Hosni Mubarak's goons
used rocks, sticks, camels and knives against the Egyptian
demonstrators who ultimately overthrew him. In neighboring
Libya, Muammar Gaddafi is using far more drastic measures to
avoid
Mubarak's fate: air strikes on his own people and fiery deaths
for security officers who refuse his commands.
A week of protests have placed unprecedented pressure on
Gaddafi's regime, and he's responded with far more violence than
any of the other embattled Mideast autocracies. Human Rights Watch
has tallied
at least 233 protester deaths from regime security forces so
far; Al Jazeera is reporting that another 250 have been killed on
Monday alone. Despite a
media blackout, reports are emerging on Al Jazeera and
elsewhere that fighter jets and helicopters are attacking
demonstrators in Tripoli and Benghazi.
On Monday, two Libyan Air Force colonels defected to Malta,
saying that they would not obey
orders to bomb protesters. The Libyan government is denying any
reports of the airstrikes. But an anonymous witness in Tripoli told
the New York Times that the jets, helicopters and
militamen below caused an
"obscene amount of gunfire" in the Libyan capitol. "They were
strafing these people. People were running in every direction."
Gaddafi has aped some of the
worst aspects of Mubarak's attempts to cling to power. As
Renesys is documenting, he's attempted to
shut down the internet in order to limit the outside world's
ability to learn about his crackdown. But the shutdown isn't
absolute, and graphic images like the video embedded above have
proliferated online: this much-tweeted video claims to display the
human remains of security officials who were burned to
death for refusing to kill protesters. It's been posted by the
YouTube account MeddiTV, and while I don't know that MeddiTV is
based in Libya, it has several more videos
purporting to show the protests there.
At least nine Libyan diplomats have resigned, according to Al
Jazeera's tally. Libya's deputy ambassador to the United Nations
said Gaddafi was guilty of
"crimes against humanity and crimes of war" and "genocide."
A Mideast expert at D.C.'s George Washington University who's
consulted with the Obama administration on the regional uprisings
is calling for NATO military intervention. Marc Lynch blogs that
the US, the United Nations, NATO and the Arab League should
consider a
"declaration and enforcement of a no-fly zone over Libya,
presumably by NATO, to prevent the use of military aircraft
against the protestors."
The US has assets right nearby to enforce a no-fly zone. The
Navy's Sixth Fleet
is based in Italy, possessing about
175 planes easily capable of flying across the Mediterranean to
Libya. According to Globalsecurity.org, the Libyan Air Force
possesses a lot of Soviet-era
MiGs and Sukhoi aircraft.
For now, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has just
issued this
statement denouncing Gaddafi's "unacceptable bloodshed":
The world is watching the situation in Libya with alarm. We
join the international community in strongly condemning the
violence in Libya. Our thoughts and prayers are with those whose
lives have been lost, and with their loved ones. The government of
Libya has a responsibility to respect the universal rights of the
people, including the right to free expression and assembly. Now is
the time to stop this unacceptable bloodshed. We are working
urgently with friends and partners around the world to convey this
message to the Libyan government.
Act.ly has a petition going to
use the hashtag #NoFlyLibya to pressure the State Department's Twitter
account to establish a no-fly zone over Libya.
Source:
Wired.com