Africa
Coalition to create fund for Libya rebels
Countries involved in military campaign pledge cash for Libya's opposition
Transitional National Council.
Last Modified: 05 May 2011 11:47
The NATO-backed coalition in Libya has said it would create a fund for rebels
running short of supplies and money.
Italy, host of Thursday's meeting in Rome of the Contact Group on Libya, said
the temporary special fund would aim to channel cash to the opposition
administration in its eastern Libyan stronghold of Benghazi.
The rebel Transitional National Council (TNC) has appealed for loans of up to
$3bn as it seeks to tip the balance.
But efforts to unblock Libyan state assets frozen in overseas accounts, or to
allow the rebels to get past UN sanctions that prevent their selling oil on
international markets, have been held up.
"We'll be discussing a financial mechanism, we'll be discussing other forms of
aid," Hillary
Clinton, the US secretary of state, said at a joint news conference with Franco
Frattini, the Italian foreign minister.
"I will be formally announcing our non-lethal assistance so I think that there
is an effort with urgency to meet the requests that the TNC is making," she
said.
Mahmoud Shammam, chief spokesman for the TNC, has said the rebels urgently need
$1.5bn to cover immediate running costs.
"We need this for medical supplies, for food supplies, to keep the minimum
functions of normal life - electricity,
running hospitals etc," he said on Wednesday.
The rebels also want to press their cases for better weapons and equipment,
Shammam suggested, saying that they are "hungry for basic arms."
The TNC has been recognised by France, Italy and Qatar so far.
Zintan shelled
As the ministers met in Italy, fighting continued on the ground in Libya. A
rebel spokesman in opposition-held Zintan, southwest of the capital, Tripoli,
said pro-Gaddafi forces had fired about 50 Russian-made Grad rockets into the
town so far.
The spokesman, called Abdulrahamn, said the first salvo landed early in the
morning. There were no immediate reports of casualties, he said.
The meeting of Libya Contact Group brought together foreign ministers from
countries including France, Britain, the United States, Italy and Qatar as well
as representatives of the Arab League and the African Union.
British officials said the Rome meeting would seek to impose new restrictions
on arms smuggling and mercenaries operating within Libya, and hoped the contact
group would work on action intended to restrict Gaddafi's exports of crude oil
and his ability to import refined oil products.
An aid ship was attacked by forces loyal to Gaddafi while rescuing African and
Asian migrant workers from the besieged port of Misurata, forcing it to leave
behind hundreds of Libyans desperate to flee the fighting.
Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught reports from
a hospital in the western town of Nalut
Aid workers had earlier scrambled to embark the migrants, along with
journalists and the wounded, on the ship bound for rebel-held Benghazi as the
port came under bombardment on Wednesday.
"The bombing has caused so many casualties among Libyans and people of other
nationalities waiting for evacuation," Gemal Salem, a rebel spokesman, told
Reuters news agency.
"So far we have five killed and ambulances are rushing to the scene."
The MV Red Star One, sent by the International Organisation for Migration
(IOM), picked up 800 people caught up in the civil war who had been waiting for
days to escape Misurata's worsening humanitarian crisis.
It had hoped to take 1,000 people.
"Hundreds of Libyan civilians had also tried to board the ship in desperation
to get out of Misurata. But with a limited capacity, the ramp of the boat had
to be pulled up so that the ship could pull away from the dock in safety," the
IOM said.
The port is a lifeline for Misurata, where food and medical supplies are low
and snipers shoot from rooftops.
Other rescue ships are offshore but there was no news of their movements. About
12,000 people have so far been rescued by 12 ships.
The shelling also hit Misurata's Qasr Ahmad district, a mixed residential and
industrial area which houses the iron and steel works in a city that has become
one of the bloodiest battlefields in the two-month conflict.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies
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