“What is happening to our people has frightened us,” one of the defecting officers, who identified himself as General Oun Ali Oun, told reporters, according to the Washington Post.
“There is a lot of killing, genocide violence against women. No wise, rational person with the minimum of dignity can do what we saw with our eyes and what he [Gaddafi] asked us to do.”
Moreover, reappearance of protesters on the streets in broad daylight could be a sign that the security forces are now struggling to keep a lid on dissent. Monday’s protest was dispersed after members of the feared Katiba security forces arrived in their trademark Toyota Tundra trucks and fired over people’s heads, the dissident said.
The defections announced in Rome may reignite hope among Gaddafi’s opponents that the regime is nearing collapse, coming two months after that of Libya’s foreign minister and former espionage chief Moussa Koussa.
(아주경제 앤드류 이 기자)
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com