LIBYA: Bani Walid stand off continues as negotiations stall

Record ID: 561582

  • Title: LIBYA: Bani Walid stand off continues as negotiations stall
  • Date: 8th September 2011
  • Summary: 40 KM NORTH OF BANI WALID, LIBYA (SEPTEMBER 7, 2011) (REUTERS) ANTI-GADDAFI FORCES FLAG ON A HILL CLOSE OF THE ANTI-GADDAFI FORCES FLAG ANTI-GADDAFI FORCES CHECKPOINT ARMOURED VEHICLE AMMUNITION ANTI-GADDAFI FORCES SLEEPING MORE OF THE ANTI-GADDAFI FORCES (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ANTI-GADDAFI FORCES COMMANDER, GENERAL ABDULLAH ABU ASSARA, SAYING: "The meeting failed when the tribal leaders went back to Bani Walid failed to reach an agreement to let the anti-Gaddafi forces enter the town peacefully, the people send their elderly people but Gaddafi's people rejected that plan. We have two options now either the surrender of the Gaddafi supporters not the people of Bani Walid or to use the force to liberate all Bani Walid." AMBULANCES ANTI- AIRCRAFT GUN ANTI- AIRCRAFT GUN ON BACK OF TRUCK
  • Embargoed: 23rd September 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Libya
  • Country: Libya
  • Topics: Conflict,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAEHR3CZZQS4ER5Q54CK8YKM93K
  • Story Text: The stand off between Libyan anti-Gaddafi forces and Muammar Gaddafi's stronghold of Bani Walid continued on Wednesday (September 7), as negotiations to reach an agreement for a peaceful entry to the town seemed to reach deadlock.
    Talks to end a standoff around the besieged Libyan town had resumed on Tuesday (September 6) as tribal elders came out to meet negotiators from the interim ruling council.
    But anti-Gaddafi forces commander General Abdullah Abu Assara said that negotiations had broken down with those still loyal to Gaddafi.
    "The meeting failed when the tribal leaders went back to Bani Walid failed to reach an agreement to let the ant-Gaddafi forces enter the town peacefully, the people send their elderly people but Gaddafi's people rejected that plan. We have two options now either the surrender of the Gaddafi supporters not the people of Bani Walid or to use the force to liberate all Bani Walid,"
    Assara said.
    Bani Walid, which lies 150 km (90 miles) south of Tripoli, has refused to surrender to forces loyal to the National Transitional Council (NTC), giving rise to expectations there would be another round of fighting to rout forces loyal to Libya's deposed leader.
    During Tuesday's talks with tribal elders from the town, punctuated by bursts of gunfire into the air by NTC forces, both sides laid out their conditions. The NTC side offered reassurances that there would be no retribution against Gaddafi loyalists who remain in the city.
    Reflecting the NTC's resolve for a peaceful resolution, Libyan de facto prime minister Mahmoud Jibril joined the talks by telephone on loudspeaker, promising to restore food, water, power supplies to the city while protecting civilians.
    On-and-off talks involving Bani Walid's tribal elders had previously been unable to reach a breakthrough. The town is one of the last remaining pockets of pro-Gaddafi resistance to anti-Gaddafi forces who drove the veteran strongman out of Tripoli last month.
    Meanwhile, anti-Gaddafi forces were waiting to move in on the former Libyan leader's hometown on Tuesday.
    Fighters, many of them former fishermen and port workers, patrolled the beaches along the Mediterranean coastline as they waited for orders to advance on the town of Sirte.
    NTC military units are trying to squeeze pro-Gaddafi forces out of Gaddafi's home town of Sirte on the coast, the desert town of Bani Walid and a swathe of territory deep into the desert in order to consolidate their control over the entire country.
    Gaddafi himself was last tracked heading for Libya's southern border, the man leading the hunt for the deposed leader told Reuters, and French and Niger military sources said scores of vehicles carrying pro-Gaddafi forces had crossed into Niger.
    The military sources said a convoy of up to 250 vehicles was escorted to the northern city of Agadez by the army of Niger, a poor and landlocked former French colony. It might, said a French military source, be joined by Gaddafi en route to adjacent Burkina Faso, which has offered him asylum.
    The United States said it believed the convoy was carrying senior members of Gaddafi's entourage and urged Niger to detain anyone liable for prosecution for alleged crimes committed during the uprising against the deposed Libyan leader.
    Gaddafi's spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said he had not left.
    "He is in Libya. He is safe, he is very healthy, in high morale," he told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
    Anti-Gaddafi forces that overthrew the long-serving ruler two weeks ago said they also thought about a dozen other vehicles that crossed the border may have carried gold and cash apparently looted from a branch of Libya's central bank in Gaddafi's home town.
    France, Niger and Burkina Faso, as well as Libya's new rulers and NATO, all denied knowing where Gaddafi was or of any deal to let him go abroad or find refuge from Libyans and the International Criminal Court (ICC), which wants to put him on trial for war crimes.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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