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FACTBOX-Diplomats, officials desert Libya's Gaddafi

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 19:32 GMT

Source: reuters // Reuters

Feb 28 (Reuters) - Several Libyan diplomats and politicians have resigned their posts or voiced their opposition to leader Muammar Gaddafi's violent crackdown on anti-government protesters. Here are some more details:

* Denotes new or updated entry:

ARAB LEAGUE: The Libyan delegation to the Arab League in Cairo on Friday abandoned Gaddafi, condemning "the heinous crimes against unarmed citizens".

AUSTRALIA: Omran Zwed, the Libyan mission's cultural counsellor, speaking in front of the embassy, told a small band of emotionally charged Libyan protesters: "We represent the Libyan people and no longer the Libyan regime."

AUSTRIA: The Libyan embassy in Austria, in an unsigned statement on Feb. 23, "confirms that it represents the Libyan people and wishes to express its deepest condolences to the families of the victims. The embassy condemns the use of excessive violence against peaceful demonstrators and calls on the global community to adhere to its obligation to protect the civilian population and put into place concrete measures to avoid further victims."

-- It was not clear if ambassador Ahmed Menesi had resigned.

BANGLADESH: Ahmed A.H. Elimam, Libya's ambassador in Dhaka, has resigned, Bangladeshi media reports said, quoting Foreign Ministry officials.

CHINA: A senior Libyan diplomat in Beijing, Hussein Sadiq al Musrati, resigned during an interview with al Jazeera and later called on Gaddafi to step down and leave the country.

EGYPT: Staff at the Libyan consulate in the Egyptian city of Alexandria lowered the Libyan flag and joined protesters nearby urging those inside to renounce their allegiance to Gaddafi. "Resign and join the honourable diplomats who have turned against the killer Gaddafi or else the Libyan youth will break into the consulate and stage a sit-in," a protester shouted.

FRANCE: Tripoli's ambassador to France, Mohamed Salaheddine Zarem, and its ambassador to UNESCO, Abdoulsalam El Qallali, resigned on Feb. 25, a Libyan official said.

-- Both had offered a statement on Feb. 22 saying: "We announce to the people of Libya, the Arab world and the international community our support for the people in its revolt against the machine of oppression and aggression".

INDIA: The entire staff of Libya's embassy in New Delhi renounced ties with Gaddafi's government on Feb. 25, al Jazeera reported. "We at the Libyan embassy represent the Libyan people and do not represent the former regime. We're fully aligned to the people's revolution," a statement from the embassy was quoted as saying.

-- Ali al-Essawi, Libya's ambassador to India resigned his post last weekend in protest at the violent crackdown.

INDONESIA: Salaheddin El Bishari, Libya's ambassador in Indonesia, resigned on Feb. 22, media reports said.

JORDAN: Mohammed Al-Barghathi, Libya's ambassador to Jordan said on Feb. 24 he left his post and called for the overthrow of Gaddafi.

LIBYA: In Libya, prosecutor-general Abdul-Rahman al-Abbar became the latest senior official to resign and told al Arabiya television on Feb. 25 he was joining the opposition.

-- Interior Minister Abdel Fattah Younes al Abidi has resigned in protest and Justice Minister Mustafa Mohamed Abud Ajleil quit on Feb. 21 over "the excessive use of violence against protesters", Libya's privately owned Quryna newspaper reported.

-- Abud Ajleil has led the formation of an interim government based in the eastern city of Benghazi, Quryna reported on Feb. 26.

-- Youssef Sawani, a senior aide to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, a son of the Libyan leader, resigned on Feb. 20.

-- On Feb. 21, Nuri al-Mismari -- who has been at Gaddafi's side for almost 40 years although he left Libya in late 2010 to undergo heart surgery in France -- resigned from his post as chief of state protocol in Libya. Al-Mismari was detained in France in November 2010 at the request of Libya, which wants to try him for embezzlement, but he said he had not been removed from his post and has remained in contact with the Gaddafi administration.

MALAYSIA: Libya's embassy in Malaysia called Gaddafi's crackdown on protesters "barbaric and criminal" after the mission in Kuala Lumpur was briefly occupied by around 200 protesters. Protesters smashed a portrait of Gaddafi and hauled down the country's flag to replace it with what they said was a pre-Gaddafi flag. Osama Ahmed, a counsellor at the embassy, told Reuters that the ambassador would remain in place to help around 5,000 Libyans living in Malaysia.

* SWEDEN: Magid Buzrigh, the Libyan ambassador to Stockholm who switched sides to oppose Gaddafi, told Austrian radio on Monday: "All Libyans have decided collectively to uproot the horrible, bloody regime no matter how high the price. We have already paid a high price and are ready to keep fighting."

UNITED NATIONS: Libyan Deputy Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi and most other diplomats at Libya's U.N. mission announced on Feb. 21 they were no longer working for the Gaddafi government and represented the country's people. They called for Gaddafi's overthrow.

On Saturday Dabbashi said that his delegation supported "in principle" Abud Ajleil's caretaker government in Libya.

-- A day earlier, on Feb. 25, Libyan U.N. Ambassador Abdurrahman Shalgham, Libya's U.N. ambassador, a former Libyan foreign minister who did not associate himself with a statement denouncing Gaddafi earlier this week, joined Dabbashi in condemning him in an impassioned speech to the council. -- Adel Shaltut, a diplomat at Libya's delegation to the U.N. in Geneva, also said on Friday that his entire delegation now represented the "free will" of the Libyan people.

UNITED STATES: Libya's ambassador to the United States called on Washington to speak up strongly in defence of the Libyan people, saying it is time to get rid of Gaddafi's government. Ambassador Ali Aujali told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Feb. 22 that he no longer represented his country's government and called on Gaddafi to step aside to avoid further bloodshed.

-- On Saturday, Aujali threw his weight behind a caretaker government formed by former Libyan justice minister Mustafa Mohamed Abud Ajleil.

OTHER DEFECTIONS:

-- Two Libyan Air Force fighter pilots defected on Feb. 21 and flew their jets to Malta where they told authorities they had been ordered to bomb protesters, Maltese government officials said. They said the two pilots, both colonels, took off from a base near Tripoli. One of them has requested political asylum. (Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit;) For an interactive factbox on protests in the Middle East and Africa, click on http://link.reuters.com/puk87r