Libya: ‘Situation Out Of Control’

“The situation in Libya is out of control. Benghazi has been taken over by the protesters, as well as other towns in the east, while street battles are brewing in Tripoli. The regime is on the brink of collapse”, said Libyan activist, living in Switzerland, Hassan al Djhami.

“The protest is no longer confined to eastern Libya; it has reached the capital now, becoming irreversible,” he added.

Al-Djhami told MISNA that “Qadhafi’s decision to deploy African mercenaries “demonstrates that he no longer has the army at his side and that he is willing to do anything to keep power”.

During the weekend, security forces – the Revolutionary Committees – violently repressed demonstrations in al-Baida, Derna, Tobruk and Masrata; there are no official death tolls, but rumors suggest over 200 people were killed while 1,000 were wounded.

There are rumors both in Libya and beyond that the Libyan leader has fled to South America or to another African country while his son Seif al-Islam has spoken about the potential for ‘civil war’.

In a speech broadcast in the early hours of the morning by Libyan state TV, then re-broadcast by al-Jazeera, Seif al Islam spoke of a “foreign plot to subvert the current government and install an Islamic republic, adding that his father is in fact in Libya and that he is not a leader such as Ben Ali or Mubarak.”

Saif also conceded that the security forces have made errors in their attacks against demonstrators because they have not been trained for this kind of action.

“I believe that Saif’s speech was taped and then broadcast. It makes no mention of western Libya, limiting itself to the East; it could be from Saturday afternoon or late yesterday,” says al-Djhami, who had predicted that there would be a “massacre” in the country.