Libya Needs ‘Inclusive’ Dialogue, Elections, South African Government Says
South Africa’s government denied reports that it’s negotiating the exit of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and urged the National Transitional Council to start an “all-inclusive” dialogue leading to democratic elections.
“With the imminent fall of the government of Colonel Qaddafi, we wish to urge the interim authority in Tripoli to immediately institute an all-inclusive inter-Libyan political dialogue,” South Africa’s foreign minister, Maite Nkoana- Mashabane, told reporters in Johannesburg today. “If the Tripoli government falls there will be some semblance of authority formed, including elements of the TNC and elements from Tripoli.”
South Africa doesn’t know Qaddafi’s whereabouts and hasn’t offered him asylum, Nkoana-Mashabane said, denying media reports that it had a plane in Libya to airlift Qaddafi to safety. The government in Pretoria sent an aircraft to Libya to evacuate embassy staff and other South Africans from Tripoli to Tunisia, she said.
Libyan rebels swept into Tripoli yesterday in a bid to end Qaddafi’s 42-year autocratic rule following months of fighting and airstrikes by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. While South Africa opposed NATO’s bombing campaign, it supported the United Nations resolution authorizing military action in the North African nation.
Nkoana-Mashabane didn’t say whether South Africa recognized the transitional council as the legitimate authority in Libya, pledging to continue talks with all parties involved. Libyans should decide their own future and that of Qaddafi, she said.
“If this government falls, there is no government,” Nkoana-Mashabane said. “As honest peacebrokers we had no reason to create a state within a state. We were talking to both the TNC and Tripoli and we will continue in that vein.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Nasreen Seria in Johannesburg at nseria@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
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