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Page 3 Text Version The Provisional Transitional National Council of Libya, on behalf of all free Libyans, would like to express its thanks and gratitude to the international community as represented by the United Nations and the coalition countries for coming to the aid of the Libyan people and protecting innocent civilians from the massacres being perpetrated against them by the Gaddafi regime. The military action undertaken by the coalition has prevented unimaginable atrocities from being committed against the population in the city of Benghazi last Saturday, on an even larger scale than what the Gaddafi militias are doing in other cities in Libya. The people in Benghazi continue to be ready to fight to defend their choice of liberty and democracy. The actions taken by the coalition forces, however, have averted widescale loss of life and destruction, judging from the size and types of military materiel of the Gaddafi militia's forces attacking the city. At the same time that we express our relief of averting a catastrophe in Benghazi, we call on the international community to continue seeking to execute the mission spelled out in the UN resolution 1973 to protect the civilians all over Libya . At this very time, the Gaddafi militias continue to terrorize our people with constant, unrelenting and indiscriminate bombardment with tanks and other heavy weapons of civilian areas in cities in the west of Libya, especially in Misurata, Zentan, and Yefren, in an effort to break the will of the people and subject them to the terror to which the populations of Zawia and Zwara have been subjected in the past weeks. The Gaddafi regime is depriving these cities from the most basic necessities. Misurata, a city of close to half a million people, has been under siege, without telecommunications for three weeks, and without electricity or water for ten days. Snipers have been positioned on rooftops to shoot at anyone who ventures outside and even at some people inside their own homes. A number of tanks that have gotten into the main street of the city are firing indiscriminately at residential buildings, resulting in the almost complete destruction of the center of the city. These criminal acts are indefensible and can only be described as crimes against humanity, punishable under international law. We call on the international community, and especially the coalition countries, to take all possible measures including the destruction of Gaddafi’s heavy military equipment, military facilities, and command and control centers, to force him to stop this massive destruction. The utmost pressure needs to be exerted on this regime to restore all communications services, and water and electricity supplies to all Libyan towns and cities, and allow international humanitarian organizations to enter them and operate freely in assisting the wounded and to provide humanitarian aid. The Gaddafi regime has over the past weeks murdered uncounted thousands of Libyans because they demonstrated peacefully to demand freedom and democracy. The Libyan pro-democracy forces have only borne arms to defend themselves after the regime responded to their peaceful demands with brutal military force, killing and maiming countless civilians and wrecking havoc and destruction in Libyan cities. The light arms of the pro-democracy fightersare no match to the Gaddafi's brutal war machine which is being unleashed against them. In Gaddafi’s Libya, peaceful protesters have always been subjected to arrest, torture and murder. The thousands of detentions carried out in Tripoli in the past weeks to preempt protests there only go to show how this regime operates in areas under its control. The Gaddafi regime has lost all legitimacy in the eyes of Libyans as well as the world community. It cannot be permitted to continue slaughtering its people because they ask for change. We implore you to act now. Long live Libya free and democratic. |
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