“This is a place of recreation, where the people of Tripoli often come,” said government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim, overlooking the fact the children must pass through four concentric rings of five-metre blast walls, checkpoints and sentry towers to reach their supposed oasis.

On Monday, international war crimes prosecutors demanded the arrest of Gadhafi, his son Saif al-Islam and Libya’s head of internal security, saying there is evidence the Libyan leader was directly involved in war crimes against his own people.

We hope International Criminal Court judges in The Hague issue the arrest warrants quickly so Gadhafi can be dealt with once and for all.“This sends a very clear signal to all those around Gadhafi that no one is exempt. It will speed defections and desertions and minimize deaths as much as possible,” said Jallal al Gallal, a spokesman for Libya’s Transitional National Council.

Gadhafi’s departure can’t come soon enough.