WarSclerotic

Libyan rebels give Gaddafi ultimatum: Leave in 72 hours.

CAIRO, March 8 – Rebels will not pursue Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi over crimes they say he has committed if he steps down from his post in the next 72 hours, the head of the rebel National Libyan Council said on Tuesday.

“If he leaves Libya immediately, during 72 hours, and stops the bombardment, we as Libyans will step back from pursuing him for crimes,” Mustafa Abdel Jalil, an ex-justice minister, told Al Jazeera television by telephone.

He said the deadline would not be extended beyond 72 hours. The council is based in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

Earlier in the day, a Gaddafi envoy offered to hold talks on the Libyan leader’s exit but the rebel National Libyan Council rejected negotiations with a leader they do not trust.

Arab media had reported that the Libyan leader had reached out to the council to offer talks on Gaddafi’s departure, which is the central demand of rebels who have seized swathes of the country mainly in the east from the Libyan leader’s control.

Officials from the council, which is based in the rebel-held eastern city of Benghazi, did not confirm any Gaddafi proposal on Monday, but on Tuesday a spokesman confirmed it was made.

“I confirm that we received contact from a Gaddafi representative seeking to negotiate Gaddafi’s exit,” a media officer for the council, Mustafa Gheriani, told Reuters.

“We rejected this. We are not negotiating with someone who spilled Libyan blood and continues to do so. Why would we trust the guy today?” he added.

In Geneva, aid agencies on Tuesday said that more than 215,000 people, mainly migrant workers, have fled Libya in the past two weeks but there is a shortage of flights to repatriate them.

The outflow to Tunisia, Egypt and Niger has slowed in recent days as fighting in western Libya has restricted movement, the UN refugee agency said.

“At both borders, Tunisia and Egypt, most of those awaiting evacuation are Bangladeshi single men. There remains a critical shortage at present of long-haul flights to Bangladesh, other parts of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa,” Adrian Edwards, spokesman of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees told a news briefing.

Meanwhile Libyan forces loyal to Gaddafi have launched a fresh attack on the town of Zawiyah near the capital but rebels still control the central square, a witness said on Tuesday.

Libyan officials have said that the fighters in Zawiyah are affiliated to al Qaida, and that security forces have been using the minimum of force necessary to defeat them.

A government spokesman, Mussa Ibrahim, said the government was in control of the town, adding however that a small group of fighters was still putting up resistance.

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