Libyan diplomats resign in protest of bloody crackdowns
Ambassadors to US, India, Arab League, Indonesia take a stand against Gaddafi's regime.
By ASSOCIATED PRESS, JPOST.COM STAFFLibya protesters truck 311 AP(photo credit: Associated Press)
Libyan diplomats all over the world resigned from their positions on Tuesday, in protest a bloody crackdown against protesters by their government.Libya's ambassador to the United States Ali Aujali resigned on Tuesday and said that he no longer represents his country's "dictatorship regime," Reuters reported.RELATED:Turkey, Italy plan to evacuate citizens from LibyaAujali called on Muammar Gaddafi to depart during an interview on ABC television's "Good Morning America.""I resign from serving the current dictatorship regime. But I will never resign from serving our people until their voices reach the whole world, until their goals are achieved," Aujali said.Click for full Jpost coverage of turmoil in the Middle EastAlso Tuesday, Libya's ambassador to Indonesia Salaheddin M. El Bishari, resigned and told the English-language Jakarta Post newspaper in an exclusive interview: "Soldiers are killing unarmed civilians mercilessly. Using heavy weaponry, fighter jets and mercenaries against its own people. It is not acceptable."He said, effective Tuesday, he also was stepping down from his posts in Singapore and Brunei Darussalam."I have enough of it. I don't tolerate it anymore," he said.Michael Tene, a spokesman for Indonesia's Foreign Ministry, said he had been informed about the decision, but provided no details.
At the same time, key Libyan diplomats disowned Gaddafi's regime and the country's deputy UN ambassador called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council that will take place Tuesday.Libya's ambassador to Bangladesh, A.H. Elimam, also resigned to protest the killing of family members by government soldiers in Libya, said a senior official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dhaka.The official said Elimam informed the foreign ministry about his resignation late Monday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the issue, and provided no other details.In India, Libyan Ambassador Ali al-Essawi told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he had resigned his post, effective Tuesday."The authorities are killing peaceful people, which is not acceptable," al-Essawi said. "We have to stop the bloodshed. It's the responsibility of the international community to stop the bloodshed."Abdel-Moneim al-Houni, who resigned Sunday as Libya's ambassador to the Arab League in Cairo, demanded that Gaddafi and his commanders and aides be put on trial for "the mass killings in Libya."At least one diplomat at the Libyan Embassy in Beijing, Hussein El-Sadek El-Mesrati, said he had resigned after seeing his people "killed by the Hitler Gaddafi.""I tell him, 'Finished! Game over! Get out! Get out! Go in Israel. Israel. Go, go! Your people in Israel, not in Arab people. Finished!," said El-Mesrati, who did not identify his position as he stood outside the embassy with about a dozen Libyan protesters.The Libyan Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, issued a statement condemning what it called the "barbaric" killing of civilians. About 200 Libyan citizens living in Malaysia, mainly university students, staged a peaceful protest at the embassy, chanting, "Game over, Gaddafi!" and smashing a framed photograph of the Libyan leader that they had taken from inside the embassy.The embassy in Kuala Lumpur was not formally operating Tuesday, but the ambassador and most other staff planned to return to work Wednesday, said embassy representative Osama Saleh, adding that no diplomats would be stepping down there.In Tokyo, a Japanese woman who answered the phone at the Libyan Embassy said no staff were there. The woman, who declined to be named, would not say whether the diplomats had left Japan.Officials at Libya's embassies in South Korea and Australia said all staff were working as usual.Gaddafi appeared very briefly on Libyan state television early Tuesday to attempt to show he was still in charge and dispel rumors that he had fled the country.
