I'd love to laugt about him if it wasn't so bloody serious. There is civil war in Libya though that expression does not fit it really. Most of the army and the police have changed sides and fight with the demonstrators. On Gaddafi's side fight a lot of black African mercenaries. Libya with its 6.5 Mio inhabitants has in the last years seen an influx of 2 Mio black African illegal immigrants. Nearly all of them wanted to come to Europe.

The EU fearing illegal immigration by ship to close-by Italian islands has made a deal with Gaddafi that he prevents these poor people from embarking towards Italy or Malta. They have paid a lot of money for that deal and, on the political side, to close both eyes to his outrageous antics. With that money and oil money Gaddafi pays black African mercenaries. They have the choice between immediate deportation to South Sahara which for most of them would mean death or geting paid as mercenaries answering only to Gaddafi himself.

These people who have fear of losing a well paid job and have no ethnic bonds to the aboriginal population of Libya will not change sides and are easily used to commit crimes from which the Libyans in the Army would shirk back even if they still support Gaddafi. By now, the mercenaries have an additional reason to fight til death for the Libians are so outraged now that they lynch black African mercenaries even if these surrender without a fight. The mercenaries in a very verbatim sense fight for their lives.

France 24 has usually the best coverage about North Africa and right now have some really graphic videos.

This is a situation where I'd wish for an outside force to act quickly. But I fear the only strong outside force near by, the NATO, would make things worse, so the only option, sadly, is to stand by and watch the massacre. Let's hope it does not last long.

Wolfgang