Libyan diplomats at the United Nations in Geneva declared they were defecting to the opposition Friday, delivering another blow to Moammar Gadhafi's flailing regime as international pressure built over his violent attempt to cling to power. French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on the long-time leader to step down, demanding during a visit to Turkey that Gadhafi «must go,» and calling for an investigation and sanctions against the regime and those who continue to do business with it.In a dramatic scene at an emergency meeting of the U.N.Human Rights Council, a senior diplomat with the Libyan delegation to the U.N. in Geneva asked the council to stand for a moment of silence to «honor this revolution» _ and then informed the council the entire mission was quitting the government. Council members gave them a standing ovation. «The young people in my country today, 100 years after the Italian fascist invasion, are today with their blood writing a new chapter in the history of struggle and resistance,» Shaltut told the 47-nation council. «We in the Libyan mission have categorically decided to serve as representatives of the Libyan people and their free will. We only represent the Libyan people,» he said.Libya's top diplomat in Sweden joined the rebellion against Gadhafi, telling The Associated Press he could not accept the «massacre against my own people.» Abdelmagid Buzrigh, the charge d'affaires at the Libyan Embassy in Stockholm, said, however, he would not step down, because he felt he was serving everyday Libyans. The resignations come after the U.N.'s top human rights official warned that mass killings in Libya, possibly of thousands, require the world to «step in vigorously» and immediately end a brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters in the North African country.
