US eyes the exile option: hunt launched for a Gaddafi bolthole

US eyes the exile option: hunt launched for a Gaddafi bolthole

Brad Norington, Washington correspondent
From: The Australian April 18, 2011 12:00AM

THE Obama administration is looking for a country in Africa willing to provide refuge to Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi if he can be forced out of power.
Almost a month after US and allied military operations started air attacks to stop the dictator bombing his people, Gaddafi and his sons continue to resist international demands that they leave.

But three officials from the Obama administrations confirmed to The New York Times that a quiet but intense search was under way for a country prepared to offer exile as pressure builds for the dictator's removal.

The key to the search is to find a nation, most likely in Africa, that is not a signatory to the Rome Statute that requires countries to hand over anyone indicted for trial by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

If Gaddafi were handed over to the ICC, he could be expected to go on trial for his alleged role in the terrorist bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 and atrocities committed against his people in Libya.

Officials in the US, Britain and France have warned that Gaddafi faces possible prosecution over war crimes, but they appear to be holding out the prospect of exile as an incentive for the dictator.

The conflict in Libya risks dragging on much longer than the US and its allies want after military operations were passed to NATO control last month.

They would prefer Gaddafi's exit to a safe haven if it would bring a halt to further casualties as his military forces pound Misratah and other rebel-held towns east of the country's capital, Tripoli.

Refuge in another country in Africa was first suggested last month by Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, although he did not name a particular country.

About half of the nation states of Africa have not signed or ratified the Rome Statute, which came into force in 2002, freeing them from any obligation to give up Gaddafi to the ICC.

The search for a Gaddafi refuge comes amid accusations that his military has been using cluster bombs in the civilian areas of Misratah.

Cluster bombs, which can cause widespread indiscriminate casualties, are banned by most countries around the world. The Gaddafi regime is denying the claim.

President Barack Obama has joined with British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in arguing that NATO must continue its operations in Libya until Gaddafi is out of power. Their position, set out in a joint newspaper opinion article, raises political pressure on Gaddafi by making clear their intentions go beyond a UN mandate authorising military operations to protect the Libyan population.

All the same, Mr Obama is determined not to put US ground troops in Libya. He could be called upon to provide more US fighter jets to NATO as allies run short of planes and weaponry.

An Obama administration official told The New York Times that the biggest lesson learned from US involvement in Iraq was that Libyans should be in charge of regime change. "What we're simply trying to do is find some peaceful way to organise an exit, if the opportunity arises," he said.

It is not even clear which of the rebel leaders might replace Gaddafi if he were ousted.

Although a transitional national council with headquarters in Benghazi says it is committed to democratic elections and reform, there is still a significant risk that Libya's civil war could disintegrate into tribal warfare.