Libyan rebels accused Moamer Gaddafiof playing dirty games in Misrata where salvos of Grad rockets exploded Sunday in apparent contradiction of his regime’s vow to halt fire in the western city.
In a Misrata hospital, meanwhile, two captured pro-Gaddafisoldiers told AFP that loyalist forces were losing their grip in the battle for the western port, and that their morale was sinking. “Many soldiers want to surrender but they are afraid of being executed” by the rebels, said Lili Mohammed, a Mauritanian mercenary hired by the Gaddafiregime to fight insurgents in the country’s third city. “Gaddafiforces are losing” in Misrata, said Misbah Mansuri, 25, another wounded loyalist fighter who said he was forcibly enlisted 45 days ago.
Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim said early on Sunday the army had suspended operations against rebels in Misrata, but not left the city, to enable local tribes to find a peaceful solution. “The tribes are determined to solve the problem within 48 hours… We believe that this battle will be settled peacefully and not militarily.” But Colonel Omar Bani, the military spokesman of the rebels’ Transitional National Council, said Kadhafi was “playing a really dirty game” aimed at dividing his opponents. Misrata suffered its worst toll in 65 days of fighting on Saturday, with 28 dead and 100 wounded compared with a daily average of 11 killed, according to Doctor Khalid Abu Falra at Misrata’s main private clinic. Heavy anti-aircraft and automatic arms fire was also heard across Tripoli. A French journalist shot in the neck in Misrata was in intensive care on Sunday after undergoing surgery, medics said. Friends refused to identify the journalist, a blogger who worked for “alternative media.” And Manu Brabo, a Spanish photographer who has been held in Libya for almost three weeks, has phoned his parents for the first time to say he is being well treated in a military prison in Tripoli, Spanish radio said.
Hundreds of Libyan families had lined up along the harbour front in hope of getting on board the vessel chartered by the International Organisation for Migration. The UN refugee agency says about 15,000 people have fled fighting in western Libya into Tunisia in the past two weeks and a much larger exodus was feared. Meanwhile, the international drive to freeze the Libyan regime’s foreign assets is running into stiff resistance in many parts of the world, The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
Gaddafiand his immediate family already top a list of 18 individuals banned from leaving Libya and 13 people and five entities whose international assets have been frozen by two UN Security Council resolutions passed in February and March. The European Union and United States have already hit Gaddafitargets with their own sanctions. But The Times said that although Washington and Brussels have blocked access to more than $60 billion (40 billion euros) in Libya’s overseas bank accounts and investments, other nations have done little or nothing to freeze tens of billions more that Kadhafi and his family spread around the globe over the last decade.
Gaddafihas moved billions of dollars back to Tripoli since the rebellion began in mid-February, the report said, citing unnamed officials. The precise totals are unknown, in part because investigators believe the Libyan ruler has made significant investments in companies and financial institutions that shield his identity, the paper noted. Several countries that have developed strong economic ties to Libya, including Turkey and Kenya, along with several other African nations, have balked at carrying out the freeze, The Times said. Meanwhile, India, China and Russia have resisted US and European efforts to expand the sanctions, the paper noted.
Other countries with no apparent political or economic ties to Tripoli have made no attempt to identify or block access to Libyan assets, according to The Times. In some cases, the governments may lack the technical capability to trace hidden assets.
