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Gaddafi vows to 'die as a martyr'
TRIPOLI- Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi vowed to "die as a martyr" last night
The rambling, 75-minute diatribe followed two nights of bloody violence in the capital as Col Qaddafi tried to crush the uprising that has fragmented his regime. Swathed in brown robes and wearing a turban, he spoke on state TV from behind a podium in the entrance of his bombed-out Tripoli residence. The building was hit by a US air strike in 1986 and left unrepaired as a gesture of defiance. At times the camera panned back outside the building to show a sculpture of a gold-colored fist crushing an American jet. The view provided a surreal image of the Libyan leader, shouting and gesticulating wildly, all alone in a partially demolished hallway, with no audience. "Libya wants glory, Libya wants to be at the pinnacle, at the pinnacle of the world," he proclaimed, pounding his fist on the podium. "I am a fighter, a revolutionary from tents ... I will die as a martyr at the end," he said, vowing to fight "to my last drop of blood". Col Qaddafi described the protesters as misguided youths who had been given drugs and money by a "small, sick group" to attack police and government buildings. "You men and women who love Qaddafi ... get out of your homes and fill the streets," he said. "Leave your homes and attack them in their lairs. They are taking your children and getting them drunk and sending them to death. For what? To destroy Libya, burn Libya." "Forward, forward, forward!" he barked at the speech's conclusion, pumping both fists in the air as he stormed away from the podium. He was kissed by about a dozen supporters, some in security force uniforms. Then he climbed into a golf cart-like vehicle and puttered away. During his speech last night, Col Qaddafi said he had not ordered police to use any force used against protesters, and that his supporters had come out voluntarily to defend him. "I haven't ordered a single bullet fired," he said, warning that if he does, "everything will burn". He said that if protests did not end he would stage a "holy march" with millions of supporters to cleanse Libya. He demanded that protesters in Benghazi hand over weapons taken from captured police stations and military bases, warning of separatism and civil war. "No one allows his country to be a joke or let a mad man separate a part of it," he declared.
Posted by: tu3031 2011-02-23 |
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