A HIGH-RANKING Libyan defector has called on foreign forces to disable Muammar Gadafy’s air capability by destroying the country’s main landing strips, but warned against any full-scale intervention.
Nouri El Mismari, who recently resigned from his post as Col Gadafy’s protocol chief after serving the regime at diplomatic and ministerial rank for 35 years, said the Libyan leader and his entourage would fight “until the end” to remain in power.
“Libyans are very proud and sensitive people, and they would not tolerate the presence of foreign troops on their soil. We already have the example of Iraq,” he said in Paris yesterday.
“The best option would be to keep the fighter jets on the ground. If the landing strips are destroyed, the air force ceases to exist. It would be better than shooting blindly from the sea or the air.”
Mr El Mismari went into exile in Paris last autumn and formally declared his resignation last week. He is now under the protection of the French government.
He described Col Gadafy as an isolated figure who had lost the support of most soldiers and was now reliant on loyalists who fear reprisals and punishment for their own crimes if the regime falls.
“The people who surround him now have killed people, they abused their power, they took wealth and houses and villas from the people. For them, it’s survival – no more, no less. They’re telling him, ‘everyone is with you’.”
The regime was now close to collapse, Mr El Mismari believed, but Col Gadafy would fight “until the end”. Pressed on his own involvement in the regime for more than 30 years, Mr El Mismari said he “performed my duty as a diplomat” and didn’t “belong to Gadafy or anybody else”. He was “ashamed” to have worked for the regime, but said western leaders should also feel shame for treating Col Gadafy as they did.
“Everybody was kissing his hand – heads of state, heads of government,” he said. “They don’t feel shame now? They had guards of honour for Gadafy when he came to their countries. They brought out the red carpet for him. They don’t feel shame?”
Mr El Mismari, whose family remains in Tripoli, said two of his daughters were taken from their home last week and ordered to appear on state television to denounce his claims against the regime. Asked if he feared for their safety, he replied: “You never know. He’s a maniac . . . If they kill them, they’ll be martyrs. If they don’t, well, we’ll meet again in free, democratic Libya.”
Meanwhile, France is to send military transport planes and a naval landing ship to evacuate some 5,000 Egyptian workers fleeing the violence in Libya within the next week, the foreign ministry said.
A spokesman said Paris was also seeking ways “to send tents and emergency supplies to vulnerable people who have not yet left Libya”.
Some 170,000 people have fled Libya since the start of the uprising, the ministry estimated, with some 75,000 of those heading toward Tunisia.
France and other southern European states are concerned that the turmoil in North Africa could set off a wave of irregular migration across the Mediterranean.
After a lull caused by poor weather, about 350 migrants from Tunisia reached the remote Italian island of Lampedusa yesterday. More than 6,000 Tunisians have made the crossing to Lampedusa since mid-January.