NewsBreakingOnline

Khalifa al-Zwawi asks international community for weapons to help push Libyan leader’s forces out of the city The leader of the rebellion in Misrata has made an urgent plea to the international community for weapons that would allow his fighters not just to defend the besieged city, but to topple the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. Khalifa al-Zwawi, an appeal court judge who heads Misrata’s transitional council, said that after weeks of fierce fighting, rebel forces would eject the last of Gaddafi’s forces from the city “very soon”. “Once we have done that our target is to eliminate the Gaddafi regime,” he told the Guardian in an interview. “We want to go to Tripoli and set it free, and Libya free. We want to move from defence to attack.” Until now, the rebels in Misrata have relied solely on small arms and weapons captured from loyalist troops, or sent by sea from Benghazi, the rebel capital in the east. But Zwawi said help was now required if his forces were to go on the offensive. “The most important thing for us now is arms. We need weapons that are suitable to take on Gaddafi. As soon as our freedom fighters reach people in other cities they will join our revolt,” he said. Misrata, which is Libya’s third largest city and just 130 miles (210km) east of Tripoli, has been under siege since 20 February, when its people staged an uprising. Two months of street-by-street fighting has left much of the city centre in ruins. While the rebels – ordinary citizens with no previous military experience – appear have won the battle to defend the city, it has come at a high cost. Zwawi, 53, said the number of dead in Misrata – excluding Gaddafi’s forces – exceeded 1,000. More than 4,000 people have injured, with hundreds more kidnapped by loyalist troops and taken to other cities. By keeping control of the port, the rebels have been able to receive supplies by sea, allowing the city to keep functioning. But there is still an urgent need for humanitarian supplies, including medicine and food, Zwawi said. Cash is also required. Since the start of the uprising, most business has ground to a halt, and few people have continued working as normal. Civil servants’ salaries have not been paid, although small cash disbursements have been made to poorer families. “We recently received some funding from Benghazi but it is not enough to keep us going for long,” he said. Zwawi also appealed for technical support to maintain the city’s emergency electricity, and to re-establish the mobile network. Gaddafi’s forces destroyed the city’s power station, cut the main water supply and disabled the telecommunications networks in the early days of the conflict. Unlike the national transitional council in Benghazi , which has been able to operate partly in the open since February, when the city was liberated, Misrata’s leadership council has had to open largely in secret due to the fighting. Until this week, few people here even knew who was on the council, though the evidence of its organisation was clear to see – from the food distribution points to the carefully co-ordinated guerrilla war. Zwawi said the council had initially been established as a judicial committee in the days after the revolution, but now also included includes doctors, engineers, businessmen and military leaders. It has 20 members and meets at secret locations every other day. Zwawi said that during the week after the uprising Gaddafi had sent local intermediaries to negotiate with them. The offered concessions to the rebels, but only if Gaddafi remained in power. “That was immediately rejected. Our position is that he and his companions must leave power for good. They know that they are not appreciated by anyone in Libya. Since then there has been no contact between us and the regime.” Some residents of Misrata are deeply fearful of Gaddafi’s next move, and believe that he will do whatever it takes to crush the city. But Zwawi said he was not concerned. “If we were thinking about Gaddafi’s arsenal, we would never have started this revolution. We went into it with naked chests, with no weapons. We have two choices: we die or we get our freedom.” He also dismissed the claim from Tripoli that local tribes around Misrata could be sent in to fight instead of the army. “This is simply one of Gaddafi’s plots to save time. He is not dealing with tribes, but individuals within tribes. His popular base does not exist.” Zwawi acknowledged that it could be difficult to for outside countries to supply weapons, given that UN security council resolution 1973 only authorised the use of force to defend civilians, not to remove Gaddafi. “We know that Russia and China will block a stronger resolution that could help us. But we are still grateful to the international community. Without them we would be ash.” Libya Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Muammar Gaddafi Xan Rice guardian.co.uk