LIBYAN government spokesman Dr Moussa Ibrahim told the world’s press yesterday: ‘We are here to sincerely, as always, appeal for an immediate ceasefire, an immediate halt to NATO’s aggression against our nation’.
At a Tripoli press conference attended by international journalists he called for ‘all parties to sit down and negotiate a peaceful way out of this crisis.’
He said: ‘We believe, unless the international community heeds this appeal, many people will be killed and terrible crimes will be committed inside several Libyan cities.
‘Crimes indeed have been committed already and they are being committed at this very moment.
‘The world needs to stop siding with one party in this conflict, you need to open your hearts to the true meaning of being human, and see for once that indeed millions of people in this country have always been against the rebels and siding with the legitimate government of this nation.
‘And these millions have been suffering in a very exceptional way in the last few weeks.
‘NATO has intensified its immoral campaign against our people in the last few weeks.
‘Indeed, hundreds of people have been killed, it has been attacking every day – roads, open roads, checkpoints, clinics, schools, hospitals, farms, houses.
‘And since NATO is the judge and the one who executes the punishment and the one who reviews the execution of such punishment and the one who is listened to and heeded, since NATO can justify everything.
‘Everything is “command and control centre” – every house, with children inside, every hospital, every school, every university.
‘And NATO, in the last week or so, has been truly, in a very professional way, opening the roads ahead of the rebels, who are too weak to do anything by themselves. A very special type of “freedom fighters’’ they are.
‘They don’t have popular support, they can never take a city and then get the people of that city to fight with them.
‘They are always scaring and terrifying people, and NATO is opening the way forward for them.’
Ibrahim went on to say: ‘And in any area inside of Tripoli that we have any military presence of any sort, you all know, and you are all witnesses, to how peaceful Tripoli has been.
‘And now NATO is bombarding inside the city of Tripoli and around it to cause chaos.
‘This is the goal, to cause chaos, so our troops will withdraw, our volunteers will escape, and then the rebels – whether they are from inside the city, the minority, or from outside coming from Zawiyah and other places – will enter Tripoli.
‘And Tripoli is a city of two million people.
‘And Tripoli has indeed shown its support for the leader and for the government.
‘So what we are fearing now is a true vendetta that knows no limits.
‘As the international community falsely claimed that we were, as a government, going to commit a massacre in Benghazi, and that was a legitimate reason or good enough reason for the international community to intervene and prevent this massacre in Benghazi as claimed by presidents of the Western world, including Mr Obama, Mr Cameron and Mr Sarkozy.
‘Now, these rebels do not have a moral record, a good one.
‘And they have come with such hatred.
‘In this conflict people lost their brothers, their fathers, their cousins, their friends, their colleagues, as indeed would happen in any conflict.
‘So many of these rebels, many of these rebels, do not have any true political agenda.
‘Many of them, actually, joined the cause for revenge, no more, or greed, no more.
‘So when they come here, their priority if they come here – because I will tell you how protected Tripoli is – if they come here, they will not have a political project to establish, they will not have love and peace and justice.
‘Democracy and human rights are not their priorities.
‘What will be their priority is blood, revenge, to silence the voices of hatred inside them with blood.
‘So, the world cannot claim that it has not been warned.
‘As I am now in the presence of the international media – and you can convoy this message.
‘NATO has provided these “rebels’’ with weapons, this is not a secret.
‘It is the weapons with which they are killing the Libyan people.
‘NATO has provided these “rebels’’ with air cover, with funds, with intelligence, logistics, and political support.
‘Every drop of Libyan blood shed by these rebels is the responsibility of the Western world and especially NATO’s countries.
‘So we hold Mr Obama, Mr Cameron and Mr Sarkozy morally responsible for every single, unnecessary death that takes place in this country.
‘Tripoli is well protected and we have thousands upon thousands of professional soldiers who are ready to defend this city against any possible invasion by these rebels under the cover of NATO – and again I insist they are nothing without NATO, they are not freedom fighters, they are not popular, they are very weak.
‘But when NATO comes and bombards everything and attacks everything, then even the cowards can march forward, even the cowards can march forward.
‘Tripoli is protected by thousands upon thousands of professional soldiers and many others are volunteers.
‘These people are not just patriotic and want to protect the legitimacy of this country and this government, but they have families, they have houses, they have their lives and they wholeheartedly believe that if this city is captured then the blood will run everywhere, so they may as well fight until the end.
‘We have for months appealed to the world.
‘From this very stand, I said again, time and again, we need to adopt the African roadmap.
‘We said we are ready for negotiation, for political change.
‘Go back to my press conferences, which represent the views of the Libyan government.
‘We said we want to achieve peace and justice and to move forward for this country.
‘We were very happy that 53 African countries supported us in this position and offered us – all Libyans, all parties – the African roadmap.
‘Latin American countries joined in, many Asian countries joined in.
‘European countries praised the African roadmap.
‘But then it was put aside because it did not fulful, not the political aspirations of Libyans, but the political aspirations of NATO.
‘NATO became the most important party in this conflict, not Libyans.
‘They were judging every peace proposal, not whether it’s good for Libyans or not, but whether it’s good for NATO and for the reputation of NATO and the future of NATO.
‘This morning, we had genuine and credible reports about many executions being committed or carried out in several Libyan towns and cities and villages west of Tripoli.
‘We know – and as you know communications are still open between us and these Libyan cities, so you can phone people there.
‘The city of Garyan especially witnessed the execution of 34 of its citizens, the people of Garyan know this, you can phone them, you can talk to them.
‘Many of them were killed, all of them actually were killed without any investigation, any type of legitimate court, nothing.
‘Some of these who were executed were women.
‘In the town of Surman, many incidents of rape took place and the people of Surman know this, you can phone them, many of them came out on the streets protesting, but they were faced with the power of the “rebels’ ” weapons and NATO’s bombardment.
‘I wanted to make this statement short and hold the world responsible.
‘Stop having a political agenda.
‘Don’t make one man your agenda, whether he stays or leaves.
‘We want the world to be really human and just and not live the illusion of being human and just.
‘Libyans came out on the streets in their millions, Libyan cities were flooded by masses.
‘If you don’t believe that all Libyans came out, but at least you can see that a significant proportion of this nation came out in the streets in support of the leader.
‘Isn’t this enough legitimacy for at least a peaceful process to start, to say at least: Okay, this government has support, has major support, so it is legitimate, many people want it.
‘So let’s move forward from here, let’s say: Okay, let’s take a step forward and try to achieve a peaceful solution. But the world does not want to hear.
‘I studied in Britain for almost 15 years.
‘I thought I knew the West and I thought I was able to reach the heart of Western civilisation.
‘I thought I understood what the West was about.
‘I actually stopped using even the term “West’’ a long time ago because I thought it’s too stereotyping and generalising.
‘I was so happy and glad that I discovered many Wests and I thought I was part of a new international movement that truly believed in truth and transparency and going beyond political agendas and reaching out to the other cultures and civilisations.
‘But in this conflict I saw a different West. I saw the West that I read about in the history books, the West of blood and disaster and killing and occupation, the same West that came to this country one hundred years ago and killed my grandfathers and my uncles.
‘The same West that had no moral centre, no heart, no conscience.
‘The only difference is this new West is living the illusion of morality, living the illusion of conscience.
‘It has this amazing media machine that spins everything and makes the world live in such an illusion.
‘I have friends in the West, friends, personal friends, who could not pierce through the lies and misinformation and see what is happening in Libya for true.
‘The West needs to restore its morality and its heart and now it’s the time to save the last shred of dignity for the West.
‘What is happening now, and what’s going to happen, is not the power of the “rebels’’, it’s the power of NATO, a major force for evil that has no heart, using armed gangs to occupy a whole nation.
‘I wanted to stand tall before you today and say this so no one of you and no one of the world can claim that you did not know.
‘We are warning of disaster, of killings, of massacres in many Libyan towns.
‘This is my statement, I have said it, and we are going to fight on unless everyone agrees on a ceasefire because, as a dignified nation, we have our freedom, we have our honour and we know that people, even scared in their houses at this very moment, they do not want us to give up.
‘Because giving up means such gangs will control the country and then they will have it for a few months, killing, killing, killing and taking revenge before, of course, the UN steps in talks about a “transitional period’’ and political process, after thousands of people have been killed.
‘The world has a short memory and I wanted to imprint this in your hearts, before your brains. Thank-you very much.’
• EXPLOSIONS and gun fire erupted in several parts of the Libyan capital Tripoli on Friday night and Saturday as a number of counter-revolutionary gangs rose up in the capital, supported by very heavy NATO air strikes.
The NATO powers are now making desperate efforts to break the Gadaffi leadership before the end of August, fearing that a failure to do so will lead to a major defeat for NATO and all of its plans to recolonise Africa beginning with Libya.
Colonel Gadaffi said on Saturday of these groups: ‘Those rats were attacked by the masses tonight and we eliminated them.’
Fighting is continuing in and around the cities of Zlitan, Zawiya and the oil port of Brega which Libyan troops have re-taken.
Moussa Ibrahim commented on Saturday that the trouble was being caused by ‘small armed gangs’, adding that ‘Tripoli is safe, and completely under the control of the armed people committees and the volunteers and the honourable people of Tripoli.’
He continued: ‘Some gunmen entered two or three areas of Tripoli. They were confronted and everything ended within half an hour.’