Kadafi Says He’ll Do Away With All State Institutions

ROME — Libya’s leader, Col. Moammar Kadafi, says that all state institutions, including the “security apparatus” and the nation’s news agency, will be abolished this year.

In a speech Monday night that was broadcast by Libyan Television, Kadafi said it is the people who should rule.

“All the institutions which are traditionally considered as state institutions are to be abolished,” he said in a speech to a grass-roots political committee.

Tripoli-based diplomats contacted by telephone expressed skepticism over Kadafi’s promises, pointing out that he promised to disband the army and police last September but that both institutions still exist.

In his speech, Kadafi said the nation’s security apparatus must be eliminated “because complaints are mounting against it and its violations are on the increase.”

He described the official news agency Jana as “a huge octopus with hundreds of officials.”

Kadafi has said he seeks a political system in which people run the country without parties or government bodies.