Iran's Ahmadinejad outraged by Libya repression

23 Feb, 2011

"How can officers be ordered to use bullets from machine guns, tanks and guns against their own citizens?""This is unacceptable. Let the people speak, be free, decide to express their will. Do not resist the will of the people," the hardliner said as he told world leaders to "listen, hear and talk" to their people.

A popular uprising against Moamer Kadhafi's regime in Libya erupted on February 15, after the rulers of neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt were ousted in similar revolts.Libya's government says 300 people, including 111 soldiers, have been killed so far in the protests and resulting crackdown by Kadhafi's forces.

Iran itself was rocked for several months by repeated protests against Ahmadinejad's controversial re-election in June 2009.The demonstrations in the aftermath of the vote were brutally crushed by Iranian authorities, leaving dozens of people killed, scores wounded and thousands arrested.Several intellectuals, journalists, activists, artists, lawyers and reformists have been sentenced to long prison terms for participating in the anti Ahmadinejad movement.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2010 

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