THU 28 - 3 - 2024
 
Date: Apr 12, 2011
Source: The Daily Star
Libyan rebels reject AU peace deal, saying Gadhafi must leave

AJDABIYA: Libyan rebels cleared charred bodies and the shells of pick-up trucks from the strategic eastern town of Ajdabiya Monday, a day after they pushed out troops loyal to Moammar Gadhafi in a fierce battle.
Libyan rebels swiftly rejected an African Union peace initiative Monday, saying there could be no deal to end a two-month-old civil war unless Gadhafi left power.


Gadhafi’s forces, meanwhile, battered the rebel-held city of Misrata with artillery fire, despite an announcement by the AU negotiators hours earlier that he had accepted their cease-fire proposal. The shelling killed six people, one of them a 3-year-old girl, a doctor said.


Helped by NATO airstrikes, opposition fighters took full control of Ajdabiya, about 150 kilometers from their coastal stronghold of Benghazi, after battling Gadhafi loyalists with rockets and machine guns over the weekend.
Homes and public buildings are pockmarked with machine gun and artillery fire, windows are shattered and graffiti is sprayed liberally across town. But the streets were quiet.


“Ajdabiya has become a ghost town,” Mohammad al-Qubaily, a 45-year-old engineer, said as he stood next to the twisted wreckage of a rebel pick-up hit by rocket fire on Sunday.
“When the bombardment started, everyone left.”
Like many others, Qubaily said he had moved his wife and six children to Benghazi, but was staying behind to look after his property.


Rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil told a news conference after the talks in Benghazi: “The AU initiative does not include the departure of Gadhafi and his sons from the Libyan political scene, therefore it is outdated.”
“Any future proposal that does not include this, we cannot accept,” Abdel-Jalil added.


He said that Gadhafi’s acceptance of the AU had come too late and that Gadhafi had not heeded earlier United Nations decisions demanding a ceasefire and the protection of civilians.
Abdel-Jalil said he had raised the issue of Gadhafi’s use of African mercenaries with the delegation.
“We let it be known to the delegates that there exist mercenaries that came from African and Arab countries. And when I say Arab countries I mean specifically Algeria.”


An AU statement after the Tripoli talks spoke of a transition but made no mention of Gadhafi’s future.
Asked if the issue of him stepping aside was discussed, Ramtane Lamamra, AU Commissioner for Peace and Security, told reporters: “There was some discussion.”


However he added: “I cannot report on confidential discussions because first of all I was not part of them.”
The AU proposal included an immediate cessation of hostilities, effective monitoring of the ceasefire, the delivery of humanitarian aid and the protection of foreigners.


In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States wanted to see “the departure of Gadhafi from power and from Libya,” but avoided comment on the AU plan.
“On the issue of Gadhafi and his sons, there is no negotiation,” said Ahmad al-Adbor, a member of the opposition’s transitional ruling council.


South African President Jacob Zuma, head of an African Union mission, did not travel from Tripoli to Benghazi with other AU delegates, to the rebels’ surprise, but issued a statement when he got home saying the mission was “a huge success.”


The AU delegation was met in Benghazi by up to 3,000 demonstrators holding banners reading: “African Union take Gadhafi with you” and “Gadhafi has committed genocide.”
They pushed up to the doors of the hotel where the talks were held, yelling “the people want the downfall of the regime.”


NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a Brussels news briefing that Gadhafi’s government had announced cease-fires in the past, but “they did not keep their promises.”
NATO said its airstrikes against government armor, which have recently increased, would continue as long as Gadhafi targeted civilians.


A resident of the coastal city of Misrata, which has been under siege for six weeks, told Reuters heavy fighting was under way on the eastern approaches and in the center.
Rebels told Reuters Gadhafi’s forces fired Russian-made Grad rockets into the city, where conditions for civilians are said to be desperate.


Officials from NATO said they took note of the AU plan but the alliance would continue operations while civilians were at risk.
At the front outside Ajdabiya, rebels buried the charred bodies of Gadhafi troops killed in air strikes and said they were advancing westward.


But there were only light skirmishes Monday on the contested road to the oil port of Brega, 70 kilometers further west, in contrast to Sunday’s heavy fighting in Ajdabiya when rebels repelled a government assault.
The hospital, which had buzzed with frantic activity during the fighting, was nearly silent. The main hotel in town was shuttered, several of its windows shattered by gunfire.



 
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