70 stage anti-Gaddafi protest, hand over memo

Protestors planned to make their way from the Tabung Haji mosque to Libyan embassy, but they were stopped by cops. HMS Cumberland in Benghazi, Libya Latest Footage of HMS Cumberland in Benghazi, preparing to evacuate British nationals from Libya on 24 February 2011. Some 70 people from the opposition parties and NGOs, as well as Libyan students, staged a peaceful protest and handed over a memorandum to the Libyan embassy in Kuala Lumpur today demanding the resignation of the country's leader for four decades, Muammar Gaddafi. NONE“We call on the Libyan military to immediately lay down their arms and stop the killings of innocent civilians. We call for respect towards the Libyans and for Gaddafi to step down immediately,” said PKR vice-president and Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar at a press conference after handing over the memorandum, which was received by the deputy ambassador. Also present were PKR vice-president and Batu parliamentarian Tian Chua, PSM secretary-general S Arutchelvam, PAS international bureau chief Syed Azman Syed Ahmad and former PAS vice-president Muhamad Sabu. NONEInitially, the protestors were to make their way from the Tabung Haji mosque along Jalan Tun Razak, where they gathered, to the Libyan embassy, but they were stopped by police 600m from the embassy. Despite this, the protestors managed to reach the embassy using other routes. “There was only some 50 or 70 of us - peaceful protestors - which is way less then a hundred, and yet we were blocked and stopped by the police. We are truly disappointed,” said Syed Azman. The protestors then gathered on Jalan U Thant, 200m from the embassy, at 2.45pm, chanting “Malaysia Boleh, Gaddafi Tak Boleh!” while waving the Libyan flag and holding up several anti-Gaddafi banners. Malaysiakini was informed that at least 50 police personnel in riot gear have been blocking the entrance to Jalan Madge since noon, closing off the embassy and the roads leading to it. Embassy officials had defected Last Tuesday, Libyan embassy officials in Kuala Lumpur joined many of their colleagues around the world in condemning Gaddafi for the killings of many who took part in anti-government protests in their country. NONESome 300 Libyans in the country, most of them students, had then demonstrated peacefully outside the embassy. The protestors burned a portrait of the dictator during the two-hour demonstration, before the police ordered them to disperse.