World calls for surrender to avoid bloodbath

WORLD leaders said yesterday the end is near for Muammar Gaddafi’s regime and began planning for Libya’s future without the man who has held power there for 42 years.

Leaders across Europe welcomed the rebels’ dramatic advances in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, after six months of fighting, and urged Gaddafi to surrender to avoid a bloodbath.

Though Gaddafi’s whereabouts were not known, leaders were already setting the stage for new leadership. Britain said its frozen Libyan assets would soon be released to help the country’s rebels establish order; France announced plans for an international meeting next week; and Italy sent a team to Benghazi to help plan reconstruction and the restoration of oil and natural gas production.

“The time is up. There is no alternative to surrendering and handing himself in to justice,” Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini said of Gaddafi.

“His regime is falling apart and in full retreat. Gaddafi must stop fighting, without conditions,” British prime minister David Cameron said in London. He vowed that Britain and others would now assist Libya’s “effective transition to a free, democratic and inclusive” nation.

Cameron announced that Britain, which has frozen about £12 billion (€13.76bn) of Libyan assets, will soon release the funds.

Germany announced similar plans once the regime is gone. Foreign minister Guido Westerwelle said just over €7bn is frozen in Germany and the money could be used to rebuild Libya. “The Libyan people are entitled to this money,” he said.

France said the “contact group” of international powers involved in stabilising Libya would meet next week in Paris. French President Nicolas Sarkozy invited Libya’s opposition leader to come to Paris for the talks, his office said.

France and Britain, backed by the US, have spearheaded the NATO-led air campaign that began months ago under a UN Security Council resolution calling for the protection of civilians.

In Brussels, the European Union vowed in a statement to “keep supporting the country in its democratic transition and economic reconstruction, based on social justice, inclusiveness and territorial integrity.”

The EU has given €150 million in humanitarian aid to Libya during the civil war, and in May, EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton extended de facto recognition to the rebels’ council by opening a diplomatic office in Benghazi.

But leaders also warned against the risk of escalating violence as a desperate Gaddafi clings to power. Instead, they said, Gaddafi should face justice and turn himself in to the International Criminal Court. The court has indicted Gaddafi on charges of crimes against humanity, along with one of his sons, Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, and Libya’s intelligence chief. Seif Gaddafi has been arrested by rebel forces, while another son is under house arrest.

South Africa, which criticised the Nato bombing and led failed African Union efforts to mediate between the rebels and Gaddafi, said it had not sent planes to evacuate Gaddafi. It said it had received no request from him for asylum, and was not involved in efforts to extricate him.