Pretoria - Despite the confusion being sown in Libya as state television reports that government troops have regained rebel-held towns, a political analyst maintains there is no survival for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
"You cannot stop the people-power and when such winds of change blow, they sweep the status quo to generate new forms of relationships. Gaddafi has lost the legitimacy to rule," Bongani Maphosa, an analyst with the Africa Institute told BuaNews.
Forces loyal to Gaddafi regained control of Misurata, the third largest city in the country, after several days of fighting with anti- government insurgents, according to the state TV. However, Al-Arabiya news network contradicted the official report, and said rebels had managed to retake Misurata, 200km east of capital Tripoli, despite troops loyal to Gaddafi having sent tanks to storm the city.
Al-Jazeera news network cited eyewitnesses as saying leaflets were dropped over the city to warn residents against joining an unrest aimed at bringing down Gaddafi - who has been in power for 42 years.
In Tripoli, heavy gunfire could be heard early Sunday morning, which government spokesperson Mousar Ibrahim said was Gaddafi supporters celebrating the recapture of Misurata.
Thousands of supporters gathered at the Green Square in the capital to celebrate the "victory."
At the weekend, the Libyan government said that forces had completely regained control of Zawiya, some 40 km west of Tripoli after two days of fighting, and it added that its forces had been fighting with anti-government insurgents in al-Brega and Ras Lanuf, two major oil export cities in east of the country.
Citing acute erosion of freedoms and rights, corruption and excessive concentration of power and resources, Maphosa said Gaddafi had ruled in ways that leave him vulnerable.
He said such leadership ferments discontent and over time builds up energies that motivate citizens to protest and demand regime change.
On what type of regime could replace Gaddafi, Maphosa posed the question: "Who are we to judge when a group of people are capable to govern themselves?"
He added that in conflict resolution and peace building, there are always alternatives.
"An integrated and strategic approach to the Libyan problem is possible."
Meanwhile, the country's government has officially rejected the United Nations Resolution 1970, which imposed travel ban and assets freeze on Gaddafi's family and some senior officials, and expressed "deep regret" over the position of the UN Security Council.
According to an official statement released on Sunday, the resolution was based on external media reports, rather than on accurate, well-documented and verifiable information, whose credibility has been ascertained by an in independent and impartial facts-finding committee.
The parties responsible for the violence in the country are "sleeping cells which belong to al-Qaida terrorist organisation operating in a region that they call the Muslim Maghreb," the statement added.- BuaNews-Xinhua
