Zuma: Gadhafi will not leave
Source: Agencies |
June 1, 2011, Wednesday
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MOAMMAR Gadhafi is emphatic he will not leave Libya, South African President Jacob Zuma said yesterday after talks with the Libyan leader that left prospects for a negotiated end to the conflict looking dim.
But new questions emerged over how long Gadhafi could hold on after a senior United Nations aid official said shortages of food and medicine in areas of Libya controlled by Gadhafi amounted to a "time bomb."
Within hours of Zuma's departure from Tripoli late on Monday, Libyan television reported that NATO aircraft had resumed attacks, striking what it called civilian and military sites in Tripoli and Tajoura, just east of the capital.
Zuma was in Tripoli to try to revive an African "roadmap" for ending the conflict, which started in February with an uprising against Gadhafi and has since turned into a war with thousands of people killed. The talks produced no breakthrough, with Gadhafi's refusal to quit - a condition the rebels and NATO have set as a pre-condition for any ceasefire - still the sticking point.
"Colonel Gadhafi called for an end to the bombings to enable a Libyan dialogue," Zuma's office said. "He emphasized that he was not prepared to leave his country, despite the difficulties."
Zuma also said Gadhafi's personal safety "is a concern" - a reference to NATO strikes which have repeatedly hit the Libyan leader's Bab al-Aziziyah compound and other locations used by the Libyan leader and his family.
Now in its fourth month, Libya's conflict is deadlocked on the ground, with anti-Gadhafi rebels unable to break out of their strongholds and advance towards Tripoli, where Gadhafi appears to be firmly entrenched.
Rebels control the east of Libya around the city of Benghazi, Libya's third-biggest city Misrata, and a mountain range stretching from the town of Zintan, 150 kilometers south of Tripoli, towards the border with Tunisia.
Western powers have said they expect Gadhafi will be forced out by a process of attrition as air strikes, defections from his entourage and shortages take their toll.
Panos Moumtzis, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Libya, said in Tripoli that some food stocks in areas under Gadhafi's control were likely to last only weeks.
"I don't think there's any famine, malnutrition. But the longer the conflict lasts the more the food stocks supplies are going to be depleted, and it's a matter of weeks before the country reaches a critical situation," Moumtzis said in an interview.
But new questions emerged over how long Gadhafi could hold on after a senior United Nations aid official said shortages of food and medicine in areas of Libya controlled by Gadhafi amounted to a "time bomb."
Within hours of Zuma's departure from Tripoli late on Monday, Libyan television reported that NATO aircraft had resumed attacks, striking what it called civilian and military sites in Tripoli and Tajoura, just east of the capital.
Zuma was in Tripoli to try to revive an African "roadmap" for ending the conflict, which started in February with an uprising against Gadhafi and has since turned into a war with thousands of people killed. The talks produced no breakthrough, with Gadhafi's refusal to quit - a condition the rebels and NATO have set as a pre-condition for any ceasefire - still the sticking point.
"Colonel Gadhafi called for an end to the bombings to enable a Libyan dialogue," Zuma's office said. "He emphasized that he was not prepared to leave his country, despite the difficulties."
Zuma also said Gadhafi's personal safety "is a concern" - a reference to NATO strikes which have repeatedly hit the Libyan leader's Bab al-Aziziyah compound and other locations used by the Libyan leader and his family.
Now in its fourth month, Libya's conflict is deadlocked on the ground, with anti-Gadhafi rebels unable to break out of their strongholds and advance towards Tripoli, where Gadhafi appears to be firmly entrenched.
Rebels control the east of Libya around the city of Benghazi, Libya's third-biggest city Misrata, and a mountain range stretching from the town of Zintan, 150 kilometers south of Tripoli, towards the border with Tunisia.
Western powers have said they expect Gadhafi will be forced out by a process of attrition as air strikes, defections from his entourage and shortages take their toll.
Panos Moumtzis, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Libya, said in Tripoli that some food stocks in areas under Gadhafi's control were likely to last only weeks.
"I don't think there's any famine, malnutrition. But the longer the conflict lasts the more the food stocks supplies are going to be depleted, and it's a matter of weeks before the country reaches a critical situation," Moumtzis said in an interview.
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