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| Africa North |
| Gaddafi regime crumbles |
| 2011-02-28 |
[Bangla Daily Star] Rebels advanced on the Libyan capital yesterday as US President Barack B.O.Obama urged Muammar Qadaffy to step down "now" amid growing fears that his teetering four-decade rule could descend into civil war. The UN Security Council imposed a travel and assets ban on Qadaffy's regime and ordered an investigation into possible crimes against humanity by the Libyan strongman, the first time any such decision has been made unanimously. Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... anti-regime forces have seized the city of Zawiya, only 50km from the capital, Tripoli yesterday. The Libyan government took journalists to Zawiya yesterday morning. But instead of a show of government force, news hounds saw opposition fighters manning the barricades in the city centre and flying their flag, reports BBC. Fears of a full-scale civil war as Qadaffy loses his grip on power have prompted countries to evacuate tens of thousands of citizens and close down embassies, to escape reported gunfire, looting and food shortages. Rebels are closing in on the capital, where Qadaffy loyalists have been carrying out orders to shoot on sight, witnesses said. A resident told AFP that tanks and all-terrain vehicles driven by regime partisans were patrolling almost deserted streets. Russia became the latest country to put pressure on the Libyan regime with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov telling Libyan counterpart Musa Kusa that Moscow condemned the unacceptable use of force against civilians. Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... Libya's former justice minister announced he was forming a transitional government to replace Qadaffy's crumbling regime, which now controls only some western areas around the capital and a few longtime bastions in the arid south, news hounds and witnesses say. Mustafa Abdel Jalil said the new administration would include commanders of the regular army, much of which has defected to the opposition, and would pave the way for free and fair elections in three months' time. However, The infamous However... it was not immediately clear how much support the proposed provisional leadership commands. Qadaffy son, Saif al-Islam, once regarded as a reformist possible heir, appeared on television on Saturday to deny that much of Libya was in revolt, reports Rooters. But he also warned: "What the Libyan nation is going through has opened the door to all options, and now the signs of civil war and foreign interference have started." In Washington, Obama said Qadaffy needs to "leave now," having lost the legitimacy to rule. It was the US president's most direct demand yet that Qadaffy step down and was coordinated in a telephone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the White House said. Angela Merkel urged Qadaffy to resign, saying the UN Security Council decision against his regime was a signal to all "despots". The United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society says that more than 1,000 people have been killed in the crackdown by Qadaffy loyalists. The Security Council said it was referring the bloodshed to the International Criminal Court because "the widespread and systematic attacks" in Libya against civilians "may amount to crimes against humanity". Britain and Canada have pulled diplomatic staff out of Tripoli and closed their embassies. More than 38,000 people have decamped through the Ras Jedir crossing on Libya's western, Tunisian border alone, an official there told AFP. The UN refugee agency UNHCR says nearly 100,000 migrants have decamped from Libya into neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt in the past week. It warns of a growing humanitarian crisis. Many of the migrants have no way to get home and are sleeping out in the open. The UN World Food Programme warned on Friday that the food distribution system was "at risk of collapsing" in a mainly desert nation which is heavily dependent on imports. |
| Posted by:Fred |