22, Feb., 2011
COLONEL Muammar Gaddafi's son warned yesterday that "rivers of blood" would run through Libya if protests continued and the regime would fight to "the last man standing".
As fighting reached the capital and mainstays of the regime were torched in Tripoli, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi warned Libyans to "be prepared for civil war" as his 68-year-old father fought to avoid the fate of Egypt's leader Hosni Mubarak and Tunisia's Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.
"Forget oil, forget gas, forget these resources -- get ready for chaos," Saif Gaddafi said on television before the station that broadcast the address was stormed by protesters.
"Our spirits are high and the leader Muammar Gaddafi is leading the battle in Tripoli and we are behind him, as is the Libyan army.
"We will keep fighting until the last man standing, even to the last woman standing . . . we will not leave Libya to the Italians or the Turks."
Using the same argument that Mr Mubarak had used in neighbouring Egypt before he fell, Saif Gaddafi said chaos would result if the regime fell. "Libya is not Egypt, it is not Tunisia," he said.
But despite the tough talk, Saif Gaddafi also made some concessions -- pledging a new constitution and new liberal laws.
In the first acknowledgment by the regime that it was losing control, he said: "At this moment in time, tanks are driven about by civilians."
Portugal last night sent a military plane to pick up its citizens and other EU nationals.
Turkey sent two ferries to fetch construction workers stranded by the country's bloody unrest, as oil and gas companies said they were putting together plans to evacuate some of their employees.
Protesters yesterday took control of the eastern cities of Benghazi and Baida, while in Tripoli the interior ministry and police stations were torched and hundreds of protesters were reported to be near the Bab al-Aziziya military camp where Colonel Gaddafi lives.
The government shut down phone lines and the internet to prevent communication and coverage of the uprising, but Human Rights Watch said at least 233 people had been killed in the five days of protest against the 42-year rule of Colonel Gaddafi.
Sixty of the deaths occurred in a single day in Benghazi as the Libyan regime unleashed the harshest crackdown by any government since the uprising gripping the Middle East started in Tunisia late last year.
"We're seeing massacres in broad daylight," Shadi Hamid from the Brookings Doha Centre told French TV. "We're seeing a spiralling out of control."
Reports said the regime had flown mercenaries into Tripoli from African countries -- mainly Chad and Zimbabwe -- and then taken them by bus to outlying cities to attack protesters.
It appeared that security forces had opened fire with machine guns on protesters. Divisions began appearing at government level. A diplomat in China and Libya's representative to the Arab League, Abdel Moneim al-Honi, resigned in protest at his government's crackdown on protesters.
"I am joining the ranks of the revolution," Mr Honi said.
Police and the army appeared to have abandoned Benghazi and retreated to their compounds. This followed reports of sections of the security forces defecting to back the protesters and other army and police officers refusing to engage in confrontations.