Paula Slier Tripoli Report

Paul evening to you. So a second ceasefire now then has just been called the first for the course was breached within hours. What is the latest situation in triply? Just now I heard gumfire over your shoulder there. Well Kevin that's right. As I'm talking to you there is anti-aircraft gunfire happening just a short distance behind me. This is the second time in as many hours that we're witnessing this over the capital city of triply. It's not quite clear why the government is firing. We have seen no incoming fires. So the understanding here is that there might be a show of strength, a sign of support for Gaddafi. Now the ceasefire announcement was certainly a surprise. It was made at 9 o'clock this evening local time by a government spokesperson. He said that there would be an immediate ceasefire. There hasn't yet been any reaction from the international community. We don't think that there will be a reaction because certainly the previous announcement of the ceasefire by the Gaddafi regime did not carry that much weight and turned out to be quite meaningless. Now the Arab League has been holding any emergency summit in Cairo. The Secretary-General Amamusa says he's been misquoted. He was quoted as saying that the Arab League signed up for the no-fly zone to protect civilians and not actually to kill them. Now whether or not there's been a misunderstanding because the latest word we have coming from this meeting is that the Arab League is still endorsing this no-fly zone. But it certainly is raising concerns about what is happening behind the scenes. Is there confusion or is there dissent within the ranks? When you gauge the mood here on the ground, what people very much are saying is that increasingly it looks likely that it's going to be the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and possibly Jordan that will be coming forward that mostly in the sense that they'll be footing the bull rather than participating in military strikes. And this raises very real questions. Why are they doing this? Is it a genuine concern for the Libyan people? Is it rather some kind of vindaiter against Gaddafi? Or is it rather a way to try and further entrench the United States in this part of the region? Most people here who support a no-fly zone. Would rather have seen countries like Tunisia and Egypt, neighbouring countries come to the fall to help with this Arab democratic revolution? It's not particularly welcomed in some circles that you have the United States in Europe. Spear hitting this move. Now there again we have the anti-aircraft fires. I say it's been happening throughout the night. We're still not very clear exactly why the government is doing that because there is no incoming fire. It's happening a short distance from me and I continue that it's a little bit frightening when you hear it. There will no doubt be cars hooting on the streets behind me that were hooting early. Very much a show of support, thought the Gaddafi regime. I do want to add though that state television throughout the day has been showing pictures of victims of these air strikes. They claim that more than 60 people have been killed. We've been seeing those pictures on the stop. In fact, as the foreign media we were invited to go to some of the funerals. It's not clear whether the funerals have been staged. There is some suspicion that some of the pictures and that some of the people being buried on our directly related to the strikes that we witnessed last night. Paul, let's talk about the coalition forces. The official line from them today is that the initial stages of the airborne intervention has been assessed despite the international capitalism. What's next do you think on their agenda? What's going to happen next? Look, Kevin, it's a little bit difficult to hear you. Because as you can hear, there's anti-aircraft fire happening behind me and people in front of me are starting to run. Most of the focus of the fighting today was in the city of Massrata, which is the third largest city here. Now, behind me, I can hear people screaming in the street and we were hearing the same kind of sounds coming out of the city of Massrata today. Difficult masses journalists to go there. We've been prevented from reaching Massrata for three weeks now. But I witnessed as they are saying that the tanks have rolled into the town center. They were saying that the Gaddafi forces were going from house to house. They caught an occlusing. They said it was essentially his intention to completely write off that town of Massrata. The latest word though from the international forces is that the British typhoon and tornado planes have been sent to an air base in Italy. That means that there are only 30 minutes away from here. So they will be able to come here immediately if needed to. We are also hearing though that despite the international communities announcement that it has managed to deplete most of Gaddafi's surface of the air defense missile systems, he still has some remote ones. And so the international community cannot rest on its laws in a soon. That its aircraft over Libyan airspace is free and is completely safe. So again just to remind you what we're hearing. Yeah, I was just saying Paul, you mentioned that people are running there. First of all, is it safe you to continue this interview. If not, please go. I just wanted to ask you another question if I may. If it is safe you to stay there. And what's your feeling of the strength of support tonight for Gaddafi? The question we were following up earlier on was, do you think some of the people that had turned against Gaddafi may be turning back towards them again because of this because of this allied intervention? Kevin, I do think that if people are turning their support back towards him, it might not be because of the allied intervention. I mean, to some extent it might be nobody really wants to see foreign soldiers on the soil here. And although the mission at the moment is limited in terms of what we're hearing to know, fly zone, there will be no support if it's extended into foot soldiers. So certainly those who are feeling their concern will turn their support back to Gaddafi. But I think more than that, people here are frightened. I mean, when you hear signs like this, which we are understanding at this stage because we're seeing no incoming fire being a show of support for Gaddafi, he certainly is making sure that his man and his supporters understand who is in control in this country and certainly who is in control here in the capital city of Tripoli. Now behind me, I do hear people shouting, I do hear cars heating. There's always a sense of confusion when there's kind of gunfire erupts in the skies. So the situation here in Tripoli incredibly tense, people are incredibly nervous and while we're hearing nothing to national community will soon be sending French planes back here, I suspect that in the coming hours will continue to hear these kinds of sounds erupting from the skies. Okay Paula, keep safe and keep updating us if you will, our team's policy are there. Sleer, they're very late as from the capital Tripoli tonight.