Libya’s new leaders yesterday said negotiations for the loyalist-held oasis town of Bani Walid were a success, as top officials of ousted Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s regime sought refuge in Niger.
“The negotiations were successful yesterday and we are waiting for the National Transitional Council [NTC] to give us the green light to go in,” said Abdullah Kenshil, who held talks with Bani Walid elders on Tuesday.
“The elders have joined the revolution,” he said, adding that some of them were now in Tripoli and others were back in Bani Walid, where pro-Qaddafi armed men initially prevented them from returning.
Photo: EPA
Witnesses reported seeing the tribal elders heading away from Bani Walid, 170km southeast of Tripoli, toward the nearby town of Tarhuna late on Tuesday.
A field commander saw the rebuffing of the elders as a bad omen.
“I think there will be a fierce battle in Bani Walid. Armed groups are occupying Bani Walid, so we must free it,” Colonel Abdullah Abu Asara said.
The outcome of negotiations concerning Bani Walid, a bastion of the powerful Warfalla tribe and hometown of NTC leader Mahmud Jibril, has created some anxiety about how and when NTC forces can move in.
Pro-Qaddafi forces in Bani Walid, Sabha in the south and in Sirte, Qaddafi’s hometown on the coast, have been a given a Saturday deadline to surrender and lay down their arms in a bid to spare further bloodshed.
Meanwhile, Washington said that some senior officials of the ousted regime were in a convoy that fled across Libya’s southern border into Niger late on Monday, but that Qaddafi was not believed to be among them.
The large convoy of civilian and military vehicles entered Niger and drove through the city of Agadez, raising questions about whether the toppled strongman had fled the country with them.
“We don’t have any evidence that Qaddafi is anywhere but in Libya at the moment,” US Department of State spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
She called on Niger to cooperate with the NTC in bringing potential Libyan war criminals to justice.
“We have strongly urged the Nigerien officials to detain those members of the regime who may be subject to prosecution, to ensure that they confiscate any weapons that are found and to ensure that any state property of the government of Libya — money, jewels, etc — also be impounded so that it can be returned to the Libyan people,” she said.
Nigerian Foreign Minister Mohamed Bazoum was adamant the ousted Libyan leader was not in the convoy.
“The truth is that several people, of varying importance, arrived in Niger. That’s it, there are no high-profile figures, certainly not Qaddafi himself, nor any of his sons,” Bazoum said.
The Libyan strongman has not been seen since rebels stormed Tripoli on Aug. 20, although as recently as last Thursday he aired audio messages calling on his supporters to prepare for guerrilla war.
Niger’s southern neighbor Burkina Faso on Tuesday ruled out granting asylum to Qaddafi, saying it did not want to create problems for the west African country.
“We cannot grant him asylum because for the past three years we have not had good relations with him,” government spokesman Alain Traore said. “We don’t see why we would stick our neck out for him and create problems for ourselves.”
On Monday, Qaddafi’s spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said his boss was still in Libya, in “excellent health” and ready with his sons to fight to the death.
“He is in a place that those scums did not reach. He is fighting inside Libya,” Ibrahim told Syria’s Arrai television.
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