Sassi Garada, another member of Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi's regime has defected and fled the country, two Libyan analysts in London said Monday, as fighting continued between government troops and rebel forces.
Col Gaddafi, playing chess, has been hit by a wave of defections
12:38AM BST 14 Jun 2011
The Telegraph
Mr Garada, one of the first men to join Gaddafi when he took power more than 40 years ago, left Libya through Tunisia, according to Noman Benotman, a Libyan analyst in London who was in contact with his friends and family. Guma el-Gamaty, UK organiser for Libya's interim council, also confirmed the defection.
There were initial reports that Garada fled to Britain, where he has several family members, but Benotman said Garada was in Switzerland.
British officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss immigration and security matters, said they could not confirm whether Garada was in Britain. A Swiss foreign ministry spokesman added that she was "not aware of the possible presence of Mr. Garada in Switzerland."
A longtime supporter of Gaddafi, Garada reportedly passed up several military promotions over the years to stay out of the limelight and serve Gaddafi, according to Benotman, who works as an analyst for the London-based Quilliam Foundation.
Garada is also from Libya's Berber minority, which has often fought with the Arab majority to have their language and customs protected. Many of the Berbers also occupy the Western mountains of Libya, where Garada had been in charge of trying to neutralise tensions, el-Gamaty said.
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Last month, Shukri Ghanem, the Libyan oil minister and head of the National Oil Co., crossed into neighboring Tunisia.
Others who have defected include Moussa Koussa, the foreign minister and one of Gaddafi's earliest supporters; Interior Minister Abdel-Fatah Younes; Justice Minister Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, and Ali Abdessalam Treki, a former UN General Assembly president. A number of ambassadors and other diplomats also have resigned.
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