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发帖数: 27852 | 1 巴马令人失望啊，多么好的机会
Libyan pilots and diplomats defect
Group of army officers have also issued a statement urging fellow soldiers
to "join the people" and help remove Gaddafi.
Last Modified: 22 Feb 2011 05:03 GMT
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The pilots claimed to have defected after refusing to follow orders to
attack civilians protesting in Libya [AFP]
Two Libyan air force jets landed in Malta on Monday and their pilots have
asked for political asylum.
The pilots claimed to have defected after refusing to follow orders to
attack civilians protesting in Benghazi in Libya.
The pilots, who said they were colonels in the Libyan air force, were being
questioned by authorities in an attempt to verify their identities.
Meanwhile, a group of Libyan army officers have issued a statement urging
fellow soldiers to "join the people" and help remove Muammar Gaddafi.
The officers urged the rest of the Libyan army to march to Tripoli.
Diplomats side with protesters
Libya's ambassadors at several stations, including the US and the UN, have
said that they are siding with protesters and have called for Gaddafi to
quit.
Ali Aujali, the Libyan ambassador to the United States, became the latest
diplomat to call for the Libyan leader's resignation, telling the Associated
Press news agency on Monday night that Gaddafi must step down and give
Libyans a chance "to make their future".
He said he was not resigning, as he worked for the Libyan people.
Also late on Monday, A.H. Elimam, Libya's ambassador to Bangladesh, resigned
to protest against the killing of his family members by government soldiers.
Earlier on Monday, diplomats at Libya's mission to the United Nations sided
with the revolt against their country's leader and called on the Libyan army
to help overthrow "the tyrant Muammar Gaddafi."
In a statement issued as protests erupted across Libya, the mission's deputy
chief and other staff said they were serving the Libyan people, demanded "
the removal of the regime immediately" and urged other Libyan embassies to
follow suit.
Gaddafi was waging a bloody battle to hang on to power as the revolt against
his 41-year rule reached the capital, Tripoli.
The statement issued in New York said hundreds had died in the first five
days of the uprising.
A spokesman for the UN mission, Dia al-Hotmani, said the statement had been
issued by deputy permanent representative Ibrahim Dabbashi and other staff.
Abdurrahman Shalgham, Libya's ambassador to the UN, was not present at the
press conference, but told the Al-Hayat newspaper that all of the diplomats
the country's UN mission supported the statement "excluding me". He said
that he was in touch with the Gaddafi government and was trying "to persuade
them to stop these acts".
Hotmani said that at a meeting on Monday at the mission's New York offices,
staff "expressed our sense of concern about the genocide going on in Libya".
"We are not seeing any reaction from the international community," he added.
"The tyrant Muammar Gaddafi has asserted clearly, through his sons the level
of ignorance he and his children have, and how much he despises Libya and
the Libyan people," the Arabic language statement said.
It condemned Gaddafi's use of "African mercenaries" to try to put down the
rebellion and said it expected "an unprecedented massacre in Tripoli."
'Cut the snake's head'
The statement called on "the officers and soldiers of the Libyan army
wherever they are and whatever their rank is ... to organise themselves and
move towards Tripoli and cut the snake's head."
It appealed to the United Nations to impose a no-fly zone over Libyan
cities to prevent mercenaries and weapons being shipped in.
It also urged guards at Libya's oil installations to protect them from any
sabotage "by the coward tyrant," and urged countries to prevent Gaddafi from
fleeing there and to be on the lookout for any money smuggling.
Dabbashi and his colleagues called on The Hague-based International Criminal
Court to start an immediate inquiry into war crimes and crimes against
humanity they said Gaddafi and his sons and followers had committed.
They called on employees of Libyan embassies all over the world to "stand
with their people", especially the mission at the UN European headquarters
in Geneva, which they said should seek action by the UN Human Rights Council
there.
It was not immediately clear how many other Libyan embassies were likely to
heed the call, although the country's ambassador in India, Ali al-Essawi,
said he was resigning in protest at the violent crackdown in his homeland.
Libya's ambassadors to the European Union, Arab League and Indonesia have
also resigned, while the embassies in Japan and Malaysia were shut on
Tuesday. |
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