Rioters aimed to kill consul
2006-03-05 20:43
Tripoli - The protesters who attacked the Italian consulate in Libya would have killed the consul and his family if the police had not opened fire, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has said of last month's riot in which 11 people were killed.
Libya's official news agency JANA quoted Gaddafi as telling the people's general congress - the closest thing Libya has to a parliament - on Thursday night that the rioters were venting their hatred for Italy rather than protesting the cartoons about Prophet Muhammad, as has been widely reported.
Elements of a crowd of about 1 000 demonstrators broke into the grounds of the Italian consulate on February 17 and set fire to vehicles and part of the building. Police struggled to contain the riot, which lasted six hours, and shot dead 11 people.
Thirty-five people were wounded, but no Italians were harmed.
The crowd appeared to be reacting to an Italian cabinet minister who publicly supported the Danish publication of caricatures of Prophet Muhammad, which had provoked protests across the Muslim world.
Italian diplomats said later there was an anti-Gaddafi factor in the protest.
"Libyans do not know Denmark, they do not hate Denmark. They know Italy and they hate Italy," Gaddafi told the congress, according to a report on JANA's website on Friday.
"People would have killed the consul and his family if live ammunition had not been used," Gaddafi said.
"They said: 'so what if the consul and his family are killed. Italy killed some 700 000 Libyans'," Gaddafi said of the rioters, referring to the Italian colonisation of Libya in 1911-1943.
It was the first time that Gaddafi's government had blamed the riots on the Italian colonial period.
- AP