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UN Debates Libya Sanctions as Qaddafi Arms His Supporters

27 February 2011 00:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA> The United Nations is in talks to impose sanctions on Libya after Muammar Qaddafi told loyalists in the capital, Tripoli, heâ€™s prepared to arm them to fight opposition forces holding the eastern part of the country, APA reports quoting businessweek.com website.

â€œWhen needed, all the weapons stores will be opened,â€ Qaddafi told a crowd in Green Square Feb. 25. In New York, Libyaâ€™s ambassador to the UN, Mohammed Shalgham, pleaded for the Security Council to act and â€œsave Libya.â€

With French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.S. President Barack Obama saying itâ€™s time for Qaddafi to go, the U.S. and its allies are working out how to quell the violence without intervening militarily.

Britain and France have circulated a draft resolution that would impose an arms embargo on Libya and refer reported violence to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Signaling that political unity may be hard to achieve, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he opposes sanctions.

The UN Security Council is meeting in New York as leaders from Washington to Ankara engage in a flurry of phone calls to discuss the next steps. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says more than 1,000 people have died in the unrest.

â€œThere was clear agreement that the actions of the Libyan regime were totally unacceptable and that brutality and intimidation would not be tolerated,â€ U.K. Prime Minister David Cameronâ€™s office said in an e-mail yesterday after calls with Erdogan, Germanyâ€™s Angela Merkel and Italyâ€™s Silvio Berlusconi.

Obama Freezes Assets

Obama, who has signed an order freezing Qaddafiâ€™s assets, also has consulted leaders.

Obama told Merkel in a phone call yesterday that â€œwhen a leaderâ€™s only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right for his country by leaving now.â€

The leaders â€œreaffirmed their support for the Libyan peopleâ€™s demand for universal rightsâ€ and a responsive government, according to a statement from the White House.

Qaddafi is digging himself into the Libyan capital after army units defected in the east of the country. The regime is giving weapons to civilian supporters to set up roving patrols and checkpoints around Tripoli, the Associated Press reported.

Shooting on Crowds

Several witnesses in Tripoli said forces loyal to Qaddafi had shot people from ambulances and used antiaircraft guns against crowds, the New York Times reported. Witnesses to the violence also said the government had removed dead bodies from hospitals to try to obscure the death toll, the Times reported.

Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, Qaddafiâ€™s son, said three-quarters of the country is under the control of the regime and â€œliving in peaceâ€ even amid signs of civil war.

Libya should move toward a regime change and a new constitution peacefully after Qaddafi called for the changes, his son said in an interview with Al-Arabiya television aired yesterday. Otherwise, it â€œrisks becoming like Somalia,â€ he said, denying that mercenaries were brought in to fight anti- government protesters.

Libyaâ€™s Deputy Ambassador to the UN, Ibrahim Dabbashi, said Feb. 25 he expects â€œthousandsâ€ more fatalities.

â€œThere isnâ€™t a clear end-game here,â€ Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar, said in a telephone interview. â€œThere isnâ€™t a rebel army marching on Tripoli attempting to take it over from Qaddafi.â€

Oil Rises

The prospect of civil war in North Africaâ€™s biggest oil producer has pushed crude prices to a 2 1/2-year high, and led to calls for action to stop the worst violence seen in the two months of unrest across the Middle East and North Africa.

Protesters streamed into squares across the region Feb. 25 after Friday prayers to demand more rights two weeks after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak as Egyptian president. Demonstrations took place in Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Tunisia, the country that sparked the unrest sweeping the Middle East when President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted.

U.K. Defense Secretary Liam Fox said yesterday two Royal Air Force C130 Hercules aircraft have evacuated more than 150 other civilians from desert locations south of Benghazi, an eastern city thatâ€™s under rebel control, according to an e- mailed statement distributed by the Foreign Office in London.

The U.K. has also arranged for HMS Cumberland, which Feb. 25 evacuated 207 civilians to Malta from Libya, to return to Benghazi today â€œto evacuate any remaining entitled persons from there,â€ the statement said.

Maritime Evacuation

A chartered ferry carrying mostly U.S. citizens and diplomatic staff arrived at Malta late Feb. 25, where many were rushed into treatment for dehydration and sea sickness.

A ship chartered by the Chinese government to evacuate its citizens arrived in Malta yesterday bringing 3,000 nationals. At Tripoli airport, panicked crowds tried to storm the terminal to get on flights leaving the city, the Financial Times reported yesterday, citing eyewitnesses.

The first team from Doctors Without Borders has reached Benghazi and visited three medical facilities, the aid group said in a statement. Each facility has managed to deal with the wounded, though they are facing shortages of medical material and drugs, according to the statement.

â€œWest of Tripoli in Zawiyah city, government security forces firing on demonstrators are causing bloodshed and chaos,â€ said a statement from Human Rights Watch, citing Sarah Leah Whitson, the groupâ€™s regional director. â€œPro-Qaddafi thugs have terrorized Egyptian migrant workers, causing hundreds to flee to Tunisia.â€

Qaddafi â€œhas lost the confidence of his people and he should go without further bloodshed and violence,â€ U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today in a statement.

In Turkey, Erdogan said sanctions would do more harm than good for Libyans.

â€œLibyans who face starvation and death will face more difficulties and desperation in the event of sanctions,â€ he said. â€œThe Middle East and Africa have been viewed by the West as merely sources of oil and used as pawns in oil wars for decades. People take to the streets because they are fed up with being used as pawns in oil wars for decades.â€