MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Libyan diplomats and students smashed portraits of Moammar Gadhafi, shouted "Game over!" and raised the rebel flag at their Manila embassy Wednesday as part of defections at Libya's worldwide missions that underscore the leader's rapid fall even outside his once-powerful empire.
As rebels stormed the Libyan capital and Gadhafi’s power and influence abroad crumbled, Libyan consul Faraj Zarroug in the Philippine capital said about 85 percent of his country’s 165 diplomatic missions now recognized the interim rebel government, the National Transitional Council.
"It’s game over for Mr. Gadhafi!," Zarroug told The Associated Press. "Probably in a few days, everything will be over, hopefully. I’m very happy."
Libyan diplomats abroad have been pledging allegiance to the rebels gradually for months, but defections appeared to surge this week. The missions to Switzerland and Bangladesh, for example, switched soon after the rebellion erupted nearly six months ago, and Libyan embassy officials in Japan and Ethiopia replaced the government flag with the rebel’s tricolor on Monday.
A spokesman for the rebels in Dubai, Edward Marques, said Wednesday the defections had turned into a "cascade," but declined to list the locations of rebel supporters. The Libyan government could no longer be reached for comment.
"The situation is very, very fluid," Marques said.
At the Manila mission, diplomats in business suits pulled down Gadhafi’s green flag and raised the rebel one, while young expatriates rampaged through the compound.
AP journalists were invited in to watch and film them smashing glass portraits and ripping up copies of Gadhafi’s slogan-filled Green Book outlining his political philosophy.
Students spat on the ripped pages, and shouted "Die, Gadhafi, Die!" or "Leave, Ghadafi, Leave!" or "Game over!"
"We can say what we want. Noone can stop us!" said Mahmoud Binhafa, a 29-year-old student who was nearly breathless with excitement. "We want like, you know, freedom to be happy, to say whatever we want."
Asked how they wanted Gadhafi to be punished, Libyan Elyosa Fathi Elgadag said each family that suffered during the Libyan leader’s long oppressive rule should be allowed to "do to him" what his regime did to many victims of human rights violations.
For decades, the world has only equated Libya with Gadhafi and not known anything about its people because his regime "didn’t let any Libyan to open his mouth," Elgadag said. Now, he said, all Libyans can speak out and proudly tell the story of their North African nation to the world.
In a Libyan broadcast Wednesday, a defiant Gadhafi vowed to fight on "until victory or martyrdom" but his whereabouts were unknown a day after hundreds of rebels stormed his fortress-like compound in the capital. They had poured into Tripoli on Monday in a stunning breakthrough in the conflict.
In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Libyan ambassador to the African Union, Ali Awidan, said he raised the new rebel flag Monday, changing sides at the last moment.
"I was not serving Gadhafi, I have been serving Libya," he said.
Rebel supporters barged into a Libyan consulate and adjoining school earlier this week in Athens, throwing hundreds of posters of Gadhafi into the courtyard and ripping them up. They hung a giant rebel flag from the balconies of the school and hoisted one atop the consulate. Both were still there Wednesday.
A statement by the Greek foreign minister recognizing the interim rebel government as Libya’s legitimate leadership was posted on the consulate’s gate. Police stood guard at the nearby Libyan Embassy, which had no flags. All its windows are shuttered.
