TRIPOLI/THE HAGUE – Libya’s Col Muammar Gadafy could fall within two to three months, the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor said yesterday, as rebels sought to press an advance on Tripoli that has made rare progress in recent days.
The ICC’s Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who on Monday announced an arrest warrant for Col Gadafy on charges of crimes against humanity, is the latest international official to say the Libyan leader would soon capitulate to a Nato-backed revolt.
“It is a matter of time . . . Gadafy will face charges,” Mr Moreno-Ocampo said in The Hague, where the warrants were approved for Col Gadafy, his son Saif al-Islam and Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi.
He added: “I don’t think we will have to wait for long . . . In two or three months it is game over.”
While there is little chance of Col Gadafy being arrested if he remains in power, the Libyan leader’s foes have seized on the warrant to justify the three-month Nato bombing campaign and to try to bolster world opinion against him.
In comments that appeared to make any political settlement even less likely, rebels said after talks in Paris that even indirect contacts with Col Gadafy were now excluded. “I don’t think there is any place for direct or indirect contact with Gadafy,” Mahmoud Shammam, a spokesman for the National Transitional Council, said after meetings with French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
Before the ICC move, Mr Shammam was quoted earlier this week as confirming that talks with Col Gadafy’s side were under way through intermediaries and suggested Col Gadafy could be allowed to stay in Libya as long as he stepped down from power.
In its eastern stronghold of Benghazi, the National Transitional Council hosted the foreign minister of Bulgaria, whose country, along with Romania, brought to at least 22 the total of countries which recognise the council as representatives of the Libyan people.
That does not include UN Security Council veto-holder China, which has merely acknowledged the council as an “important domestic political force” and is reserved on the ICC warrants.
The rebellion against Col Gadafy has made little progress since western countries began bombing three months ago, but rebels say they are finally advancing closer to Tripoli.
Rebels based in the Western Mountains region southwest of the capital made their biggest breakthrough in weeks on Sunday to reach the town of Bir al-Ghanam, where they are now fighting pro-Gadafy forces for control, their spokesman said.
Rebels in Misrata said Col Gadafy’s forces struck at the Mediterranean coastal city some 200km (125 miles) east of Tripoli overnight. Rebels have not been able to advance far from Misrata to approach Tripoli from the east.
“Gadafy’s forces bombarded Misrata last night. There were no casualties, thank God. Today the situation is quiet for the moment,” the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, a British-led team planning for a post-conflict Libya has recommended that Col Gadafy’s security forces should be left largely intact after a rebel victory, avoiding an error made after the Iraq war, British international development secretary Andrew Mitchell said yesterday. – (Reuters)