Qaddafi’s Son Appears in Public

Al Arabiya23.08.2011 Libya
Qaddafi’s Son Appears in Public

Qaddafi’s Son Appears in Public

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Muammar Qaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam who rebels said they had captured appeared with dozens of cheering supporters in Tripoli on Tuesday saying the capital was “under control” of his father’s regime.

Seif al-Islam, wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, met with foreign journalists, after ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and the Libyan National Transitional Council Chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil said rebel forces had arrested him.

He visited the Tripoli hotel where foreign journalists are staying to declare that the government was winning the battle against the rebels.

He took the journalists to his father’s Bab al-Aziziyah stronghold. Television footage showed Seif pumping his fists in the air, smiling, waving and shaking hands with supporters, as well as holding his arms aloft with each hand making the V for victory sign.

“We broke the back of the rebels. It was a trap. We gave them a hard time, so we are winning,” Seif said.

“Tripoli is under our control. Everyone should rest assured. All is well in Tripoli,” the defiant son of the Libyan strongman told the 3 journalists at a vacant lot outside his father’s Bab al-Azizya compound in Tripoli in the very early hours of Tuesday.

“You have seen how the Libyan people rose up” to fight the rebels who arrived in Tripoli, he said, referring to battles in the capital between Qaddafi loyalists and rebel forces.

“The West has high-tech technology which disrupted telecommunications systems and sent messages to the people,” declaring the fall of the regime, he said about text phone messages sent Sunday to the residents of Tripoli.
“This is a technological and media war to cause chaos and terror in Libya,” he added, dressed in a Khaki shirt.

“I am here to refute the lies,” Qaddafi’s son said, referring to reports of his arrest.
Western powers are concerned that tribal, ethnic and political divisions among the diverse armed groups opposed to Gaddafi could lead to the kind of blood-letting seen in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

In a move that could ease tensions, a rebel official in the eastern city of Benghazi said that efforts were under way to make contact with authorities loyal to Qaddafi.

Foreign governments which had hesitated to take sides, among them Qaddafi’s Arab neighbors, Russia and China also made clear his 4 decades of absolute power were over.

 

Source: Al Arabiya; Agencies

 



 
 

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