Gaddafi vows to ‘die a martyr’

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi ordered his followers yesterday to crush an uprising against his 41-year rule and vowed a fight to the death as he swatted away growing outrage over a bloody crackdown on protesters.

As the UN’s Security Council held emergency consultations and its top human rights official said crimes against humanity may have been perpetrated, the longest-ruling Arab leader appeared on state TV to denounce his critics.

“This is my country, my country,” he shouted, in an often rambling and angry speech. “I will fight to the last drop of my blood.”

The 69-year-old said he would “die a martyr in the land of my ancestors” and urged his followers to demonstrate from today.

“Capture the rats,” he said of anti-regime demonstrators. “Go out of your homes and storm them” wherever they are.

His dramatic intervention came as he fought becoming the third of the Arab world’s veteran leaders to be toppled in a popular uprising after the presidents of neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia were both ousted.

With the Middle East turmoil pushing oil prices ever higher, rulers of the Gulf state of Bahrain were confronted by fresh mass protests and governments made plans to evacuate their citizens. And there was fresh violence in Yemen where supporters of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, armed with daggers and batons, clashed with students in Sanaa.

The international community’s fears about how the dust would settle were highlighted by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev who said it could bring “fanatics” to power and cause Arab states to disintegrate “into little pieces”.

Visiting Kuwait, British Prime Minister David Cameron said that “reform, not repression” was the path to stability while the EU said it was ready to loan its Arab neighbours six billion euros in return for democratic reform.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also warned against “the mistake of turning a blind eye to the people’s demands for democracy and freedoms.”

But the main focus of attention was on Libya and its leader of 41 years who brushed aside calls to exercise restraint.

Reading from the country’s penal code, he said “any Libyan who carries arms against Libyans will be punished by death”, and repeatedly denounced his critics as vermin.

But his sense of isolation was being underlined at the Security Council meeting, called after Libyan diplomats who have broken ranks from Col Gaddafi called for a UN no-fly zone over the country and humanitarian action.

The session marked the first time that the world’s most powerful nations have gathered at UN headquarters to discuss the Arab uprisings.

Ibrahim Dabbashi, the Libyan deputy ambassador who has called for Col Gaddafi to stand down and sent the letter demanding yesterday’s meeting, said “we are expecting something to protect the Libyan people” to be decided by the council.

Talking to reporters as he went into the meeting, Germany’s UN Ambassador Peter Wittig said that “the scale of violence by the Libyan security forces against peaceful demonstrators is really shocking”.

Although government restrictions have complicated the task of compiling a tally, Human Rights Watch said 233 had been killed in the uprising while the International Federation for Human Rights put the toll at between 300 and 400.

Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the authorities should immediately stop using violence, adding that “widespread and systematic attacks against the civilian population may amount to crimes against humanity”.

There have been widespread reports by witnesses that the air force has been strafing protesters, and Mr Pillay said an independent inquiry was needed.

Despite his show of defiance, Gaddafi’s grip on Libya appeared increasingly shaky as ambassadors quit and fighter pilots defected, flying to Malta where they said they had refused to follow orders to fire on protesters.

After flaring up in the east last week, the uprising spread to the capital on Monday, where protesters attacked police stations and the offices of the state broadcaster and set government buildings ablaze.

Residents of two districts in Tripoli said by telephone there had been “a massacre,” with gunmen “firing indiscriminately” in Tajura district.

Another in Fashlum said helicopters had landed what he called African mercenaries who opened fire on anyone in the street, killing many people.

Terrified expatriates were hunkered down with their families awaiting evacuation.

France said it was sending three air force planes to Tripoli to evacuate its nationals and Britain announced plans to send both a charter flight and to deploy a Royal Navy frigate to help evacuate citizens caught up in unrest.