LIBYA: Pressure mounts on Kadafi, who Berlusconi says ‘no longer controls the situation’
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Pressure mounted on embattled Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi on Saturday as demonstrations continued across the country, though the streets of Tripoli were largely quiet. Some sources reported uniformed soldiers joining the protests while international leaders decried the violence that has gripped the country for days.
A video posted on the website of news agency Al Jazeera shows soldiers celebrating in the streets of the city of Az Zawiyah, west of Tripoli, though the site could not verify the content of the video, which it said was obtained from social networking sites.
Other reports indicated that civilians volunteering for the Kadafi regime had largely cleared Tripoli’s streets of protesters by Saturday morning. Friday evening, residents of poor neighborhoods in the capital had joined the protests after troops fired on demonstrators, according to the television news channel Al Arabiya. In the Tajoura neighborhood, protesters erected barricades of palm trees and rocks, news agencies said.
Pressure was rising from abroad for Kadafi to step down. At a political meeting in Rome on Saturday, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said that the Libyan leader seemed to be losing his grip on power.
‘I have fresh news from a few minutes ago and it appears that, effectively, Kadafi no longer controls the situation in Libya,’ Berlusconi said.
The heir to Libya’s overthrown monarchy has urged the international community to force out Kadafi. In an interview with Agence France-Presse, 48-year old Muhammad al-Senussi, son of the deposed King Idriss, said Kadafi ‘has to leave’ and urged the world to put pressure on Kadafi.
A coup overthrew al-Senussi’s uncle in 1969, confining the crown prince and his family to house arrest. Kadafi asked them to leave the country in 1988.
‘I have contacts inside Libya in the east and west and everywhere and they keep telling me about the situation there,’ al-Senussi said. ‘It’s a human disaster, it’s terrible. People are killed every day, the hospitals are full of bodies, wounded and dead bodies.’
-- Alana Semuels
