Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin wants firm police action against a group calling itself Hindraf which is reported to be trying to hold a mass rally this Sunday.
He said that Hindraf, the Hindu Rights Action Force, had been banned and using or championing its name was in itself an offence.
“They (planners) know that they would need permission from the police (for such a rally),” he told reporters here.
Muhyiddin said it was up to police to “shape” the action to be taken, but they have to be firm against such activity as a rally by a banned organisation.
It is important for the deputy prime minister to get his facts right.
First, the right to a peaceful assembly is guaranteed by the federal constitution. If members of the Indian community would like to hold a peaceful assembly to voice out their opposition against the controversial Interlok book they are acting within their constitutional rights to do.The police is not above the law. The action of the police must be bounded and limited by what is allowed within the highest law of the land – the federal constitution. The police should facilitate and control the peaceful demonstration so that it does not become too emotional or a threat to public safety.Muhyiddin’s call for a stern police action is actually unconstitutional.Second, if Hindraf has been banned by the government why are groups such as Perkasa are still allowed to hold their meetings, talks and demonstrations?I must reiterate that I do not support race based organisations but the government must be consistent in its action.Hence, I would like to advice Muhyiddin – for his and his party’s own sake – to stop acting like a legal thug and an autocratic leader who continues to trample on the rule of law. It does not make Muhyiddin looks gungho or smart calling for a stern police action against the Hindraf peaceful demonstration.Let it be if PM Najib really want other Muslim nations to follow the example of Malaysia. It is precise acting the same way like Muhyiddin now – trampling on the basic rights of the people – that decades old regimes/autocracies have been defeated and dismantled by the people’s power.Muhyiddin should appreciate that sometimes less is more. Yes, talk less and contribute more.
Prime Minister Najib Razak’s suggestion that renowned Muslim scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi was linked to violence and terrorism and therefore not suitable to lead a new Egypt has been condemned by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, who urged Najib to apologise.Anwar said Najib appeared to be questioning Qaradawi’s credibility and Islamic groups that participate in the process of democratization by telling that Egypt’s Ikhwan Muslimin (Muslim Brotherhood) should not be part of the post-Mubarak reform process.“I feel obliged to reprimand the Prime Minister for a view which is clearly isolated and which represents the far right groups in United States. Is this part of the agenda of the advisory company to repair Najib’s image in United States,” he asked, referring to Israeli-linked firm APCO Worldwide, the Malaysian government’s image consultant appointed by Najib.Anwar also questioned the government’s decision to confer the annual Maal Hijrah award in 2009 on Qaradawi.n“If it’s really proven that Najib Razak has slandered Sheikh Yusuf al Qaradawi, I demand he immediately apologise to him,” added Anwar. mNajib: Learn from Malaysia
In a report carried by US-based magazine National Review, Najib, in an interview in Istanbul, Turkey, said the Ikhwan, banned by Mubarak’s regime and which had been instrumental in the uprising that toppled him, should “reject violence and extremism”.
Najib also said the world could learn from Malaysia’s model for democracy, and went on to back his claim by quoting US secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s statement that Malaysia was “modern, progressive, and moderate”.
Saying the Muslim world had “lost ground” to terrorism, he invited others “to study our experience and how we’ve done things in Malaysia.”
Najib’s remark that he had “some concerns, deep concerns” about Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who he said “had led the Middle East astray”, is seen as isolated, at a time when the 85-year old cleric has been increasingly regarded a unifying factor for Egyptian opposition.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi
Qaradawi, considered the spiritual leader of the Ikhwan, has been under attack from Zionist lobbies in the West over his statements of support for Palestinians and for sympathising with Palestinian youths who launched suicide attacks on Israeli army.
According to the report, Najib’s concerns about Qaradawi centred on “Qaradawi’s support and justification for terrorism, which carries a great deal of weight given Qaradawi’s credibility as an Islamic scholar”.
Najib’s remarks appeared to break away from the general consensus among both Muslim and Western analysts that Ikhwan Muslimin would be able to provide the much needed political leadership in post-Mubarak Egypt.
While his criticism of Qaradawi may be linked to the latter’s open declaration that Anwar was innocent of sodomy accusations levelled by government leaders, Najib’s comments are the latest in a series of statements favouring right-wing extremists in Washington.
Last year, during a meeting with president Barrack Obama in the US capital, Najib urged for sanctions to be imposed on Iran over its nuclear programme, a view opposed by several major Muslim countries such as Turkey and Indonesia.
Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has appeared in Tripoli’s Green Square, to address a crowd of his supporters in the capital.The speech, which also referred to Libya’s war of independence with Italy, appeared to be aimed at rallying what remains of his support base, with specific reference to the country’s youth.”We can defeat any aggression if necessary and arm the people,” Gaddafi said, in footage that was aired on Libyan state television on Friday.”I am in the middle of the people.. we will fight … we will defeat them if they want … we will defeat any foreign aggression.”Dance … sing and get ready … this is the spirit … this is much better than the lies of the Arab propaganda,” he said.His last speech, on Thursday evening had been made by phone, leading to speculation about his physical condition.LIVE BLOG
WATCH KING’S HISTORIC SPEECH BELOW.
WATCH:
“Who, then, is greedy? — The one who does not remain content with self sufficiency. Who is the one who deprives others? The one who hoards what belongs to everyone. Are you not greedy? Are you not one who deprives others? You have received these things for stewardship, and have turned them into your own property! Is not the one who tears off what another is wearing called a clothes-robber? But the one who does not clothe the naked, when he was able to do so — what other name does he deserve? The bread that you hold on to belongs to the hungry; the cloak you keep locked in your storeroom belongs to the naked; the shoe that is moldering in your possession belongs to the person with no shoes; the silver that you have buried belongs to the person in need. You do an injury to as many people as you might have helped with all these things!”
“Who, then, is greedy? — The one who does not remain content with self sufficiency. Who is the one who deprives others? The one who hoards what belongs to everyone. Are you not greedy? Are you not one who deprives others? You have received these things for stewardship, and have turned them into your own property! Is not the one who tears off what another is wearing called a clothes-robber? But the one who does not clothe the naked, when he was able to do so — what other name does he deserve? The bread that you hold on to belongs to the hungry; the cloak you keep locked in your storeroom belongs to the naked; the shoe that is moldering in your possession belongs to the person with no shoes; the silver that you have buried belongs to the person in need. You do an injury to as many people as you might have helped with all these things!”
The waves of uprisings by citizens of Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Bahrain, Algeria and Libya that is also holding the breath of other regime leaders in other parts of the world is most noticeable.
What is also an obvious pattern is that the leaders of the affected countries are said to have stashed away exorbitant sums of money in banks across the globe – out of their own countries – J. D. Lovrenciear
Why do they do it? Is it a Fetish with money? Do they go into an orgiastic frenzy, while counting the dollar bills with their grubby hands? And like squirrels they faithfully stash it away for winter.
And the amounts siphoned off are exorbitant. Hosni Mubarak reportedly stashed away USD70 billion (MYR210 billion), does he not hear the whimpering of the people, outside his stately mansion? Are their ears deaf to the cries of the people crawling on their bellies, begging for their next meal? Does he not deserve to be booted out?
Do they really need that much money? Mubarak is close to 83 years old. They must believe in reincarnation. They can’t possibly spend all that money in one life time! With what he’s got, it will be about 360 thousand years before he can finish spending it.
What about the RM888 billion, outflow from Malaysia. Our Deputy Minister does not see it fit for the Government to comment on this. Why not? Doesn’t the Rakyat have a right to know?
We hear that the Government has instructed Bank Negara to investigate this anomaly. Are they going to issue a statement anytime soon? Who are these people involved? Are they just a handful or are there at least 880 of them? Is RM880 billion a lot of money? If you were to spend modestly, RM1000 a day every day, you would need 3000years just to finish spending a modest RM1 billion.
Well, the RM2.5billion Perwaja Scandal, RM3.5billion BMF scandal, the RM8billion MAS scandal, and the mother of all scandals which shocked the nation at a whopping – RM12billion PKFZ scandal actually pales in comparison to this latest scandal.
If divided equally, 888 thousand people in this country will become instant millionaires, making Malaysia one of the only countries in the world with the most millionaires by per capita of the population.
Rumour, has it that there is a timber town in Sarawak, where the town’s population of 5000 are all millionaires. Their leaders are reputedly richer than the Sultan of Brunei. Bill Gates billions is mediocre in comparison. Are Malaysians that rich?
If Malaysia did not have such scandals like the above, and if this RM888 billion were still in the country: wouldn’t Malaysia be a First World Economic Power, overshadowing that little island down south, with absolutely no natural resources of its own? Isn’t it embarrassing, that this little fry, casts a bigger shadow than us?
Most of the country’s wealth is supposed to be centred in the Klang Valley where Executives’ average salaries hover around RM3000 –RM20000. These same executives, however still can’t balance their check books at the end of each month. Consistently behind in mortgage payments, and the occasional call from Citibank. “Hi there, we are calling from CITIBANK credit card centre!. For security can you please tell us your birth date?
And at the end of a long day, after fighting massive traffic jams, and finally and wearily crawling on to bed, we hear the soft music on the radio belting…It’s been a Hard Day’s Night. I’m feeling like a dog!!!
… and then the frustration sets in.
The footage aired on Friday, however, showed Gaddafi standing above the square, waving his fist as he spoke.Tarik Yousef, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, told Al Jazeera that most of the individuals on Green Square are genuine Gaddafi supporters.”Most of these people have known nothing else but Gaddafi. They don’t know any other leader. And many of them stand to lose when Gaddafi falls,” Yousef said.”I am not completely surprised that they still think that he is the right man for Libya. What is striking is that [Gaddafi] did not talk about all the liberated cities in his country.”This was a speech intended show his defiance and to rally against what he calls foreign interference. But even his children have admitted that the east of the country is no longer under the regime’s control.”Gaddafi’s speech came on a day when tens of thousands of Libyans in Tripoli and elsewhere in the country took to the streets calling for an end to his rule.Heavy gunfireAs demonstrations began in Tripoli following the midday prayer, security forces loyal to Gaddafi reportedly began firing on them. There was heavy gunfire in various Tripoli districts including Fashloum, Ashour, Jumhouria and Souq Al, sources told Al Jazeera.”The security forces fired indiscriminately on the demonstrators,” said a resident of one of the capital’s eastern suburbs.”There were deaths in the streets of Sug al-Jomaa,” the resident said.The death toll since the violence began remains unclear, though on Thursday Francois Zimeray, France’s top human rights official, said it could be as high as 2,000 people killed.
Follow more of Al Jazeera’s special coverage here But Saif al-Islam, Muammar Gaddafi’s son, has called on the European Union to send a fact-finding team to Libya.
“We are not afraid of the facts. We are worried about rumours and lies,” he said.Violence flared up even before the Friday sermons were over, according to a source in Tripoli.”People are rushing out of mosques even before Friday prayers are finished because the state-written sermons were not acceptable, and made them even more angry,” the source said.Libyan state television aired one such sermon on Friday, in an apparent warning to protesters.”As the prophet said, if you dislike your ruler or his behaviour, you should not raise your sword against him, but be patient, for those who disobey the rulers will die as infidels,” the speaker told his congregation in Tripoli.During Friday prayers, a religious leader in the town of Mselata, 80km to the east of Tripoli, called for the people to fight back.Immediately after the prayers, more than 2,000 people, some of them armed with rifles taken from the security forces, headed towards Tripol to demand the fall of Gaddafi, Al Jazeera’s Nazanine Moshiri reported.The group made it as far as the city of Tajoura, where it was stopped by a group loyal to Gaddafi.They were checked by foreign, French-speaking mercenaries and gunfire was exchanged. There were an unknown number of casualties, Moshiri reported, based on information from witnesses who had reached on the Libyan-Tunisian border.Foreign mercenariesThere have been frequent reports of foreign mercenaries working for Gaddafi against the protesters, but their nationality remains uncertain.The government of Chad has moved to counter allegations that Chadian mercenaries were being recruited to go to Libya.”International media inundates the public opinion with information alleging some Chadian would be mercenaries currently acting in Libya,” Moussa Mahamat Dago, the Chad foreign ministry’s general secretary, said on Friday.”We want to formally and categorically deny all those allegations that are dangerous and could pose a material and physical danger to the many Chadians living in Libya for years and always in a peaceful way.”Twitter ReactionLibya Protests
Cavaliereee RT @Jnoubiyeh:#Libyan freedom fighters in the city of #Derna continue their colossal demonstrations despite a brutal #Gaddafi crackdown. #Libya#Feb178 minutes ago · reply
ayakhalil The Arab world is on fire! Down with lunatic dictators!#Libya #Egypt #Yemen #Gaddafi#shafik7 minutes ago · reply
BintElHara 1st NO FLY ZONE group on FB @ShababLibya@ChangeInLibya @Cyrenaican@ArabUprising @angryarabiyahttp://is.gd/hxrBVB #Libya #Feb17 #Gaddafi5 minutes ago · reply
lemlibya RT @AtiqueAh: Friday is always a good day to go, but maniac #Gaddafi survived, God bless the people of #Libya, they are really paying with there blood.6 minutes ago · reply 1 new tweet
Join the conversationPeople in eastern parts of the country, a region believed to be largely free from Gaddafi’s control, held protests in support for the demonstrations in the capital.”Friday prayer in Benghazi have seen thousands and thousands on the streets. All the banners are for the benefit of the capital, [they are saying] ‘We’re with you, Tripoli’,” Al Jazeera’s Laurence Lee reported.In the town of Derna, protesters held banners with the messages such as “We are one Tribe called Libya, our only capital is Tripoli, we want freedom of speech”.Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Libya reported on Friday that army commanders in the east who had renounced Gaddafi’s leadership had told her that military commanders in the country’s west were beginning to turn against him.They warned, however, that the Khamis Brigade, an army special forces brigade that is loyal to the Gaddafi family and is equipped with sophisticated weaponry, is currently still fighting anti-government forces.The correspondent, who cannot be named for security reasons, said that despite the gains, people are anxious about what Gaddafi might do next, and the fact that his loyalists were still at large.”People do say that they have broken the fear factor, that they have made huge territorial gains,” she said. “[Yet] there’s no real celebration or euphoria that the job has been done.”On Friday morning, our correspondents reported quoting witnesses that the town of Zuwarah had been abandoned by security forces and completely in the hands of anti-Gaddafi protesters.Checkpoints in the country’s west on roads leading to the Tunisian border, however, were still being controlled by Gaddafi loyalists.In the east, similar checkpoints were manned by anti-Gaddafi forces, who had set up a “humanitarian aid corridor” as well as a communications corridor to the Egyptian border, our correspondent reported.Thousands massed in Az Zawiyah’s Martyr’s Square after the attack, calling on Gaddafi to leave office, and on Friday morning, explosions were heard in the city.Arms caches blown upWitnesses say pro-Gaddafi forces were blowing up arms caches, in order to prevent anti-government forces from acquiring those weapons.Clashes were also reported in the city of Misurata, located 200km east of Tripoli, where witnesses said a pro-Gaddafi army brigade attacked the city’s airport with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.They told Al Jazeera that pro-democracy protesters had managed to fight off that attack. “Revolutionaries have driven out the security forces,” they said, adding that “heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns” had been used against them.Mohamed Senussi, a resident of Misurata, said calm had returned to the city after the “fierce battle” near the airport.”The people’s spirits here are high, they are celebrating and chanting ‘God is Greatest’,” he told the Reuters news agency by telephone.Another witness warned, however, that protesters in Misurata felt “isolated” as they were surrounded by nearby towns still in Gaddafi’s control.Protesters and air force personnel who have renounced Gaddafi’s leadership also overwhelmed a nearby military base where Gaddafi loyalists were taking refuge, according to a medical official at the base.They disabled air force fighter jets at the base so that they could not be used against protesters.Oil terminalSoldiers helped anti-Gaddafi protesters take the oil terminal in the town of Berga, according to Reuters.The oil refinery in Ras Lanuf has also halted its operations and most staff has left, according to a source in the company.Support for Gaddafi within the country’s elite continues to decline. On Friday, Abdel Rahman Al Abar, Libya’s Chief Prosecutor, became one of the latest top officials to resign in protest over the bloodshed.”What happened and is happening are massacres and bloodshed never witnessed by the Libyan people. The logic of power and violence is being imposed instead of seeking democratic, free, and mutual dialogue,” he said.His comments came as UN’s highest human-rights body held a special session on Friday to discuss what it’s chief had earlier described as possible “crimes against humanity” by the Gaddafi government. Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, urged world leaders to “step in vigorously” to end the violent crackdown.The United Nations Security Council was to hold a meeting on the situation in Libya later in the day, with sanctions the possible imposition of a no-fly zone over the country under Chapter VII of the UN charter on the table.Libya.
Thus far, Gaddafi has shown no inclination to bow to foreign pressure. He has vowed to remain in power and said he is ready to “die a martyr.”
Senior U.N. diplomats said there were no proposals as yet to authorize international military action or impose a no-fly zone over Libya. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, meeting Friday with European Union defense ministers in Bucharest, Romania, said a no-fly zone would require U.N. authorization.
The footage aired on Friday, however, showed Gaddafi standing above the square, waving his fist as he spoke.Tarik Yousef, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, told Al Jazeera that most of the individuals on Green Square are genuine Gaddafi supporters.”Most of these people have known nothing else but Gaddafi. They don’t know any other leader. And many of them stand to lose when Gaddafi falls,” Yousef said.”I am not completely surprised that they still think that he is the right man for Libya. What is striking is that [Gaddafi] did not talk about all the liberated cities in his country.”This was a speech intended show his defiance and to rally against what he calls foreign interference. But even his children have admitted that the east of the country is no longer under the regime’s control.”Gaddafi’s speech came on a day when tens of thousands of Libyans in Tripoli and elsewhere in the country took to the streets calling for an end to his rule.Heavy gunfireAs demonstrations began in Tripoli following the midday prayer, security forces loyal to Gaddafi reportedly began firing on them. There was heavy gunfire in various Tripoli districts including Fashloum, Ashour, Jumhouria and Souq Al, sources told Al Jazeera.”The security forces fired indiscriminately on the demonstrators,” said a resident of one of the capital’s eastern suburbs.”There were deaths in the streets of Sug al-Jomaa,” the resident said.The death toll since the violence began remains unclear, though on Thursday Francois Zimeray, France’s top human rights official, said it could be as high as 2,000 people killed.
Follow more of Al Jazeera’s special coverage here But Saif al-Islam, Muammar Gaddafi’s son, has called on the European Union to send a fact-finding team to Libya.
“We are not afraid of the facts. We are worried about rumours and lies,” he said.Violence flared up even before the Friday sermons were over, according to a source in Tripoli.”People are rushing out of mosques even before Friday prayers are finished because the state-written sermons were not acceptable, and made them even more angry,” the source said.Libyan state television aired one such sermon on Friday, in an apparent warning to protesters.”As the prophet said, if you dislike your ruler or his behaviour, you should not raise your sword against him, but be patient, for those who disobey the rulers will die as infidels,” the speaker told his congregation in Tripoli.During Friday prayers, a religious leader in the town of Mselata, 80km to the east of Tripoli, called for the people to fight back.Immediately after the prayers, more than 2,000 people, some of them armed with rifles taken from the security forces, headed towards Tripol to demand the fall of Gaddafi, Al Jazeera’s Nazanine Moshiri reported.The group made it as far as the city of Tajoura, where it was stopped by a group loyal to Gaddafi.They were checked by foreign, French-speaking mercenaries and gunfire was exchanged. There were an unknown number of casualties, Moshiri reported, based on information from witnesses who had reached on the Libyan-Tunisian border.Foreign mercenariesThere have been frequent reports of foreign mercenaries working for Gaddafi against the protesters, but their nationality remains uncertain.The government of Chad has moved to counter allegations that Chadian mercenaries were being recruited to go to Libya.”International media inundates the public opinion with information alleging some Chadian would be mercenaries currently acting in Libya,” Moussa Mahamat Dago, the Chad foreign ministry’s general secretary, said on Friday.”We want to formally and categorically deny all those allegations that are dangerous and could pose a material and physical danger to the many Chadians living in Libya for years and always in a peaceful way.”Twitter ReactionLibya Protests
Cavaliereee RT @Jnoubiyeh:#Libyan freedom fighters in the city of #Derna continue their colossal demonstrations despite a brutal #Gaddafi crackdown. #Libya#Feb178 minutes ago · reply
ayakhalil The Arab world is on fire! Down with lunatic dictators!#Libya #Egypt #Yemen #Gaddafi#shafik7 minutes ago · reply
BintElHara 1st NO FLY ZONE group on FB @ShababLibya@ChangeInLibya @Cyrenaican@ArabUprising @angryarabiyahttp://is.gd/hxrBVB #Libya #Feb17 #Gaddafi5 minutes ago · reply
lemlibya RT @AtiqueAh: Friday is always a good day to go, but maniac #Gaddafi survived, God bless the people of #Libya, they are really paying with there blood.6 minutes ago · reply 1 new tweet
Join the conversationPeople in eastern parts of the country, a region believed to be largely free from Gaddafi’s control, held protests in support for the demonstrations in the capital.”Friday prayer in Benghazi have seen thousands and thousands on the streets. All the banners are for the benefit of the capital, [they are saying] ‘We’re with you, Tripoli’,” Al Jazeera’s Laurence Lee reported.In the town of Derna, protesters held banners with the messages such as “We are one Tribe called Libya, our only capital is Tripoli, we want freedom of speech”.Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Libya reported on Friday that army commanders in the east who had renounced Gaddafi’s leadership had told her that military commanders in the country’s west were beginning to turn against him.They warned, however, that the Khamis Brigade, an army special forces brigade that is loyal to the Gaddafi family and is equipped with sophisticated weaponry, is currently still fighting anti-government forces.The correspondent, who cannot be named for security reasons, said that despite the gains, people are anxious about what Gaddafi might do next, and the fact that his loyalists were still at large.”People do say that they have broken the fear factor, that they have made huge territorial gains,” she said. “[Yet] there’s no real celebration or euphoria that the job has been done.”On Friday morning, our correspondents reported quoting witnesses that the town of Zuwarah had been abandoned by security forces and completely in the hands of anti-Gaddafi protesters.Checkpoints in the country’s west on roads leading to the Tunisian border, however, were still being controlled by Gaddafi loyalists.In the east, similar checkpoints were manned by anti-Gaddafi forces, who had set up a “humanitarian aid corridor” as well as a communications corridor to the Egyptian border, our correspondent reported.Thousands massed in Az Zawiyah’s Martyr’s Square after the attack, calling on Gaddafi to leave office, and on Friday morning, explosions were heard in the city.Arms caches blown upWitnesses say pro-Gaddafi forces were blowing up arms caches, in order to prevent anti-government forces from acquiring those weapons.Clashes were also reported in the city of Misurata, located 200km east of Tripoli, where witnesses said a pro-Gaddafi army brigade attacked the city’s airport with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.They told Al Jazeera that pro-democracy protesters had managed to fight off that attack. “Revolutionaries have driven out the security forces,” they said, adding that “heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns” had been used against them.Mohamed Senussi, a resident of Misurata, said calm had returned to the city after the “fierce battle” near the airport.”The people’s spirits here are high, they are celebrating and chanting ‘God is Greatest’,” he told the Reuters news agency by telephone.Another witness warned, however, that protesters in Misurata felt “isolated” as they were surrounded by nearby towns still in Gaddafi’s control.Protesters and air force personnel who have renounced Gaddafi’s leadership also overwhelmed a nearby military base where Gaddafi loyalists were taking refuge, according to a medical official at the base.They disabled air force fighter jets at the base so that they could not be used against protesters.Oil terminalSoldiers helped anti-Gaddafi protesters take the oil terminal in the town of Berga, according to Reuters.The oil refinery in Ras Lanuf has also halted its operations and most staff has left, according to a source in the company.Support for Gaddafi within the country’s elite continues to decline. On Friday, Abdel Rahman Al Abar, Libya’s Chief Prosecutor, became one of the latest top officials to resign in protest over the bloodshed.”What happened and is happening are massacres and bloodshed never witnessed by the Libyan people. The logic of power and violence is being imposed instead of seeking democratic, free, and mutual dialogue,” he said.His comments came as UN’s highest human-rights body held a special session on Friday to discuss what it’s chief had earlier described as possible “crimes against humanity” by the Gaddafi government. Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, urged world leaders to “step in vigorously” to end the violent crackdown.The United Nations Security Council was to hold a meeting on the situation in Libya later in the day, with sanctions the possible imposition of a no-fly zone over the country under Chapter VII of the UN charter on the table.Libya.
Thus far, Gaddafi has shown no inclination to bow to foreign pressure. He has vowed to remain in power and said he is ready to “die a martyr.”
Senior U.N. diplomats said there were no proposals as yet to authorize international military action or impose a no-fly zone over Libya. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, meeting Friday with European Union defense ministers in Bucharest, Romania, said a no-fly zone would require U.N. authorization.
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