reporter: well, i think a lot of the army commanders were surprised to see us in the square in the first place. as i say, one of them gave us 30 minutes but the other one took away all our tapes and they have been sealing this town off for days. when we went in there today, they were literally cleaning away the evidence. there were road sweepers out there trying to get rid of where we saw bloodied military clothing, all the bullets, i mean, extraordinary number of ammunition, spent bullets on the ground. i think they may be trying to clean it up in another way. and erase evidence in another sense. when i was there on sunday, i went to the hospital and spoke to doctors. they were quite clear that there had been a massacre in zawiya. they were talking about the indiscriminate use of force on civilians. they kept saying the people we re treating are civilians. they also stressed they treated
both sides, they also treated the army. they said this was a war crime and under the geneva convention, if you do not take due care with the lives of civilians, you are potentially guilty of war crimes. but also the doctor said it was absolutely certain, and one of them said i was wearing my white coat this morning and government troops fired on me and told me about two other medical assistants who had been shot dead in zawiya. again, that is a clear war crime under the geneva convention. so it could be that gadhafi also wants to clear that kind of evidence away. when i was at the hospital, i recognized a trauma specialist i had met on sunday and he was the one who said there had been a massacre. i made a move to approach him and he looked at me and he just did that, as if to say don t acknowledge me, don t come near me. i understood that he was in danger if i had engaged him in any kind of conversation with
last night we began with a reporter who escaped from the surrounded city of zawiya. they said a massacre was taking place. tonight, the deed is done. the city has fallen and gadhafi s forces are trying to hide evidence of what went on there, and trying to hunt down those who fought them. the libyan dictatorship is gaining ground, not just in zawiya but the east, as well. and the dictator s son, confident and cool, now threatens to crush the opposition without mercy. the world continues to watch. nato ministers who met today suggested there isn t yet a good reason to act, saying there must be a demonstrable need. we have new video tonight that shows you how fierce the fighting has become. first, i want to show you what it s like fighting in the streets of misurata. the city still in opposition hands but surrounded. this is what it looked like sunday under pounding from gadhafi s forces. [ gunfire ]
it for yourself. you say it was a massacre, yes? reporter: i mean, it s absolutely shocking to think i was there four days ago, the international community had four days to try and help those people. ben wedeman is absolutely right, certainly in zawiya there was no coordinated army response from the rebels. the number of defections were in ones and twos, when i asked how many people defected yesterday, they would say rather proudly, we had one, we had two. we have actual film evidence of ambulances being fired on, of a hospital being attacked, of young children, a 10-year-old boy amongst them being fired on. they are even attacking the mosques, the most sacred of places. this was whole scale killing of civilians, doctor after doctor, nurse after nurse told us, and we could see it for ourselves,
work, any decision by nato to do that, to implement a no-fly zone, days, probably weeks away. anderson? it s not clear that the opposition has weeks. joining us live from chicago, former nato supreme allied commander general wesley clark. and here in new york, professor fouad ajami, senior fellow at the hoover institution. fouad, nato is saying there needs to be three criteria met for a no-fly zone. number one is demonstratable need. you say gadhafi is smart and he s not going to do a srebrenica style massacre. this man is a jackal, he knows what he s doing. he has ruled for 42 years and he s not going to do a srebrenica. he s going to wait. he has these people in his grip and mercy.