Rebel leader calls for civil state
Libya to focus on youth, women, crowd told
TRIPOLI, Libya – The chief of Libya’s revolutionary movement told thousands of cheering Libyans in Tripoli Monday to strive for a civil, democratic state, while loyalists of the hunted dictator Moammar Gadhafi killed at least 15 opposition fighters in an attack on a key oil town in Libya’s east.
From hiding, Gadhafi urged his remaining followers to keep up the fight, a sign that Libya’s six-month civil is not over even though revolutionary forces now control most of the country and have begun setting up a new government in the capital.
Mustafa Abdul-Jalil addressed a rowdy crowd of thousands in Martyr’s Square in central Tripoli, a site that until recently was famous for pro-Gadhafi rallies. Flanked by a few dozen revolutionary leaders in their largest public gathering since rebel forces stormed into the capital on Aug. 21, he called on Libyans to build a state based on the rule of law.
“No retribution, no taking matters into your own hands and no oppression. I hope that the revolution will not stumble because of any of these things,” he said.
As he spoke, thousands waved flags, cheered and chanted, “Hold your head high, you’re a free Libyan!” Some wept openly as fireworks exploded overhead.
Abdul-Jalil heads the National Transitional Council, founded in the eastern city of Benghazi early in the six-month civil war to guide the rebel movement. Its leaders have been arriving in the capital since it fell into rebel hands last month to start building a new government.
Abdul-Jalil, who served as Gadhafi’s justice minister before joining the rebels at the uprising’s start, defined the government he said the NTC hopes to create.
“We strive for a state of the law, for a state of prosperity, for a state that will have Islamic sharia law the basis of legislation,” he said.
He also thanked NATO, the United States and a number of Arab and European countries for their aid to the rebels during the war. NATO bombed Gadhafi’s military under a U.N. mandate to protect civilians, giving rebel forces an edge on Gadhafi’s better armed and trained soldiers.
Abdul-Jalil said the new Libya would focus on youth and women, adding that some ministries and embassies would be headed by women.
Showing that Gadhafi loyalists still pose a threat to opposition control, suspected loyalists staged deadly attacks on the Ras Lanouf oil terminal in Libya’s east that began with saboteurs setting fires and then shifted to a convoy of gunmen riding in from the desert.
Col. Hamid al-Hasi, the commander for anti-Gadhafi forces in eastern Libya, said a group of 15 employees set fire to the facility, located on the Mediterranean coast about 380 miles southeast of Tripoli.
In a possibly coordinated attack, the port was then targeted by a convoy of armed men apparently based in a refugee camp about 18 miles south of Ras Lanouf.