1 Sep 2011

Saif Gaddafi vows to fight on – ‘No one will surrender’

As Saif Gaddafi pledges to fight to the end, his brother al-Saadi claims to want negotiations with the Libyan rebel council to end the conflict.

As senior European politicians gather to meet the leaders of the National Transitional Council in Paris, in Libya, two of the embattled dictator’s sons gave conflicting messages about the regime’s plans for the future. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi vowed to carry on fighting in an audio message broadcast on Syria‘s Al-Rai television.

Claiming he was speaking from the suburbs of Tripoli he said his father was safe.

“We are going to die in our land,” he said. “No-one is going to surrender.”

But his brother al-Saadi Gaddafi claimed to be authorised to negotiate with the rebel National Transitional Council in an effort to end the bloodshed. The rebel commander in Tripoli, Abdel Hakim Belhaj, said Saadi rang him to discuss giving himself up.

Mr Belhaj said Saadi first called him on Tuesday and asked whether his safety could be guaranteed. Mr Belhaj said: “We told him ‘Don’t fear for your life. We will guarantee your rights as a human being and will deal with you humanely.'”

The claims have not been confirmed but former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell said: “If these reports are true, then the wheels are really coming off the Gaddafi camp.

“A great deal of bloodshed could be avoided if Colonel Gaddafi himself would accept the inevitable.”

Where are the women?
At the end of the Eid prayer in the newly named Martyrs’ Square in Tripoli this morning, I got chatting to a group of young women using their mobile phones to take pictures of the anti-Gaddafi cartoons stuck to the pillars. Dressed in traditional headscarves over tunics and trousers, they were keen that the world should know that they are part of this momentous change in Libya. “I want to tell you what the Tripoli girls did in the revolution!” said one.
Channel 4 News International Editor Lindsey Hilsum
meets the women of the Libyan revolution