Gaddafi launches offensive

The latest from VOA paints the portrait of a man who is certainly not seeing the writing on the wall. He defies demands to step down; he proclaims that his people support him and now has his forces conduct a counter-offensive against the rebels who are in control of the east of the country. Today, Wednesday, Gaddafi addressed both supporters and media in a conference hall in Tripoli and the Times of India quoted him as saying, “We will fight until the last man and woman. We will defend Libya from the north to the south.” Reuters goes to quote him:

“Muammar Gaddafi is not a president to resign, he does not even have a parliament to dissolve, “he said in a speech, adding that he held “no position from which to step down.”

“The Libyan system is a system of the people and no one can go against the authority of the people. The people are free to choose the authority they see fit,” he said.

The Brega oil port is the scene of a confrontation between Gaddafi forces and anti-Gaddafi forces. According to reports, Gaddafi loyalists managed to take control of the facility only to lose it a short time later back to the rebels. While the loyalists have spent most of their time in Tripoli as of late attempting to secure the city, they seem to be making moves outside of the city to take back areas which have recently fallen under the control of the popular uprising.

Apparently loyalists have succeeded in regaining Gharyan, in the Nafusa mountains south of Tripoli, and Sabratha, a small town west of the capital. However opposition fighters have managed to repulse pro-Gaddafi attacks on several other cities: Zawiya outside the capital; Misrata, Libya’s third largest city east of Tripoli; and Zintan, a town further southwest in the Nafusa mountains. Speculation has it that the regime may bring in more forces from regions it still controls in the sparsely populated deserts in the southwest. Gaddafi may have been knocked down by recent events but he certainly is not out, to borrow a boxing metaphor.

The latest from Al Jazeera is that the fight for Brega is not over. Pro-Gaddafi warplanes have bombed the city in an attempt to scare the rebels but so far, the city remains in the hands of anti-Gaddafi forces. The newspaper’s reporter stressed that the situation is “very fluid”, a good code word for not really knowing who’s winning and how the situation is evolving rapidly.

The BBC is giving the personal observations of somebody in Tripoli who remains anonymous for safety reasons. Evidently, Gaddafi is very much in control of this city. It is a telling contrast when Gaddafi talks about the people loving him, that “his revolution” was for the Libyan people and this observer writes:

It’s the eve of 2 March, an annual public holiday marking Gaddafi’s 1977 declaration of the so-called “people’s power” system of government. Paradoxically, it was this declaration that many Libyans came to view over the years as the day they lost all power.

Reading accounts in the papers doesn’t give us a full picture of what’s going on in the country. We don’t appreciate what the average person in the street may be experiencing.

I received a call from a dear friend the other day. “In our street, two young men – brothers – both were taken away. They released one of them the next day, but the other one is gone,” he said.

That is arguably “minor” compared to the killings in the capital on the first day of protests – killings which people cautiously speak of only when they meet in person.

The government is still denying that there were protests in the capital.

Living in Canada, so far away from the events in the Middle East, I, like many of my fellow citizens have no idea of the dangers being faced by many people.

Another friend tells me he was sitting in a tiny cafe having coffee a few days ago, when a young man in his 20s turned up, pale and shaken.

He told the cafe owner that he went home to find that his mother and sisters were locked in a bedroom and his father forced to kneel on the ground as security forces raided their home.

On Tuesday, the United Nations suspended Libya from its main human rights body. AFP quoted US ambassador Susan Rice as saying, “This unprecedented action sends another clear warning to Mr. Kadhafi and those who still stand by him: they must stop the killing.” She went on to call Gaddafi to go.

Special Twitter accounts about Libya

As well as Google news, I follow the latest from the major news outlets on Twitter. This is a great way to get the most up to date, breaking news. Al Jazeera is excellent. However, I have also run across a number of lesser Twitter accounts dealing with the Libyan situation which also provide interesting reports on the quickly changing situation.

http://twitter.com/EnoughGaddafi

Enough Gaddafi

@EnoughGaddafi

ENOUGH! IS born from a single, broad sentiment: recognition of the overwhelming need for change in Libya.

http://enoughgaddafi.com

http://twitter.com/feb17voices

Feb 17 voices

@feb17voices

Reaching into Libya, tweeting and relaying Libyan voices in real time. Contact: feb17voices(at)gmail.com

http://twitter.com/AliveIn

Stories from MENA

@AliveIn by @smallworldnews

The Voices of the Middle East in tweets. | Produced by @SmallWorldNews, @Meedan, and others.

http://alive.in/

http://twitter.com/AJEnglish

Al Jazeera English

@AJEnglish Doha, Qatar

Al Jazeera English, the 24-hour English-language news and current affairs channel, is headquartered in Doha, Qatar.

http://english.aljazeera.net

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