ICC issues arrest warrant for Muammar Gaddafi
By Nangayi Guyson (in Kampala, Uganda) – The International Criminal Court on Monday issued an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, accusing him of crimes against humanity. The Hague-based court also issued warrants for two of Col Gaddafi’s top aides – his son Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanussi.
Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi
Despite the issued warrant, Libyan Col Muammar Gaddaf is still very strong and his vows of fighting along war is becoming eminent.
NATO Air strikes started by hitting Libyan military bases, camps and so many other military operation places but this has done nothing to do away with a strong Libyan leader, he instead said he did not fear death and defiantly vowed to fight “to a long war ,” as NATO insisted there would be no let-up in its air war despite Italian calls for a cessation , still Gaddafi is not yet moved.
Gaddafi in his recent audio message broadcast on Libyan television said, “We will resist and the battle will continue to the beyond, until you’re wiped out. But we will not be finished.”
“There’s no longer any agreement after you killed our children and our grandchildren … You (the West) can move back,” the strongman said in homage to his comrade Khuwildi Hemidi, several members of whose family were killed in NATO raids on his residence.
“We are not frightened. We are not trying to live or escape,” Gaddafi said, denouncing what we called a crusade against a Muslim country targeting civilians and children.
NATO has acknowledged its warplanes early hit Sorman west of Tripoli but insisted the target was military, a precision air strike against a “high-level” command and control node.
Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said 15 people, including three children, were killed in the attack, which he slammed as a “cowardly terrorist act which cannot be justified.”
Ibrahim said the attack was on an estate belonging to Hemidi, a veteran comrade of Gaddafi.
“By what right do you target politicians and their families?” Kadhafi asked in the message. He claimed that Hemidi’s office in Tripoli had been bombed four times.
“They were looking for him because he’s a hero. When they didn’t find him in his office they wanted to kill him in his home,” Gaddafi added, calling on the United Nations to send observers to confirm that the NATO target was a civilian site and not a military target.
Gaddafi promised to build a monument, “the highest in North Africa,” to four-year-old Khaleda, Hemidi’s granddaughter who the authorities said was killed in the raid.
“We will stay, we will resist and we will not give in. Strike with your missiles, two, three, 10 or 100 years.”
His message came hours after Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the NATO chief, vowed there would be no halt to the Libyan bombing campaign, saying more civilians would die if operations were not maintained under a UN mandate to protect Libyans from the exactions of Gaddaf’s regime.
However, Rebel forces in Libya have clashed with troops loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi about 80km (50 miles) south-west of the capital, Tripoli.
A rebel spokesman in the Nafusa mountains said there had been heavy fighting on the outskirts of the strategic town of Bir al-Ghanam.
The rebels are believed be making a push for Tripoli.
The international military operation in Libya has entered 105th , with the rebels still struggling to take advantage of coalition air strikes on Col Gaddafi’s infrastructure but there is no big change show to send away Gaddafi .
The Libyan news agency reported fresh strikes on Tripoli overnight.
