As protests spread around Libya, government vows reforms

From: www.cnn.com

CNN) -- Libya released 110 political prisoners and set up a committee to enact reforms, according to pro-government reports on Thursday, the same day that messages and videos posted on social media sites suggested that the popular opposition was gaining steam in several cities.
Despite reports of at-times violent crackdowns, threats and widespread arrests, Libyan websites had posted calls for a "Day of Rage" on Thursday, the anniversary of a 2006 demonstration in which security forces killed at least 12 protesters.
These follow days of bloody clashes that have contributed to 21 deaths in the North African nation -- a figure that CNN, which does not have journalists in Libya, could not independently confirm. Officials at international human rights groups, however, have said they fear that death toll may be conservative.
Still, despite movement in recent years toward free expression, information is still difficult to get out of Libya. Moammar Gadhafi's government retains control over most of the nation's media and monitors and censors the fledgling private media outlets.
One of the pro-Gadhafi publications, the top Libyan online newspaper Quryna, reported Thursday that a government group, dubbed the Secretary Committee of the People's Conference, plans to make major changes to Libya's government.
The committee's reforms will affect executive branches of government and also include moves aimed at better supporting local government administrators, Quryna reported.
Libya
And state television reported that 110 members of Al-jam'a Al-libyia Al-Muqatila, also known as the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, were let out of prison Thursday, part of a planned release coordinated by a charity led by Moammar Gadhafi's son Saif.
Still, the opposition chatter in text and other short-wave messages Thursday focused more on a speech by Saif, in which he described the lines as Islamic law, the Quran, Libyan security and his father.
"From Libya's youth to anyone who dares to cross any of the four red lines come and face us in any street on the ground of our beloved country," one Short Message System dispatch said.
State-run television showed demonstrations Thursday in support of the elder Gadhafi, who has ruled Libya for more than four decades, including his appearance before a large gathering Thursday in Tripoli. That was one of several events during the day expressing support for Gadhafi, a source in the Libyan capital who is close to senior members of the government told CNN.
Still, there were numerous reports of broader, at times violent clashes in several other Libyans.
Ahmed Elgasir, a researcher at the Geneva, Switzerland-based Libyan Human Rights Solidarity, said serious clashes between protesters and security forces occurred Thursday in Benghazi, located on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast.
Citing an unnamed security source, Quryna reported that seven people were killed and "a number" of others wounded when security forces used live ammunition after demonstrators became "violent."
The report claimed that protesters targeted government buildings, burned police stations and inflicted other damage around Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city.
A protester told CNN by phone that about 3,000 people gathered after midday prayers at the seaside corniche and marched toward the courthouse. The protester, whose name has been withheld for safety reasons, said that police -- some without uniforms and others in riot gear -- wielded knives and fired live ammunition to disperse the crowds.
The protester said the crowds, angered by state television's portrayal of pro-Gadhafi demonstrations, grew to the thousands. They chanted anti-Gadhafi slogans and "Peace!"
The day before, at least 38 people were injured when police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse crowds in Benghazi, Quryna said
Enough Gaddafi, an anti-Gadhafi Libyan exile group in the United States, reported six deaths total in the city, based on local sources.
Mohammed Ali Abdallah of the opposition National Front for the Salvation of Libya said that, as night fell Thursday, he still was receiving reports from his sources of ongoing clashes in Benghazi. That included reports, he said, of snipers targeting protesters.
Novelist Idris al-Mismari told the Al-Jazeera network that plainclothes security officers used tear gas, batons and hot water on the crowds. During his live interview, the line went dead. Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that he was arrested then.
One of the protesters likened the situation in Libya to Egypt, telling Human Rights Watch that "they are sending baltaqiyyas (thugs) to beat us."
Abdallah also reported protests in other towns across Libya -- Darna, Ijdadia, Kufra, Zintan and Al-Bayda. Medical sources told him five people died in Albeyda, he said.
Abdulla Darrat, spokesman for Enough Gaddafi, told CNN that hospitals in Al-Bayda were inundated and that doctors were running out of medical supplies to treat the injured.
Elgasir, of Libyan Human Rights Solidarity, said his group's sources on the ground said 10 people were killed in Al-Bayda on Thursday and that the city was surrounded by security forces. He said he was unable to contact people in Al-Bayda on Thursday because the internet and cell phone text messaging had been shut down.
He said his own group's website has been hacked since last November last year, after it presented a report on Libya to the U.N. Human Rights Council. The agency has not been able to get its site back up, he said.
Elgasir also said demonstrations were taking place in Zentan, south of Tripoli.
Human Rights Watch reported that security forces had arrested at least 14 Libyans in connection with the demonstrations. Among them were human rights activists, journalists, lawyers and two key members of the families of people involved in an alleged 1996 massacre at the Abu Salim jail.
U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Libya should listen to its people.
And U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton had made clear that "countries across the region have the same kind of challenge in terms of the demographics, the aspirations of their people, the need for reform," he said.
"And we encourage these countries to take specific actions that address the aspirations and the needs and hopes of their people," Crowley said in a news briefing Wednesday. "Libya certainly would be in that same category."
In fact, an independent source told CNN that Gadhafi is acutely aware of discontent with the government and has been moving to address popular grievances before they surfaced on the streets.
Libya, like many of its Arab neighbors, is suffering from economic hardship and a lack of political reform. Unemployment rates among the nation's youth are high.
Gadhafi has spoken with groups of students, lawyers and journalists in the past few weeks, the source told CNN.
On one occasion, the longtime ruler appointed an outspoken member of the lawyers' union as its leader, removing the syndicate's old guard, according to the source. He also promised action to address the country's housing crisis.
A highly placed Libyan source close to the government sought to downplay the reports of unrest. The source asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
"There is nothing serious here," the source said Wednesday. "These are just young people fighting each other."
Libya, he said, is not Egypt.
CNN's Tim Lister, Salma Abdelaziz, Yousif Basil, Ingrid Formanek and Moni Basu contributed to this story.

Blogger comment:
Kazafi time to fade away, the tent is being packed and your people need to elect their new leader and put him down with ballot votes if he does not do a good job. There is something in occupation and jobs called firing, it is likely you never heard about it or your fellow tyrants in the middle east. Every one dies or get wounded in the Libya revolution you will be asked about in the day of judgment. Please read the prophecies of the end of time to prophet Muhammad (PBUH) there is a guy called Al Mahdi Al Muntazer and it is me, have a good day see you arrested soon.

Al Mahdi Al Muntazer.