Our organisation is especially concerned by the declarations of Seif el Islam Gaddafi, the son of the Head of State, who declared on Libyan State television on the night of 20 February 2011 that if his proposal for reforms was not accepted by the people, "we would not be grieving for 84 dead but for thousands and there would be rivers of blood throughout Libya."

These threats have today become reality, as eyewitnesses report that the demonstrators are at the moment under attack from the air using air planes and helicopters, resulting in the death of an as of yet undetermined number of civilians.

Alkarama has, since the beginning of the tragic events in Libya, kept the Special Rapporteur on extra judicial and summary executions informed of the deaths via a number of urgent appeals. The situation has however quickly worsened, and today is taking a serious turn for the worse.

According to our sources, at least 500 demonstrators have been killed in a number of Libyan cities in the past 4 days. This morning, dozens of civilians in Tripoli and Gheriane have again fallen under the bullets of armed members of the popular committees and the security forces controlled by Colonel Gaddafi and his inner circle.

A large demonstration is planned for tonight in Tripoli bringing to the center of the capital tens of thousands of inhabitants from the suburbs and neighboring regions, and we fear a continued use of excessive force by the security services and military against the civilian population.

Libyan Air Force Officers have confirmed that they were given orders from the highest ranks in the military to bomb the civilian populations in Benghazi, which they refused to do and turned their planes around, landing in Malta earlier this afternoon.

We are also seriously concerned about the direct involvement of other members of the Gaddafi family in the repression of the demonstrations. Saadi Gaddafi, the second son, has been personally leading a military battalion in the eastern cities of Al Baida and Benghazi. During these military operations against the civilian population, several hundred people were killed and injured.

There is no doubt that the direct implication of the head of state and the members of his family in the murder of civilians "as part of a widespread [and] systematic attack directed against [the] civilian population, with knowledge of the attack" constitutes a crime against humanity according to Article 5 of the Rome Statute