Oorlog in Libi� #100: We gaan weer demonstreren in Tripoli.

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Rebellen Libi� ontvangen meer dan 500 miljoen euro

De Libische rebellen die zich verzetten tegen dictator Muammar Kaddafi, hebben vandaag miljoenen euro toegezegd gekregen van Itali� en Koeweit. Itali� verstrekt 400 miljoen euro in cash en brandstof aan Benghazi, het bolwerk van het verzet. Koeweit is goed voor bijna 125 miljoen euro.

Volgens de rebellen is 2 miljard euro nodig om de komende vier maanden door te komen. 'We moeten de mensen in Benghazi hun salaris betalen', aldus Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalgham, de voormalige Libische minister van Buitenlandse Zaken die zich bij de rebellen heeft aangesloten. Hij hoopt dat de bevroren Libische tegoeden in het buitenland beschikbaar worden voor de rebellen.

Onderpand
Itali� gaat de 5,5 miljard euro die Libi� op Italiaanse banken heeft gezet, gebruiken als onderpand voor een lening. Ongeveer 250 miljoen euro wordt tegen zachte voorwaarden aan de rebellen geleend. De rest van de toegezegde hulp komt in de vorm van brandstof naar Benghazi.

Rebellenminister
De toezeggingen werden gedaan op een bijeenkomst van Westerse en Arabische landen in de Verenigde Arabische Emiraten. Daar was ook de rebellenminister van Olie en Financi�n, Ali Tarhoni. Hij stelde dat er een financieringsmechanisme moet komen om de rebellen te helpen. Als daar geen afspraken over worden gemaakt, 'dan is deze bijeenkomst een totale mislukking', aldus Tarhoni.

Olie
Volgens de minister zijn de rebellen spoedig in staat meer dan 100.000 vaten olie per dag op te pompen in het oosten van Libi�. Voor het uitbreken van het grootschalige verzet tegen Kaddafi in februari produceerde Libi� 1,7 miljoen vaten per dag. Het merendeel daarvan werd ge�xporteerd naar Europa. De rebellen stelden de afgelopen weken vooralsnog niet toe te kunnen komen aan de olieproductie.

Steunpilaren
De Nationale Overgangsraad in Benghazi krijgt langzaam maar zeker steeds meer internationale steun. Frankrijk en Groot-Brittanni� zijn al wekenlang de grootste steunpilaren. Vandaag liet China weten dat de rebellen daar welkom zijn, waardoor nu niet alleen meer contact is met het regime in Tripoli. Ook ging vandaag voor het eerst een staatshoofd naar Benghazi. De Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade gaat daar in gesprek met afgevaardigden van de raad.

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Clinton: we voeren gesprekken met Kaddafi

De Amerikaanse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Hillary Clinton zei vandaag dat er gesprekken zijn met mensen rondom de Libische leider Muammar Kaddafi. Volgens Clinton bestaat de mogelijkheid van een overdracht van de macht in Libi�.

Ze zei dat er doorlopend gesprekken zijn met mensen dicht bij Kaddadi. 'We weten dat deze gesprekken onder meer gaan over de mogelijkheden voor een overdracht', zei Clinton tijdens een persconferentie in Abu Dhabi.

Clinton erkende daarbij dat er nog niet veel duidelijk is. Ze gaf geen verdere details.

15.000 doden
De strijd in Libi� heeft tot dusver aan naar schatting 10.000 tot 15.000 mensen aan beide zijden het leven gekost. Dat heeft de Egyptische jurist Cherif Bassiouni, die voor de Mensenrechtenraad van de Verenigde Naties onderzoek heeft gedaan naar mogelijke oorlogsmisdaden in het Noord-Afrikaanse land, vandaag gezegd.

Een onderzoekscommissie onder Bassiouni's leiding stelde vorige week vast dat beide kampen in Libi� zich schuldig lijken te hebben gemaakt aan oorlogsmisdaden. Wel zijn volgens hem de bewijzen voor wandaden door troepen van dictator Muammar Kaddafi talrijker dan die voor misdrijven die zijn begaan door de opstandelingen, die sinds februari proberen hem ten val te brengen.

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'NAVO-helikopter neergehaald door Libische strijdkrachten'


De Libische strijdkrachten zouden erin geslaagd zijn om een NAVO-helikopter neer te halen, zo meldt de Libische staatstelevisie vandaag.

Het incident vond plaats nabij de kust tussen Tripoli en Misurata. 'Het zou gaan om de derde neergehaalde helikopter sinds het begin van de NAVO-interventie', zo luidt het bij de tv-zender. Het nieuws werd niet bevestigd door de NAVO.

Frankrijk en Groot-Brittanni� besloten eerder om helikopters in te zetten in Libi�, omdat deze in bepaalde situaties flexibeler en doelgerichter zouden zijn dan gevechtsvliegtuigen.

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Gaddafi loyalist accused of plotting to assassinate Libyan rebel leader


Student based in Italy 'planned spectacular attack on Libyan embassy in Rome'

A Libyan student leader loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has been arrested in Italy, accused of planning to assassinate the Libyan rebels' leading international representative and lead an attack on Libya's embassy in Rome.

Court documents released after the arrests of three men identified the intended victim of the plot as Abdel Rahman Shalgam, a former foreign minister who headed the Transitional National Council's delegation to this week's meeting of the Libyan contact group in Abu Dhabi.

Shalgam, who was Gaddafi's foreign minister from 2000 until 2009 and subsequently his ambassador to the UN, defected to the rebels on 25 February.

The alleged mastermind of the plot to kill him is Nuri Ahusain, the head of the Libyan students' union in Italy, who was arrested at his home in Perugia by anti-terrorist police on Thursday.

Two other Libyans, aged 21 and 33, were detained in an earlier raid.

The investigation is still in progress, and about 10 other people are understood to be suspects. Some details remain unclear, but the warrant for Ahusain's arrest, issued by a judge in Perugia, said the student leader had made clear his "murderous intentions" towards Shalgam in a phone conversation on 29 May, unaware that police were listening in.

He allegedly repeated his plan to kill the diplomat in another phone call the following day. The content of this second call indicated that the order for an attack on the Libyan embassy in Rome had come from Tripoli.

Shalgam had arrived in the Italian capital a few days earlier. On 30 May, he appeared at a press conference at the embassy alongside eight Libyan army officers who announced their defection and said they were part of a group of up to 120 members of the military who had defected.

The ambassador in Rome has also abandoned Gaddafi, and his embassy now flies the rebels' red, black and green flag.

Italian police followed Ahusain and two other men when they travelled to Rome on a suspected reconnaissance mission.

The warrant for Ahusain said the plan foiled by police involved "storming the building in Rome that houses the current transitional Libyan government in Benghazi with the aim of driving out the present diplomatic representative".

Police said the attack was to have been carried out by Libyan students loyal to the regime, together with Algerian mercenaries recruited in Naples.

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Gaddafi received 'guarantee' from Turkey to leave Libya

Prime Minister Erdogan says they received no reply to offer to aid Libyan leader in leaving country

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday his country had offered a "guarantee" to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi if he left Libya, but said Ankara had received no answer.

"Gaddafi has no way out but to leave Libya, through the guarantees given to him, it seems," Erdogan told NTV broadcaster in an interview.

"We ourselves have offered him this guarantee, via the representatives we've sent. We told him we would help him to be sent wherever he wanted to be sent. We would discuss the issue with our allies, according to the response we receive. Unfortunately we still haven't got a response from Gaddafi."

Erdogan, whose country is a member of Nato, did not specify what kind of guarantee his country had offered to Gaddafi.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9691106

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — A Libyan rebel spokesman says opposition forces are battling troops loyal to Moammar Gadhafi in the western city of Zawiya. It is the first major fighting in the oil port since government troops crushed opposition forces there in March.

Guma el-Gamaty, a London-based spokesman for the rebels' national council, says the opposition fighters are in control of a large area on the western side of the city.

A rebel fighter who fled the Zawiya at the end of March says "there are clashes inside Zawiya itself."

The rebel, who identified himself only as Kamal, says "the fighters are back in the city." He says he spoke with opposition fighters in the city.

Zawiya was the closest city to the capital Tripoli to fall into rebel hands.

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Op zaterdag 11 juni 2011 15:17 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
Zawiya part deux:

[..]

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Apparently prompted by the Zawiya clashes, Libyan soldiers sealed off parts of a crucial coastal road leading from Tripoli, the capital, west to the Tunisian border. Zawiya sits about 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Tripoli.

The coastal highway approaching Zawiya from the capital was clogged with soldiers and loyalist gunmen with assault rifles, some patrolling the road, others manning checkpoints. Roadside shops were shuttered. The only vehicles on the road were white jeep-style vehicles use by Gadhafi soldiers.

Civilian vehicles were directed onto a narrow agricultural road through olive groves and past grazing cattle and sprawling homes. Traffic on the agricultural rode crawled past Zawiya and was only allowed back on the coastal highway at historic Roman-era town of Sabrata 20 miles (30 kilometers) west of the fighting.

The coastal road is a chief artery from neighboring Tunisia for delivery for food, fuel and medicine for the Gadhafi regime that is under a naval blockade, NATO enforced no-fly strictures and continuing air strikes by the Western alliance in support of the rebel uprising.

Britain, meanwhile, reported on sorties flown by its air force on Friday, part of the NATO mission to protect civilians and help rebels who rose up against Gadhafi four months ago.

Maj. Gen. Nick Pope, top spokesman for the defense staff, said British jets destroyed four Gadhafi tanks hidden in an orchard southwest of Tripoli, the capital. The jets also dropped nine bunker-buster bombs on government military installations on the western outskirts of the capital.

Witnesses, however, reported seeing no NATO aircraft in the vicinity of the rebel-held port city of Misrata on Friday as Gadhafi forces shelled towns on the western outskirts of the city, 125 miles (210 kilometers) east of Tripoli.

A doctor at Hikma Hospital in Misrata, who would only give his first name, Ayman, said 31 rebels were killed in the Friday shelling by Gadhafi forces who opened fire with tanks, artillery and incendiary rockets.

They were pounding rebel forces in Dafniya, about 18 miles (30 kilometers) west of Misrata. He said at least 61 people were wounded in the attacks which began about 10 a.m. local time Friday and continue until late at night.

Gadhafi forces had renewed their shelling near Misrata on Wednesday. The city is one of the few footholds rebels have in western Libya and controls the country's largest port.

The doctor said residents had reported no sign of NATO aircraft in the Misrata region.

During the four-month upheaval, rebels have taken control of swaths of eastern Libya, although fighting has since come to a stalemate even with NATO support. Misrata remained one of the most important rebel footholds in the Gadhafi controlled west.

Government forces are surrounding Misrata on all sides but the north, where the city has access to the Mediterranean Sea for supplies and food through Libya's major port. Rebels have beaten back several government attempts to retake the city.

The Gadhafi forces are pushing back on rebel forces trying to break out of Misrata to advance on Tripoli.

A rebel fighter in Misrata who identifies himself only as Abdel-Salem said Gadhafi's sons, Khamis and al-Moatassem, and top aid Abdullah al-Senoussi are in command of the operation that is dug in at Zlitan, about nine miles (15 kilometers) from Dafniya.

"The situation is very bad there. Gadhafi sent huge forces to Zlitan to fortify the city because he knows that if Zlitan falls in the hands of the rebels, the way to Tripoli will be wide open," Abdel-Salam said. "Now the ball is in the court of NATO, but we have not seen any NATO planes flying over despite the fierce battle."

As more and more country's have sided with the rebels, Gadhafi has shown no sign of giving up power.

Turkey's prime minister said in a TV interview broadcast Friday that his country has offered Gadhafi guarantees if he were to leave Libya but has received no response. He did not detail what sort of guarantees.

"He has no other option but to leave Libya, with the condition that he is given certain guarantees. That's the picture," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in the interview with the NTV channel.

"We have given him these guarantees; we said we will help you leave for wherever you would like."

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Eerste aanval op werelderfgoed in Libi�

Ghadames, de stad in het westen van Libi� die sinds 1986 op de werelderfgoedlijst van Unesco staat, zou voor het eerst zijn gebombardeerd door troepen van de Libische dictator Moammar Kadhafi. Dat meldden de opstandelingen in Libi� zaterdag in een verklaring.

Ghadames ligt circa 600 kilometer ten zuidwesten van de hoofdstad Tripoli, nabij de grens met de buurlanden Tunesi� en Algerije. De historische stad ligt in een oase in de woestijn en is wereldberoemd vanwege de elegante witte gebouwen, die stammen uit de tijd van de Romeinen.

'De bevolking van Ghadames doet een beroep op Unesco en internationale organisaties om de historische stad te beschermen', aldus de rebellen. Het bewind van Kadhafi heeft nog niet gereageerd op de beschuldiging.

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Misrata: One day in Libya's rebel stronghold where calm gives way to chaos

The battered Libyan port is coming back to life as a vibrant trading centre with an eye for a deal. But on its outskirts, frontline fighters struggle against Gaddafi's professional army

The sun is shining in Misrata on Friday morning, and in Tripoli Street they're selling souvenirs. On a trestle table, little flags, buttons and hats emblazoned in the Libyan tricolour – red, black and green – provide an island of brightness in the blasted grey landscape of pulverised buildings and wrecked tanks that is now downtown Misrata. "We're a business-minded city," says Ali, a slim young trader in a long brown robe.

Indeed they are. With the enemy now pushed back beyond artillery range, this battered city is shaking itself back to life. Squads of boys too young to fight are out tidying the streets, painting white lines along the highways and manufacturing souvenirs.

Ali's stand, a trestle table, is crowded with key fobs, T-shirts and hats, all in the official colours – the ancient Libyan tricolour which had replaced the despised plain green flag of the Gaddafi regime.

Shops are open and sell a bizarre array of goods: fresh fruit is rare, but there is HP sauce, After Eights and Cornettos. With 11,000 tonnes of grain in the elevator nobody goes hungry and there are no humanitarian aid workers here because, fighting apart, there is no humanitarian crisis.

There is also a bit of the "What did the Romans do for us?" in the ritual hatred people have for Muammar Gaddafi. "He gave us nothing," says an engineer, who formed a little gang which goes to hospitals and schools fixing the shelling damage, as we pass smart cars and prosperous houses. "The roads he made are a mess," he adds, as we cruise along an elegant cloverleaf intersection over a wide immaculate freeway. In fact, the city did very well under Gaddafi.

The bigger truth may be that people in this city managed to work around the repression, and prospered. The hatred is more for what Gaddafi has inflicted on them since they dared to protest against his rule.

Along with the business acumen of a city that has a centuries-old tradition as a trading centre go pride and machismo. The rebel fighters who call themselves shebab – youth – insist that they will be proud to die.

Mohamed Salum, a bearded 50-year-old oil engineer wandering around Liberation Square, says it would be the greatest honour for his 20-year-old son to fall in the struggle, which will make him shaheen – roughly translated as martyr. "We have jihad. If you die in jihad, you go the heaven, it is the highest thing we have. It is an honour."

"Oh really?"

Well, more or less. A longer conversation reveals his acute anxiety about his son going to the battlefield. Parental consent was finally given when his son delivered an unquashable argument. "He said, 'If we win this war [and] I am not involved, I am going to have to wear a skirt and live with my sister'."

The conversation takes place to the familiar thump of Grad rockets landing in the outskirts, but nobody bothers too much. An army press conference the night before spoke of confidence in coming victories, with Gaddafi's forces beaten and demoralised.

Back at the media centre, a cramped room in a guarded compound, comes news that Apache helicopter gunships have struck targets overnight near Misrata. The Ministry of Defence website features tweets from a British colonel about how the Gaddafi forces are being taught a sharp lesson. The war seems almost won.

Then a Reuters TV correspondent comes in, slumping into a chair, face masked in sweat. He has been at the front and says that this is no ordinary shelling. "A disaster," he says. "The dead are everywhere. Bodies. I saw a pick-up with six bodies."

I hitch a ride to Misrata's Hikma hospital to find bedlam; so many people have arrived, either to give blood or to search for relatives, that the road has been cleared to make way for the ambulances. They arrive, brakes screeching, at regular intervals, doctors rushing to unload the fragile smashed human cargoes.

The hospital is working at full stretch, operating theatres set up in tents in the courtyard full, the staff so overworked that female nurses, in headscarves and mascara, are treating the men, a rare exception to the rule.

Bodies with terrible wounds are brought in. A teenage boy sits crying in the corner, having seen his cousin carried in with shrapnel wounds to the head, body and legs. "I told him to be quiet," says a hospital volunteer. "Your cousin is not yet shaheen."

Inside the tents, doctors work frantically. A female nurse holds the forearm of a young fighter who stares into the middle distance. The arm is almost severed and she must hold his forearm to stop it flopping to his side while a splint is arranged. The boy soon drifts into sedation and the doctors say that the arm will have to come off. I follow a gurney being wheeled into the car park to be washed, sunlight glinting on blood sloshing around on the fabric.

At the media centre, the bad news keeps coming. Patrick Wells, a British cameraman, arrives from the frontline field hospital in shock, reporting that mangled bodies came in so fast they were using brooms to clear the blood from the floor. "A young guy, maybe 18 years old, had had his leg blown apart. Doctors were sticking their hands into the open muscles, trying to clamp the femoral artery," he says.

Finally, noticing the less badly wounded left on stretchers untended, he stopped filming and went over to hold their hands: "It's funny how taking a guy's hand makes him calmer."

Video arrives from the frontline showing the shebab standing around in groups as Grads and mortars crash around them. And a terrible truth dawns: the rebels, however brave they are, have no idea what they are doing. Professional armies dig in, but not the shebab; the result is a human abattoir.

By the day's end the toll is 31 dead with 120 wounded. The city is in shock; this after a week of constant attacks with a combined toll in excess of 300 casualties.

The sun goes down to the thud of Grads mixed with the beautiful, sad wailing from the minarets – the city imams singing Allah's name to bring comfort to the inhabitants. A driver taking me from the hotel tells me that two of his cousins have died, then asks in polite tones: "Where is Nato?"

Where indeed? For weeks the alliance ramped up its promise of Apaches. Finally they struck, and Friday's bombardment was Gaddafi's response — one which saw no countermove from Nato, apparently because the Apache is too vulnerable to ground fire to be risked in daylight operations,

In other words, Nato bit Gaddafi and the dictator bit back twice as hard, leaving the alliance to make a choice. Either it stops fighting a war with one arm behind its back or it gets out and lifts the arms embargo to allow the shebab to buy the weapons they need. But something has to give. The shebab of Misrata cannot take many more days like Friday.

What have the Romans ever done for us

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Hevige gevechten tussen Tripoli en grens Tunesi�

Dit weekeinde zijn hevige gevechten uitgebroken in de stad Zawiyah aan de voor de Libische hoofdstad cruciale weg Tripoli - Tunesi�. Daarbij zijn gisteren zeker 13 rebellen en burgers gedood, aldus een zegsman van de opstandelingen tegen het regime van Muammar Kaddafi.

De regeringstroepen hebben de weg geblokkeerd om te voorkomen dat de burgerbevolking richting Tunesi� vlucht. De stad heeft 250.000 inwoners, waarvan een deel al is gevlucht. Zawiyah ligt 40 kilometer ten zuidwesten van de Libische hoofdstad, aan de weg naar Tunesi� die nu de belangrijkste levensader van Tripoli vormt.

Een woordvoerder van de 'rebellenregering' in de oostelijke stad Benghazi, Guma al-Gamaty, zei gisteren dat goed getrainde rebellen de regeringstroepen bij Zawiyah volkomen hebben verrast. Wanneer de aanval leidt tot de inname van Zawiyah en omgeving 'implodeert Tripoli', aldus een opgetogen al-Gamaty. Een regeringswoordvoerder deed de strijd af als wat schermutselingen.

Zawiyah in de West-Libische regio Tripolitania werd in maart veroverd door opstandelingen, maar zij konden de plaats slechts twee weken in handen houden. De rebellen moesten de meeste veroveringen in Tripolitania prijsgeven, zoals destijds Zawiyah onder druk van aanvallen van een elite-eenheid onder bevel van een zoon van Kaddafi, Khamis. Al-Gatamy zei vandaag dat de rebellen weer terug in de stad waren.

De rebellen hebben vandaag ook melding gemaakt van gevechten tussen Kaddafigetrouwen en leden van de Awlad Suleimanstam in de oasis Sabha, 750 kilometer ten zuiden van Tripoli. Verder stelden ze dat bij NAVO-bombardementen bij Tripoli gisteren een naaste medewerker van Kaddafi, Al-Khauwildy al-Ahmeildy, gewond is geraakt.

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Strijd om Libische oliestad Brega – Zeker vier doden

Opstandelingen die vechten tegen de Libische leider Gaddafi zijn teruggedreven door de regeringstroepen in de strijd om de oostelijk gelegen oliestad Brega. Ten minste vier strijders kwamen om het leven.

In het westen vechten de opstandelingen voor de derde dag op rij in Zawiyah. Gisteren liep het dodental van de gevechten in de west-Libische stad volgens een woordvoerder op tot meer dan honderd. Zawiyah ligt slechts vijftig kilometer ten westen van hoofdstad Tripoli.

Volgens de opstandelingen kwamen ten minste vier mensen om het leven bij de gevechten tussen Brega en Ajdabiyah. Minstens 65 strijders raakten gewond, aldus doktoren in een ziekenhuis in Benghazi gisteravond laat.


“Wij vielen hen eerst aan, maar zij sloegen terug. We hebben geprobeerd om Brega te bereiken, maar dat was moeilijk”, aldus Haithan Elgwei, een opstandeling, gisteren na zijn terugkeer uit de frontlinie.

“De NAVO (-vliegtuigen) gaven ons bescherming van bovenaf, maar Gaddafi’s troepen vuurden raketten en mortieren af buiten Brega”, aldus Akram, een 24-jarige gewonde strijder. “Wij zullen niet terugtrekken. We kijken ernaar uit om Tripoli in te nemen”, voegde hij eraan toe.

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23 rebels killed in fighting in eastern Libya

Associated Press= MISRATA, Libya (AP) — A Libyan doctor says 23 rebels have been killed in fighting outside the eastern oil town of Brega.

Suleiman Rafathi, a doctor at the hospital in the town of Ajdabiya where the casualties were brought, says 26 people also were wounded in the battle Monday about 22 miles (35 kilometers) east of Brega.

The front lines between Brega and Ajdabiya have been relatively quiet in recent weeks, while fighting has raged in western Libya between forces loyal to Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi and rebels seeking to overthrow him.

No further details of the fighting were immediately available.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

MISRATA, Libya (AP) — Government artillery rained down on rebel forces Monday but failed to stop their advance into key ground west of their stronghold at Libya's major port. As fighting raged for a fourth day, Germany's foreign minister paid a surprise visit to the rebel's de facto capital.

The German foreign ministry said Guido Westerwelle was meeting with the Transitional National Council to deepen relations with the rebels and their nascent government.

Should the Germans recognize the council as the legitimate governing power in Libya, it would mark yet another big diplomatic boost for the rebels who rose up four months ago to end Moammar Gadhafi's 40-year rule in the oil-rich North African country. Germany refused to participate in the NATO air mission over Libya and withheld support for the no-fly zone.

The rebels control roughly the eastern one-third of Libya as well as Misrata, the country's major port. The also claim to have taken parts of coastal oil center of Zawiya in the far west. That port city is 18 miles (30 kilometers) west of Tripoli and a prize that would put them in striking distance of the capital. Control of the city also would cut one of Moammar Gadhafi's last supply routes from Tunisia.

Despite rebel claims, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said late Sunday that Gadhafi forces had driven off the attackers, and reporters taken to Zawiya saw secure streets and the green national flag flying over a central square. The insurgents, for their part, claimed a high-ranking Gadhafi commander was badly wounded in the fighting.

"The wishful reporting of some journalists that the rebels are gaining more power and more control of some areas is not correct," he said.

In the major fighting near Misrata on Monday, an Associated Press photographer at the rebel front lines said they had pushed along the Mediterranean Sea to within 6 miles (10 kilometers) of Zlitan, the next city to the west of Misrata. A rebel commander said his forces, using arms seized from government weapons depots and fresh armaments being shipped in from Benghazi, planned to have moved into Zlitan, by Tuesday.

Ali Terbelo, the rebel commander, said other opposition forces already were in Zlitan, trying to encircle Gadhafi troops. If the rebels take the city they would be within 85 miles (135 kilometers) of the eastern outskirts of Gadhafi's capital, Tripoli.

An AP reporter with rebel forces said shelling was intense Monday morning with rockets and artillery and mortar shells slamming into rebel lines west of Dafniya at a rate of about 7 each minute. Dafniya is about 20 miles (30 kilometers) west of Misrata

Officials at Hikma Hospital in Misrata said government shelling killed seven and wounded 49 on Sunday. New casualty figures were not available but ambulances were rushing from the Dafniya line back into Misrata.

The rebel thrust at Zawiya and movements farther east — near Misrata and Brega — suggested the stalemated uprising had been reinvigorated, and that Gadhafi's defenders may become stretched thin.

"Over the past three days, we set fire under the feet of Gadhafi forces everywhere," Col. Hamid al-Hasi, a rebel battalion commander, told AP. He said the rebels attacked "in very good coordination with NATO" to avoid friendly-fire incidents. "We don't move unless we have very clear instructions from NATO."

In addition, the NATO blockade of ports still under government control and alliance control of Libyan airspace have severely crimped the North African dictator's ability to resupply his forces. And his control has been hard hit by defections from his military and government inner circle.

NATO, meanwhile, has stepped up bombing of Gadhafi's compound in the center of Tripoli, striking it again on Sunday, along with a military airport in eastern Tripoli. The government did not immediately report casualties or damage.

The rebels' Transitional National Council scored a political success, meanwhile, winning recognition from the United Arab Emirates, adding a wealthy, influential Arab state to the handful of nations thus far accepting the insurgents as Libyans' sole legitimate representatives.

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Libyan rebels breakout toward Tripoli

Associated Press= MISRATA, Libya (AP) — Libyan rebels Monday broke out toward Tripoli from the opposition-held port of Misrata 140 miles to the east, cracking a government siege as fighters across the country mounted a resurgence in their four-month-old revolt against Moammar Gadhafi.

The rebels gained a diplomatic boost as well when the visiting the German foreign minister said the nascent opposition government was "the legitimate representative of the Libyan people." Guido Westerwelle was visiting Benghazi, the capital of the rebel-held east of the country, to open a liaison office and hand over medical supplies.

He stopped short of full diplomatic recognition of the Transitional National Council, as has the United States, awaiting the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi from his more than 40-year rule in the oil-rich North African country.

Germany has refused to participate in NATO airstrikes in Libya and withheld its support for the U.N. resolution that allowed the attacks.

What started as a peaceful uprising against Gadhafi has become a civil war, with poorly equipped and trained rebel fighters taking control of the eastern third of Libya and pockets of the west.

But the fighting had reached a stalemate until last week when NATO began the heaviest bombardment of Gadhafi forces since the alliance took control of the skies over Libya under a U.N. resolution to protect civilians from Gadhafi's wrath. NATO has been pounding Gadhafi military and government position with increasing vigor and the rebels are again on the move.

Gadhafi's power has been considerably degraded by the NATO attacks as well military and government defections.

In London, Libyan analysts reported Monday that Gadhafi had lost another close official who defected and fled the country.

Sassi Garada, one of the first men to join Gadhafi when he took power, left Libya through Tunisia, according to Noman Benotman, a Libyan analyst in London who was in contact with his friends and family. Guma el-Gamaty, U.K. organizer for Libya's interim council, also confirmed the defection.

There were initial reports that Garada fled to Britain, where he has several family members, but Benotman said Garada was in Switzerland.

British officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss immigration and security matters, said they could not confirm whether Garada was in the U.K. Swiss Foreign ministry spokeswoman Carole Waelti told AP the government was "not aware of the possible presence of Mr. Garada in Switzerland."

Garada reportedly passed up several military promotions over the years to stay out of the limelight and serve Gadhafi, said Benotman, who works as an analyst for the London-based Quilliam Foundation.

Garada is also from Libya's Berber minority, which has often fought the Arab majority to have their language and customs protected. Many Berbers occupy the Western mountains of Libya, where Garada had been in charge of trying to neutralize tensions, el-Gamaty said.

It is not known why Garada defected or when, but he is one in a growing list of senior officials who have fled the country, suggesting Gadhafi may be losing his grip on power.

Last month, Shukri Ghanem, the Libyan oil minister and head of the National Oil Co., crossed into neighboring Tunisia.

Others who have defected include Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, one of Gadhafi's earliest supporters; Interior Minister Abdel-Fatah Younes; Justice Minister Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, and Ali Abdessalam Treki, a former U.N. General Assembly president. A number of ambassadors and other diplomats also have resigned.

In the major fighting near Misrata on Monday, an Associated Press photographer at the rebel front lines said they had pushed along the Mediterranean Sea to within 6 miles (10 kilometers) of Zlitan, the next city to the west of Misrata. A rebel commander said his forces, using arms seized from government weapons depots and fresh armaments shipped in from Benghazi, planned to have moved into Zlitan, by Tuesday.

Ali Terbelo, the rebel commander, said other opposition forces already were in Zlitan, trying to encircle Gadhafi troops. If the rebels take the city they would be within 85 miles (135 kilometers) of the eastern outskirts of Gadhafi's capital, Tripoli.

An AP reporter with rebel forces said shelling was intense Monday morning with rockets and artillery and mortar shells slamming into rebel lines west of Dafniya at a rate of about seven each minute. Dafniya is about 20 miles (30 kilometers) west of Misrata

Officials at Hikma Hospital in Misrata said government shelling had killed seven rebels and wounded 49 on Sunday. New casualty figures were not available but ambulances were rushing from the Dafniya line back into Misrata.

Rebels encountered a major setback, however, near the eastern oil town of Brega on Monday. Suleiman Rafathi, a doctor at the hospital in the town of Ajdabiya where the casualties were taken, said 23 rebels were killed and 26 wounded in a government ambush about 22 miles (35 kilometers) east of Brega.

The front lines between Brega and Ajdabiya have been relatively quiet in recent weeks, while fighting has raged in western Libya.

In other diplomatic developments, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke again against the Libyan regime, telling the nations of Africa on Monday to sever links with Gadhafi despite his long support and patronage for many African leaders.

In a speech on Monday to diplomats at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, Clinton said Africa should join most of the rest of the world in abandoning Gadhafi. She said the Libyan leader has lost all legitimacy to rule because of attacks on his own citizens.

She's urged all African leaders to demand that Gadhafi accept a cease-fire and then leave Libya.

In a lighter moment, the Gadhafi was shown on Libyan television playing chess with the visiting Russian head of the World Chess Federation. The federation is headed by the eccentric Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who until last year was the leader of Russia's predominantly Buddhist republic of Kalmykia. He once claimed to have visited an alien spaceship.

The television report showed Gadhafi, dressed all in black and wearing dark sunglasses, playing chess Sunday evening with his Russian guest.

Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Ilyumzhinov as saying Gadhafi told him he has no intention of leaving Libya despite international pressure.

It was unclear where the chess game took place. Gadhafi's compound in the center of Tripoli has been under NATO bombardment and was hit again Sunday.

Gadhafi had not been seen in public since mid-May, and Ilyumzhinov told him how pleased he was to find him healthy and well.

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Zuid-Afrika: NAVO misbruikt VN-resolutie voor politieke moord

De NAVO misbruikt een resolutie van de Verenigde Naties (VN) onder het mom van bescherming van Libische burgers tegen het leger van dictator Muammar Kaddafi. Dat doet ze om regimeverandering door te voeren en politieke moorden te plegen, meent de Zuid-Afrikaanse president Jacob Zuma.

'Wij hebben sterk de indruk dat Resolutie 1973 wordt misbruikt. We hebben ons uitgesproken tegen wangebruik van de goede bedoelingen van de resolutie', aldus Zuma tijdens een toespraak in het parlement. Volgens de president heeft de NAVO de grenzen van de resolutie overschreden.

Resolutie 1973 werd in maart aangenomen en machtigt onder meer lidstaten om militairen in te zetten voor bescherming van burgers in Libi�.

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‘Gaddafi akkoord met eerlijke verkiezingen in Libi�’
De Libische leider Gaddafi wil instemmen met het houden van eerlijke verkiezingen onder internationaal toezicht. Dat zegt zijn zoon Saif al-Islam vandaag in een interview met de Italiaanse krant Corriere della Sera.

Saif stelt in het interview dat de verkiezingen binnen drie maanden gehouden kunnen worden. “Het belangrijkste is dat de verkiezingen eerlijk verloopt en dat er geen verdenkingen van stemfraude”, aldus Saif. Volgens de oudste zoon van kolonel Gaddafi is er geen twijfel mogelijk dat zijn vader gekozen zal worden. “Ik heb geen twijfel dat een overweldigende meerderheid van de Libi�rs de opstandelingen zien als fanatieke islamitische fundamentalisten en terroristen, die zijn opgehitst door de Franse president Sarkozy.”

Hoewel het onduidelijk is in hoeverre Gaddafi serieus is met zijn voorstel, lijkt het ‘onwaarschijnlijk’ dat de internationale gemeenschap akkoord zou willen gaan met het houden van verkiezingen onder Gaddafi, zegt onze buitenlandredacteur Marc Leijendekker:

“Voor de coalitie is dit geen aanvaardbare optie, want die streeft naar de val van Gaddafi. Voor Gaddafi zelf is het allicht een poging om te redden wat er te redden valt. Maar de coalitie staat op het standpunt dat er geen vrije verkiezingen mogelijk zijn zolang Gaddafi aan de macht is.”

Russische gezant in Tripoli voor gesprekken met regime

Een gezant van de Russische president Medvedev arriveerde vanochtend in Tripoli om gesprekken te voeren met een aantal belangrijke regeringsfunctionarissen, waaronder de minister-president en de minister van Buitenlandse Zaken. Rusland vreest dat de NAVO afkoerst op de inzet van grondtroepen in Libi� en wil een poging doen om te bemiddelen in het conflict. Gezant Mikhail Margelov zei te verwachten dat de gesprekken niet gemakkelijk zullen zijn.

De NAVO bombardeerde vanochtend vroeg opnieuw het gebied rondom de compound van Gaddafi. Een serie bombardementen deed volgens journalisten in Tripoli de ramen van omliggende huizen trillen en ook was er rook te zien. Het is onduidelijk welke doelen precies getroffen zijn en of er slachtoffers zijn gevallen.

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'Kaddafi gijzelt duizenden lokale leiders'


De Libische leider Kaddafi houdt volgens de commandant van de NAVO-operaties tegen Libi� de voorbije weken duizenden stamhoofden en andere invloedrijke lokale leiders in gijzeling. Zo hoopt Kaddafi een volksopstand tegen zijn regime in de kiem te smoren, zei de Canadese generaal Charles Bouchard vandaag in een interview met de Franse krant Le Figaro.

Het zou volgens berichten van westerse inlichtingendiensten zelfs gaan om 25.000 mensen. Waar zij verblijven is onduidelijk, maar Kaddafi zou ze hier en daar ook als menselijk schild inzetten.
'De tegenstander verschuilt zich onder de burgerbevolking, achter vrouwen en kinderen, in moskee�n en ziekenhuizen', aldus Bouchard. De NAVO gaf vandaag videobeelden vrij, waarop te zien is hoe Kaddafi-getrouwe troepen zeven raketten op burgerdoelen afvuren vanaf de binnenplaats van een moskee in de stad Zlitan. In en om die stad wordt hevig gevochten tussen het leger en opstandelingen.

'Ze verbergen zich op plaatsen waarvan ze weten dat de NAVO ze niet zal bombarderen', zei een woordvoerder van de alliantie.
De NAVO heeft sinds het begin van de operatie tegen Libi� ruim 2000 militaire doelen uitgeschakeld, aldus de woordvoerder.
Daaronder waren 600 tanks, pantserwagens en kanonnen, 750 munitieopslagplaatsen, 130 commandocentrales, 255 radar- en raketinstallaties, tien schepen en tien vliegtuigen. 'De NAVO gaat door met het uitschakelen van Kaddafi's militaire machine.' Zo is een installatie van de Libische inlichtingendienst vlakbij het presidenti�le hoofdkwartier vernietigd.

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Kaddafi op Libische tv: Navo zal verslagen worden

De Libische leider Moammar Kadhafi heeft weer van zich laten horen. De Libische staatstelevisie zond een audioboodschap van hem uit. Daarin bezwoer hij dat de NAVO-troepen verslagen zullen worden.

'Dit is de eerste keer dat ze tegenover een bewapende natie van miljoen staan', zei Kadhafi. 'Ze zullen worden verslagen. De alliantie zal worden verslagen.'

Volgens het televisiestation was de toespraak opgenomen tijdens een vandaag gevoerd telefoongesprek.

quote:

Op zaterdag 18 juni 2011 11:27 schreef Monidique het volgende:

NATO pilots face high risks in Libya

Franse helikopters op Libisch grondgebied en die opstandelingen vervoeren. Ja, hoor, gewoon een humanitaire interventie en een no-fly-zone. Hoe duidelijker moet het worden dat de VN-resolutie verkracht is door de NAVO?

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Libische rebellen uiten kritiek op uitblijven hulp Westen

De olie-minister van de Libische opstandelingen heeft felle kritiek geuit op het uitblijven van Westerse financi�le hulp. Volgens hem zijn de rebellen bankroet.

In een interview met Reuters in Benghazi zegt de minister, Ali Tarhouni, dat de hele olieproductie stil is komen te vallen door de beschadigingen die de gevechten in het land hebben veroorzaakt.

“We hebben geen geld meer. Het is een compleet fiasco aan het worden. Of de westerse landen snappen het niet, of het interesseert ze niet. We produceren geen olie door de beschadigingen en ik verwacht niet dat we binnenkort weer olie kunnen produceren. De raffinaderijen hebben geen ruwe olie, dus ook die werken niet.” – Ali Tarhouni

Tarhouni werd gevraagd hoe hij denkt dat de rebellenregering denkt te gaan overleven. Volgens Tarhouni zullen ze wel een manier vinden.

“Mensen stierven voor deze revolutie, en sterven nog altijd. We vinden wel een manier. Een ding is zeker: we geven nooit op.” – Ali Tarhouni

De regering van de rebellen is volgens Tarhouni in gesprek met verschillende buitenlandse bedrijven over toekomstige samenwerking. Hij noemde het Duitse Wintershall en het Franse Total. Hij zegt niets te hebben tegen het werken met bedrijven die ook met Gaddafi werkten. Volgens Tarhouni is de enige vijand Gaddafi en zijn handlangers.

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Obama's raadslieden verdeeld over inzet Libi�

De juridische adviseurs van de Amerikaanse president Barack Obama zijn verdeeld over de vraag of de president voor het continueren van de militaire actie in Libi� toestemming van het Congres had moeten vragen.

Dat meldt The New York Times. Obama besloot uiteindelijk dat hij geen goedkeuring van het Congres nodig had om steun te geven aan de NAVO-missie.

Vijandelijkheden
Twee juridische topadviseurs, van het Pentagon en het ministerie van Justitie, oordeelden dat het voortzetten van de actie in Libi� zou neerkomen op 'vijandelijkheden' en dat het Congres hiervoor toestemming zou moeten geven. Andere juridische topadviseurs van Obama waren een andere mening toegedaan en de president besloot het advies van de laatsten te volgen.

Het gebeurt buitengewoon zelden volgens de krant dat een president het advies van de juridische topadviseur van Justitie naast zich neerlegt.

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Muammar Gaddafi war crimes files revealed

Rebels find documents implicating Libyan leader in war crimes, and hold them for International Criminal Court investigators

Thousands of documents that reveal in chilling detail orders from Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's senior generals to bombard and starve the people of Misrata have been gathered by war crimes investigators and are being kept at a secret location at the besieged Libyan port.

The documents, some of which the Observer has seen, will form damning evidence in any future war crimes trial of the Libyan leader at the International Criminal Court. The court's prosecutors are expected to travel to the city to view the documents once the daily bombardments have ceased.

One document shows the commanding general of government forces instructing his units to starve Misrata's population during the four-month siege. The order, from Youssef Ahmed Basheer Abu Hajar, states bluntly: "It is absolutely forbidden for supply cars, fuel and other services to enter the city of Misrata from all gates and checkpoints." Another document instructs army units to hunt down wounded rebel fighters, in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Plans to bombard the city are also in the archive, say investigators, who also claim they have a message from Gaddafi relayed to the troops ordering that Misrata be obliterated and the "blue sea turned red" with the blood of the inhabitants. The documents are expected to form a crucial element of any trial against Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and his intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi if, as is expected, ICC judges confirm indictments for war crimes and crimes against humanity that are demanded by its chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo.

They represent a landmark in international justice because no significant war crimes trial in the short history of international courts has had access to documents directly implicating the lead players in the commission of war crimes.

"From what we have here, the case is already proved," Khalid Alwab, a Misrata war crimes investigator, told the Observer. "All the evidence is here. Signed and stamped." The documents have yet to be revealed to the ICC, according to the 60-strong team of Libyan lawyers who brave daily shelling to collect evidence from the city. "We are ready to show them to the ICC," said Alwab. "They are free to contact us."

The fierce shellfire that has pounded Misrata since late February has kept ICC investigators away, and the indictments so far requested deal with crimes elsewhere in Libya.

The documents were saved when lawyers supporting the rebellion told protesters who broke into army bases and police stations to protect the buildings against arson. Elsewhere in the rebel-held parts of Libya, such buildings have been completely destroyed along with their contents.

Government forces who surrender to the rebels are searched, and any documents they carry are preserved in case they can be used as evidence.

Alwab said that he believed Gaddafi's forces had not been ordered to destroy documents because they had not expected to be overrun.

Sir Geoffrey Nice, the former lead prosecutor of Slobodan Milosevic at The Hague, writes in the Observer: "When the citizens of Misrata made the decision not to burn the archive left to them, they were certainly serving history well."

Gaddafi continues to show defiance to Nato, greeting another night of heavy bombing of Tripoli by broadcasting a furious message through the capital's public address system.

"Nato will be defeated," he yelled in a hoarse voice that was piped across the city. Within minutes, the emotive tones of the speech were mixed with the sound of automatic gunfire and car horns from supporters across the city.

In a sign of the growing desperation felt by Libya's opposition, Ali Tarhouni, the rebel finance minister, said that they had almost run out of cash.

International loans have failed to materialise and continued fighting has made it impossible to repair damaged oil installations that halted production in April. "We don't have any [cash]. We are running out of everything," he told the Reuters news agency. "It's a complete failure. Either they [Western nations] don't understand or they don't care."

Nato has yet to find an answer to the Libyan dictator's defiance, with missiles continuing to fall on Misrata. "It is unfortunately still the case that pro-Gaddafi forces continue to show shocking determination to harm the Libyan people," said Oana Lungescu, a Nato spokeswoman.

"It is hard to imagine the end to attacks on civilians while the pro-Gaddafi regime is still in power."

Residents of Misrata hoped for just such an ending last week, when Nato leafleted government lines around the city with lurid pictures of Apache helicopters and warning of dire retribution if the bombardment continued.

Since then, the bombardment has only intensified. On the streets of the shell-shattered city, journalists are now asked at regular intervals by the frightened populace: "Where is Nato?"