At Least One Dead, 14 Wounded in Libyan Unrest, Reports Say
By ALAN COWELL
PARIS — The protests sweeping the Middle East reached Libya on Wednesday, with demonstrations against its leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, reported in several cities.
At least 14 people were injured and one killed, the Human Rights Watch advocacy group said on Thursday as Col. Qaddafi’s adversaries prepared for what they have billed on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook as a “Day of Rage” modeled on the uprisings from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. At least 14 people were arrested.
The Associated Press quoted a Web site opposing Col. Qaddafi as saying four protesters in the city of Al Beyda were killed by government forces. It was not clear when the reported killings happened.
In Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city, a crowd armed with gasoline bombs and rocks protested outside a government office to demand the release of a human rights advocate, Reuters and other news agencies reported. The demonstrators, estimated at several hundred to several thousand, marched to the city’s central square, where they clashed with riot police officers on Tuesday and Wednesday.
In the city of Zentan, hundreds marched through the streets and set fire to security headquarters and a police station, according to The Associated Press. The A.P. also said that anti-Qaddafi demonstrations broke out in Al Beyda, east of Benghazi. In both cities, the protests were also spurred by the arrest of human rights advocates, news agencies reported.
Wednesday’s eruptions were highly unusual because Colonel Qaddafi, who has ruled Libya for four decades, commands a pervasive security apparatus to keep dissent in check.
The unrest was not reported in Libya’s state-run media, which focused instead on rallies held in support of Colonel Qaddafi in Tripoli, the capital, and other cities, where state television showed pro-government demonstrators waving green banners below the palms of the city. The tactic was reminiscent of pro-government demonstrations unleashed in Egypt and Yemen to counter unrest.
Colonel Qaddafi also proposed a doubling of state employees’ salaries and released 110 suspected Islamic militants from jail, The A.P. reported.
State television also showed demonstrators chanting slogans critical of Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite broadcaster that provided close coverage of the events in Tunisia and Egypt that have rattled autocratic leaders of the Arab world.
In Benghazi, a coastal city about 400 miles east of Tripoli, the BBC quoted witnesses as saying that the unrest was inspired by the arrest of a human rights lawyer, Fathi Terbil, who has been critical of the government. Around 2,000 people took part, the BBC said, quoting witnesses as saying the police used water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets. The number of injuries was unclear.
Al Jazeera said on its Web site that Mr. Terbil, a spokesman for the families of prisoners slain when security forces opened fire during riots at the notorious Abu Salim prison in 1996, was later released.
Colonel Qaddafi took power in a bloodless coup in 1969 and has ruled his oil-rich country with an iron fist, seeking to spread Libya’s influence in Africa. He has built his rule on a cult of personality and a network of family and tribal alliances supported by largess from Libya’s oil revenues, becoming the Arab world’s longest-serving leader.
Internationally, he is regarded as an erratic and quixotic figure who travels with an escort of female bodyguards and likes to live in a large tent of the kind used by desert nomads.
In 2003, Colonel Qaddafi moved to refurbish his image abroad, renouncing terrorism and a program to build nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, and pledging to pay compensation for victims of the bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. Libya later pledged to pay compensation to victims of a disco bombing in Berlin in 1986.
While those moves eased some strains in Colonel Qaddafi’s relationship with the outside world, Western governments have continued to question his human rights record.
At least 14 people were injured and one killed, the Human Rights Watch advocacy group said on Thursday as Col. Qaddafi’s adversaries prepared for what they have billed on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook as a “Day of Rage” modeled on the uprisings from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. At least 14 people were arrested.
The Associated Press quoted a Web site opposing Col. Qaddafi as saying four protesters in the city of Al Beyda were killed by government forces. It was not clear when the reported killings happened.
In Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city, a crowd armed with gasoline bombs and rocks protested outside a government office to demand the release of a human rights advocate, Reuters and other news agencies reported. The demonstrators, estimated at several hundred to several thousand, marched to the city’s central square, where they clashed with riot police officers on Tuesday and Wednesday.
In the city of Zentan, hundreds marched through the streets and set fire to security headquarters and a police station, according to The Associated Press. The A.P. also said that anti-Qaddafi demonstrations broke out in Al Beyda, east of Benghazi. In both cities, the protests were also spurred by the arrest of human rights advocates, news agencies reported.
Wednesday’s eruptions were highly unusual because Colonel Qaddafi, who has ruled Libya for four decades, commands a pervasive security apparatus to keep dissent in check.
The unrest was not reported in Libya’s state-run media, which focused instead on rallies held in support of Colonel Qaddafi in Tripoli, the capital, and other cities, where state television showed pro-government demonstrators waving green banners below the palms of the city. The tactic was reminiscent of pro-government demonstrations unleashed in Egypt and Yemen to counter unrest.
Colonel Qaddafi also proposed a doubling of state employees’ salaries and released 110 suspected Islamic militants from jail, The A.P. reported.
State television also showed demonstrators chanting slogans critical of Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite broadcaster that provided close coverage of the events in Tunisia and Egypt that have rattled autocratic leaders of the Arab world.
In Benghazi, a coastal city about 400 miles east of Tripoli, the BBC quoted witnesses as saying that the unrest was inspired by the arrest of a human rights lawyer, Fathi Terbil, who has been critical of the government. Around 2,000 people took part, the BBC said, quoting witnesses as saying the police used water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets. The number of injuries was unclear.
Al Jazeera said on its Web site that Mr. Terbil, a spokesman for the families of prisoners slain when security forces opened fire during riots at the notorious Abu Salim prison in 1996, was later released.
Colonel Qaddafi took power in a bloodless coup in 1969 and has ruled his oil-rich country with an iron fist, seeking to spread Libya’s influence in Africa. He has built his rule on a cult of personality and a network of family and tribal alliances supported by largess from Libya’s oil revenues, becoming the Arab world’s longest-serving leader.
Internationally, he is regarded as an erratic and quixotic figure who travels with an escort of female bodyguards and likes to live in a large tent of the kind used by desert nomads.
In 2003, Colonel Qaddafi moved to refurbish his image abroad, renouncing terrorism and a program to build nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, and pledging to pay compensation for victims of the bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. Libya later pledged to pay compensation to victims of a disco bombing in Berlin in 1986.
While those moves eased some strains in Colonel Qaddafi’s relationship with the outside world, Western governments have continued to question his human rights record.
No comments:
Post a Comment