Anti-government rebels carry ammunition in a base for training and recruiting rebels for the army in Benghazi on February 28, 2011
Foreign powers accelerated efforts to help oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi yesterday as rebels fought government forces trying to take back strategic coastal cities on either side of the capital Tripoli.
Gaddafi’s forces have been trying for days to push back a revolt that has won over large parts of the military, ended his control over eastern Libya and is fending off government assaults in western cities near Tripoli.
It is difficult for reporters to move around western Libya and reports of fighting were hard to verify independently.
But witnesses in both Misrata, a city of a half a million people 200km to the east of Tripoli, and Zawiyah, a strategic refinery town 50km to the west, said government forces were mounting or preparing attacks.
“An aircraft was shot down this morning while it was firing on the local radio station. Protesters captured its crew,” a witness in Misrata, Mohamed, told Reuters by telephone.
“Fighting to control the military air base started last night and is still going on. Gaddafi’s forces control only a small part of the base. Protesters control a large part of this base where there is ammunition.”
A Libyan government source denied the report.
A resident of Zawiyah, called Ibrahim, told Reuters by telephone: “We are expecting attacks at any moment by brigades belonging to (Gaddafi’s son) Khamis. They are on the outskirts of the town, about 5-7km away. They are in large numbers.”
In the capital, Gaddafi’s last stronghold, a Reuters reporter saw about 400 people protesting in a square in the Tajoura district, an area already partly outside his control.
Soon after, men in sports utility vehicles pulled up and fired into the air.
SANCTIONS
Foreign governments are increasing the pressure on Gaddafi to leave in the hope of ending fighting that has claimed at least 1,000 lives and restoring order to a country that accounts for 2 per cent of the world’s oil production.
The UN Security Council on Saturday slapped sanctions on Gaddafi and other Libyan officials, imposed an arms embargo and froze Libyan assets.
European Union governments approved their sanctions against Gaddafi in Brussels yesterday, implementing the UN resolution sooner than expected.
The Pentagon said it was repositioning US naval and air forces around Libya “to provide options and flexibility”. The US Sixth Fleet operates out of Italy.
In The Hague, the International Criminal Court prosecutor said he would finish a preliminary examination of the violence within days, after which he could open a full inquiry — a step mandated by the Council that could have taken months.
France proposed an emergency summit of EU leaders for Thursday, EU diplomats said.
In an address to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Gaddafi was using “mercenaries and thugs” to repress his people and that he must step down immediately.
“Gaddafi and those around him must be held accountable for these acts, which violate international legal obligations and common decency,” Clinton said, adding that nothing was off the table as the international community considers its next steps.
However, in Washington, a White House spokesman declined to rule out that Gaddafi could be helped to go into exile.
A US official in Geneva said a central aim of sanctions was to “send a message not only to Gaddafi ... but to the people around Gaddafi, who are the ones we’re really seeking to influence”.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said after meeting Clinton that he was proposing a 60-day freeze on money transfers to Libya, and believed other countries were open to the idea.
“We must do everything to ensure that no money is going into the hands of the Libyan dictator’s family, and that they have no opportunity to hire new foreign soldiers to repress their people,” he said.
But there was less support among foreign ministers in Geneva for proposals to stop Gaddafi attacking rebels from the air.
Prime Minister David Cameron said he was asking his military staff to work on the idea with allies. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, asked in Geneva if he had discussed a no-fly zone in his meeting with Clinton, retorted:
“Absolutely not. It was not mentioned by anyone.”
RESENTMENT
Revolutions in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt have helped to ignite resentment of four decades of often bloody political repression under Gaddafi as well as his failure to use Libya’s oil wealth to tackle widespread poverty and lack of opportunity.
The 68-year-old leader has vowed to fight to the death, but a spokesman struck a new, conciliatory tone yesterday.
Mussa Ibrahim told reporters in Tripoli that government forces had fired on civilians, but said this was because they were not trained to deal with civilian unrest.
He said the government was still in control of Zawiyah, even though reporters who were taken there at the weekend saw a town centre under rebel control.
“What you saw was only the centre,” he said. “We allowed, we let these people with their guns to stand there. Zawiyah has not fallen. The government could have easily killed them and has not done so, because the government has not been bloody.”
In the eastern city of Benghazi, opponents of Gaddafi said they had formed a National Libyan Council to be the “face” of the revolution. They said they wanted no foreign intervention.
A senior government source said the government was sending a envoy to Benghazi yesterday night to deliver food, medicine and medical equipment.
Regional experts expect rebels eventually to take the capital and kill or capture Gaddafi, but add that he has the firepower to foment chaos or civil war — a prospect he and his sons have warned of.
OIL
Opposition forces are largely in control of Libya’s oil facilities, which are mostly located in the east.
Fatih Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency, told Reuters Insider TV in Paris that industry reports suggested Libya’s oil output had been halved as expatriate workers pulled out.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch estimated in a note to clients that Libya was losing about 1.2 million barrels per day, or 75 per cent of its pre-revolt output, and said the unrest could mean Libyan supplies were unavailable for months.
Industry sources said actual shipments were at a standstill.
Benchmark Brent oil futures were slightly lower at just under US$112 (RM341) a barrel.
Wealthy states have sent planes and ships to bring home expatriate workers but many more, from poorer countries, are stranded. Thousands of Egyptians have been streaming into Tunisia, complaining that Cairo has done nothing to help them.
The United Nations refugee agency said on Sunday nearly 100,000 people have fled violence in Libya in the past week in a growing humanitarian crisis.
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