u.n. security council resolution we are mandated to. protect the civilian population in libya taking all necessary measures and that's exactly what we're doing right now all the necessary measures if i might speak of what our admiral pollo has legitimate strikes on any command center in libya i just want to clarify for some of our viewers who have seen homes gone they've seen civilian buildings blown to pieces because. in a car on a phone or in a hospital on a phone constitute a command center for your purposes when you say any means. i would like to stress that we are not targeting individuals we hate intimate military. targets. and of course common control centers can be used to plan and organize attacks against civilians show amount of control and to commit military targets that's what i'd like to read a question to you that was written to us by one of our viewers on facebook. who's from paris france wants to know why nato is bombing metropolitan areas in libya and civilians are being killed what do you say to. we do all we can to av

u.n. mandate isn't it. well absolutely and big government is making a kind of spurious slightly spurious point that these are these on official troops you know they're they have no connection with. with with the kind of foreign obviously a material world but clearly you know they are they are there they are fighting and that means once again that the perception that this is a western operation to sustain and secure western control over post gadhafi libya will be reinforced crist you kind of going to say that because around the war activists of us ask you know if nato wasn't in libya gadhafi maybe would be waging war against his own people why are you speaking out about. well there's a few years waging war against his own people and we did speak out against the atrocities they committed. in the situation when the popular uprising first happened but the problem is we are now in a situation where there is for the third time in a decade a massive western onslaught against a muslim country that changes the whole

u.n. mandate. >> we are hoping for a solution that does not involve a military presence. perhaps helping to set up new security forces. if things turn out differently, and when -- we will examine constructively what is needed. >> there are calls for the end of german involvement in the air campaign over libya. >> the president of senate gaul is calling on moammar gadhafi to step down. he is the first african head of state to do so. he also offered to help them relinquish power. the president is visiting the rebel stronghold where he has met with officials of the transitional national council. his former allies should step aside in the interest of the libyan people. for some women in libya, the end of the gadhafi era may come too late. there are allegations that his troops are using sex and drugs and using rape. our next report contains emotional and disturbing footage from one woman that says she is a rape victim. >> looked at what gadhafi's militia did to me. look how they violated my honor. the scenes played out in front of a tripoli hotel in march. she said that she ha

u.n. mandate has said that we are there to make sure that you do not see a massacre directed against libyan civilians by the libyan regime. the libyan regime's capacity has been greatly reduced as a consequence of our actions. that's already been successful. what we've seen in the east and west is there are -- people are starting to see the possibility of a more peaceful future on the horizon. also, as long as gaddafi is still presenting himself as the head of the libyan government and as long as he still controls large numbers of troops, the libyan people are going to be in danger or counteroffenses and retributions. so there's no doubt that gaddafi stepping down from power is from the international community's perspective, going to be the primary way that we can be sure that the overall mention of libya's squad being protected is an overall thought. and the international criminal court identified gaddafi as having violated international law. having committed war crimes. what we've seen is reports of troops engaging in horriblal acts, including potentially using rape as a weapon of war. an

u.n. mandate has said that we are there to make sure that you do not see a massacre directed against libyanns by the libyan regime. the libyan regime's capacity has been greatly reduced as a consequence of our operation. that has already been successful. what we have seen in the east and west is that opposition forces have been able to mobilize themselves and start getting organized and people are starting to see the possibility of a more peaceful future on the horizon. what is also true, as long as gadhafi is still presenting himself as the head of the libyan government and as long as he still controls large numbers of troops, the libyan people will be in danger of counter offenses and retribution. so there's no doubt that gadhafi stepping down from power is from the international community's perspective going to be the primary way that we can assure that the overall mission of libya's people being protected is accomplished. i just want to point out. i know something that you know. the international criminal court identified gadhafi as having violated international law, having committed wa

u.n. mandate and that is to protect the civilian population against any attack what about the civilians that are being attacked in syria in germany in bahrain. yeah of course that's a legitimate question the difference is in libya we are operating on the basis of a un mandate and was strong support from contras in the region actually a number of countries in the region contribute actively to operations for these reasons we are in libya. what do you say to critics who aren't convinced that nato is and goal is to protect civilians and that in fact is a regime change. we have been very open about our military objectives. to compete in two attacks against civilians withdrawal of gadhafi forces and humanitarian access these are all military objectives and we will continue until they are met. in parallel there is a political track. fine farai the international community. recently the group including the russian president called on afi to leave power. and. these two tracks are separate a military price track and a political track but having said that i think it's hard to imagine a complete end to a

u.n. mandate to protect civilians some analysts claim that was never even on nato's agenda radio host ralph schoenman told us here at r.t. that the interventions only aim is to divide and conquer with a view to seizing the natural resources. an imperial agenda the un is a fig leaf for pursuing imperial war and libya as in africa at large they want to carve up the country sees its resources and on a basis of constant military intervention and the population itself is the target its resources will be usurped ploy for the benefit of foreign oil companies in the one nine hundred ninety s. that gadhafi regime was controlled by the central intelligence agency and khadafi privatized three hundred six companies and libyan oil was handed over to the major oil companies exxon shell the immobile but the upraising was the occasion for the intervention and demonising khadafi is they had saddam hussein in previously as a cover and pretext saddam was their man in baghdad for twenty seven years khadafi had worked hand in glove with the cia and with congolese arise in the ninety's so on but they demonize hi

u.n. mandating that moscow is trying to make sure the same mistakes are not repeated elsewhere it's effectively blocking the draft resolutions put forward at the u.n. nuclear watchdog on the security council which are aimed at pressuring the syrian regime has a report the report said because the same kind of language has been used to lead to the bombing of libya. following two hours of closed door consultations with the u.n. security council members france and britain did not corner enough support that they clearly needed for this resolution that they introduced to be adopted in that resolution introduced by britain and france calls for a condemnation against the syrian government for our crackdown on anti-government protesters that has taken place over the past three months the resolution the draft resolution proposed by the u.k. and france as i mentioned also urges countries to not supply weapons to damascus it also calls on syria to to comply and to work with the u.n. human rights organization now this is a big effort on the part of these european countries to try to get the international co

u.n. mandate in libya may lead to future resolutions losing their credibility. we expressed our opinion over this escalation of the military operation we think what's happening is a shift towards a ground operation this would be very regretful because did violations of the security council resolution already taken place i'm old enough to think about the attitudes towards us decisions. colonel gadhafi claimed from the outset that opposition forces in libya western puppets peace activists chris nine and says nato is continuing bombardment gives credence to those claims. what they're affected. is we're going to. keep killing civilians. living in towns and cities until you go it's entrenched gadhafi because you from the start was saying that the popular movement in the east of the country was a was a movement that was sponsored by the west and he used that to bolster his position though the war has been lying. and it. is in. a strong if not stronger position now than he was when the west first got involved. during nato intervention in libya colonel gadhafi loyalists

u.n. mandate allows military action to protect civilians but false short authorizing ground invasion and arm supplies paris based political analyst john laughlin says three countries have hijacked the mandate. the admission that france is arming the rebels is very obviously an admission that what's going on in libya is a fight between the government and the rebels and armed rebels are not civilians so any attack by the government on armed rebels in libya is therefore not necessarily a war crime now the words this news is not only incompatible with the case that's being made for war in libya it completely contradicts it there is no doubt that the three countries britain france and america who are waging this war under the disguise of nato of course wish to see the rebels seize power by force and overthrow gadhafi we must be careful about using the word nato this war is being fought by britain france and america they use nato as the fig leaf but nato itself is of course much bigger and there is not unanimity of nato only a few days ago the italian foreign minister said that there should be a c

u.n. mandate to protect the libyans but it depends journalist james corbett says nato is not telling the truth about its campaign. might be surprising on one end that gadhafi has held out this long especially given the extent of the onslaught against him and the attempts to assassinate him indeed the killing of his son and grandchildren and i think that was perhaps not foreseen in the original action that was a proved by nato the idea of protecting civilians by bombing civilian populations is on its face ridiculous and in itself exposes that this is not about humanitarian intervention and that lie has been has been it fairly exposed i think by the fact that the no fly zone turned pretty much overnight into a bombing campaign which turned into a campaign which we were promised was not to overthrow the regime and to get gadhafi out of there so i think it's just a lie after lie and i think that pretty adequately exposes the fact that this is not ultimately about humanitarian intervention and nato powers will not stop until gadhafi has been. seated from not and from power the inevitable end here i

u.n. mandate in libya may lead to future resolutions losing credibility. when we expressed our opinion over this last collision of the military operation with what's happening is a shift towards a ground operation this would be very regretful because divine illusions of the security council resolution already taking place are more than enough to think about doing that to choose towards against decisions. during nato intervention in libya colonel gadhafi loyalists have been using cluster bombs these are burned weapons that dispersed many more and over a wider area with civilian casualties almost inevitable and the sort of first reports it's embarrassing for madrid because the money trail behind the weapons leads right back to spain. which is one strike a cluster bomb can spread thousands of smaller explosives even wider areas fired into populated areas if they were in misrata recently they always guarantee civilian deaths one of the many reasons more than one hundred countries and their production the markings on the shells found in the libyan city belong t

u.n. mandate in libya may lead to future resolutions losing their credibility. and. we expressed our opinion over this escalation of the military operation with what's happening is a shift towards a ground operation this would be very regretful because the violations of the security council resolution already taken place are more than enough to think about the gratitude to all the un's decisions. colonel gadhafi claimed from the outset that opposition forces in libya what western pockets peace activists chris says nato is continuing bombardment gives credence to those claims. what they're effectively saying to gadhafi is we're going to keep bombing you keep killing civilians keep bombing live in towns and cities until you go it's entrenched gadhafi because he from the start was saying that the popular movement in the east of the country was was a movement that was sponsored by the way and he used that to bolster his position the war has been lengthened the war's been deepened and it's actually a good half is in. a strong if not stronger position now than he was when

u.n. mandate to protect the libyans said more on this than from a journalist small city in williamsburg joining us from new york british day to you from moscow thanks for the program you say in a recent article the choice in libya is clear support a popular uprising or support the popular unpopular tyrant but what about the third option then stay out of it what's wrong with that idea. well we have a whole new era of the responsibility to protect and there was a lot of widespread pressure in europe less so in america where they're tired of going to stern and iraq to say that these people could not stand by and watch these people being killed by gadhafi his military plan so there was intervention and i must remind you that the security council voted for that intervention to protect civilians and you know there are people who abstained but they could have voted against and stopped it judges are the way assuming the world community felt that this had to be done judging by the way it's turning out that it's not been terribly successful do you think they're regretting that decision to go ahead with i

u.n. mandate in libya may lead to future resolutions losing their credibility. and we were we expressed our opinion over this escalation of the military operation we think what's happening is a shift towards a ground operation this would be very regretful because the violations of the security council resolution already taking place i'm old enough to think about the imagine choose to order unions decisions. independent journalist james corporate believes that the escalation shows nato's real motives and. might be surprising on one end if he has held out as long as specially given the extent of the onslaught against him and the attempts to assassinate him and the killing of his son and grandchildren and i think that was perhaps not foreseen and the original action that was a part of the idea of protecting civilians by bombing civilian populations is on its face ridiculous and in itself exposing this that this is not about humanitarian intervention and that lie has been that has been it fairly exposed i think by the fact that the initial no fly zone turned pretty

u.n. mandate to protect the libyans well let's get more on this development from political when you walk north you know joins us live via broadband thanks for being with us nato says gadhafi his days are numbered do you think the ninety extra days will be enough to get rid of him. i don't think there's any doubt that eventually he will ultimately have to leave the scene the question is how long it's going to take and i think with nato expanding their presence publically by ninety days there seems to be little doubt in my mind to be expect this thing to go on for many months to come perhaps ninety days is actually a stopgap measure maybe it's going to go on for much longer i really don't think that gadhafi is going to simply walk away and it seems very clear that in the absence of having him agree in advance to consider stepping down that the opposition is unlikely to take any peace talks seriously that tripoli says over seven hundred people have been killed by nato airstrikes how thier are the alliance claims that it aims only to protect civilians in this operation i don't doubt at all that it

u.n. mandate in libya may lead to future resolutions losing their credibility. when we expressed our opinion over this escalation of the military operation we think what's happening is a shift towards a ground operation this would be very regretful because the violations of the security council resolution already taken place are more than enough to think about it to choose to all of us decisions. nato hoped for a quick results in libya but that never happened and he was journalist patrick hayes says that means plan b. is likely bombing the regime into submission the situation is getting worse for the west in libya i think when they first thought they could sweep in two months ago and have basically gone the country into the into democracy they thought this was going to be quite a quick process where they could basically keep their you know keep a bit of a distance hold bombs into libya get rid of gadhafi and then everything will be all right now obviously that isn't the case and the introduction of these the bunker busting bombs and the apache helicopters are in

u.n. mandate in libya may lead to future resolutions losing their impact. and. we expressed our opinion over distance collation of the military operation with what's happening is a shift towards a ground operation this would be very regretful because the violations of the security council resolution already taking place are more than enough to think about did choose towards you and decisions. about the claim from the outset the libyan opposition was a puppet of western interests and the christian item says that nato is continuing one bomb and of libya only gives credence to his claims about. what they are effectively saying to get that for years we're going to. keep killing civilians. in towns and cities until you go it's entrenched because he from the start was saying that the popular movement in the east of the country was a was a movement that was sponsored by the west and he used that to pose these position the their war has been lengthened the war's been deepened and it's actually good that he's in. a strong if not stronger position now than he was when the