Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
According to the Reuters news agency, a split has opened within the NATO-led air campaign against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, with France and Britain rejecting an Italian call for a halt to military action to allow aid access. It was also reported that China also signaled a shift in its stance on the conflict, describing as a “dialogue partner” the rebels who, four months into the uprising, are making only slow gains in their effort to reach the capital Tripoli and topple Gaddafi. Rebels said NATO air strikes hit government weapons depots south of the rebel-held western mountain town of Zintan, while an unverified Libyan TV report said “dozens” of people were killed in a separate NATO attack on the town of Zlitan. NATO’s first acknowledgment this weekend that it may have caused civilian casualties risks hurting support for a mission that secured a U.N. mandate despite deep misgivings from states in the Arab world, Europe and beyond.
Gaddafi branded NATO states as “murderers” in an audio speech broadcast late on Wednesday, and the deaths have prompted some in the alliance itself to question its tactics. ”The need to look for a ceasefire has become more pressing,” Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told parliament. ”As well as the ceasefire, which is the first stage toward a political negotiation, a humanitarian stop to military action is fundamental to allow immediate humanitarian aid.” An Italian Foreign Ministry spokesman later clarified that Rome was not making a specific proposal and was interested in any ideas to reduce civilian casualties. But his comments got short shrift from NATO allies. We have to intensify the pressure on Gaddafi. Any pause in operations would risk allowing him to gain time and reorganize himself,” said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero. Britain, which along with France was one of the first countries to put its weight behind the rebellion, agreed. ”Our position is that this is in Gaddafi’s hands. He has called several ceasefires and none of them have resulted in ceasefires,” Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokesman said. ”The right approach at the present time is to increase the pressure on Gaddafi.”
A defiant Gaddafi accused NATO states of being murderers of innocent civilians and vowed revenge. ”One day we will respond to you likewise and your homes will be legitimate targets,” he said in an audio speech on state TV. The date on the screen was June 22 but Gaddafi referred to a June 19 strike on a house in Tripoli after which NATO regretted civilian casualties as “yesterday’s crime,” suggesting he was speaking on June 20 and raising questions over his location. Time is now a crucial factor for both sides in the conflict, with unity in the NATO-led coalition likely to come under more strain and Gaddafi having to deal with the economic impact of international sanctions. In a sign of the increasing impact of the crisis on daily life, Libyan state media issued instructions that ordinary people should follow “to deal with the fuel shortage.” They called on people to use public transport instead of cars, avoid using air conditioning when driving and stick to 90-100 kph (55-63 mph) as the ideal speed. They also asked Libyans to be patient when queuing at petrol stations.
The rebel National Transitional Council got a further boost on Wednesday when China, the only veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council not to have urged Gaddafi to stand down, hosted its diplomatic chief for talks in Beijing. ”China sees you as an important dialogue partner,” Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told Mahmoud Jibril, according to comments published on the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s website (http://www.mfa.gov.cn). The statement, however, stopped short of aligning China with the 19 countries which have recognized the Council as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people. Action on the ground was inconclusive. At least three explosions were heard in Tripoli in the morning and again in the afternoon but it was not clear what had caused them.
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Return Libya to Africa!
Great South Africa! God Bless You!
The World must know that Libya and the whole of North Africa are integral part of Africa.
The land and the people do not belong to Arabs or Europeans or Islamist rebels and mercenaries or even to Gaddafi.
It is stolen from Africans and must be liberated and returned to Africans.
Shame that the indigenous black people of Libya who are the only owners of oil which made Libya to appear on maps are considered as foreigners or at best as a low grade citizens by Arabs, Gaddafi, and Islamist rebels and mercenaries.
Save North Africa from Arab Emirs and NATO
The Palestinians of Gaza, particularly of Hamas, are the invisible organizers and agitators of unrest and insurgencies against anti-Islamist regimes under the pretense of democracy. This is obvious in the involvements of the Palestinian majority of Staff of Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya TV against anti-Islamist regimes. The World is getting more of Iran Islamic “revolutions” and theocracies. Sarkozi; Obama and Cameron are miserably short-sighted and greedy looters.
Corrupt Arab authoritarian regimes should be toppled by real democratic and friendly popular movements; but not by Sunni global caliphate financed by Gulf States and organized by Hamas and Muslim brotherhoods with other terrorists. Arab Gulf states got too much petro-dollar with too little plans in life; and Gaza is exploiting the glutted and vulnerable Emirs and Sultans.
They are taking chances against each other only. Arab regimes and League are good for nothing. All of them with no exception are anti-democracy. The funding Gulf States don’t have even elected municipalities. Government and wealth rest exclusively in the hands of unanswerable Emirs dynasties. When the majority of population in the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain protested peacefully against the ruling Arab Sunnite minority the Gulf States crushed them by violent force, and the “democratic” West kept quiet.
It is time for Africans to support the indigenous peoples and reclaim North Africa from invading and colonizing Arabs and Europeans.
Gulf States lack the sense of nationhood and nationality. And North African Arabized countries are still avoiding reconciliation with themselves long after Arab invasions and colonization. The term “Arab World” is unrealistic and unfair. And so is the Arab League.
Muslim brothers in Egypt are pushing hard for fast constitutional amendments and rejecting new constitution because they want Islam and Arabic language as the only main source of legislation and official language; and to keep the mostly Christian Copts in second class carriage, despite they are the most native and biggest indigenous people in Egypt. They want Egypt to remain “Misr Arab Republic” and Islamic.
Mosques are the basic security; propaganda; and business unit in their system which is exploiting Allah and not serving any genuine faith.
The threats to democracy in Gulf States and in North Africa states are:
1- Islamist groups;
2- Authoritarian ruling families and juntas;
3- The Arab League;
4- Pan-Arabism; and
5- Western and NATO military interventions.
The problem is that most Africans assume that North Africa belongs to the Arabs and to Europeans; and it is not an integral part of Africa that was lost to invaders and colonizers. The war in Libya is between two evils. The bigger devil is NATO, Islamists, and Gulf Emirs coalition against the lesser devil of the tyrant and colonizer Gaddafi regime. I wish both of them to go to deepest hell. But first let the lesser evil inflict huge damages and humiliation on the bigger devil.