http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/muammar-gaddafi-forces-retaliate-as-nato-eyes-endgame/story-e6frg6so-1226072590973
Muammar Gaddafi forces retaliate as NATO eyes endgame From: AP June 10, 2011 12:00AM LIBYAN leader Muammar Gaddafi, increasingly cornered by a stunning upturn in NATO airstrikes, lashed back with renewed shelling on the outskirts of the western city of Misratah yesterday, killing 10 rebel fighters. The international alliance said it remained determined to keep pounding Gaddafi forces from the air, but would play no military role in the transition to democratic rule in the oil-rich North African country once the erratic leader's 42-year rule ended. In Brussels, NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Gaddafi's days in power were clearly numbered, making it imperative for the international community, the UN in particular, to gear up to help Libyans establish a new form of government. "For Gaddafi, it is no longer a question of if he goes but when he goes," Mr Fogh Rasmussen said at a meeting of the defence ministers from the 28 NATO members. "We do not see a lead role for NATO in Libya once this crisis is over. We see the United Nations playing a lead role in the post-Gaddafi, post-conflict scenario." The alliance said it was acting in the skies over Libya purely in accordance with the UN mandate to protect the Libyan people from Gaddafi. The resolution did not include any involvement in post-conflict peacekeeping. French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet said: "NATO has a military vocation and rebuilding Libya is a civilian issue. So, really simply, in order to rebuild Libya, if the Libyan people ask for it, because it is first of all an issue for the Libyan people, it is the job for civilian international institutions, and not military, to bring a response." The Libyan rebels have made it clear they have no appetite to see alliance ground forces in the country once the conflict is finished. But they remain grateful for NATO intervention and applauded the stepped-up alliance bombing campaign, a record 66 strike sorties over Tripoli and environs on Tuesday. "We've always felt that relentless, continuous strikes would hasten the departure of (Gaddafi) or at least the circle around him," said rebel spokesman Jalal el-Gallal in Benghazi, the de facto rebel capital. "We're very glad that (NATO) is carrying out the actions, and it is a matter of time." But NATO's campaign has strained the alliance, which was evident yesterday when US officials said Defence Secretary Robert Gates prodded five allied nations to share more of the burden. None committed to do more. The officials said Dr Gates used his final NATO meeting before retirement to press Germany and Poland to join the intervention, and Spain, Turkey and The Netherlands to contribute to strike missions against ground targets. Misratah has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the four-month uprising, which has divided Libya into zones controlled by Gaddafi and those by rebels. Doctor Khalid Abufalgha of Misratah's Hikma hospital said government forces attacked the city from three sides yesterday, but rebel fighters kept them out. Gaddafi's forces then shelled the city's outlying districts, killing 10 and wounding 24, he said. AP ++++ http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/libya-rape-claims-hysteria-investigator/story-fn3dxity-1226072781882 Libya rape claims 'hysteria' - investigator >From correspondents in Geneva From: AFP June 10, 2011 8:11AM A UN human rights investigator has cast doubts over claims by the chief ICC prosecutor of evidence that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had ordered mass rapes. The International Criminal Court's Luis Moreno-Ocampo had said today that there was evidence the Libyan authorities bought "Viagra-type" medicines and gave them to troops as part of the official rape policy. But Cherif Bassiouni, who is leading a UN rights inquiry into the situation in Libya, suggested that the claim was part of a "massive hysteria". Mr Bassiouni told journalists that he had heard those claims when he visited rebel-held eastern Libya. But when he went to Tripoli, "the same story comes up". "This time it's the government people telling us, 'you know what? The opponents have a policy of rape, we have discovered that they are giving out contraceptives and Viagra pills'," he recounted. "So I told them, 'this is exactly what the other side told us'," he added. "What it is, at least my interpretation of it is, when the information spread out, the society felt so vulnerable... it has created a massive hysteria," said Mr Bassiouni. The investigator also cited the case of a woman who claimed to have sent out 70,000 questionnaires and received 60,000 responses, of which 259 reported sexual abuse. However, when the investigators asked for these questionnaires, they never received them. "But she's going around the world telling everybody about it ... so now she got that information to Ocampo and Ocampo is convinced that here we have a potential 259 women who have responded to the fact that they have been sexually abused," Mr Bassiouni said. He also pointed out that it did not appear to be credible that the woman was able to send out 70,000 questionnaires in March when the postal service was not functioning. Nevertheless, the investigator said his team will examine the claims. "We're going to go back and we're going to look at it," he said. For the moment, the team has only heard of three cases. "We've not investigated these cases, we hope to be able to investigate them. These would be in the midst of a military operation, a field operation. These would clearly be a war crime," he added. "For the moment the numbers are very limited, but they've had a tremendous socio-psychological impact on society. Everybody's talking about it. That's where we're at," said the investigator. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! 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