London, February 22: The UN Security Council (UNSC) will meet Tuesday to discuss the crisis in Libya, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, noting that he had urged Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi to show restraint.
Ban Ki-moon announced Monday that he had spoken with Gaddafi by phone for 40 minutes, expressing his deep concerns over human rights violations during the popular uprising, AFP reported.
“I urged him that human rights and freedom of assembly and freedom of speech must be fully protected,” Ban said of his telephone conversation with Gaddafi.
The UN Chief also expressed outrage over the reported use of live rounds of ammunition, warplanes and helicopters against the Libyan protesters.
“I forcefully urged him to stop the violence against the demonstrators and I again strongly underlined the importance of respecting the human rights of those demonstrators,” he added ahead of the UNSC meeting set for 1400 GMT in New York.
The meeting, which has been requested by Libya’s Deputy Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi, is set to convene on Tuesday to discuss the latest developments in the embattled North African nation.
Dabbashi called on Gaddafi to step down and face trial over “war crimes and genocide.”
“He has to leave as soon as possible. He has to stop killing the Libyan people,” he went on to say.
The International Federation for Human Rights earlier said that as many as 400 pro-democracy protesters have been killed in the popular Libyan revolution against the country’s 68-year leader.
——–Agencies