AFRICAN SCENE
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DAILY CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011
NATO vows no let-up in Libya air war, Kadhafi defiant By JEANPIERRE CAMPAGNE BENGHAZI, Libya NATO pledged yesterday no let up in its relentless air war in Libya after Moamer Kadhafi vowed he would never surrender, even as bombs rained down on his Tripoli residence. Spain, meanwhile, joined the growing list of countries which recognise the rebels seeking to topple Kadhafi as the sole representative of Libya’s people, leaving the strongman more isolated than ever. NATO allies meeting in Brussels pledged to stay in Libya “for as long as necessary” and commit the “necessary means” to the military campaign against Kadhafi’s forces. Alliance defence ministers said they were “determined to continue our operation to protect the Libyan people for as long as necessary,” in a statement issued after a working lunch. “We are committed to providing the necessary means and maximum operational flexibility within our mandate to sustain these efforts and welcome additional contributions to our common efforts,” the statement added, after
NATO urged its 28 member states to step up and share out the load. The defence ministers also demanded the strongman to step down. “Time is working against Kadhafi, who has clearly lost all legitimacy and therefore needs to step down,” the statement said. The NATO meeting came hours after Kadhafi in an audio message broadcast late Tuesday said that he was close to the NATO bombing but was still resisting and called on his people to resist too. “Despite the bombings, we will never submit,” Kadhafi said in the nine-minute message, which was broadcast on his 69th birthday Tuesday. “I am near the bombing but I am still resisting. “We have only one choice — (to stay in) our country to the end. Death, life, victory, no matter what. We will not leave our country or sell it, we will not submit,” he said in his first intervention since he appeared on state television on May 19. Shortly after the recording was broadcast, more air strikes hit the Libyan capital, continuing a bombardment that had gone on throughout Tuesday.
Zi mbabw e pr esi den t’ s fr ie nd t h e n f o e , Te k e r e , d i e s HARARE, Zimbabwe - Edgar Tekere, a staunch friend and ally of Zimbabwe’s president who then became one of the leader’s harshest critics, has died at the age of 74. A statement yesterday from representatives of his family says Tekere died Edgar Tuesday from cancer. Tekere He spent 10 years as a political prisoner alongside President Robert Mugabe in the same colonial-era jail and after their release the two men fled on foot together to lead burgeoning guerrilla forces to end white rule. Tekere was a founding member of Mugabe’s party in 1964. He then enraged Mugabe by speaking out against corruption and misrule a decade after independence in 1980. He formed an opposition party and lost to Mugabe in presidential polls.
Camels are seen yesterday in the area that the Libyan government says was hit by NATO airstrikes the day before at a wilderness park on the outskirts of Tripoli. NATO pledged no let up of its relentless air war in Libya after Moamer Kadhafi vowed he would never surrender, even as bombs rained down on his Tripoli residence. Photo/Mahmud Turkia Early yesterday, Libyan people; we want another wave of blasts a democratic country was heard near with rights and freeKadhafi’s residential doms,” Jimenez said, complex Bab al-Aziziya, after holding talks with which has been the the Mustafa Abdul Jalil, main target of the inter- head of the NTC, the national military inter- political arm of the vention launched on rebels who control eastMarch 19. ern Libya. Spanish Foreign The minister, who Minister Trinidad arrived in the Benghazi Jimenez meanwhile earlier yesterday, announced in the stressed to the media rebels’ capital Benghazi that her government yesterday that Spain was the “first to declare now recognises the that a solution in Libya National Transitional lies with the departure Council as the “sole of (Moamer) Kadhafi. legitimate representaOther countries tive of the Libyan peo- which have recognised ple.” the NTC as the sole and “Spain will help the legitimate representa-
tive of the Libyan people include France, Italy, Britain, Jordan, Qatar, Malta and Gambia. Adding to Kadhafi’s growing isolation was an African Union call this week for him to step down, the first crack in the continent’s public stance towards the Libyan strongman who has long championed its various causes. The leader of the AU’s heads of state mediation team on Libya, Mauritania’s Mohamed President Ould Abdel Aziz, said Kadhafi’s departure had become necessary as “he can longer lead Libya”. It was the first time a head of state on the AU panel, which has made several trips to Libya to try to negotiate a settlement to the conflict, has made such a direct public reference to the departure of the Libyan leader. And Kadhafi’s Labour Minister, AlAmin Manfur, became the latest member his regime to defect, announcing at a meeting of the International Labour Organisation in Geneva that he was changing sides. In Benghazi, Libya’s second city, the United Nations special envoy
for Libya, Abdul Ilah alKhatib, held talks yesterday with the rebel leadership, a rebel source said, without giving details. On Tuesday, Khatib was in the embattled Libyan capital where he held “positive talks” with officials of Moamer Kadhafi’s government, a spokesman for the regime said. Among envoys also beating a path to Benghazi was Russian envoy Mikhail Margelov, who was in the rebel capital on Tuesday. Margelov, President Dmitry Medvedev’s African envoy, said after holding talks with the rebel leadership that Russia was prepared to provide financial support to the rebels but opposed any escalation of the conflict. The rebels said they were ready to receive Russian aid “tomorrow,” but stressed that they would not enter any negotiations until Kadhafi stepped down. Margelov said Moscow was prepared to “facilitate dialogue between the two camps,” but Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed Russia did not want to be the lead mediator.
Fuel prices skyrocket in oil-rich South Sudan By MAGGIE FICK JUBA, Sudan Southern Sudan wants to control its oil supply after becoming the world’s newest nation in only a month’s time, but already an apparent dispute with the north has sent fuel prices skyrocketing here and prompted fist fights at gas stations. Aid groups are decamping from their offices in the capital to the few restaurants and hotels that have stockpiled fuel for their generators, and it’s unclear how long even the Southern Sudanese government can now keep its airconditioning units blowing.
The mayor of Juba is accusing the Khartoum-based northern government of attempting to strangle the south’s economy ahead of its independence declaration. While the south is rich in oil, all pipelines run through the north and the south does not have any refineries of its own. “It has worsened very quickly and that is what the Khartoum government wants they want to support instability,” Mayor Mohamed el Haj Baballa told The Associated Press. The north categorically denies involvement in any such blockade, though U.N. officials and residents
say otherwise. “We are planning to cooperate and coordinate with the south, to transport their oil, to help them refine their oil,” said Rabie A. Atti, spokesman for the ruling National Congress Party in Sudan. “Such actions (like a blockade) will harm the south and they will also harm the north.” Oil-rich Southern Sudan overwhelmingly voted to secede from Sudan in a January referendum but critical issues remain unresolved, including negotiations over how oil wealth will be shared between the north and the south. A 2005 peace deal calls for a 50-50 split, but that deal expires on
July 9 when Southern Sudan becomes its own country. Residents, local media reports and even the head of the U.N. World Food Program in Southern Sudan said the Sudanese government began enforcing a blockade of the main north-south oil routes in early May. The price of fuel at gas stations and other small shops in Juba has increased by twothirds since the weekend alone. A liter (a quarter of a gallon) that typically sells for just over $1 was selling this week for $1.67. Several motorbike drivers told the AP it was difficult to find fuel for sale, even at the higher rate.