Rivers of blood will run through Libya … these were the chilling words of Saif Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader, as anti-government demonstrations spread across the country. “We will fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet,” he added. They were not idle words. There is no reason to doubt the Gaddafi family means it for their hold on power has been notorious for the copious amounts of blood that have been shed along the way.
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is one of the longest-serving rulers in the world. He came to power 41 years ago and soon began rattling doors in every corner of the planet. He became eccentric, unpredictable, and some think him a little insane.
His malevolence could fill an encyclopaedia. He sent hit squads abroad to kill Libyan dissidents. He went to war with neighbouring Chad. He became an ardent supporter of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and the IRA, sending them vast sums of money and boat loads of missiles. He used Libya’s oil wealth to bankroll international terrorism, almost certainly paying for the Black September massacre at the 1972 Olympics and the attacks of notorious Carlos the Jackal.
In 1984 one of his diplomats shot and killed PC Yvonne Fletcher from the window of the Libyan embassy in St James’s Square in London. In 1986 a bomb was left under a table in a Berlin nightclub frequented by US servicemen and when it exploded it killed three and wounded hundreds. A telex from Libya to its East Berlin embassy congratulated them on a job well done. It all led US President Ronald Reagan to describe Gaddafi as “the mad dog of the Middle East”.
During the Eighties he was widely regarded as one of the most dangerous men in the world. Then during the Nineties he seemed to go through some form of transformation, turning from mad dog to what many regarded as simply barking mad. He insisted on spending much of his time in a tent, greeting foreign visitors as though he was still a Bedouin to his roots, though visitors would notice luxury Winnebagos packed full of the latest technology always parked nearby.
The late US President Ronald Reagan once described Colonel Muammar Gaddafi as “the mad dog of the Middle East.” Gaddafi’s theatrical and rambling speech on Tuesday, in the minds of many, carried echoes of the nickname Reagan gave him.
Gaddafi’s address may have been intended to instill fear among his opponents, but the Libyan people show no sign of stopping their protests.
In the speech, Gaddafi declared he would die a martyr in Libya, and he threatened to purge opponents “house by house” and “inch by inch.”
“The Libyan people are with me,” he said, exhorting his supporters to “Capture these rats, these terrorists [anti-government demonstrators]!”
French journalist Christian Mallard claims to have to inside information on the state of the Libyan leader’s health. He says Gaddafi is seriously ill but warns that the West should not underestimate him.
The journalist for France 3 television said: “I think we should take his threats seriously. Gaddafi is unpredictable.” Mallard said a Libyan diplomat had told him that Gaddafi “takes a number of chemical products, and is lucid for only a few hours a day.”
Despite relatively recently having appeared to make peace with the West, Gaddafi’s latest televised performance have been broadly construed to indicate that he remains as dangerous as ever.
He said on Tuesday he had “not yet ordered the use of force”, and he warned: “When I do, everything will burn!”
A number of high-profile ministers and diplomats have already defected from Gaddafi’s side, and there are reports that members of the armed forces are disobeying orders.
Many analysts believe it is only a matter of time before Gaddafi leaves power, either by force or of his own accord, though there is also his own reference to becoming “a martyr”.
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