A Seminar With Gadhafi. Gaddafi's son in civil war warning - Africa. A son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has promised a programme of reforms after bloody protests against his father's rule reached the capital, Tripoli.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi also hit out at those behind the violence. He said protests against his father's rule, which have been concentrated in the east of the country, threatened to sink Libya into civil war and split the country up into several small states. Appearing on Libyan state television early on Monday morning, Seif al-Islam said his father is in the country and backed by the army. "We will fight to the last minute, until the last bullet. " He said his father was leading the fight, although he added that some military bases, tanks and weapons had been seized. "We are not Tunisia and Egypt," the younger Gaddafi said, referring to the successful uprisings that toppled longtime regimes in Libya's neighbours 'Desperate speech' Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior analyst, termed Seif al-Islam's speech as "desperate".
Protesters 'shot dead' The Arab uprisings: Endgame in Tripoli. Gaddafi blames unrest on al-Qaeda - Africa. Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has said in a speech on Libyan state television that al-Qaeda is responsible for the uprising in Libya.
"It is obvious now that this issue is run by al-Qaeda," he said, speaking by phone from an unspecified location on Thursday. He said that the protesters were young people who were being manipulated by al-Qaeda's Osama bin Laden, and that many were doing so under the influence of drugs. "No one above the age of 20 would actually take part in these events," he said. "They are taking advantage of the young age of these people [to commit violent acts] because they are not legally liable! " At the same time, the leader warned that those behind the unrest would be prosecuted in the country's courts. He called on Libyan parents to keep their children at home. "How can you justify such misbehaviour from people who live in good neighbourhoods?
" Libyans had easy access to low interest loans and cheap daily commodities, he argued. 'Symbolic' leader Struggling. Libya and Beyond: What's Next for Pro-Democracy Uprisings? Phyllis Bennis on why Libya differs from other pro-democracy uprisings in the region. posted Feb 24, 2011 In Egypt, the relatively short-lived military crackdown by the hated security agencies and pro-regime thugs actually strengthened the opposition, reminding the millions in the streets exactly what they were protesting against.
In Libya, the Gaddafi regime seems to have turned that lesson on its head, apparently believing that if their response is violent enough, brutal enough, murderous enough, the opposition will stop. So far, it hasn’t worked. With earlier attacks from helicopter gunships and jet bombers, and with reports of machine gun fire in and around Tripoli continuing at least through February 24, the estimates of Libyans killed range from 300 to more than 1,000 people—but the popular resistance has continued unabated. Huge sectors of the Libyan military are defecting directly to the opposition. The Crumbling of the Gaddafi Regime Other Regimes React to Stem the Tide Interested?