The following is the transcript of Press TV's interview with the president of the British Libyan Solidarity Campaign, Azeldin El Sharif, regarding the latest developments in Libya.
Press TV: To quote the Libyan leader, "We will continue to fight. We will defeat them. We will die here on Libyan soil." Defiant words from Muammar Gaddafi, what can we take from his short speech, seemingly he is willing to fight to the death?
Azeldin el-Sharif: Well, it's clear that he knows that he's being defeated in the country. And he's at the last spot where he just declared that they are going to die. The Libyan people took over and we want to make sure that the international community understood Gaddafi's message. We don't trust Gaddafi and we believe he might do, which is going to be more horrific. We expect more horrific scenes by Gaddafi's “revolutionary,” what he calls them, but they are the killers. And the massacres of the Libyan people. I believe that the international community has got, they have to act because if we let it late, it will be a huge massacre in Libya.
Press TV: What kind of action, as a Libyan, do you expect from the international community?
Azeldin el-Sharif: Well, Gaddafi is a criminal. He has been recognized as responsible of all these crimes, the killings on the streets. Gaddafi's responsible and his regime and also those mercenaries who support Gaddafi. Those dictators in Africa. They should be questioned and brought to justice by sending mercenaries and soldiers to kill civilians. And I would say to Gaddafi, what he calls for, he's been there for 42 years. What did he do for the Libyan people? What did he do for the international community? Just he created corruption, chaos and he bought some corrupt leaders in the world. I would say all of them are responsible to face the international criminal court because they supported Gaddafi in his war on his people.
Press TV: Mr. El-Sharif, the European Union has said it will slap sanctions on Libya. And there are other countries such as the United States that have talked about sanctions. How do they help in such a late stage of the game? If Muammar Gaddafi is going to go, won't it be the people on the other side, post-Gaddafi that will be sanctioned?
Azeldin el-Sharif: This absolutely needs to be reconsidered. What we need. The international community, the UN, the European Union. They have to look to the Libyan people. What they need or what the European want. They have to think not twice but three times before they impose any sanctions on Libyan people, on the whole country. We said we want Libya to be no-fly zone, we said we want Gaddafi to be captured as a criminal, a war criminal. And we're asking to freeze the assets of Gaddafi and his regime and we said again we need the support, the solidarity and also a bridge of medical supply to Libya. We have announced in front of the American embassy and all the protesters agreed to announce 50 millions to whom capture Gaddafi alive and to whom capture any one of his sons alive. We want them alive and we want to take them to court.
So these are the solutions for the Libyan people. We want a real help for the Libyan people not to put sanctions, the previous sanctions on Libya because Gaddafi was a mad dog. It was on the Libyan people. We suffered under the sanctions when Gaddafi was an enemy of the West and we suffered again when Gaddafi became friend of the West and the ally on the war on terror. And as your guest from America has said Gaddafi is saying that the protesters have connections with Osama bin Laden. And he's saying that that's why he's gained support from the West. I do not know. Can anybody in the world see those arms-less protesters on the street asking for a peaceful change and Gaddafi facing them with anti-aircraft machine guns and fighter jets and all these kinds of war equipment and we are still waiting for the world or the international community to act.
Press TV: With all the interests that people have around the world in this region, will there ever be a finished done and dusted revolution in the region?
Azeldin el-Sharif: I would say yes. The people are waking up now and they are going to fight again and again and again for their liberation and the West, they have to change their behavior towards the people of the Middle East. We believe that we are going to fight and to defend our revolution not to be hijacked by the West and not by anybody who tries to steal our revolution. We are going to watch it and we are going to create a watchdog to follow this revolution. We are going to fight the borders in the region. We want the wealth of that region to be in the benefit of the people there.
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