AFRICA_Qaddafi Envoy Visits London as Tensions Mount in Libya

Qaddafi Envoy Visits London as Tensions Mount in Libya


Libyan rebels gathered on the road outside Brega on Friday, regrouping after their withdrawal on Wednesday. Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's forces control the city. More Photos »

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and JOHN F. BURNS
Published: April 1, 2011

TRIPOLI, Libya — A senior aide to one of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s sons has held secret talks in London with British authorities, a friend of the aide said Friday, as his government dismissed rebel talk of a cease-fire as a thinly veiled invitation to surrender.


The London talks were led by Mohamed Ismail, a senior aide to Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, a British-educated son of Colonel Qaddafi and the colonel’s heir apparent. Mr. Ismail’s trip came just days after the flight to London of one of the colonel’s closest allies, Moussa Koussa, sent tremors of anxiety through the Qaddafi government.

A friend of Mr. Ismail’s, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters, said the aide was on an official mission, and British officials said Friday that after several days in London he had already returned to Tripoli.

But the exact timing and purpose of Mr. Ismail’s mission was not divulged, and the mystery surrounding his trip added to a sense of tension and uncertainty in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, after two weeks of Western airstrikes intended to protect rebel-held territory and pressure the Qaddafi government.

Bursts of gunfire broke out before dawn in the streets near Colonel Qaddafi’s compound, and two witnesses said they saw “pools of blood” on the ground, but the cause of the firefight could not be determined. The Qaddafi government has been distributing weapons to many Libyan citizens for use in their own defense, and its armed militia and plainclothes police are omnipresent in Tripoli.

The Qaddafi forces also easily dispersed a renewed rebel attempt to advance along the eastern coast while continuing their shelling of the rebel-held city of Misurata in the west. Residents speaking by telephone said government forces fired tank and artillery shells at an industrial district near the city’s port, apparently in an attempt to shut it down, destroying storehouses of food in the process.

Western warships had recently opened the port by chasing away Libyan coast guard vessels, and the arrival of the first-aid shipments promised to make it a lifeline for the besieged city.

Speaking from the Misurata hospital, a rebel spokesman said that one resident was killed and four were wounded on Friday, seven were killed Thursday and 20 the day before. “Please, scream for Misurata!” said the spokesman, Mohamed, whose last name was withheld for the protection of his family. “We are going under!”

A reporter for CNN entered the city by boat and described the main remaining hospital as “short of everything” and “overwhelmed.” The reporter said doctors were performing surgery in the hallways, against the constant sound of gunfire from government tanks, artillery and mortars.

Apparently responding to the reports of high-level defections and Mr. Ismail’s London talks, the leaders of the rebels trying to oust Colonel Qaddafi issued a set of demands for a cease-fire. At a news conference in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, Mustapha Abdul Jalil, the leader of the rebel National Council, demanded that Colonel Qaddafi’s forces lift their sieges of rebel-held cities like Misurata and Zintan, remove gunmen placed on rooftops and guarantee the right of Libyans to hold peaceful protests in the western half of the country.

“At that point, we’ll see how all the Libyan people want freedom,” Mr. Abdul Jalil said.

Asked about the possibility that a cease-fire could lead to a divided country, with Colonel Qaddafi controlling the west and the rebels the east, Mr. Abdul Jalil said, “It’s not possible.”

“Qaddafi and his family need to leave,” he said. “It’s nonnegotiable.”

The Qaddafi government dismissed the statement as a ploy. “The rebels never offered any peace,” said the government’s spokesman, Musa Ibrahim. “You are not offering peace if you are making impossible demands. It is a trick.”

“I could come to the rebels and say: ‘I offer you peace. Get out of Benghazi on a ship!’ ” he added. “You can’t do that.”

David D. Kirkpatrick reported from Tripoli, and John F. Burns from London. Reporting was contributed by C. J. Chivers from Ajdabiya, Libya; Alan Cowell from Paris; Neil MacFarquhar from Cairo; Kareem Fahim from Benghazi, Libya; and Landon Thomas Jr. from London.