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(NEWZIMBABWE) Qaddafi agrees to stay out of peace talks: AU

Qaddafi agrees to stay out of peace talks: AU
27/06/2011 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter

LIBYAN leader Moammar Qaddafi has agreed to stay out of negotiations on ending his country's four-month conflict, African leaders said in a statement after talks in South Africa on Sunday.

The African Union panel on Libya "welcomes Colonel Qaddafi's acceptance of not being part of the negotiations process," the leaders said the statement without elaborating. The panel meeting came as the Libyan government renewed its offer to hold a vote on whether Gaddafi should stay in power.

Moussa Ibrahim, a spokesman for Gaddafi's administration, told reporters in Tripoli the government was proposing a period of national dialogue and an election overseen by the United Nations and the African Union.

"If the Libyan people decide Gaddafi should leave he will leave. If the people decide he should stay he will stay," Ibrahim said on Sunday.

But he said Gaddafi -- who has run the oil-producing country since taking over in a military coup in 1969 -- would not go into exile whatever happened. "Gaddafi is not leaving anywhere, he is staying in this country," Ibrahim said.

In South Africa the AU panel reiterated the organisation's call for an immediate ceasefire leading to negotiations toward democracy, as well as an end to NATO air raids against Qaddafi targets.

"The Libyan parties should begin the national dialogue for a comprehensive ceasefire, national reconciliation, transitional arrangements, as well as the agenda for democratic transformation," the AU panel said in their statement.
"These measures we are proposing should go hand in hand with an equally determined humanitarian effort," the statement added.

"In this context, we reiterate the call we made at the extraordinary summit of the AU of May 25, 2011, for the stopping of NATO bombings and the observance of a humanitarian pause."

Analysts say Gaddafi and his family have no intention of relinquishing power. Instead, they say, the Libyan leader is holding out the possibility of a deal to try to widen cracks that have been emerging in the alliance ranged against him.

Still, the election proposal could find a more receptive audience this time around, especially after a NATO bomb landed on a house in Tripoli on June 19, killing several civilians.

After that incident, alliance-member Italy said it wanted a political settlement, and also said that the civilian casualties threaten NATO's credibility.

Libyan government forces have been fighting rebels, backed by NATO air power, since February 17, when thousands of people rose up in a rebellion against his rule.
The revolt has turned into the bloodiest of the Arab Spring uprisings sweeping the Middle East.

Rebels now control the eastern third of the country, and some enclaves in the West. They have been unable though to break through to the capital, leaving Western powers banking on an uprising in Tripoli to overthrow Gaddafi.

Labels: JACOB ZUMA, MUAMMAR AL-GADDAFI

posted by MrK @ 4:28 PM