Last Hope
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TRIPOLI: Abandoned by some of his staunchest supporters and losing his grip on much of the country, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi on Thursday blamed the unprecedented revolt against his 42-year rule on an "evil eye." In a telephone interview with state TV, he said: "The village is the victim of an evil eye."
In a rambling appeal for calm, he also said Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was behind the unrest and and that protesters were fueled by milk and Nescafe spiked with hallucinogenic drugs.
Saudis reacted with anger and disbelief. "Qaddafi does not know what he's talking about. He's blaming Bin Laden when he should look at himself instead and ask why widespread Libyan protests are tearing the country apart," Ali Al-Enagy, a professor at the King Saud University (KSU), said.
Hezab Sadoun, a professor of mass communications at a university in Riyadh, said that Qaddafi was way off the mark with his claims. "There's no foreigner or foreign force involved in the turmoil that has engulfed Libya. What stokes the anger of the Libyan people who have risen in arms against him is top-level corruption," he said.
Qaddafi, who just two days ago vowed in a televised address to crush the revolt and fight to the last, showed none of the fist-thumping rage of that speech. This time, he spoke to state television by telephone without appearing in person, and his tone seemed more conciliatory.
"Their ages are 17. They give them pills at night, they put hallucinatory pills in their drinks, their milk, their coffee, their Nescafe," Qaddafi said.
A Tripoli resident said: "It seems like he realized that his speech yesterday with the strong language had no effect on the people. He's realizing it's going to be a matter of time before the final chapter: the battle of Tripoli."
Qaddafi's forces launched a fierce counterattack on Thursday, fighting gunbattles with protesters who have threatened the Libyan leader by seizing important towns close to the capital.
The opposition forces were already in control of major centers in the east, including the regional capital Benghazi, and reports that the towns of Misrata and Zuara in the west had also fallen brought the tide of rebellion closer to Qaddafi's power base.
Gunbattles in Zawiyah, an oil terminal 50 km from the capital, left 10 people dead, a Libyan newspaper said.
France's top human rights official said up to 2,000 people might have died so far in the uprising.
Loyalists also attacked anti-government militias controlling Misrata, Libya's third-biggest city, 200 km east of Tripoli, and several people were killed in fighting near the city's airport. Soldiers were reported along the roads approaching Tripoli.
In Zawiyah, witnesses said pro- and anti-Qaddafi forces were firing at each other in the streets. "It is chaotic there. There are people with guns and swords," said Mohamed Jaber, who passed through Zawiyah on his way to Tunisia on Thursday.
In the latest blow to the Libyan leader, a cousin who is one of his closest aides, Ahmed Gadhaf Al-Dam, announced that he has defected to Egypt in protest against the regime's bloody crackdown against the uprising, denouncing what he called "grave violations to human rights and human and international laws."
Gadhaf Al-Dam, who arrived in the Egyptian capital Cairo several days ago, is a member of the Libyan leader's inner circle, handling Libyan-Egyptian relations.
The Libyan ambassador in Amman, Mohammad Barghathi, announced he was resigning to protest the military crackdown on Libyan citizens.
Members of the UN's Human Rights Council were debating Thursday whether to vote to recommend that the UN General Assembly suspend Libya from the 47-nation council. The language was added to a draft resolution tabled by European Union members before Friday's emergency council meeting on Libya.
Libya only gained a seat on the Geneva-based council last year and suspending it would require two-thirds approval by the 192-nation General Assembly in New York.
