United Nations Leader Defends NATO From Critics of Libya War

A British fighter jet bombed the Libyan city of Sirte on May 8, 2011. The imperialists have been bombing the North African state since March 19., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

U.N. chief defends NATO from critics of Libya war

Wed, Dec 14 2011
By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday defended NATO against criticism from Russia, China and other countries, which accuse the alliance of overstepping its U.N. mandate to protect civilians in Libya.

It was an unusual move by the cautious head of the United Nations, who will complete his first five-year term at the end of the month and begin his second term in January. Ban has rarely taken public positions that pit him with some permanent members of the 15-nation Security Council against others.

"Security Council resolution 1973, I believe, was strictly enforced within the limit, within the mandate," Ban told reporters in New York. "This military operation done by the NATO forces was strictly within (resolution) 1973."

"I believe this is what we have seen, and there should be no misunderstanding on that," he said.

Resolution 1973, adopted in March 2011, authorized U.N. member states to impose a no-fly zone over Libya and take "all necessary measures" to protect civilians threatened by the government's crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators inspired by "Arab Spring" uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

Russia, China, India, Brazil and South Africa -- the so-called BRICS nations -- have repeatedly accused NATO of using the mandate to protect civilians as a cover to pursue regime change by aiding rebel forces who ousted and eventually killed Libya's long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The United States, Britain, France and other NATO members have defended NATO, which says it adhered strictly to its Security Council mandate during its 8-month military operation, in which Britain and France launched repeated air strikes against Gaddafi's forces.

The United States was initially at the forefront of NATO's Libya operation alongside France and Britain, but later took a lower-profile role focusing on activities such as real-time intelligence gathering and surveillance.

BAN URGES ACTION ON SYRIA

Ban said none of the Arab leaders ousted during the Arab Spring uprisings were removed with outside help.

"These changes of regime were done by the people, not by the intervention of any foreign forces, including the United Nations," Ban said.

In addition to Gaddafi, the long-serving presidents of Tunisia and Egypt were forced out, paving the way for elections that Western nations hope will install democratic governments. Yemen's president was also forced to cede power to his deputy.

Ban said he was pleased that the concept of taking action to protect civilians -- often referred to as the "responsibility to protect" or R2P -- appeared to be gaining momentum.

But he reiterated that some kind of concerted international action was needed on Syria, where the United Nations says more than 5,000 civilians have been killed in a government crackdown on pro-democracy protesters this year.

"This cannot go on," he said. "In the name of humanity, it is time for the international community to act."

Last month, Russia and China vetoed a European-drafted Security Council resolution that would have condemned the Syrian clampdown and threatened President Bashar al-Assad's government with possible sanctions.


Gaddafi daughter seeks ICC probe into his killing

Wed, Dec 14 2011
By Christian Lowe

ALGIERS (Reuters) - A lawyer for Muammar Gaddafi's daughter said on Wednesday he had written to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to ask if an investigation had been launched into the killing of her father and brother.

A copy of the letter, seen by Reuters, said that Muammar Gaddafi and his son Mo'tassim were "murdered in the most horrific fashion with their bodies thereafter displayed and grotesquely abused in complete defiance of Islamic law."

"The images of this savagery were broadcast throughout the world, causing my client severe emotional distress," said the letter from Nick Kaufman, who represents Aisha Gaddafi.

"To date, neither Ms. Gaddafi nor any member of her family has been informed, by your office, of the initiation of an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the brutal murders," the letter said.

Muammar Gaddafi and Mo'tassim were captured in their home town of Sirte in October, two months after rebels seized the capital Tripoli and put the longtime Libyan leader and his relatives to flight.

They were killed soon after their capture while in the custody of fighters loyal to the country's new leadership, in circumstances that have not been fully explained.

Gaddafi's daughter Aisha fled with other family members to neighboring Algeria in August.

The ICC, based in the Hague, earlier this year issued arrest warrants for Muammar Gaddafi, another son, Saif al-Islam, and the former Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, for crimes against humanity.

In the letter, Aisha Gaddafi's lawyer asked if the ICC prosecutor's office was investigating the killings of her father and brother, and if it was taking steps to make sure the Libyan authorities themselves were investigating the matter.

The letter also asked whether the ICC was looking into what reports said at the time was a NATO air strike on Gaddafi's convoy moments before he was captured.

"Is your office investigating the attack allegedly carried out by NATO forces in order to determine whether individual criminal responsibility should be assigned for an unlawful military attack?" the letter asked.

(Reporting by Christian Lowe; Editing by Mark Heinrich)


Libya Central Bank expected to have sanctions lifted

Wed, Dec 14 2011
By Patrick Worsnip

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Libya's central bank and a subsidiary are expected to have U.N. sanctions against them lifted on Friday in a move to ease a cash crunch since the country's civil war ended, diplomats said on Wednesday.

They said the Central Bank of Libya and the Libyan Foreign Bank (LFB), an offshore institution wholly owned by the central bank, would be taken off the Security Council's sanctions list unless there were objections from council members.

When a rebellion broke out in February against leader Muammar Gaddafi, the Security Council froze Libyan assets abroad estimated at $150 billion, but the bulk of that sum remains beyond the reach of the oil-rich country's new rulers.

Gaddafi's 42-year rule ended when his forces fled Tripoli in August, and the last of the fighting in Libya ended in October when he was captured and killed by rebels.

Yet by late November only about $18 billion in seized assets had been released by special provisions of the Security Council's Libya sanctions committee, and diplomats said only about $3 billion of that had been made available to Tripoli.

Last week, senior figures in Libya's new leadership wrote the committee asking it to delist the central bank and LFB. Sanctions against the two bodies and two Libyan investment authorities had been eased but not fully lifted in September.

The move was "essential for the economic stability of Libya; for confidence in the banking sector; for the smooth execution and settlement of both domestic and international banking transactions; and to underpin the social and microeconomic stability of the new Libya," said the letter, obtained by Reuters.

Frustration at the delay in releasing the assets has been growing inside Libya, where the interim government says it urgently needs the cash to pay the wages of public sector workers and to start re-building state institutions.

The letter was signed by Central Bank Governor Saddeq Omar Elkaber, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC), interim Prime Minister Abdurrahim El-Keib and Finance Minister Hassan Ziglam.

SILENCE PROCEDURE

The freezing of Libyan assets was part of a package of sanctions by the 15-nation council intended to put pressure on Gaddafi's government to stop attacking civilian protesters.

In a letter to council members, sanctions committee chairman Ambassador Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral of Portugal set a deadline of 5 p.m. New York time (2200 GMT) on Friday for objections to the Libyan request.

Then, "unless he hears to the contrary ... (the chairman) will take it that there is no objection to this request and both entities will be removed from the committee's list ... and the asset freeze will no longer apply to them," Cabral said.

Diplomats said they were unaware of any objections as of Wednesday morning. "I think it won't be a controversial issue," one diplomat said.

If there are objections, the matter is expected to come up at a council meeting on Libya on December 22, another diplomat said, adding, "Obviously there's quite big money at stake."

Libya can generate substantial revenues from oil exports, but these were halted by the conflict and are taking time to restore, leaving a hole in government finances.

Diplomats said the delisting of the two banks did not necessarily mean the frozen assets would be instantly available to Tripoli as foreign institutions holding them might seek formal authorization from their governments.

Diplomats have said the reason more assets have not been unfrozen is uncertainty over who legally owns them and concerns that in some cases it could be Gaddafi, his family or aides.

But one diplomat said such concerns were unlikely to arise over the central bank and the LFB. "It's the same technocrats in charge, the same central bank, just under different political leadership," he said.

(Reporting by Patrick Worsnip; editing by Anthony Boadle)