Lord Dannatt, the former head of the UK's armed forces, has called for the UN to pass a resolution authorising the training and arming of rebels fighting Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces in Libya.
Lord Dannatt, the former head of the UK's armed forces Photo: PA
11:59AM BST 16 Apr 2011
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Lord Dannatt urged the international coalition to seek a fresh UN Security Council resolution specifically authorising the move.
He said that while UN forces should not be sent onto the ground in Libya, it should be possible to support groups opposing Colonel Gaddafi should be armed, equipped and trained.
He also said that reports that Gaddafi had been using cluster bombs during the siege of Misurata had further weakened the Libyan leader's position.
He said: "We want to act within the law, within international agreement and therefore we should be arguing the case to not accept a stalemate, not to put our own boots on the ground, but to properly arm those boots that are on the ground.
"They are Libyan boots. Let the Libyan people have the wherewithal to choose a new government for themselves," he told Today – warning that a stalemate would create a vacuum likely to be filled by extremists.
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Faces of the Libya Revolution ..
An opposition rebel fighter tries to shoot an SM 7 anti-aircraft rocket at a Libyan air force jet loyal to Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi on the front line against Libyan government forces in Brega
A Libyan rebel fighter carrying an RPG launcher looks back during a battle on the road between Ras Lanuf and Bin Jawad Picture: Sipa Press / Rex Features
Libyan rebels fighting near the village of Bin Jawwad, west of the recently captured oil town of Ras Lanuf
Picture: Sipa Press / Rex Features
Libyan rebel Mohammed Boelek is pictured at the front line of conflict outside Ajdabiya
Picture: Sipa Press / Rex Features
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"We have got to move this one on, we have got to be innovative about the way we do it. I have thought about it long and hard: go back to New York, get a strengthened UN Security Council resolution and arm, equip and train the opposition."
Human rights groups claim they have evidence of cluster bombs, which are banned under international law, being used by Colonel Gaddafi's forces over a residential area of Misurata, the only western Libyan city still in rebel hands.
Speaking to Radio 4's Today programme, Lord Dannatt added: "If we thought that Gaddafi had lost the moral right to rule this country a month ago, he has lost it in the last 24 hours, that's for sure."
Human Rights Watch special adviser Fred Abrahams said it had "no doubt whatsoever" that cluster munitions had been used by regime forces and had photographic evidence that MAT-120 bombs were involved.
Libya has not signed up to an international ban on cluster bombs but Mr Abrahams said their indiscriminate nature meant they were nevertheless "a violation of the rule of war".
The MAT-120 fires 12 sub-munitions and has a high "dud rate", leaving children at danger of being blown up by unexploded ordnance.
He said: "We have no doubt whatsoever. Photographs of the sub-munitions, photographs of the motor which carried the sub-munitions are on our website.
"We tracked the marking on those and they are very clearly the Spanish-produced MAT-120.
"We also interviewed ambulance drivers who explained seeing explosions that were very thoroughly consistent with cluster munitions. So we have no question."
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