TRIPOLI – Libyan rebels claimed to be close to capturing Muammar Gadafy yesterday as their Nato backers bombed loyalists still holding out in his tribal bastion. But there was still no sign of an end to the war, or to international disputes over Libyan wealth.
Leaders of the National Transitional Council, which has Western support, pressed foreign governments to release Libyan funds frozen abroad, warning of its urgent need to impose order and provide services to a population traumatised by six months of conflict and 42 years of eccentric, personal rule.
But Muammar Gadafy’s long-time allies in Africa, beneficiaries of his oil-fuelled largesse and sympathisers with a foreign policy he called anti-colonial, refused to follow Arab and Western powers in recognising the NTC as the legal government.
Combined with the reluctance of major powers like China, Russia and Brazil to see Europeans and Americans dominate a nation with Africa’s biggest oil reserves, the African Union’s resistance may slow the pace at which funds are released.
Mahmoud Jibril, head of the government in waiting, said time was short. Visiting Nato member Turkey, he said: “We have to establish an army, strong police force to be able meet the needs of the people and we need capital and we need the assets.
“All our friends in the international community speak of stability and security. We need that too.”
While many African states have recognised the NTC, the AU would not do so as long as fighting continued, South African president Jacob Zuma, a vocal advocate for Col Gadafy, said after a meeting in Addis Ababa at which the AU called for all sides in the conflict to negotiate a peace and work for democracy.
“If there is fighting, there is fighting,” Mr Zuma said. “The process is fluid. That’s part of what we inform countries – whether there is an authority to recognise.”
Rebel leaders are determined to show they are in charge, though estimates vary of when the TNC will move formally from its Benghazi base in the east to the war zone that is Tripoli.
“We have come to operate the country. We are now the legal authority,” declared Mohammed al-Alagi, a lawyer who has been the TNC’s justice minister for some months, as he met foreign journalists in the capital wearing a rebel flag as a bandana.
Other TNC leaders, who stress they want to work with other rebel groups which sprang up later in the west as well with those who have previously supported Col Gadafy, say the war will only be over once the fallen leader is caught, “dead or alive”.
Mr Alagi voiced confidence that Col Gadafy and his entourage of sons and aides was surrounded and would soon be captured: “The area where he is now is under siege,” he said, while declining to say where in Tripoli he thought Col Gadafy was. “The rebels are monitoring the area and they are dealing with it.”
Similar confidence has proved misplaced since the irregular armies overran Col Gadafy’s compound on Tuesday, however, and analysts do not rule out that the 69-year-old, a master of surprise, might have slipped away to rally supporters for an insurgency.
He has not been seen in public for two months, but made a defiant audio broadcast on Thursday.
Col Hisham Buhagiar of the rebel force in the capital said Libyan commandos were targeting several areas: “We are sending special forces every day to hunt down Gadafy. We have one unit that does intelligence and other units that hunt him.”
Nato forces, notably from France and Britain, are helping the rebels. Many analysts assume they are supplying intelligence and may have their own special forces troops on the ground.
British aircraft fired cruise missiles at a headquarters bunker overnight in Col Gadafy’s birthplace of Sirte.
A city beyond rebel control, on the Mediterranean coast 450km (300 miles) east of Tripoli, some believe he might seek refuge there among his tribesmen.
Loyalist forces also still hold positions deep in the Sahara desert.
“Sirte remains an operating base from which pro-Gadafy troops project hostile forces against Misurata and Tripoli,” a Nato official said. – (Reuters)