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(NEWZIMBABWE) Russia plots Gaddafi exit with Mugabe

Russia plots Gaddafi exit with Mugabe
05/07/2011 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter/Bloomberg

RUSSIA’S envoy on the Libyan crisis has met President Robert Mugabe in Harare – fuelling speculation that the Kremlin has identified Zimbabwe as a potential exile destination for the beleaguered Muammar Gaddafi.

Speaking on Tuesday after a meeting with Mugabe, a close ally of Gaddafi, Mikhail Margelov said the Libyan strongman was ready to relinquish power if he received security guarantees.

“Gaddafi will be interested in getting guarantees about his personal security” before ending his four decade-rule of the oil-rich North African country, Margelov told Bloomberg.

A coalition of Western countries led by France, Britain and the United States began a bombardment of Libyan military targets in mid-March after Gaddafi launched a crackdown to contain an armed rebellion by rebels in Bengazi, 965km east of the capital Tripoli.

The United States said in early March that it would not block the path if Gaddafi were to leave, and identified Zimbabwe as a possible destination.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said "no option was off the table”, adding: “If the violence could be ended by his leaving ... that might be a good thing.”

But Gaddafi’s exile could be scuppered by an international arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court. He may seek guarantees that no prosecution for alleged war crimes would be pursued, further delaying his departure.

Russia, which abstained from a UN Security Council resolution which authorised the use of “all necessary force” to protect civilians in Libya, has been critical of the bombardment while working to find an end to the conflict.

President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday discussed an African Union plan to resolve the conflict in Libya with his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma and North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO] Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Russia’s resort of Sochi.

“The meeting was very effective because Mr. Zuma set out his vision of how to achieve a political solution in Libya,” Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s ambassador to NATO and a participant in the talks, said.
NATO must end its campaign against Gaddafi’s forces to allow the political process to go forward, Rogozin said.

A Russian newspaper, Kommersant, reported on Tuesday that France has signalled it may meet Gaddafi’s conditions by unfreezing his assets and providing immunity from the United Nations war tribunal in The Hague if he cedes power peacefully.

“It’s clear that many countries will be ready to be quite flexible toward Gaddafi to convince him to give up all his political posts and his family to give up their economic influence,” Margelov said.

The Libyan leader is also demanding that his son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi take part in the elections that would follow his resignation, according to Kommersant.

Gaddafi will not be able to stay in Libya, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the head of the National Transitional Council of the rebels, said on Monday. Jalal el-Gallal, a spokesman for the council, had separately said that the rebels would tolerate the presence of Qaddafi in Libya were the leader to resign and face prosecution.

The next step under the African Union-sponsored peace plan is for high-ranking Libyan rebel and government representatives to agree on how to negotiate a final settlement, according to Margelov.

“The question of his personal security must be guaranteed by the Libyans themselves,” he said. “No one is demanding that Gaddafi leave Libya. He can stay in his country, of course, if there is an agreement on both sides.”

Rasmussen said this week that NATO would continue its offensive in Libya until a complete halt to attacks on civilians by government forces; the withdrawal of those troops to barracks and access to humanitarian aid for the people of Libya.

Labels: LIBYA, MUAMMAR AL-GADDAFI, ROBERT MUGABE

posted by MrK @ 2:59 AM