Libya’s embassy officials defect

A Libyan expatriate smashes a portrait of Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi after raising the Libyan rebel flag, used by the Kingdom of Libya before Col. Qadhafi's regime on Wednesday at the Libyan Embassy at suburban Makati city, east of Manila, Philippines.

Libyan diplomats and students smashed portraits of Muammar Qadhafi, shouted “Game over!” and raised the rebel flag at their Manila embassy on Wednesday as part of defections at missions worldwide underscoring the leader’s rapid fall.

As rebels stormed the Libyan capital and Col. Qadhafi’s power crumbled, Libyan consul Faraj Zarroug in the Philippine capital said at least 85 per cent of his country’s 165 diplomatic missions now recognised the interim rebel government, the National Transitional Council.

“It’s game over for Mr. Qadhafi!,” Zarroug told

The Associated Press . “Probably in a few days, everything will be over, hopefully. I’m very happy.”

Libyan diplomats abroad have been pledging allegiance to the rebels gradually for months, but defections surged this week. The missions to Switzerland and Bangladesh, for example, switched soon after the rebellion erupted nearly six months ago, and Libyan embassy officials in Japan and Ethiopia replaced the government flag with the rebel’s tricolour on Monday.

A spokesman for the rebels in Dubai, Edward Marques, said on Wednesday the defections had turned into a “cascade,” but declined to list the locations of rebel supporters. The Libyan government could no longer be reached for comment.

“The situation is very, very fluid,” Mr. Marques said.

At the Manila mission, diplomats in business suits pulled down Col. Qadhafi’s green flag and raised the rebel one, while young expatriates rampaged through the compound.

AP journalists were invited in to watch and film them smashing glass portraits and ripping up copies of Col. Qadhafi’s slogan-filled Green Book outlining his political philosophy.

Students spat on the ripped pages, and shouted “Die, Qadhafi, Die!” or “Leave, Qhadafi, Leave!” or “Game over!”

“We can say what we want. No one can stop us!” said Mahmoud Binhafa, a 29-year-old student who was nearly breathless with excitement. “We want like, you know, freedom to be happy, to say whatever we want.”

Asked how they wanted Col. Qadhafi to be punished, Libyan Elyosa Fathi Elgadag said each family that suffered during the Libyan leader’s long oppressive rule should be allowed to “do to him” what his regime did to many victims of human rights violations.

For decades, the world has only equated Libya with Col. Qadhafi and not known anything about its people because his regime “didn’t let any Libyan to open his mouth,” Mr. Elgadag said. Now, he said, all Libyans can speak out and proudly tell the story of their North African nation to the world.

In a Libyan broadcast on Wednesday, a defiant Col. Qadhafi vowed to fight on “until victory or martyrdom” but his whereabouts were unknown a day after hundreds of rebels stormed his fortress-like compound in the capital. They had poured into Tripoli on Monday in a stunning breakthrough in the conflict.

In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Libyan ambassador to the African Union, Ali Awidan, said he raised the new rebel flag Monday, changing sides at the last moment.

“I was not serving Qadhafi. I have been serving Libya,” he said.

Rebel supporters barged into a Libyan consulate and adjoining school earlier this week in Athens, throwing hundreds of posters of Col. Qadhafi into the courtyard and ripping them up. They hung a giant rebel flag from the balconies of the school and hoisted one atop the consulate. Both were still there on Wednesday.

A statement by the Greek Foreign Minister recognising the interim rebel government as Libya’s legitimate leadership was posted on the consulate’s gate. Police stood guard at the nearby Libyan Embassy, which had no flags. All its windows are shuttered.