Dozens of members of the army have fled the country in
recent weeks, officials say, including 19 officers that arrived on Thursday.
“We came here not to escape death but because of the
massacre of the Libyan people. We refuse to kill the children of our country,”
an officer, who refused to give his name for fear of retribution, told The
Associated Press.
“Some of our colleagues just couldn’t handle it any more and
turned their weapons on themselves,” the officer said.
“Some died while others were severely wounded.” He said he
and his fellow officers found the pressure to be unbearable and waited two
months for the opportunity to flee.
Soon after popular uprisings erupted across Libya,
especially in the eastern half, many of Qaddafi’s army units fell apart, their
members defecting to the opposition side or fleeing to Tunisia.
Opposition fighters, after overrunning government
strongholds in the east, described finding government soldiers bound and shot
through the end, apparently for disobeying orders.
Qaddafi, however, has maintained a well equipped core force
of special brigades outside the regular military run by his sons and augmented
by foreign fighters that have been remarkably effective against the opposition
fighters.
“We are living a tragedy every day, with new victims falling
by the hour,” said another of the three officers interviewed by the AP. He
estimated that some 15,000 people had died so far in the civil war.
Defecting Libyan soldiers and police have sailed boats along
the coast and trekked through the desert to cross the border, where they are
met by Tunisian forces.
“They give us their weapons and we take them to a safe
location, some of them join their families who already fled to Tunisia,” said
Mokhtar Ben Nasr, spokesman for the Defense Minister. He declined to say how
many have defected.
The International Organization of Migration estimates
193,986 third country nationals have crossed into Tunisia since Feb. 20.
