ATROCITIES IN LIBYA - HEAVY WEAPONS USED AGAINST CIVILIAN PROTESTERS

1740 gmt - Reports from Libya say forces loyal to Libyan leader Colonel Khaddafi who's also a citizen and MP of Sierra Leone have been firing area and other heavy weapons into protesters demanding basic rights from a regime that has been in power for more than forty years. Up to the time of this report, more than 200 (two hundred) people are reported to have been killed with hundreds, if not thousands wounded.

Hospital sources say most of the dead were fired upon in areas of the body that is meant to kill or gravely injure with bullet holes in the head, chest, heart and other areas where vital organs are situated.

There's now mounting pressure on the European Union to say and do something about the ongoing murders in Libya that seem to target the east of the country more so in the country's second city Benghazi.

UK Foreign minister William Hague has told the media that he has spoken with a son of Colonel Khaddafi even as the colonel who's been in office for more than forty years threatened to suspend cooperation with the European Union should that body try to bring pressure to bear on him. Mr Hague has also promised to take this matter up at an EU meeting scheduled for later this evening.

What pressure they can put on Libya to stop the massacre is eagerly awaited and urgently too as protesters have been crying out to the international community to intervene and stop the massacre of unarmed civilians.

Reports have been coming in of men armed to the teeth and from sub-Saharan Africa involved in the killings.

One eye witness is reported to have seen "black Africans" mowing down the unarmed protesters.

Even as pressure mounts on the EU to do something about the terrible events unfolding in Libya, eyes are on the Ernest Bai Koroma government in Sierra Leone to make a statement condemning the killings in Libya.

It would be recalled that it was the government of Ernest Bai Koroma as well as all Parliamentarians from all the political parties who shamelessly made Khaddafi a citizen of Sierra Leone as well as an MP in the country's law making body.

Given the fact that President Koroma is closely affiliated and has buddies of the rights-abusing AFRC junta including his personal buddy Idrissa Kamara also known as Leatherboot, questions are now surfacing as to whether the "black Africans" seen mercilessly shooting at the peaceful demonstrators could have come from elements of the bloodthirsty AFRC sent to Libya on the orders of President Koroma.

A statement from State House debunking this line of thinking is urgently needed as the scenario of firing at and killing unarmed civilians is something the AFRC is well known for as was witnessed during their tenure in power (May 1997-February 1998) and the invasion of Freetown by AFRC/RUF junta forces in January 1999.

Kindly recall too, that when he was in opposition, it was one Ernest Bai Koroma who vehemently opposed any close ties with the Libyan leader who had been implicated in the support for the murderous RUF of Foday Sankoh.

As soon as he became President...as President Ernest Bai Koroma all this was thrown out of the window.

We now await a reaction from State House in Freetown on the situation in Libya.