Moammer Qaddafi marks 40 years in power

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Moammer Qaddafi marks 40 years in power

* Host of world leaders attend celebrations
* HRW calls on Libyan leader to undo repressive law

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TRIPOLI: Libyan leader Moammer Qaddafi on Tuesday marked the 40th anniversary of the bloodless coup that brought him to power, with celebrations attended by African, Arab and Latin American leaders but largely ignored by the West.

Qaddafi’s party kicked off around midnight on Monday at the former US military base of Matega near Tripoli with a two-hour spectacle into Tuesday morning that paid homage to the leader himself and featured music, illuminations and dance. Entitled “A Knight and men,” the display was marked by a procession of some 30 floats - one with a giant picture of the leader in military uniform - and performances by dancers and horsemen from Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and Ukraine.

Qaddafi’s invited guests included Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, African leaders who had earlier attended an African Union summit in Libya, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, his Dominican counterpart Leonel Fernandez, Serbian leader Boris Tadic and Philippine President Gloria Arroyo. Later on Tuesday, Qaddafi and his guests were to watch a military parade comprising detachments of African, Arab and European troops.

Some 80 aircraft, including two French Rafale jets, are to carry out a fly-past over the streets of Tripoli where strict security measures resulted in main arteries being closed and huge traffic jams blocking secondary routes. The city’s streets have been decked with thousands of multicoloured lights, and hundreds of Qaddafi portraits and placards paying tribute to the leader, including one saying: “May Glory Be Yours, Oh Maker of Glories.”

The party’s grand finale, a 90-minute show to begin at 11:00 pm (2100 GMT) on Tuesday was to retrace the 40-year reign started by the 27-year-old colonel in 1969 with a coup which ousted King Idriss. Qaddafi, who once described himself as “leader of the Arab leaders, the king of kings of Africa and the imam of the Muslims,” invited a string of European leaders who, however, stayed away.

Repressive laws: The New York-based group Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called on Qaddafi to mark the anniversary “by wiping repressive laws off the books and freeing political prisoners.” “Qaddafi’s Great Green Charter of Human Rights promised that ‘all human beings will be free and equal in the exercise of power’,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Forty years later, Libyans are still waiting for their rights.”

Delayed promises to forge ahead with political and economic reforms in the oil-rich African nation are still lagging despite ambitious plans which have the backing of the leader’s second son and heir apparent Seif al-Islam. afp