is going to open a new page in its history. It is widely hoped the country can emerge from violence and conflict, and be favored by peace.
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NATO to decide Friday to end aerial campaign in Libya
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/video/2011-10/21/c_131204894.htm
Kyaemon
October 22, 2011 at 12:48 am
Backgrounder: Basic facts about war-torn Libya
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-10/21/c_131203288.htm
TRIPOLI, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) — Libya’s fallen leader Muammar Gaddafi was killed in Sirte on Thursday after forces of the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) completely seized the strongman’s hometown, indicating the country’s eight-month civil war is drawing to an end. Here are some basic facts about Libya:
Located in the northern part of the African continent, the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya covers an area of 1,760,000 square km, of which 95 percent is desert or semi-desert. It has a population of about 6,200,000, with Arabs accounting for 90 percent.
The country’s official religion is Islam, and Libyan Muslims are mainly Sunnis. Arabic is the official language, with English extensively used. The capital Tripoli is the country’s largest port, with a population of nearly 1.7 million. The current head of state is Muammar Gaddafi.
Libya is rich in oil and natural gas, whose proven reserves are 43 billion barrels and 1.48 trillion cubic meters respectively. The oil sector is Libya’s economic pillar, accounting for more than 95 percent of the country’s annual export revenues. With a vast income from the oil industry, Libya is a high welfare state, with its nationals enjoying free medicare and education.
Libya gained independence in September 1951, after a decade of British and French administration, as a federal monarchy of three regions under King Mohammed Idris. And in 1953 it joined the Arab League.
Gaddafi formed in 1963 the Free Officers Movement, a group of revolutionary army officers, and overthrew King Mohammed Idris on Sept. 1, 1969.
In March 1977, Gaddafi created the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, known as Libya, and established the General People’s Congress, People’s Committees and Revolutionary Committees.
Since the mid-1980s, Libya has been subject to upgrading sanctions by the United States and the European Union over its alleged terror links.
The country’s international relations have been dramatically improved as it agreed to accept responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing. The UN sanctions were lifted after the conclusion of a 2. 7-billion-U.S-dollar compensation settlement for the families of the victims in 2003.
In a move that caught the world off guard, Tripoli announced in December 2003 that Libya would abandon its weapons of mass destruction programs and accept more stringent weapon inspections.
Libya, which had been relatively stable under the rule of Gaddafi, was plunged into turmoil in February when anti-Gaddafi protests swept cities across the country. The unrest later escalated to a civil war as Gaddafi refused to step down and protesters formed their own governing body, the National Transitional Council, in Libya’s second largest city of Benghazi.
Kyaemon
October 22, 2011 at 12:51 am
Qaddafi’s last stand
October 20, 2011
http://www.csmonitor.com/CSM-Photo-Galleries/In-Pictures/Qaddafi-s-last-stand
16 pictures
On Oct. 17, revolutionary fighters run across the street under heavy sniper fire carrying Bangladeshi children who were trapped in Sirte, Libya, during the entire siege of the city. About 1,000 Libyan revolutionary troops launched a major assault on Muammar Qaddafi’s hometown, surging from the east to try to capture the last area under loyalist control.
Kyaemon
October 22, 2011 at 1:04 pm
Gadhafi put on display in shopping center freezer
http://news.yahoo.com/gadhafi-put-display-shopping-center-freezer-215525065.html
MISRATA, Libya (AP) — Moammar Gadhafi’s blood-streaked body was on display in a commercial freezer at a shopping center as Libyan authorities argued about what to do with his remains and questions deepened over official accounts of the longtime dictator’s death.
Also Friday, new video emerged of his violent, chaotic last moments, showing fighters beating him as they drag him away.
Nearly every aspect of Thursday’s killing of Gadhafi was mired in confusion, a sign of the difficulties ahead for Libya. Its new rulers are disorganized, its people embittered and divided. But the ruling National Transitional Council said it would declare the country’s liberation on Saturday, the starting point for a timetable that calls for a new interim government within a month and elections within eight months.
The top U.N. rights chief raised concerns that Gadhafi may have been shot to death after being captured alive. The fate of his body seemed tied up in squabbles among Libya’s factions, as fighters from Misrata — a city brutally besieged by Gadhafi’s forces during the civil war — seemed to claim ownership of it, forcing the delay of a planned burial Friday.
Also muddled was the fate of Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, the only Gadhafi son who stayed in Libya and reportedly survived after his father’s Aug. 21 ouster. It appeared Friday that he was still at large: some government ministers had said he was wounded and in custody in a hospital in the city of Zlitan, but a military official at the hospital, Hakim al-Kisher, denied he was there.
In Misrata, residents crowded into long lines to get a chance to view the body of Gadhafi, which was laid out on a mattress on the floor of an emptied-out vegetable and onions freezer at a local shopping center. The body had apparently been stowed in the freezer in an attempt to keep it out of the public eye, but once the location was known, that intention was swept away in the overwhelming desire of residents to see the man they so deeply despised.
Kyaemon
October 22, 2011 at 1:06 pm
Gadhafi body stashed in shopping center freezer
9 hrs ago – AP 1:53 | 170,199 views
Warning: Graphic Video. Moammar Gadhafi’s blood-streaked body was stashed in a commercial freezer at a shopping center Friday as Libyans tried to keep it away from angry crowds as they figure out where to bury the longtime dictator. (Oct. 21)
http://news.yahoo.com/video/world-15749633/gadhafi-body-stashed-in-shopping-center-freezer-27030676.html
Kyaemon
October 22, 2011 at 1:23 pm
The Seven Weirdest Things About Moammar Gadhafi
http://abcnews.go.com/International/weirdest-things-moammar-gadhafi/story?id=14779142
Kyaemon
October 22, 2011 at 2:33 pm
Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam arrested in Libyan Zeltin city: TV
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-10/21/c_131205372.htm
CAIRO, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) — Seif al-Islam, the second son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has been captured in the Libyan city of Zeltin, 160 km east of the Libyan capital of Tripoli, Egypt’s Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported Friday.
The report said a field commander of the Libyan National Transitional Council told Al-Arabiya satellite channel by phone that Seif al-Islam was captured in the south of the city and is now receiving medical treatment.
Photos and a video of his detention will be published within hours, said the commander named Ali el-Shawesh.
The report said Shawesh refused to reveal the state of Seif al- Islam’s injuries.
The report can not be immediately confirmed by officials of Libya’s National Transitional Council.
Seif al-Islam has been on the run since NTC forces took full control of Gaddafi’s hometown Sirte Thursday. Gaddafi and his fourth son, Mutassim, were both captured alive by NTC fighters Thursday, but died not long after in murky circumstances.
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Muammar Gaddafi’s death celebrated in Tripoli
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/photo/2011-10/22/c_111114995_5.htm
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South African president criticizes slaying of Gaddafi
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-10/22/c_131205415.htm
Kyaemon
October 23, 2011 at 2:39 am
Libya: Muammar Gaddafi’s body ‘undergoes post-mortem’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15412529
People are queuing to see Gaddafi’s body which is being kept in a cold storage container in Misrata
Continue reading the main story
Libya Crisis
* As it happened
* The bloody birth of new Libya
* Last of the buffoon dictators?
* Revolution ‘still has far to go’
A post-mortem examination on the body of Libya’s ex-leader Muammar Gaddafi has been performed in Misrata, an official told the BBC.
He said the body would be handed over to relatives. The burial has been delayed, with officials divided about what to do with the remains.
The UN has called for an inquiry about into Col Gaddafi’s killing on Thursday.
Meanwhile the commander of the forces that captured him in Sirte gave details of the events leading to his death.
In an exclusive BBC interview, Omran el Oweib said the injured colonel had been dragged from the drainage pipe where he had been hiding, took 10 steps and collapsed.
He said gunfire then broke out between Gaddafi supporters and fighters of the National Transitional Council (NTC). It was impossible to tell who fired the fatal bullet, he added.
Mr Oweib said he had driven the former leader to a field hospital, where he was pronounced dead. “I tried to save his life but I couldn’t,” the commander said.
Questions have been mounting as to what happened in Col Gaddafi’s last moments. Acting Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said he had been shot in crossfire.
Video footage suggests he was dragged through the streets.
Secret burial?
The US has called on officials to give an account in an “open and transparent manner”. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the “way his death happened poses an entire number of questions”.
Mr Lavrov called for a full investigation, echoing a similar call by UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay.
However, correspondents say few Libyans are worried about the manner of their former dictator’s humiliating end. Celebrations continued late into the night across Libya.
NTC foreign affairs spokesman Ahmed Gebreel told the BBC that the post-mortem had been carried out on Saturday.
However another official, Fathi al-Bashaagha, told AFP news agency that there would be no autopsy.
Hundreds of Libyans have been queuing to get a glimpse of the bodies of Col Gaddafi and his son Mutassim – who was also killed on Thursday. They had been placed in a meat storage facility.
It is unclear whether the ex-leader will be buried in Misrata, in his hometown of Sirte, or elsewhere.
Officials from the NTC have said they want a secret burial to prevent any grave being turned into a shrine……
Kyaemon
October 23, 2011 at 2:58 am
In His Last Days, Qaddafi Wearied of Fugitive’s Life
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/world/africa/in-his-last-days-qaddafi-wearied-of-fugitives-life.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp
MISURATA, Libya — After 42 years of absolute power in Libya, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi spent his last days hovering between defiance and delusion, surviving on rice and pasta his guards scrounged from the emptied civilian houses he moved between every few days, according to an aide captured with him.
Under siege by the former rebels for weeks, Colonel Qaddafi grew impatient with life on the run in the city of Surt, said the aide, Mansour Dhao Ibrahim, the leader of the country’s People Guard, a network of loyalist volunteers and informants. “He would say: ‘Why is there no electricity? Why is there no water?’ ”
Mr. Dhao, who stayed close to Colonel Qaddafi throughout the siege, said that he and other aides repeatedly counseled the colonel to leave power or the country, but that the colonel and one of his sons, Muatassim, would not even consider the option.
Still, though some of the colonel’s supporters portrayed him as bellicose to the end and armed at the front lines, he actually did not take part in the fighting, Mr. Dhao said, instead preferring to read or make calls on his satellite phone. “I’m sure not a single shot was fired,” he said.
As Libya’s interim leaders prepared Saturday to formally start the transition to an elected government and set a timeline for national elections in 2012, sweeping away Colonel Qaddafi’s dictatorship, they faced the certainty that even in death the colonel had hurt them. The battle for Surt, Colonel Qaddafi’s birthplace, was prolonged for months by the presence of the fiercely loyal cadre he kept with him, delaying the end of a war most Libyans had hoped would be over with the fall of Tripoli in August.
Mr. Dhao’s comments, in an interview on Saturday at the military intelligence headquarters in Misurata, came as the final details of the colonel’s death, at the hands of the fighters who had captured him, were still being debated. …..
………..They were surrounded by hundreds of former rebels, firing at the area with heavy machine guns, rockets and mortars. “The only decision was whether to live or to die,” Mr. Dhao said. Colonel Qaddafi decided it was time to leave, and planned to flee to one of his houses nearby, where he had been born.
On Thursday, a convoy of more than 40 cars was supposed to leave at about around 3 a.m., but disorganization by the loyalist volunteers delayed the departure until 8 a.m. In a Toyota Land Cruiser, Colonel Qaddafi traveled with his chief of security, a relative, the driver and Mr. Dhao. The colonel did not say much during the drive.
NATO warplanes and former rebel fighters found them half an hour after they left. When a missile struck near the car, the airbags deployed, said Mr. Dhao, who was hit by shrapnel in the strike. When he woke up, he was in the hospital.
“I’m sorry for all that happened to Libya,” he said, “from the beginning to the end.”
Kyaemon
October 23, 2011 at 3:28 am
How a daring band of anti-Qaddafi activists helped turn the tide in Tripoli
Special report: The small anti-Qaddafi Free Generation Movement took huge risks to raise rebel flag and post video of flash protests. The insights they gained in challenging the regime may help shape a new Libya.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/1021/How-a-daring-band-of-anti-Qaddafi-activists-helped-turn-the-tide-in-Tripoli
Tripoli, Libya
The few anti-Qaddafi activists working secretly in Tripoli during the war knew they were racing against time – and to stay ahead of the intelligence agents hunting them.
They were the enemy within, the “rats” Col. Muammar Qaddafi wanted pursued down every alley and inside every closet.
They didn’t win the war: The rebel military assaults instead came from the east and then the west. But in Tripoli they took grave risks to raise the rebel flag, spread leaflets, and burned pictures of Qaddafi. Perhaps most important, they filmed and broadcast their actions – heartening fellow Libyans and letting the world know that opposition could exist, even here.
This handful of bold revolutionaries – just 20 in all, most of them family or longtime friends – had a leader, whose nickname is Niz, unafraid to speak out. He was quoted by journalists, used Twitter, and posted to Facebook. His very presence inside the citadel of Tripoli undermined Qaddafi’s claim that “all my people love me.”
Qaddafi’s 42-year rule ended ignominiously Oct. 20 when he was caught begging for mercy in a sewer pipe, then killed, in his hometown of Sirte – the last loyalist holdout after eight months of war backed by NATO airstrikes.
Those events ended an era for a generation that has known only Qaddafi’s repressive, idiosyncratic authoritarianism. But for Niz and the Free Generation Movement (FGM) – who fought largely alone, unable to fully trust other small opposition cells, given ubiquitous informers in the city – the story is just beginning.
Their experience gave them uncommon insight into the capabilities and weaknesses of Qaddafi’s extensive intelligence networks. But their role in challenging the regime in its bastion – using only nonviolent means – today informs their commitment to build civil society in the new Libya. “We were naive at first, but we evolved, as did the revolution,” recalls Nizar Mhani – Niz – with a laugh. “This is my first uprising.”
RELATED: Qaddafi’s last stand
Stealing a government satellite dish
“We knew what we wanted to do, to get in touch with the media to get the real story of Tripoli out. We wanted to demonstrate an opposition presence in Tripoli … to raise morale in the city,” says Dr. Mhani, a 30-year-old surgeon who was working in Wales. He has spent half his life abroad, but for the past eight months he’s been hiding in Tripoli, relying on his wits and comrades to keep safe.
“Some of [our] activities were small, physically, but they had a great effect on morale … on the media, and it just kept the story momentum going,” says Mhani.
The group’s efforts took place against the backdrop of NATO bombardments and the presence of fervently pro-Qaddafi True Believers at regime rallies and funerals. Adding to the sense of crisis in Tripoli, armed opposition forces controlled eastern Libya, and later the western mountains…….
Looking ahead
So how is the Free Generation Movement now helping Libya move out of the resistance phase? The answer lies on Mervat Mhani’s living-room table, where pens, paper, and computer keyboards are the remains of yet another all-night brainstorming session.
Top priority is to establish mafqood.org, a DNA database whose name means “missing.” FGM is putting the database together to help Libyans trace family members who were victims of the regime or were arrested and lost during the conflict. Thousands are known to be missing, with some official estimates as high as 25,000 Libyans.
“It’s one of many projects that we are going to do, but with mafqood we all believe that the stabilization of families [means] the stabilization of Libya – all of it,” says Ms. Mhani. “Once they have closure, and know what happened to their loved ones, then Libya can move forward.”
Already FGM has mounted public awareness campaigns with videos, such as one condemning racism against dark-skinned Libyans and Africans, who are often targeted as suspected pro-Qaddafi mercenaries.
They have also mounted a campaign against celebratory shooting in the air, because of the danger of falling bullets. “For every problem I see, I see a solution,” says Mhani. “We now have the freedom to fix those problems, which we did not have before.”
Kyaemon
October 23, 2011 at 4:38 am
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/10/21/an_islamist_a_liberal_and_a_former_regime_loyalist_walk_into_a_cafe
Three Libyans try to make sense of their country after Qaddafi.
Hours after Muammar al-Qaddafi met a bloody end 350 miles to the west in Sirte, three Libyans walk into a Benghazi café: an Islamist, a liberal, and a former Qaddafi loyalist. They had agreed to meet me there virtually, via Skype, to discuss Qaddafi’s death and the future of Libya, where I had gone in March and April to report on the war and investigate the roots of the uprising. One of the three men — the liberal — is the friend of a friend I met in Benghazi. The other two are his co-workers at a survey-research firm; they’ve known one another for a few weeks.
Convening this get-together from my home in Oakland, California is less than ideal; Internet failures interrupt our conversation every ten minutes or so over the course of a couple hours, and the loud crack of rasaas al-farah — celebratory gunfire, literally “bullets of joy” — periodically barges into our conversation. Benghazi, Libya’s second city and the birthplace of the uprising against Qaddafi, is no longer a city at war, but it is not yet a city at peace: Civilians still wield automatic weapons, a legacy of the war’s chaotic early days, and the city’s new government seems to be struggling in its efforts to claim a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force (to use the German sociologist Max Weber’s famous definition of a state).
The Islamist, Abdul Salaam, is 30 years old. He is very tall with a big ready smile, and likes to dress simply, in loose collared shirts and capris with sandals.
And a long beard.
He began growing his beard for the first time in February, days after the Qaddafi regime was thrown out of Benghazi. For years, he had wanted to grow one, but he had waited. “I saw what happened to people who had long beards under Qaddafi,” he explains. “Someone would write a secret report about you, and you’d go to jail.” Some of Abdul Salaam’s cousins and neighbors, he reports, went to jail for growing beards, or for other signs of “excessive” piety. “Their ideas weren’t what Qaddafi wanted,” Abdul Salaam explains matter-of-factly. Even frequent mosque attendance could bring a knock on the door in the middle of the night from members of Qaddafi’s security apparatus, the feared Internal Security forces and the Revolutionary Committees. The price of being religious? “Some went to jail for 15 years,” Abdul Salaam says. “Others died there.”
A few of Abdul Salaam’s acquaintances went beyond growing beards and took up arms against the regime in the 1990s. They were members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), which formed in eastern Libya in the early 1990s and included Libyans recently returned from fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The LIFG tried to assassinate Qaddafi three times in the 1990s. The colonel’s revenge was vicious and indiscriminate: Many people merely suspected of association with the LIFG landed in Tripoli’s notorious Abu Salim prison, site of a 1996 massacre that may have killed as many as 1,200 inmates. (Two months ago, Abu Salim fell to opposition forces.) By 1998, Qaddafi had quashed the LIFG as a domestic force. Some of the group’s members joined al Qaeda from exile, and after 9/11, the LIFG’s links to al Qaeda landed the organization on terrorist lists in the West. But between 2007 and 2009, LIFG leaders publicly renounced al Qaeda and its violent methods, apparently splitting with Osama bin Laden’s group; when revolution broke out this year in Libya, they endorsed the rebels’ National Transitional Council (NTC).
With relatives and friends who endured so much under Qaddafi, you might expect Abdul Salaam to be jubilant today. But he speaks with a circumspect air. “When I first heard the news, I didn’t believe it,” he says. “And even after I’d seen the photos and knew he was really dead, I wasn’t as happy as I’d expected to be.” For many Libyans, the reality of life without the only leader they have ever known is still sinking in. Even after loyalist troops had lost control of Tripoli and most of the rest of Libya, Qaddafi himself retained an air of slippery invincibility. “I figured he’d either be outside Libya by now, or somewhere he could escape from easily,” Abdul Salaam muses. It’s hard for him to believe that the man who ruled Libya for almost 42 years couldn’t find a way to cheat death. ….
Kyaemon
October 23, 2011 at 5:01 pm
EXCELLENT ARTICLE BY SENIOR FELLOW AND PROFESSOR OF JOURNALISM
The Death of the Qaddafi Generation | Foreign Affairs
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136603/mohamad-bazzi/the-death-of-the-qaddafi-generation
The Era of Arab Strongmen Comes to an End
Summary: Unfortunately for him and for Libya, Muammar al-Qaddafi betrayed his own revolution, just as the other Arab strongmen of his generation had. His death marks the end of the rule of these old-style nationalist leaders.
MOHAMAD BAZZI is an Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and an Assistant Professor of Journalism at New York University.
In March 2008, Muammar al-Qaddafi took the podium at an Arab League summit in Damascus to deliver one of his famously long-winded and rambling speeches. Halfway through, he issued a prophetic warning, berating the assembled heads of state for acquiescing to the overthrow and subsequent execution of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. “A foreign power occupies an Arab country and hangs its leader while we all stand watching and laughing,” Qaddafi thundered. “Your turn is coming soon!”
The audience broke into laughter. As television cameras panned across the room, the summit’s host, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, chuckled. Qaddafi continued, undeterred: “Even you, the friends of America. No, I will say we — we, the friends of America. America might approve of our hanging one day.” There was more laughter.
They are not laughing now. Qaddafi was the last of the old-style Arab nationalist strongmen, and his death on Thursdaymarks the end of an era. His contemporaries were the likes of Saddam and of Assad’s father and predecessor, Hafez al-Assad — military men from poor families and hardscrabble towns who fought their way to the top, riding the wave of revolutionary sentiment that swept the Middle East in the 1960s and 1970s. Their inspiration was Egypt’s charismatic military officer, Gamal Abdel Nasser, who overthrew the British-backed King Farouk in 1952. Nasser’s rousing speeches, heard across the region via the newly invented transistor radio, kindled visions of Arab unity. It was a time of upheaval, in which the merchant and feudal elites — the allies of the old European colonial powers — were losing their grip. At first, Saddam, Qaddafi, and Assad seemed to embody a promising new era of populist reform…
Until the end, Qaddafi kept up the pretense that he was no more than a guide for the nation. In a televised speech in late February, soon after the Libyan uprising began, he spoke of himself in the third person, vowing to stand fast. “Muammar Qaddafi has no official post so that he can pout and resign from it, like other presidents did! Muammar Qaddafi is not a president! He is the leader of the revolution until the end of time!” he bellowed, pounding the lectern. Then he lapsed into the first person: “I am greater than the positions held by presidents and notables. I am a fighter. A mujahid. A revolutionary from the tent.” Unfortunately for him and for Libya, he betrayed his own revolution, just as the other strongmen of his generation had. With Qaddafi’s death, the burden now falls on the newest revolutionaries to do better at securing Arab aspirations.
Kyaemon
October 23, 2011 at 5:05 pm
Will Oil Drown the Arab Spring?
Will Oil Drown the Arab Spring? | Foreign Affairs
Democracy and the Resource Curse
Summary: No state with serious oil wealth has ever transformed into a democracy. Oil lets dictators buy off citizens, keep their finances secret, and spend wildly on arms. To prevent the “resource curse” from dashing the hopes of the Arab Spring, Washington should push for more transparent oil markets — and curb its own oil addiction.
MICHAEL L. ROSS is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of the forthcoming book The Oil Curse: How Petroleum Wealth Shapes the Development of Nations.
Even before this year’s Arab uprisings, the Middle East was not an undifferentiated block of authoritarianism. The citizens of countries with little or no oil, such as Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia, generally had more freedom than those of countries with lots of it, such as Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, and Saudi Arabia. And once the tumult started, the oil-rich regimes were more effective at fending off attempts to unseat them. Indeed, the Arab Spring has seriously threatened just one oil-funded ruler — Libya’s Muammar al-Qaddafi — and only because NATO’s intervention prevented the rebels’ certain defeat.
Worldwide, democracy has made impressive strides over the last three decades: just 30 percent of the world’s governments were democratic in 1980; about 60 percent are today. Yet almost all the democratic governments that emerged during that period were in countries with little or no oil; in fact, countries that produced less than $100 per capita of oil per year (about what Ukraine and Vietnam produce) were three times as likely to democratize as countries that produced more than that. No country with more than a fraction of the per capita oil wealth of Bahrain, Iraq, or Libya has ever successfully gone from dictatorship to democracy. Scholars have called this the oil curse, arguing that oil wealth leads to authoritarianism, economic instability, corruption, and violent conflict. Skeptics claim that the correlation between oil and repression is a coincidence. As Dick Cheney, then the CEO of Haliburton, remarked at a 1996 energy conference, “The problem is that the good Lord didn’t see fit to put oil and gas reserves where there are democratic governments.”
But divine intervention did not cause repression in the Middle East: hydrocarbons did. There is no getting around the fact that countries in the region are less free because they produce and sell oil.
Kyaemon
October 24, 2011 at 12:16 am
Is This The Man Who Killed Colonel Gaddafi?
5 hours ago – 0:42 | 5,604 views
Video footage has emerged of a man who is said to have killed Colonel Gaddafi and which appears to contradict claims Libya’s former leader died in crossfire.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/video/skyworld-25537618/is-this-the-man-who-killed-colonel-gaddafi-27039376.html
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Huge Crowds As Libya’s Liberation Is Declared
37 minutes ago – 1:55 | 0 views
Libya has officially been declared liberated from Muammar Gaddafi at a ceremony in Benghazi.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/video/skyworld-25537618/huge-crowds-as-libya-s-liberation-is-declared-27040801.html
Kyaemon
October 24, 2011 at 12:26 am
Libya’s new rulers declare country liberated
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15422262
NTC leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil: “I pray for the souls of the martyrs who were waiting for this day”
Continue reading the main story
Libya Crisis
As it happened
The bloody birth of new Libya
Last of the buffoon dictators?
Revolution ‘still has far to go’
Libya’s transitional government has declared national liberation before a jubilant crowd in Benghazi, where the revolt against Muammar Gaddafi began.
Tens of thousands of people packed into Freedom Square to hear National Transitional Council (NTC) leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil speak.
Gaddafi’s capture and death on Thursday came as Nato-backed NTC forces pursued loyalists in his stronghold, Sirte.
The NTC has come under pressure to investigate how he died.
A post-mortem carried out on the former leader’s body on Sunday showed he had received a bullet wound to the head, medical sources said.
The body itself, along with that of Gaddafi’s son Mutassim, has been put on public display in a cold storage facility in Misrata.
Thousands of people were killed or injured after the violent repression of protests against Gaddafi’s rule in February developed into a full-scale civil war.
His government was driven out of the capital, Tripoli, in August.
However he refused to surrender or leave the country, urging his followers to resist the country’s new leaders.
‘United brothers’
NTC deputy head Abdel Hafiz Ghoga announced from the stage that Libya had been freed, declaring: “Declaration of Liberation. Raise your head high. You are a free Libyan.”
Thousands of voices echoed him chanting, “You are a free Libyan.”
Mr Abdul Jalil bowed down to thank God for victory before making his speech.
Continue reading the main story
He thanked all those who had taken part in the revolution – from rebel fighters to businessmen and journalists – and said the new Libya would take Islamic law as its foundation.
“Today we are one flesh, one national flesh. We have become united brothers as we have not been in the past,” he said.
“I call on everyone for forgiveness, tolerance and reconciliation,” he said. “We must get rid of hatred and envy from our souls. This is a necessary matter for the success of the revolution and the success of the future Libya.”
The NTC leader also wished anti-government protesters in Syria and Yemen “victory”.
Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen welcomed the declaration of liberation, urging a “new inclusive Libya, based on reconciliation, and full respect for human rights and the rule of law”.
Nato, he added, would retain its “capacity to respond to threats to civilians, if needed”.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague greeted Libya’s “historic victory”, and also urged the country to avoid “retribution and reprisals”.
Elections are due to be held by June of next year, Libya’s acting Prime Minister, Mahmoud Jibril, said earlier.
The new elected body, he added, would draft a constitution to be put to a referendum and form an interim government pending a presidential election…..
Omran al-Oweib said he had been dragged from a drainage pipe and had taken 10 steps before he collapsed amid gunfire between NTC forces and Gaddafi supporters.
“I didn’t see who killed, which weapon killed Gaddafi,” Mr Oweib said.
NTC spokesman Mustapha Goubrani said Gaddafi’s body would be handed over to people from his tribe for burial.
Mr Jibril told the BBC’s Hardtalk programme he would have preferred to have Gaddafi alive, to face prosecution for his crimes, and added that he would welcome a full inquiry into his death.
One of Gaddafi’s best-known sons, Saif al-Islam, as well as his security chief both remain at large.
Kyaemon
October 24, 2011 at 12:31 am
NTC vice chairman announces liberation of Libya
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-10/24/c_122188577.htm
BENGHAZI, Libya, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) — Vice Chairman of the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) Abdel Hafiz Ghoga Sunday officially announced the liberation of Libya from the regime of Muammar Gaddafi at a ceremony being held in Libya’s second largest city of Benghazi.
The announcement came three days after former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was killed in his hometown Sirte. Benghazi is the seat of the NTC and the birthplace of Libya’s anti-Gaddafi rebellion.
A huge crowd gathered at the main square in Benghazi for the ceremony, many of them waving the red, black and green flags of new Libya. The crowd cheered when Ghoga read out a statement, announcing the liberation of Libya.
Ghoga took the podium after NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil addressed the crowd, calling for national unity and voicing hope for a better future for the new Libya.
The revolt in Libya began in February inspired by events in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt.
Speaking to reporters earlier Sunday in Jordan, Mahmoud Jibril, head of the NTC’s executive committee said an interim Libyan government will be formed within a month to run the country’s affairs.
“There is work currently to form an interim government from one week to a month and there will be also hard work to minimize the time needed to hold elections to select the parliament,” said the NTC’s de facto prime minister, who is in Amman attending the World Economic Forum.
The formation of a new government in Libya has been postponed repeatedly due to differences among factions within the NTC, formed by anti-Gaddafi forces not long after the revolt erupted in Benghazi.
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Death report shows Gaddafi dies of shots in head, abdomen
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-10/23/c_131208150.htm
BENGHAZI, Libya, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) — A death report of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya’s fallen leader who died on Thursday in his hometown of Sirte after captivity, showed on Sunday that he died of bullet injuries in his head and abdomen.
The report provided by Libya’s justice department said that Gaddafi’s death was caused by a shot on the left-side head and another wound in the abdomen. This is in conformation with what the leadership of the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) has announced shortly after the death of Gaddafi on Thursday.
But no more details were offered concerning the circumstances of the deaths of Gaddafi and his son Mutassim, who was also captured in Sirte, Gaddafi’s hometown and the last stronghold of his loyalists, and later died on Thursday.
Mutassim’s death came after he suffered shots in his neck, feet and his back, the report said.
The report added that there were scars of old surgeries on both the left and right sides of Gaddafi’s abdomen as well as in his left thigh.
Gaddafi’s body is still on display for civilians in Misrata, a town in the middle between Sirte and the capital Tripoli, as the NTC is scheduled to announce the “liberation” of the country in a couple of hours in Benghazi, the second largest city in Libya and where anti-Gaddafi protests started.
Meanwhile, the new Libyan rulers are yet to come up with a decision on how to deal with Gaddafi’s corpse. Some have suggested a sea burial.
Kyaemon
October 24, 2011 at 1:30 pm
Ghanaians say disgusted with killing of Gaddafi
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-10/23/c_131206969.htm
By Justice Lee Adoboe
ACCRA, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) — A senior Ghanaian official expressed his disgust here
on Saturday with the manner in which former Libyan leader Mummar Gaddafi was
murdered.
In an interview with Xinhua via telephone, Deputy Minister of Information Ahmed
Baba Jamal described the killing of Gaddafi as inconsistent with international
law.
“Even in international law, when you arrest a war prisoner, you give him fair
trial and the due process is followed,” he maintained.
“But the way Gaddafi was arrested, dragged on the ground and finally killed was
not in line with international law and practice, ” Jamal said.
Meanwhile, former Ghanaian president Jerry John Rawlings, a long-time ally of
the slain Libyan strongman, sent his condolences Friday night to the family of
his late political benefactor.
Eulogizing the man who was widely believed to have aided him in the December
1981 coup d’état that brought him to power in 1982, Rawlings told students of
the University of Ghana that Gaddafi had selflessly empowered his people, but
unfortunately “the empowerment eventually turned out to be his nemesis.”
“In giving it all to his people, I guess the mistake he made was that he just
could not let go of the empowered people,” Rawlings declared.
He believed that the former Libyan leader was aware that the power of the masses
could be used to hijack the people, “but he still held onto the controls and
ultimately brought his family on board to institutionalize his legacy through
his children, still behaving as if he owned his people.”
Under the Rawlings rule, Libya reportedly assisted Ghana to pay its
600-million-dollar petroleum debt, while assisting the country with petroleum
products also amounting to about 600 million dollars.
Another former Ghanaian leader, John Agyekum Kuffuor, also expressed his
condolences on Friday night to Gaddafi’s bereaved family.
Speaking on a local television, Kuffuor called on the current National
Transitional Council (NTC) to establish democratic rule in the country after the
fall of the former leader.
“I am not going to say whether he was good or bad because he is now dead and
gone, the land belongs to the Libyans who stood up against him, and I believe
that the people will handle the country well and look for a suitable
constitution that will guide them rebuild Libya and prevent other future
eventualities like this,” Kuffuor said.
A famous social commentator and newspaper editor, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has also
condemned the killing of the former Libyan leader as an act of assassination by
his assailants.
“Killing any Head of State, whether he is a dictator or a democrat, what NATO
has done is appalling, it’s disgraceful and needs to be condemned in the
strongest possible terms. This is an assassination, this is illegal and this is
an act of terrorism,” he declared.
Chief Administrator of the National Chief Imam of Ghana Adam Musah Abubakr
summed up the feeling of Ghanaian Muslims about the turn of events, accusing
NATO of interfering in the internal affairs of Libya and killing their leader
eventually.
Speaking to Xinhua exclusively on Saturday, the Islamic cleric suggested that
Gaddafi’s people did not kill him, as he had been with the people all his life.
“Why didn’t they go to Egypt or Tunisia when the crisis started in those
countries? Why should NATO choose to go to Libya? If NATO didn’t come in, things
wouldn’t have reached this level,” he said.
Kyaemon
October 24, 2011 at 1:35 pm
နိုင်ငံခြားမှစွက်ဖက်ခြင်းကူညီခြင်း နဲ့ ပတ် သက် ပြီး
အထင်အမြင်အယူအဆ လွဲမှား ချက်များ ကိုပညာရှင်က
ထုတ်ဖော် ဆွေးနွေး
The Mythology of Intervention
Debating the Lessons of History in Libya
The Mythology of Intervention | Foreign Affairs
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67679/micah-zenko/the-mythology-of-intervention?page=show
Summary: In the debate over whether — and how — to intervene in Libya, many
commentators and policymakers have relied on a number of garbled lessons from
history. Believing in these myths often leads to a more interventionist foreign
policy.
This article appears in the Foreign Affairs/CFR eBook, The New Arab Revolt.
MICAH ZENKO is a Fellow at the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on
Foreign Relations. He is the author of Between Threats and War: U.S. Discrete
Military Operations in the Post-Cold War World.
….Within both the northern and southern no-fly zones in Iraq, Saddam’s ground
forces attacked any group that opposed the regime. In the south, in the years
after the failed Shia uprising in 1991, Hussein initiated a brutal
counterinsurgency campaign. His troops destroyed the marshlands that were part
of the historical ecosystem of southern Iraq, building roadways through some so
they could bring artillery within range of Shia insurgents and draining others
so as to eliminate rebel hiding places. At the same time, Iraqi security forces
cordoned off suspected rebel areas and controlled the movement of people. In the
north, in August 1996 — with the no-fly zone in full operational force —
Hussein viciously put down a short-lived Kurdish uprising with 40,000 troops,
300 tanks, and 300 pieces of artillery…..
In the debate over whether, and how, to intervene in Libya, opponents and
proponents called on historical examples to bolster their case. Too often, these
examples were historically inaccurate and were misapplied to Libya’s unfolding
civil war. If the legacy of recent uses of U.S. military force demonstrate
anything, it is that regardless of whether the objective is to protect civilians
on the ground, precipitate Qaddafi’s removal from power, or stabilize a
postconflict Libya, more force, time, attention, and resources will be needed
than the international community has thus far proven willing to commit.
Kyaemon
October 24, 2011 at 2:50 pm
Rebel Rivalries in Libya
Rebel Rivalries in Libya | Foreign Affairs
Rebel Rivalries in Libya | Foreign Affairs
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/68198/dirk-vandewalle/rebel-rivalries-in-libya
Summary: As Libya’s rebels push forward in their fight to unseat Muammar
al-Qaddafi, factional rivalries and a climate of general disorder threaten to
upend their military and diplomatic victories.
DIRK VANDEWALLE is Associate Professor of Government at Dartmouth College.
Within both the northern and southern no-fly zones in Iraq, Saddam’s ground
forces attacked any group that opposed the regime. In the south, in the years
after the failed Shia uprising in 1991, Hussein initiated a brutal
counterinsurgency campaign. His troops destroyed the marshlands that were part
of the historical ecosystem of southern Iraq, building roadways through some so
they could bring artillery within range of Shia insurgents and draining others
so as to eliminate rebel hiding places. At the same time, Iraqi security forces
cordoned off suspected rebel areas and controlled the movement of people. In the
north, in August 1996 — with the no-fly zone in full operational force —
Hussein viciously put down a short-lived Kurdish uprising with 40,000 troops,
300 tanks, and 300 pieces of artillery.
Kyaemon
October 24, 2011 at 2:58 pm
Brazil’s FM calls for int’l aid to rebuild Libya
Brazil’s FM calls for int’l aid to rebuild Libya
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-10/22/c_131206579.htm
RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) — Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota
on Friday called for aid from the international community to help rebuild and
stabilize Libya.
“The UN needs to fully take their responsibility in the establishment of a
timetable for Libya’s democratic process by bringing elections, a constitution
and political stability to the country,” Patriota said.
Kyaemon
October 24, 2011 at 3:46 pm
Rights group: Bodies of 53 apparent Gadhafi loyalists found in Libyan hotel
By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 2:49 AM EST, Mon October 24, 2011
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/24/world/africa/libya-main/
(CNN) — The bodies of 53 people, believed to be supporters of ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, has been found in a hotel that was under the control of anti-Gadhafi fighters, Human Rights Watch said Monday.
The rights group said it found the bodies clustered together at Hotel Mahari in Sirte on Sunday. About 20 residents were putting the bodies in body bags to prepare them for burial when Human Rights Watch found them.
“We found 53 decomposing bodies, apparently (Gadhafi) supporters, at an abandoned hotel in Sirte, and some had their hands bound behind their backs when they were shot,” said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director of Human Rights Watch.
“This requires the immediate attention of the Libyan authorities to investigate what happened and hold accountable those responsible.”
Officials with the National Transitional Council, Libya’s new leadership, were not immediately available for comment.
The residents told Human Rights Watch investigators they found the bodies last week after the fighting in Sirte stopped and they returned home.
They identified some of the deceased as Sirte residents and Gadhafi supporters.
Kyaemon
October 25, 2011 at 7:12 am
Gaddafi ရဲ့မိသားစု/သား များ ဓာတ်ပုံ ၁၄ ပုံ
Gadhafi family on the run
The dictator’s wife, daughters and several of his sons are reportedly in Algeria.
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/gadhafi-son-at-tripoli-hotel-after-arrest-report-1314065962-slideshow/libyan-leader-muammar-gaddafis-most-prominent-son-saif-photo-172410192.html#crsl=%252Fphotos%252Fgadhafi-son-at-tripoli-hotel-after-arrest-report-1314065962-slideshow%252Flibyan-leader-muammar-gaddafis-most-prominent-son-saif-photo-172410192.html
——————————
ဖမ်းလို့မ လွယ် တဲ့ Gaddafi သား Saif အ ကြောင်း တစေ့တစောင်း
Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi’s enigmatic and elusive son
By David Stamp | Reuters – 10 hrs ago
http://news.yahoo.com/saif-al-islam-gaddafis-enigmatic-elusive-son-134528536.html;_ylt=Ak096J2mPY7OaPz_0LK2jhO1qHQA;_ylu=X3oDMTE2MjFyZjd0BG1pdAMEcG9zAzEEc2VjA01lZGlhU2VhcmNoUmVzdWx0c0liWEhS;_ylv=3
LONDON (Reuters) – Four days after the capture and killing of Muammar Gaddafi, there is little sign of his one missing son Saif al-Islam, last thought to be hiding in a desert area near the town of Bani Walid, which is 150 km (100 miles) southeast of Tripoli.
National Transitional Council (NTC) field commander Abdel Majid Mlegta said on Sunday that fighters were deploying around a place where they believed Saif was hiding after he escaped the siege of his father’s hometown of Sirte on Thursday.
Mlegta said Gaddafi’s former security chief Abdullah al-Senussi, now in Niger, had contacted Saif to try to help him flee to the Sahelian country “but our brigades are encircling this area south of Bani Walid.”
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is the most enigmatic of Muammar Gaddafi’s children, apparently turning within weeks from philanthropist and liberal reformer into a fighter ready to die on his home soil rather than surrender.
Gaddafi junior, whose name means “Sword of Islam,” is also the most elusive of the late Libyan leader’s eight offspring, wanted on war crimes charges but evading a manhunt for months to remain the only leading family member still at large…..
One of his projects did succeed. He played a central role in negotiating the lifting of U.S. and European sanctions on Libya in 2004, in return for Tripoli ending its nuclear and chemical weapons programs.
This led to then British Prime Minister Tony Blair visiting Tripoli to embrace Gaddafi senior, long a pariah in the West.
Saif owned a 10-million-pound ($16-million) home in London but his activities and friendship caused much embarrassment in the West when the rebellion broke out.
The director of the London School of Economics, Howard Davies, resigned over the university’s ties to its former student.
The LSE had accepted a 300,000-pound donation from Saif al-Islam’s foundation, a decision which Davies said had “backfired.” The LSE also investigated the authenticity of Saif al-Islam’s PhD thesis, which was awarded in 2008.
Kyaemon
October 25, 2011 at 7:26 am
Gaddafi သား Saif က နိင်ငံကူးလက်မှတ်အတုနဲ့ ထွက်ပြေးဘို့ ပြင်ဆင်နေတယ်လို့ပြော
သဲကန်တရ က ကျယ်ပြန့်ပြီး ထွက်ပေါက်များ လို့ ဖမ်းဘို့မလွယ်လှ လို့ပြော
Gaddafi son Saif al-Islam preparing to flee Libya: NTC official
http://www.bintulu.org/news/2011/10/25/gaddafi-son-saif-al-islam-preparing-to-flee-libya-ntc-official.php
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi (C) leaves after the funeral of his brother Saif Al-Arab Gaddafi, who was killed after air strikes by coalition forces last Saturday, May 2, 2011.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, a fugitive son of the deposed Libyan leader, is near Libya’s borders with Niger and Algeria and planning to flee the country using a forged passport, an official with the National Transitional Council said on Monday.
“He’s on the triangle of Niger and Algeria. He’s south of Ghat, the Ghat area. He was given a false Libyan passport from the area of Murzuq,” the official told Reuters by telephone.
The official said Muammar Gaddafi’s former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi was involved in the escape plot.
“In the south, they intercepted Thuraya (satellite telephone) communications. Abdullah Senussi has been on the border in that area to organize his exit and also a neighboring intelligence source tipped us off about that,” the official said.
Saif al-Islam, a fluent English speaker who studied at the London School of Economics, is the only one of Muammar Gaddafi’s sons still unaccounted for.
Two fled to Algeria, one is in Niger, two were killed earlier in the Libyan conflict and one, Mo’tassim, was killed after being captured with his father last week near the city of Sirte.
The International Criminal Court earlier this year issued an arrest warrant for Saif al-Islam, and another for al-Senussi.
The NTC official said it would be difficult to track Saif al-Islam’s movements and stop him crossing out of Libya.
“The region is very, very difficult to monitor and encircle. It needs warplanes. Even NATO cannot monitor this area,” he said.
“It needs a large force of our brigades to intercept and to be able to monitor and hunt him down. It is very, very difficult. All we have there is some small-scale patrols of our fighters.”
“The region is a desert region and it has many exits. It is also a smuggling route. It has many, many exit routes.”
Kyaemon
October 25, 2011 at 7:55 am
Libya’s NationalTransitional Council has told the BBC that the body of ex-leader Col Muammar
Gaddafi is to be handed over to the family and that a post mortem has already
been carried out.
His burial had been delayed, with officials divided about what to do with the
body.
The UN and Col Gaddafi’s family have called for an investigation.
Mahmoud Jibril, the country’s acting prime minister, said everything was being
done to establish the circumstances of his death.Jibril on confusion over
Colonel Gaddafi’s death
BBC News – Jibril on confusion over Colonel Gaddafi’s death
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15416315
Libyans queue to see Colonel Gaddafi’s body in MisrataBBC News – Libyans queue
to see Colonel Gaddafi’s body in MisrataLibya’s interim Prime Minister Mahmoud
Jibril says elections will be held in the country within eight month’s time.
He is facing international pressure to explain exactly how Colonel Gaddafi died.
A coroner is expected to carry out a post-mortem examination later today in
Misrata where his body is being held.
Wyre Davies’s report contains some strong images.
Kyaemon
October 25, 2011 at 9:03 am
နောက်ဆုံး သတင်း
သဲကန်တရထဲက လျှို့ဝှက် တနေရာမှာ Gaddafi ရဲ့ အလောင်းကို မြုပ် နှံ မယ်လို့ပြော
Gaddafi to be buried in secret desert grave: NTC
By Rania El Gamal | Reuters – 2 hrs 42 mins ago
http://news.yahoo.com/libya-declares-liberation-gaddafi-stays-unburied-041006338.html
MISRATA, Libya (Reuters) – Ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi will be buried on Tuesday in a secret desert grave, a National Transitional Council official said, ending a wrangle over his rotting corpse that led many to fear for Libya’s governability.
With their Western allies uneasy that Gaddafi was battered and shot after his capture on Thursday, rebels had put the body on show in a cold store while they argued over what to do with it, until its decay forced them on Monday to close the doors.
“He will be buried tomorrow in a simple burial with sheikhs attending the burial. It will be an unknown location in the open desert,” the official told Reuters by telephone, adding that the decomposition of the body had reached the point where the “corpse cannot last any longer.”
The killing of the 69-year-old in his hometown of Sirte brought to a close eight months of war, finally ending a nervous two-month hiatus since the motley rebel forces of the NTC overran the capital Tripoli.
But it also threatened to lay bare the regional and tribal rivalries that present the NTC with its biggest challenge.
NTC officials had said negotiations were going on with Gaddafi’s tribal kinsmen from Sirte and within the interim leadership over where and how to dispose of the bodies, and on what the Misrata rebel leaders in possession of the corpses might receive in return for cooperation.
“No agreement was reached for his tribe to take him,” the official told Reuters.
With the decay of the body forcing the NTC leadership’s hand, it appeared to have decided that an anonymous grave would at least ensure the plot did not become a shrine.
An NTC official had told Reuters several days ago that there would be only four witnesses to the burial, and all would swear on the Koran never to reveal the location.
Rebel fears that Gaddafi’s sons might mount an insurgency have been largely allayed by the death of two of those who wielded most power, military commander Khamis and Mo’tassim, the former national security adviser.
Mo’tassim was captured along with his father in Sirte and killed in similarly unclear circumstances, and the NTC official said he would be buried in the same ceremony on Tuesday.
SAIF AL-ISLAM AT BORDER
But he said Gaddafi’s long-time heir apparent Saif al-Islam was set to flee Libya, with the NTC powerless to stop him.
“He’s on the triangle of Niger and Algeria. He’s south of Ghat, the Ghat area. He was given a false Libyan passport from the area of Murzuq,” the official added.
He said Muammar Gaddafi’s former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi who, like Saif al-Islam, is wanted by the International Criminal Court, was involved in the plot.
“The region is very, very difficult to monitor and encircle,” he said. “The region is a desert region and it has … many, many exit routes.”
Kyaemon
October 26, 2011 at 12:23 am
Gaddafi က ဘယ်လို သေသွားတယ် ကို အသေးစိတ် ရှင်း ပြ ထား
မြေပုံ၊ဓာတ်ပုံ၊ဗီးဒီရို၊စာသား၊ အစုံ ပါ
Muammar Gaddafi: How he died
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15390980
Col Muammar Gaddafi died from bullet wounds some time after a failed attempt to escape from the fighters of the National Transitional Council (NTC), but the exact circumstances of his death are still emerging.
Attempt to escape Sirte
After the fall of Tripoli in August, Sirte remained one of the final pockets of loyalist resistance, in particular District 2 in the north-west of the city.
In the early hours of Thursday it appears that Col Gaddafi, accompanied by key loyalists, decided to attempt a breakout from District 2 in a convoy of vehicles.
At about 08:30 local time French aircraft operating as part of the Nato mission attacked the convoy of 75 vehicles heading out of Sirte at high speed approximately 3-4 km (two miles) west of the city near the western roundabout.
Among those in the convoy were Col Gaddafi’s son Mutassim and head of Gaddafi’s army Abu Bakr Younis Jabr – both men were later reported dead at the scene and Mutassim’s body shown on Libyan TV.
According to Nato, a first strike destroyed one vehicle and caused the convoy to disperse into several groups.
One of those groups, carrying Col Gaddafi, headed south and was hit again by a Nato fighter, destroying 11 vehicles.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
My master is here … Muammar Gaddafi is here and he is wounded”
End Quote Unnamed Gaddafi bodyguard
Col Gaddafi and a handful of his men managed to escape on foot and sought refuge in two large drainage pipes filled with rubbish. Rebel forces then closed in.
Fighter Salem Bakeer told Reuters: “At first we fired at them with anti-aircraft guns, but it was no use.
“Then we went in on foot. One of Gaddafi’s men came out waving his rifle in the air… as soon as he saw my face he started shooting at me. I think Gaddafi must have told them to stop. ‘My master is here, my master is here’, he said, ‘Muammar Gaddafi is here and he is wounded'”.
Gaddafi caught
Col Gaddafi was initially captured at around noon.
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Amateur video of Col Muammar Gaddafi shortly before he was shot dead
The al-Jazeera news channel broadcast footage showing the dazed and wounded Col Gaddafi gesticulating while being man-handled by rebel fighters.
Salem Bakeer told Reuters: “We went in and brought Gaddafi out. He was saying ‘What’s wrong? What’s wrong? What’s going on?’ Then we took him and put him in the car.” One fighter showed reporters a golden pistol he said he had taken from Col Gaddafi.
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BBC’s Gabriel Gatehouse in Sirte: “I have spoken to the man who says that he captured him… he was brandishing a golden pistol”
What happened next and how Libya’s former leader died remains unclear.
What is certain is that at 16:30 local time, Mahmoud Jibril, the NTC prime minister, confirmed the news that Col Gaddafi was dead, saying: “We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Muammar Gaddafi has been killed.”
According to Mr Jibril, the colonel died just minutes away from hospital.
He later told journalists that a “forensic report” had concluded that the colonel had died from bullet wounds when the car he was in was caught in crossfire. “The forensic doctor could not tell if it came from the revolutionaries or from Gaddafi’s forces,” he said.
An interview with the commander of the brigade that captured Gaddafi suggests that the former leader died in an ambulance and appears to support the official version that he was killed in crossfire.
But a man claiming to be an eyewitness told the BBC that he saw Col Gaddafi being shot with a 9mm gun in the abdomen at around 12:30 local time and initial video footage seemed to show Col Gaddafi’s body being dragged through the streets of Misrata.
Kyaemon
October 26, 2011 at 2:28 am
Uganda သမတ Museveni က Gaddafi ကိုလွမ်ဆွတ် သတိ ရတယ်လို့ပြော
အ ကြောင်း မှာ Gaddafi သေးဆုံးခြင်း ဟာ Africa တိုက် စည်းလုံးညီညွတ်ရေး အတွက် ဆုံးရှုံးနစ်နာမှုတရပ် ဖြစ်တယ် လို့လဲပြော
Gaddafi က လေ ယဉ် ဖျက် ဒုံးကျည်များ ဝယ် ထားဘို့လိုသွား တယ်
ဗုံး လာကြဲ တဲ့ NATO လေယဉ်အချို့ကို ပြန်ချ နိုင်တယ် လို့ ပြော
Gaddafi က သတ် တိ ရှိ သော် လည်း တရားလက်လွတ်ကာ ဥပဒေ ဘောင်ကျော် ပြီး လူသတ် တာ က ထော့ အန်တ ရယ် ကြီး တယ်၊ ရှောင်ရှား ဘို့လိုတယ် လို့ထွက်ဆို
အနောက် နိုင်ငံတို့က Africa ကိုဆက်ဆံပုံ ကို က မကောင်းပါ၊ Africa အတွက် ဖွံ့ဖြိုးဘို့ အနောက် နိုင်ငံတို့က စိတ်ဝင်စားတာမဟုတ် ပါ လို့ ပြော
Ugandan president mourns death of Gaddafi
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-10/25/c_131211937.htm
KAMPALA, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) — Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has mourned the death of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi praising him for his pan-African spirit, the state owned New Vision daily reported on Tuesday.
Museveni reportedly told the ruling party legislators attending a caucus retreat last week that although Gaddafi made mistakes such as killing people in Tripoli he showed a lot of bravery because he died in the battle field.
Museveni, according to National Resistance Movement (NRM) Caucus chairperson David Bahati, faulted the fallen leader for not investing adequately in military fighting equipment, which led to his defeat.
“Even though he had a lot of money, he had not invested in equipment like the surface-to-air missiles. He would have used this to bomb at least some NATO planes. This contributed to his downfall,” Museveni was quoted as saying by the daily.
Although Museveni and Gaddaffi remained close allies till the end, the two at times disagreed on some issues, like the formation of a single government for Africa.
When the news of Gaddaffi’s death broke last week, Museveni was attending a retreat for NRM legislators at the National Leadership Institute in Kyankwanzi in the central Ugandan district of Kiboga.
On his part, Bahati said the death of Gaddaffi was a very unfortunate development for the African continent.
“He was a courageous man who died in battle. But he carried out many extrajudicial killings in his country. This is dangerous and should be avoided,” he said.
He called on African leaders to be frugal with their countries’ resources while providing better services for the people, saying the Western powers were not interested in a developed Africa.
“The way the West is treating Africa is not right and I want to tell anyone thinking that Africa will develop using money from the West to forget it,” he said.
The legislator noted that Gaddaffi’s death “brings the continent together to reflect on what the future of the continent should be.”
Gaddaffi was killed on Thursday in his home town of Sirte following eight months of fierce fighting between his forces and rebels of the National Transitional Council.
zoe
October 26, 2011 at 11:17 am
အခု လို သတင်း လိုရင်း အတိုချုပ် ကို မြန်မာ လို excerpt ရေးပေးတာ သိတ်ကောင်း တယ် ။ အသေးစိတ် တော့ အင်းဂလိတ် လိုဖတ်ပေါ့ ။ တခုလုံးချည်း ဘာသာပြန်ဖို့ကတော့ သတင်းထောက် အလုပ် ၂၄နာရီ လုပ် နေတာမှ မဟုတ်တာ ။ ဟုတ်ဖူးလား ။
Kyaemon
October 26, 2011 at 1:10 pm
ဇိုးရေ
ဟုတ်ပ၊
သတင်းရှာဖွေစုဆောင်းတာ၊ ဘတ်တာမှတ်တာ၊ သုံးသပ်တာ၊ ပုံကူး တာ၊ တို့မှာ အချိန်အများ ကြီး ကုန် သွား လို့ ဘာသာပြန် ဘို့အချိန် က အနိုင်နိုင် ပါဘဲ
မြန်မာလိုလဲ သိပ်ရိုက်တတ်တာလဲ မဟုတ်တာ အမှန်ပါဘဲ၊
kai
October 26, 2011 at 12:30 pm
ကဒါဖီသေရတာမှာ… နေတိုးက.. လေကြောင်းပစ်ကူပြီး.. ထွက်ပေါက်ပိတ် ပစ်လိုက်တာက.. အဓိကအကြောင်းရင်းလို့ထင်မိတယ်..။
သေသေချာချာ.. ဆင်လိုက်တဲ့..ထောင်ချောက်ပဲ..။
ယူအက်စ်က.. အီရတ်ဝင်တာမှာ.. ၉နှစ်လောက်နဲ့.. ဒေါ်လာထရီလီယန်ချီကုန်ပြီး.. ဆက်ဒမ်ဟူစိန်ကိုသတ်လိုက်တဲ့.. သမိုင်းတရားခံလည်းဖြစ်ကျန်ခဲ့တယ်..။
နေတိုးက.. လစ်ဗျားကို ၉လလောက်နဲ့.. ဒေါ်လာ. ဘီလီယံဆယ်ဂဏန်းလောက်ကုန်ပြီး.. အိုကေသွားပုံရတယ်..။
လစ်ဗျားသူပုန်တွေက လက်နက်ပြန်ဝယ်တာမို့.. လက်နက်ရောင်းအမြတ်ကလည်း ရှိသေး…။
ကဒါဖီကလည်း.. သူ့တို့အချင်းချင်း သတ်ကြလို့သေတဲ့ပုံလည်း ဖြစ်သေး…
နေတိုးရဲ့.. .ခေါင်းဆောင်ဖြစ်တဲ့ ပြင်သစ်က. ပိုပြီးလှလှလေး ကစားပြသွားတယ် ထင်မိတာပဲ…။ 🙂
Foreign Resident
October 26, 2011 at 12:52 pm
” ပြင်သစ်က. ပိုပြီးလှလှလေး ကစားပြသွားတယ် ထင်မိတာပဲ ”
ပွဲမပြီးသေးတော့ မှန်းရခက်အုံးမှာ ။
NTC ခေါင်းဆောင် က
Muslim Brotherhood ကအဓိက ကူညီသူဖြစ်တဲ့အတွက်
တိုင်းပြည် ကို မွတ်ဆလင် ဥပဒေ နှင့် အုပ်ချုပ်မယ် လို့
ပြောနေတယ် ။
Kyaemon
October 27, 2011 at 10:32 am
၂၀၁၁ နှစ်ကုန်ထိ Libya မှာဘဲ ဆက် နေ ဘို့ Libya ယာယီ ခေါင်းဆောင် က NATO အား မြစ်တာရပ် ခံ၊
Libya’s Interim Leader Asks NATO to Stay Through the End of 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/world/middleeast/libya-leader-wants-nato-presence-through-2011.html?_r=1&hp
TRIPOLI, Libya —-Libya’s interim leader said Wednesday that he had asked NATO to prolong its air patrols through December and add military advisers on the ground, despite his official declaration on Sunday of the country’s liberation after the killing of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
“We have asked NATO to stay until the end of the year, and it certainly has the international legitimacy to remain in Libya to protect the civilians from Qaddafi loyalists,” the interim leader, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, chairman of the Transitional National Council, said in an interview with the pan-Arab news channel Al Jazeera.
“Qaddafi still has supporters in neighboring countries, and we fear those loyalists could be launching attacks against us and infiltrating our borders,” he said. “We need technical support and training for our troops on the ground. We also need communications equipment, and we need aerial intelligence to monitor our borders.”
Mr. Abdel-Jalil was interviewed while attending a Libyan aid conference in Doha, Qatar. He spoke as NATO was preparing within days to formally end its operations in Libya and as the country enters a treacherous new phase in its post-Qaddafi transformation.
NATO’s airstrikes enabled a disparate alliance of loosely organized and undisciplined revolutionary militias to defeat Colonel Qaddafi’s forces in a bloody, eight-month civil war. But the former rebels – civilian leaders have not yet unified their disparate militias under a single command, and Mr. Abdel-Jalil’s request for military advisers on the ground may have been meant to address that challenge.
The credibility of the Transitional National Council has suffered from its implausible explanations for the apparent assassination of Colonel Qaddafi after his capture last week.
And the geographic and ideological factions among the revolutionaries have yet to agree on a new interim leadership team even as Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril prepares to step aside within a month….
Kyaemon
October 27, 2011 at 11:08 am
Gaddafi မိသားစု က NATO အား တရား စွဲမယ် လို့ သတင်း ထွက်
Geneva စည်းကမ်းအတိုင်း မလိုက်နာဘဲ တမင် သက်သက် သတ် တာ၊
ပြည်သူလူထုကို ကာကွယ် တာ မ ဟုတ်ဘဲနဲ့၊ အစိုးရ အဖွဲ့ကို ဖြုတ်ထုတ်ပစ်ဘို့္န NATO က ရည်ရွယ်ချတ်ရှိတာ လို့ Gaddafi မိသားစုရဲ့ရှေ့နေက AFP သတင်းဌာနကို ပြော
ဘယ်တော့ စွဲချတ်တင်ဖြစ်မယ် ကိုတော့ မသိရသေး
Moammar Kadafi’s family reportedly will sue NATO
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/10/moammar-kadafi-family-nato.html
The family of deceased Libyan dictator Moammar Kadafi reportedly plans to file a war-crimes complaint against NATO for the role they believe the international military alliance played in the former leader’s death, a lawyer for the family told Agence France-Presse news service.
Marcel Ceccaldi, a French lawyer who previously worked for Kadafi’s regime and now represents his family, told AFP on Wednesday that the complaint would be filed with the International Criminal Court in the Hague because the family believes a NATO strike on Kadafi’s convoy led directly to his death.
Kadafi, who ruled Libya for more than four decades, was captured alive by revolutionary fighters on Thursday in his hometown of Surt, ending an eight-month war that cost more than 30,000 lives. The circumstances of his death remain unclear.
PHOTOS: Moammar Kadafi killed in fall of Surt
Libyan authorities have said he likely died in crossfire. Others, including the international rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch, believe Kadafi was executed. But Kadafi’s family is convinced that he died as a result of NATO aircraft firing on his convoy as it fled Surt, Ceccaldi told AFP.
“The willful killing [of someone protected by the Geneva Convention] is defined as a war crime by Article 8 of the ICC’s Rome Statute,” the news agency quoted Ceccaldi as saying. “Kadafi’s homicide shows that the goal of [NATO] member states was not to protect civilians but to overthrow the regime.”
It was unclear when the complaint would be filed, but Ceccaldi said the lawsuit would target NATO executive bodies and leaders of the alliance’s member states.
In June, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Kadafi, his son and onetime heir apparent Seif Islam Kadafi, and Abdullah Sanoussi, the regime’s former security chief, for murder and other crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the regime’s crackdown on protesters this year.
On Tuesday, media reports indicated that Seif was trying to escape to neighboring Niger, where Sanoussi had reportedly already fled.
Kyaemon
October 27, 2011 at 3:06 pm
Gaddafi သား Saif ကိုအိမ်နီးချင်း Niger နိုင်ငံ မှာတွေ့မိလိုက်တယ်လို့ ကာကွယ် ရေး အ ပိုင်း က သတင်းထွက်၊
Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam spotted in Niger’s territory: military source
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-10/26/c_131214288.htm
NIAMEY, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) — Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam who is being sought by
the International Criminal Court (ICC), was on Wednesday morning spotted in
north Arlit (about 400 km north of Agadez) in the Nigerien territory, military
sources have said.
Saif al-Islam who was being escorted by pro-Gaddafi fighters, had already
established contacts with the Nigerien Armed Forces (FAN) in the Agadez region.
The same source said a military brigade had been sent to look for him.
On Tuesday, a Nigerien military source said on Monday night, Saif al-Islam who
is being sought by Interpol had tried to cross over to the Nigerien territory in
the extreme northern parts of the country, on the border with Libya.
Saif al-Islam and his brother-in-law Abdallah al-Senoussi are being sought by
the ICC for committing crimes against humanity.
A governmental source from Niamey said al-Senoussi who was serving as Gaddafi’s
head of intelligence was spotted last week in the extreme northern parts of
Niger, near the border with Libya.
It should be recalled that since September, Niamey has been hosting close
confidants of Gaddafi among them his son Saadi Gaddafi “for humanitarian
reasons”.
Kyaemon
October 27, 2011 at 3:36 pm
နောက် ပိုင်းသတင်း
NTF အစိုးရ အရာရှိ တဦး ရဲ့ ပြောပြ ချက်အရ GADDAFI သား SAIF က ICC အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ ရာ ဇဝတ်မှု ကြီးများ စိရင်ရေး တရာရုံး ကြီး သို့အဖမ်းခံ ဘို့ကမ်းလှမ်းလာ၊
Gaddafi Son Wants to Surrender to ICC, Says NTC
By REUTERS
Published: October 26, 2011 at 8:24 PM ET
TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who once vowed to die fighting on
Libyan soil, now wants to face international justice instead and avoid any
chance of meeting the same grisly end as his father, Libyan officials said.
An official of the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) said on Wednesday
that Saif al-Islam, the only one of Muammar Gaddafi’s eight children still on
the run, had proposed surrendering to the International Criminal Court (ICC),
which has indicted him for war crimes.
Surrender by 39-year-old Saif al-Islam would close another chapter in the
four-decade history of Gaddafi family rule, as the United Nations discusses an
end to its Libyan mandate that allowed NATO to bomb the country and help rebels
to take power.
He was widely seen as Muammar Gaddafi’s favored son and his heir apparent.
Saif al-Islam wanted to surrender to the Dutch-based ICC with his relative,
former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, said Abdel Majid Mlegta, an
official of the NTC which overran the last Muammar Gaddafi stronghold of Sirte a
week ago.
“They are proposing a way to hand themselves over to The Hague,” said Mlegta.
The ICC indicted Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam and Senussi for their roles in
using force to try to put down the uprising which began in February.
An ICC spokesman said it had no confirmation of any talks about Saif al-Islam’s
surrender.
ANOTHER U-TURN
NTC officials have said Saif al-Islam is hiding in Libya’s southern desert after
failing to find a safe haven in a neighboring country like Algeria or Niger,
which have offered refuge to the other four Gaddafi children who survived the
eight-month civil war.
Any surrender would mark a U-turn by Saif al-Islam, an internationally
well-connected philanthropist and liberal reformer who turned abruptly into a
soldier ready to die rather than capitulate when rebels rose up against his
father.
“We fight here in Libya; we die here in Libya,” he told Reuters Television in an
interview earlier this year.
He now appears to prefer the prospect of a Dutch prison cell rather than risk
falling into the hands of NTC forces.
Kyaemon
October 29, 2011 at 4:20 am
အဖမ်းခံ နိုင်ဘို့၊ Gaddafi သား Saif က ကြား ပုဂ်ဂိုလ်များ မှတဆင့် ICC နဲ့ ဆက်သွယ် ဆွေးနွေး နေ ပြိ
Criminal Court in Indirect Talks With Qaddafi Son, Prosecutor Says
By J. DAVID GOODMAN
Published: October 28, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/world/africa/criminal-court-qaddafi-son.html?_r=1&hp
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at The Hague said on Friday that he had been in indirect contact with Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, the fugitive son of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and his one-time heir apparent, about turning himself in to face trial before the court.
The prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said in a statement that he did not know the whereabouts of Mr. Qaddafi, and he did not identify the parties who were conveying messages for him.
Mr. Moreno-Ocampo also did not make clear whether the informal contacts had been initiated by Mr. Qaddafi, who has previously ridiculed the court as a tool of foreign powers hostile to the Qaddafi government. The court issued arrest warrants four months ago, at Mr. Moreno-Ocampo’s request, for Colonel Qaddafi, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi and Abdullah al-Sanousi, Colonel Qaddafi’s intelligence minister and brother-in-law, on charges of systematically killing civilians during the early days of the Libyan uprising.
There has been speculation that Mr. Qaddafi, who has eluded capture by the rebels who overthrew Colonel Qaddafi in late August, may have undergone a change of heart about turning himself over to court custody after his father was seized by rebel fighters, brutalized and killed on Oct. 20 in his hometown of Surt, an event captured on cellphone videos and widely circulated on the Internet.
“Through intermediaries, we have informal contact with Seif,” Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said. “The office of the prosecutor has made it clear that if he surrenders to the I.C.C., he has the right to be heard in court, he is innocent until proven guilty. The judges will decide.”
Mr. Moreno-Ocampo also said that the court was looking into the possibility of intercepting any plane that might be transporting Mr. Qaddafi in order to make an arrest.
Reuters, citing an unidentified member of Libya’s Transitional National Council, the interim government, reported Thursday that Mr. Qaddafi feared for his life and was seeking to arrange an aircraft to deliver him into the custody of the court from a desert hide-out in an unspecified location.
The only remaining Qaddafi son still to be accounted for, Seif has been a focal point for intense rumor and speculation during the week since Colonel Qaddafi was killed.
Officials in Niger, to the south of Libya, said that they had no information about Mr. Qaddafi’s whereabouts but that they would act on the international warrants if he were found to be in their country.
“If our armed forces intercept him, we are handing him over to the I.C.C.,” said Massaoudou Hassoumi, the chief of staff to Niger’s president, Mahamadou Issoufou. “For the moment our forces have not taken him. We have no idea if he is in Niger or not.”
Human rights groups, who have expressed growing alarm over evidence of reprisal killings and abuse committed by anti-Qaddafi forces in Libya, urged swift action in locating and arresting Mr. Qaddafi.
“The gruesome killing of Muammar Qaddafi last week underscores the urgency of ensuring that his son, Seif al-Islam, be promptly handed over,” said Richard Dicker, director of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch.
Unconfirmed news accounts from Libya and Niger have said that both Mr. Qaddafi and Mr. Sanousi, the former minister, had sought refuge in neighboring Mali and may be under the protection of the Tuareg tribesmen there who had good relations with the Qaddafi family.
Another uncorroborated account in Beeld, an Afrikaans-language South African newspaper, said that Mr. Qaddafi might be traveling under the protection of South African mercenaries, Agence France-Presse reported.
Mr. Moreno-Ocampo also said that there was “a group of mercenaries” willing to move Mr. Qaddafi to an African country where the government does not cooperate with the international court. In an interview with The Associated Press before boarding a plane to China, the prosecutor said that country was “probably Zimbabwe.”
Among Seif al-Islam’s six brothers, Muatassim and Khamis, military officers who commanded their own brigades, died during the uprising. The anti-Qaddafi forces said they killed Khamis in August as he and his bodyguards tried to break through a rebel checkpoint. Muatassim died while in the custody of former rebel fighters following the battle for Surt last week.
As of a week ago, another military brother, Saadi, had sought refuge in Niger. Of Colonel Qaddafi’s other children, Mohammed, Hannibal and his daughter, Aisha, fled to neighboring Algeria, and Seif al-Arab was believed to have been killed in an air raid in Tripoli.
——————————————-
Libya: Gaddafi son Saif al-Islam in contact with ICC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15496608
—————————————
ICC confirms indirect talks with Gaddafi son
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-10/28/c_122211320.htm
THE HAGUE, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) — The international Criminal Court (ICC) was having indirect conversations with Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saif Al-Islam for him to face justice in the Hague, the ICC confirmed on Friday.
Like his father and former intelligence chief Abdullah Al-Senussi, Saif Al-Islam was indicted with crimes against humanity in Libya by the ICC earlier this year.
“The Office of the Prosecutor is galvanizing efforts to implement the arrest warrants issued by Judges of the International Criminal Court against Saif Al Islam Gaddafi and Abdullah Al Senussi,” said Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo in a statement.