Tripoli, February 17: Several hundred supporters of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi gathered in the capital on Thursday to counteract online calls for an anti-government “day or rage” inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said Libyan authorities had detained 14 activists, writers and protesters who had been preparing the anti-government protests, and there were unconfirmed reports of two people killed in an eastern city.
In a country where public dissent is rarely tolerated, plans for the protests were being circulated by anonymous activists on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter but telephone lines to some parts of the country were out of order.
Libya has been tightly controlled for over 40 years by Muammar Gaddafi — who is now Africa’s longest-serving leader — but the oil exporter has felt the ripples from the overthrow of long-standing leaders in its neighbours Egypt and Tunisia.
A report said the pro-government supporters had assembled in Tripoli’s Green Square, next to the ancient medina, or old city. They chanted “We are defending Gaddafi and the revolution!” and “The revolution continues!”
In Libya, the military coup in 1969 which brought Gaddafi to power is referred to as the revolution. There was no sign of any anti-government protests.
On Omar al-Mokhtar street, Tripoli’s main thoroughfare, traffic was moving as normal, banks and shops were open and there was no increased security presence.
Al Jazeera television, and posts on Facebook, said two people had been killed in protests on Wednesday in Al Bayda, east of Libya’s second city of Benghazi. But they did not give the source of the information and it was not possible to verify the reports.
Gaddafi was quoted as saying on Wednesday that “revolutionaries” would prevail, although he did not mention the unrest.
-Agencies