By Khalid Amayreh

In Libya , the Qaddafi regime's mercenaries, thugs and henchmen have been massacring peaceful demonstrators protesting political tyranny, economic deprivation and the shocking absence of human rights and civil liberties.

In the capital Tripoli, helicopter gunship and even air force fighters have been machineguning unarmed protesters, killing and maiming hundreds.

The scenes of the disfigured bodies of victims, hit from above, can't be described in words. Mercenaries recruited from some African countries have been firing on every moving thing, even ambulances.

Morgues are filled to capacity with dead protesters, most of who with gunshots on the back sides of their bodies, suggesting that the regime's forces had been ordered to shoot to kill anybody moving, including fleeing demonstrators.

Fearing that the Libyan armed army would refuse to shoot at sight, Qfaddafi reportedly brought in hundreds of African mercenaries to do the dirty job for the lunatic colonel.

"Qaddafi is simply slaughtering the Libyan people en mass in order to stay in power," one Libyan told al-Jazeera TV.

"We appeal for help from the international community."

Qaddafi is suffering from a host of psychological illnesses, including, inter alia, self-inflated ego, megalomania, schizophrenia, existential anxiety, inferiority complex and sadism. He reportedly instructed his men to crush the "counter-revolution" even if that meant murdering half of the Libyan people. The sick man's ultimate model seems to be Cambodia 's Pol Pot regime or the weird North Korean regime.

Such instructions can only come from a deranged individual whose proper place should be a psychiatric asylum, not the helm of government.

Nobody really knows how many more Libyans will be killed and maimed before Qaddafi realizes that he's got to stop and that sooner or later he would have to be shipped like a drugged wild beast to The Hague to stand trial for committing crimes against humanity.

Unfortunately, in the case of Muammar Qaddafi, one can't appeal to normal sensibilities as one would in case of normal human beings.

We are talking about a crass, callous and unfeeling beast in a human shape, one who would embark on the unthinkable in order to remain in power.

Imagine how he has imported hundreds of mercenaries to kill his own people.

Needless to know, a leader as such can't be entrusted to rule, let alone give peace and safety to his people.

The Libyan dictator has been in power since 1969, making him one of the longest-serving dictators in the entire world.

Libya is one of the richest countries in the world. However, due to Qaddafi's misrule, mismanagement and especially his weirdness and eccentricities, the country remained utterly underdeveloped, with unemployment reaching high figures.

Due to his vagaries and morbid fantasies, the idiotic colonel squandered hundreds of billions of dollars on whimsical projects.

On 19 December 2003 Libya agreed to destroy all of its chemical, nuclear, and biological weapons in order to save Qaddafi's neck from international sanctions. The surprise announcement followed nine months of secret talks between Libyan, American, and British officials. Libya agreed to allow for immediate inspections and monitoring, and to eliminate ballistic missiles traveling more than 300 kilometers with a 500 kilogram payload. Qaddafi's humiliating consent was a classical example of a leader who would submit to foreign predators while adopting a policy of repression against his own people.

Qaddafi's stories have a beginning but have no end. During one of these Arab summit conferences, he reportedly boasted of being "the king of all Africa 's kings" and of being an unmatched world leader. Again, the proper place of such an individual is hospital not the leadership seat.

Now, should Qaddafi be left killing his own people at will as he has been doing in the past few days? Don't the Libyan people have a right to be rescued and saved from this petty Hitler who would do the unthinkable in order to remain at the helm of power in Tripoli ?

Islamic, nationalistic and human considerations should prompt other Muslim states such as neighboring Egypt , even despite its own national emergency situation, to do something to warn this thug against continuing with what he is doing.

The Egyptian and Tunisian armies must if necessary hasten to the aid of the Libyan people. We are talking about a criminal regime that is slaughtering his own people in order to secure the continuity of rule for him and his family.

Yes, there is something called national sovereignty. However, even that is not absolute and a people's right to be protected from a murderous tyrant overrides that tyrant's claim of sovereignty.

Regardless of how the current showdown between the tyrant and his henchmen on the one hand and the forces of freedom and liberty on the other, would end, Qaddafi must be treated as a real war criminal.

No state under the sun should agree to give him refuge or political asylum as he must be made to pay for the crimes he has perpetrated against his own people.

This would send a signal to all other dictators and tyrants around the world that there are limits to the savagery and barbarianism they can inflict on their own people in order to stay in power.

As to the living martyrs, their abode will be with their Lord.

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By Khalid Amayreh Source: The Palestinian Information Center http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s73vKcY6NUN8OPBK3Q4%2bSzsdsxnovLZTUZQd6Gp5EMhA82RgwQg9MrpZ7G%2fSMg%2bjDI5iKTn5Pn4F1mRCA9lMA1PhCm%2fFeTtr6uafBiVmekrf8%3d