Deposed leader Muammar Qaddafi said leaders of the developing world who recognized Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) that ousted him with the aid of NATO firepower would suffer a similar fate.
“If the power of (international) fleets give legitimacy, then let the rulers in the Third World be ready,” he said in an apparent reference to NATO’s military support for NTC forces.
He made the comments in an audio recording obtained by Reuters on Thursday from Syria-based Arrai television. It was not clear when the message was recorded.
“To those who recognize this council, be ready for the creation of transitional councils imposed by the power of fleets to replace you one by one from now on,” he said.
Qaddafi also called on Libyans to take to the streets, saying conditions in Libya were “unbearable.”
“I urge all Libyan people to go out and march in their millions in all the squares, in all the cities and villages and oases,” Qaddafi said.
“Go peacefully ... be courageous, rise up, go to the streets, raise our green flags to the skies,” he added.
Qaddafi has been on the run since NTC forces captured the Libyan capital Tripoli on Aug. 23. Despite several leads as to his whereabouts, he has eluded capture, along with two prominent sons.
The NTC has mounted a manhunt to find Qaddafi that is focusing on the Sahara desert near the borders with Niger and Algeria.
Qaddafi said the NTC was illegitimate. “How did it get its legitimacy? Did the Libyan people elect them? Did the Libyan people appoint them?”
Arrai TV broadcast Qaddafi’s last speech on Sept. 20.
The de facto prime minister, meanwhile, said that Qaddafi was hiding in southern Libya under the protection of tribes, crossing occasionally into Niger, but transitional government forces expect to pinpoint his whereabouts soon.
“The latest report is that he is in southern Libya under the protection of the Tuareg tribe, and from time to time crosses into Niger,” Mahmoud Jibril told Reuters during a visit to Baghdad.
“Security is the most important thing for him. To specify where he is exactly even for ten hours is very difficult. I hope within the coming days we will be able to confirm where he is located exactly,” he said.
Jibril said he was in Iraq to discuss re-establishing diplomatic relations between Tripoli and Baghdad and to ask for the fellow OPEC country’s help in oil development.
The NTC has mounted a manhunt for Gaddafi that focuses on the Sahara desert near the borders with Niger and Algeria.
Reuters
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