Gaddafi demands coalition stop 'genocide' on Libya

Tuesday March 29, 2011 06:53:07 PM, DPA

Cairo/Tripoli: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi called on coalition representatives gathered for a conference in London Tuesday to stop what he called the "genocide" on Libya.

Foreign ministers and senior representatives of the UN, NATO, and the Arab League gathered for an international conference aimed at working out the next steps in the conflict.

"Stop your brutal unjust attack on Libya. Leave Libya to the Libyans, you are committing a genocide on peaceful people and destroying a developing country," Gaddafi said in the letter carried by the official JANA news agency.

Gaddafi said the conflict in his country was created in order to implement a "new crusade or neo-colonial plan".

"What is happening now is a support for Al Qaeda, so it can control North Africa and turn it into another Afghanistan," said Gaddafi, who has previously accused the rebels of belonging to the Al Qaeda network.

He added that "hundreds of Libyans" are killed by the air strikes.

Libyan authorities say that more than 100 civilians and members of the military have been killed by coalition air strikes. The opposition said the numbers have been exaggerated to undermine support for the air strikes.

Coalition air strikes continued overnight in the western part of the country.

Nine explosions were heard in Tajoura, a town just east of the capital Tripoli, in the early hours of Tuesday, residents said in audio messages.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International said Tuesday that a total of more than 30 activists have disappeared in Libya. The disappearances began before protests against the government of Gaddafi turned into an armed rebellion.

Relatives of missing activists have reportedly also received threatening calls.

A brother of an activist believed to have been detained by Gaddafi forces said he was warned by an anonymous caller: "We will burn you along with your family, your mother and siblings."

"It appears that there is a systematic policy to detain anyone suspected of opposition to Colonel Gaddafi's rule, hold them incommunicado, and transfer them to his strongholds in western Libya" said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Libya's National Transitional Council has vowed to hold free elections once Gaddafi leaves power, Al Arabiya broadcaster reported.

The council was formed by opposition fighters in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi to give a political face to the uprising.

Several countries have already recognized the council as the representative of the Libyan people.

Libya's state TV on late Monday broadcast live footage from Gaddafi's Tripoli compound showing his son Khamis dressed in uniform and greeting people. The footage came after reports said Khamis was killed from injuries he suffered due to an attack by coalition forces.

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