TRIPOLI — South African President Jacob Zuma said Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s personal safety was “of concern” because of his defiance to leave the country.
In a meeting with Zuma in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, on Monday, Gaddafi “emphasised that he was not prepared to leave his country, despite the difficulties.
“The personal safety of Colonel Gaddafi is of concern,” Zuma said in an e-mailed statement yesterday after returning home.
Zuma said Gaddafi supports an African Union plan to end hostilities against rebels seeking to end his four-decade rule and negotiate a peaceful settlement to the standoff.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) forces have continued to bombard Gaddafi’s forces in an effort to prevent them from attacking civilians in rebel-held areas.
“Nothing other than a dialogue among all parties in Libya can bring about a lasting solution,” Zuma said. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on May 25 that reports that Gaddafi’s youngest son, Saif al-Arab, and three grandchildren died in the allied airstrike on Tripoli last month appeared to be “propaganda”, citing information from Italy’s intelligence service. Moussa Ibrahim, a spokesman for the Libyan Foreign ministry, said on May 1 that Gaddafi and his wife survived the April 30 attack that killed his son and grandchildren.
Meanwhile, armed Westerners have been filmed on the front line with rebels near Misrata in the first apparent confirmation that foreign special forces were playing an active role in the Libyan conflict. Despite more than two months of bombing by Nato, rebels have remained unable to advance west of Misrata, or west of Brega, 400km to the east. — Agencies
