Libyan Forces Defend Sirte as U.K. Talks Look Beyond Qaddafi
March 29, 2011, 2:24 PM EDTBy Caroline Alexander and Ola Galal
(Adds comments in third paragraph, Clinton in fourth. See EXTRA and MET for more on the regional unrest.)
March 29 (Bloomberg) -- International leaders met to forge a postwar blueprint for Libya as troops loyal to Muammar Qaddafi dug in to block rebels advancing on his hometown of Sirte.
“People are suffering terribly under Qaddafi’s rule,” U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said in a speech opening the meeting in London today. “We will continue to implement the United Nations resolutions for as long as is necessary to protect the Libyan people from danger.”
His remarks indicated that NATO may keep up military operation until Qaddafi is forced out, since civilians would remain in danger from reprisals from the regime even if it obeys a cease-fire. U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said Qaddafi “has no future” and Qatar’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jabr Al Thani, said the Libyan leader should quit now before an offer to let him go into exile -- which he didn’t detail -- is taken off the table “in a few days.”
“All of us must continue to increase the pressure on and deepen the isolation of the Qaddafi regime,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at the conference. “This includes a unified front of political and diplomatic pressure that makes clear to Qaddafi that he must go, that sends a strong message of accountability, and that sharpens the choice for those around him.”
Libyans’ Destiny
Cameron told the heads of NATO and the United Nations and more than 37 foreign ministers that while the Libyan people should determine their own destiny, “they cannot reach that future on their own.” He said UN resolutions against Qaddafi’s regime must be enforced, humanitarian aid rushed to rebel-held parts of Libya and plans drawn up for post-war rebuilding of hospitals, homes and “the mosques and minarets smashed by his barbarity.”
The rebels’ drive toward Sirte extends their offensive along Libya’s coast, where over the weekend they recaptured the oil ports of Brega and Ras Lanuf, helped by U.S.-led air strikes on government positions. The rebels’ progress was halted about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Sirte, the BBC said today.
That may set the stage for an escalation of the fighting, already the most violent yet seen in more than two months of popular uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa. Libya’s opposition estimates that as many as 12,000 people have died.
Oil Reverses Drop
Crude oil was little changed, reversing an earlier drop of as much as 1.2 percent in New York on speculation that the rebels’ territorial gains may hasten a resolution to the crisis. Crude oil futures for May delivery rose 56 cents to $104.54 a barrel at 1:30 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Libya’s rebel Interim National Council published its “vision of a democratic Libya” before the London talks with a pledge to establish a constitution, give citizens the right to vote and guarantee political pluralism.
“That there hasn’t been a coup against Qaddafi so far indicates his grip on the armed forces is still strong,” Florence Gaub, a North Africa expert at the NATO Defense College in Rome, said in an interview. “He’s installed loyalists in key positions throughout the military.”
The U.S. will send an envoy to meet with the rebels in their eastern stronghold of Benghazi within days to establish better ties with the group, a move that won’t constitute formal recognition, said a senior U.S. administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to comment on the record.
‘Qaddafi’s Deadly Advance’
Military intervention “stopped Qaddafi’s deadly advance” and helped prevent a massacre of civilians that would have “stained the conscience of the world,” President Barack Obama said in a speech at the National Defense University in Washington late yesterday.
Qaddafi sent a message to the London meeting, comparing the international action against his forces to Hitler’s march across Europe and bombardment of Britain.
“Stop your barbaric and unjust offensive against Libya,” Qaddafi said in comments on the official state news agency, JANA. “Leave Libya for the Libyans. You are carrying out an operation to exterminate a peaceful people and destroy a developing country.”
In the western port of Misrata, U.S. warplanes and a guided-missile destroyer engaged a patrol ship from Qaddafi’s naval forces after the Libyan vessel and two smaller craft fired on merchant boats, the U.S. Africa Command’s task force for Libya said today in an e-mailed statement. The patrol ship, the Vittoria, was beached after the incident late yesterday.
‘Bleed to Death’
Cameron said Misrata is under attack from “both land and sea” and that Qaddafi “is using snipers to shoot” down people and “let them bleed to death in the street.”
The U.S. part of the Libya mission has cost $550 million so far, mostly for bombs and missiles, according to the Department of Defense.
Sweden plans to send eight Gripen fighter planes to support operations in Libya, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said today.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization said on March 27 it would take over military control of the Libya mission from the U.S. -- an action that comes amid spreading unrest throughout the Middle East, with deadly clashes between protesters and regime supporters in Syria, Yemen, Bahrain and Jordan, following the ouster of oppressive regimes by popular movements in Egypt and Tunisia.
Without Qaddafi
In his speech, Obama said there was “no question that Libya -- and the world -- would be better off with Qaddafi out of power.” Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a joint statement yesterday that Qaddafi should quit now.
“There are countries in Africa that could offer him hospitality,” Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said yesterday in Rome. “I hope that the African Union can come up with a valid proposal. Qaddafi has to understand that on his part it would be an act of courage to say: ‘I understand that I have to go.’”
“Ideally, everybody wants the Libyan rebels to topple Qaddafi in Tripoli,” said the NATO Defense College’s Gaub. “Regime change is what it’s all about, even if the UN resolution doesn’t say this.”
The overthrow of Qaddafi is the task of the Libyan opposition, not the NATO-led coalition, a member of the rebel council said.
“We are not seeking any outside power to change the regime in Libya,” Guma El-Gamaty, the U.K. coordinator of the opposition Interim National Council, told reporters today in London. “That is a job for the Libyan people and the Libyan people alone.”
Thousands Detained
He said more than 12,000 young people in Tripoli, mostly men, have been detained by forces loyal to Qaddafi and have either been killed or put in camps.
The rebels will respect all Qaddafi-era contracts with foreign nations and companies if they take over the government, the head of their council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, told Italy’s Rai television. Jalil, a former justice minister, said the pledge applies to oil contracts, including deals with Italy’s Eni SpA, Libya’s biggest foreign investor.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, Syrian President Bashar al- Assad accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Muhammad Naji Otri, state television reported.
The move follows a series of concessions the regime has promised including the release of more than 200 prisoners, steps to combat corruption, a media law guaranteeing more freedom, improving living standards for residents of border areas and legal changes to ban random arrests.
In Egypt, the army council that has been in charge since the fall of Hosni Mubarak last month announced yesterday that parliamentary elections will be held in September. The council will remain in power until a presidential election, which hasn’t been scheduled.
--With assistance from Janina Pfalzer and Kim McLaughlin in Stockholm, Tony Capaccio, Mike Dorning and Hans Nichols in Washington; Sherry Su, Robert Hutton, Caroline Alexander, Nicole Gaouette, Kitty Donaldson and Gonzalo Vina in London; Inal Ersan, Vivian Salama and Maher Chmaytelli in Dubai; Gregory Viscusi in Paris; Alessandra Migliaccio and Flavia Krause-Jackson in Rome; James Neuger in Brussels, Patrick Donahue in Berlin and Massoud A. Derhally in Beirut. Editors: Terry Atlas, Steven Komarow
To contact the reporters on this story: Caroline Alexander in London at calexander1@bloomberg.net; Ola Galal in Cairo at ogalal@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net.
