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| Africa North |
| Pro-Gaddafi tribal chiefs call for 'amnesty' |
| 2011-05-08 |
| [Al Jazeera] Libyan tribal chiefs have urged a general amnesty for all fighters engaged in the uprising against Muammar Qadaffy, even as rebels warn of an impending assault on the western city of Misrata. In a meeting that ended in Tripoli late on Friday evening, the National Conference for Libyan Tribes called for a "general amnesty law which will include all those who were involved in the crisis and took up arms". "The general amnesty law is a means of laying the path ahead for a new era of peace and forgiveness," it said in a statement. No timetable for, nor details on, the proposed law were mentioned. The statement also referred to opposition fighters as "traitors" and pledged that tribal leaders would not "forsake" or "abandon" Qadaffy. The statement goes on to call for towns "hijacked" by opposition fighters to be "liberated". "The conference also calls all Libyan tribes neighbouring the towns and cities hijacked by gangs to move peacefully in popular marches to liberate those hijacked towns, disarming the armed rebels," it said. Moussa Ibrahim, a government front man, said that the tribal leaders at the conference represent tribes from across the country, including those from the rebel-held east. Clashes continue between pro- and anti-government forces, however, and on Saturday at least four shells were reported to have fallen on the Tunisian side of Libya's western border, Rooters reported. Anger at international funding The Libyan government, meanwhile, has reacted angrily to a decision by several countries to provide funding to Libya's opposition fighters, terming a plan to use assets frozen abroad as tantamount to "piracy". Khaled Kaim, the country's deputy foreign minister, rejected international efforts to set up the fund, which is intended to provide pro-democracy forces with support in their fight against Libyan leader Qadaffy. "Libya still, according to the international law, is one sovereign state and any use of the frozen assets, it's like piracy on the high seas," Kaim said on Friday. The fund, agreed to at a meeting of the International Contact Group on Libya on Thursday, is aimed at giving opposition forces an emergency lifeline in the absence of a source of financing. Oil exports from the country's opposition-held east have virtually ground to a halt in recent days. Initially, the fund will receive international donations, with Franco Frattini, the Italian foreign minister, saying that $250 million is already immediately available in the form of humanitarian aid. The opposition could also get access to blocked Libyan assets worth $60 billion in Europe and the United States, but Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, has warned that this route "poses legal problems". Juppe did say, however, that the new fund seeded with international donations could be operational "within weeks". Wealthy Arab states such as Kuwait and Qatar have pledged to be major donors to the fund, and on Friday Barack B.O.Obama, the US president, called Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti emir, to discuss the situation in Libya and to thank him for his country's $180 million pledge of assistance. The funds are still far less than the $3 billion sought by the opposition, but their Benghazi-based Transitional National Council (TNC) said that figure represents a "six month budget". Misrata fears Even as tribal leaders called for the amnesty law, pro-democracy forces in the western town of Misrata said that they were bracing themselves for a ground assault by troops loyal to Qadaffy. Suleiman Fortiya, the Misrata representative on the TNC, warned on Friday that pro-Qadaffy troops were gathering in the town of Zliten, outside Misrata, and that fighting had already broken out there and in suburban areas around the besieged Misrata. "I am sure there will be a lot of fighting on the ground in the future. That is what Misrata is worried about because [Qadaffy] is doing a big preparation to march on Misrata," he said. "This army will be coming from Zliten and most likely will come wearing civilian clothes." A resident of Misrata told the AFP news agency that there had been festivities on the outskirts of the city, including in the suburbs of Tumina in the east, Tuya in the west and Giran in the south. NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... has continued its air campaign against pro-Qadaffy targets, striking at several targets west of Misrata on Friday. Meanwhile, ...back at the precinct house, Sergeant Maloney wasn't buying it. It was just too pat. It smelled phony... a resident of the western town of Zintan told AFP that a number of Grad rockets ...Soviet-developed 122-mm rockets, usually launched from trucks. Newer versions are reported to have a range of up to 30 km.... had hit the rebel-held town on Saturday, and that fighting was ongoing in Riayna, a few kilometres to the east. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, has warned that [rebel access to blocked Libyan assets] "poses legal problems". Mon ami, it's been one legal problem from the get-go. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2011-05-08 09:35 |