Updates on Libyan war and Syria: April 30

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U.S. And NATO Allies Initiate Libyan Scenario For Syria

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Libya Calls For Ceasefire As NATO Bombs Capital

NATO’s Libyan War: Almost 4,400 Air Missions In One Month

U.S. Submarine Returns Home After Firing Over 90 Cruise Missiles Into Libya

Castro: NATOs’ Assault On Libya Can Be Repeated Throughout Third World

Libyan War: Nicaragua Says British Royal Wedding Stained With Blood

NATO Intervention In Libya Contravenes UN Charter

Commando Units, Air Strikes No Solution For Unrest In Arab World

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Libya Calls For Ceasefire As NATO Bombs Capital

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/gaddafi-calls-for-ceasefire-as-nato-strikes-tripoli/2011/04/30/AFWPndKF_story.html

Washington Post
April 30, 2011

Gaddafi calls for ceasefire as NATO strikes Tripoli
By Simon Denyer and Leila Fadel

TRIPOLI, LIBYA: Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi called for a ceasefire and negotiations with NATO Saturday but refused to surrender power, as alliance warplanes struck a government complex in the capital.

…Gaddafi appeared both calm and defiant, describing military intervention by NATO, designed to protect civilians from his regime, as a massacre.

In Brussels, a NATO official told the Associated Press the alliance needed “to see not words but actions,” and that NATO would keep up the pressure….

“The gate to peace is open,” Gaddafi said, sitting behind a desk and occasionally glancing at copious hand-written notes. “You are the aggressors. We will negotiate with you. Come, France, Italy, U.K., America, come, we will negotiate with you.

“Why are you attacking us? Why are you killing our children? Why are you destroying our infrastructure?” he asked, while denying his forces had killed Libyan civilians.

As he spoke, NATO warplanes attacked government buildings close to the television center in Tripoli in what the Libyan government described as an attempt to kill Gaddafi. The TV images briefly went black on three occasions but the signal was quickly restored and Gaddafi, speaking from an undisclosed location, carried on without interruption. The TV center was not damaged.

The Libyan leader…said he would negotiate and uphold a ceasefire if NATO “stopped its planes.”
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He also refused to step down or leave the country as the rebels and the leaders of the United States, Britain and France demand.

“I’m not leaving my country,” Gaddafi said. “No one can force me to leave my country and no one can tell me not to fight for my country
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Sitting in front of a painting of tribal horsemen, he spoke on the anniversary of a famous battle near his hometown of Sirte against the Italian occupation 96 years ago, a battle he says his grandfather was killed in.

He described young rebels as children “tricked” by NATO, and promised to reward them if they lay down their weapons.
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Fadel reported from Benghazi.

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NATO’s Libyan War: Almost 4,400 Air Missions In One Month

http://www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/pdf_2011_04/20110430_110430-oup-update.pdf

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
April 30, 2011

NATO and Libya
30 April. JFC Naples, SHAPE, NATO HQ

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Air Operations

Since the beginning of the NATO operation (31 March 2011, 08.00GMT) a total of 4398 sorties, including 1821 strike sorties have been conducted.

Sorties conducted 29 April: 156

Strike sorties conducted 29 April: 55
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Key Targets and Engagements

29 April: In the vicinity of Tripoli: 1 command & Control Building, 1 Self Propelled Artillery Piece.

In the vicinity of Zintan: 13 Ammunition Storages, 1 Armoured Personnel Carrier.

In the vicinity of Brega: 1 Armoured Fighting Vehicle.

In the vicinity of Sirte: 4 Ammunition Storages.
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Arms Embargo Activities

A total of 18 ships under NATO command are actively patrolling the Central Mediterranean.

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U.S. Submarine Returns Home After Firing Over 90 Cruise Missiles Into Libya

http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=60079

Navy NewsStand
April 29, 2011

Florida Returns from Historic Submarine Deployment
By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class(SW) James Kimber, Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay Public Affairs

KINGS BAY, Ga. – Ohio-class guided-missile submarine USS Florida (SSGN 728) returned to its homeport of Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay April 29, following a 15-month deployment in both Central and European Command areas of responsibility.

During the deployment, the crew partnered with U.S., joint and coalition forces in support of U.N. Security Council resolution 1973….Florida was ordered to deploy in theater and remain submerged and undetected until further notice.

As tensions in Libya escalated, the order to use military forces in graduated and sequenced strike operations against the government of Libya was given by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Operation Odyssey Dawn was executed.

During the operation, Florida launched more than 90 Tomahawk land attack missiles (TLAM). The strike marked the first time a guided-missile submarine launched Tomahawks in conflict.

“Submarines proved their worth by giving us maximum flexibility in Operation Odyssey Dawn. They provided unprecedented intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and terrific firepower, all from the sea. They are critical to winning any war against any adversary today and tomorrow,” said Vice Admiral Harry B. Harris, Jr., commander, U.S. Sixth Fleet and maritime component commander for Operation Odyssey Dawn.

Florida is scheduled to begin its maintenance cycle while in homeport.
….

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Castro: NATO’s Assault On Libya Can Be Repeated Throughout Third World

http://www.cadenagramonte.cu/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&i\

d=5432:fidel-castro-classifies-nato-attacks-on-libya-as-fascist&catid=3:world&It\
emid=14

Radio Havana
April 29, 2011

Fidel Castro Classifies NATO Attacks on Libya as Fascist

Havana: Leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, warned that the violent, Nazi-Fascist aerial attacks of NATO against the Libyan people could be used against any country in the Third World.

In his most recent written reflections, entitled, ¨A Fire that Could Burn Us All,¨ Fidel expressed his surprise about the resistance of the North African country, and emphasized that Libyan leader Al Gaddafi is not accepting the demands of the militaristic organization, and will remain in history as an important figure in this Arab country.

Fidel Castro affirmed that no one has the right to question the existence of Libya as an independent state and member of the United Nations, even if they do not agree with the political ideas of Al Gaddafi.

The leader of the Revolution continued to express his disbelief about the public behaviour of British Defense Minister, Liam Fox, during his recent meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Fidel said that when observing the television transmissions of their discussions about the criminal war in Libya, he thought that he had never seen a more horrible attitude of hatred, frustration, and nervousness as that which the British Defence Secretary expressed.

Fidel said that Fox seemed absolutely indignant that the powerful NATO planes had not been able to fold the resistance in Libya in 72 hours.

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Libyan War: Nicaragua Says British Royal Wedding Stained With Blood

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/nicaraguas-daniel-ortega-royal-wedding-stained-with-libyas-blood-15149136.html

Belfast Telegraph
April 30, 2011

Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega: Royal wedding ‘stained with Libya’s blood’

Daniel Ortega, the president of Nicaragua, has attacked the British monarchy and said he was offended by William and Kate’s gala marriage ceremony.

Left-winger Mr Ortega said the hands of the monarchy “are stained with blood because they are celebrating while Libya is being bombed, while blood is being spilled in Libya”.

Nicaragua’s leader made the comments in a speech to thousands of supporters hours after the lavish royal wedding that was watched by an estimated two billion people around the world.

The governments of Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia are staunch allies of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and have criticised US and European air strikes.

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NATO Intervention In Libya Contravenes UN Charter

http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/nato-intervention-contravenes-un-charter-20110429-1e13e.html

Sydney Morning Herald
April 30, 2011

Letter
NATO intervention contravenes UN charter
Lawry Herron
Sandy Beach

The Russian Prime Minister is reported as saying that the NATO campaign in Libya violated the principle of sovereignty and the wishes of the Libyan people (“Putin steps up critique of Libya strikes”, April 28). Apart from this report there has been a singular dearth in the Australian media of critiques or commentary on the legality or motivations of the NATO powers in Libya, nothing like in Britain, for example, where there is considered and anguished analyses by Adrian Hamilton and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown from The Independent.

Without rehearsing their arguments, it is worth noting that what is going on in Libya departs violently from the United Nations Charter obligations on members to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state and not to intervene in matters that are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state.

In the early post-colonial decades of the UN these obligations, of all charter provisions, were the ones most zealously maintained and fought for by small and emergent states against former imperial powers.

What we are seeing now looks very like opportunistic imperial recidivism by Western permanent members of the Security Council using Chapter 7 action “as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security”.

Colonel Gaddafi certainly is not everyone’s idea of a stable and benevolent dictator, but he has not been the most repressive of his kind and has enjoyed a fair measure of domestic support. Thousands of willing guest workers from North Africa and Eastern Europe have enjoyed working in Libya for several decades rather than in their home states. He also had reached a modus vivendi with the West over Lockerbie and nuclear weapons development so that Libya was accepted as a desirable partner in arms, oil and other commercial deals.

No wonder Arab League members and other small states are having second thoughts about their initial support for the UN Security Council Resolution 1973.

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Commando Units, Air Strikes No Solution For Unrest In Arab World

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/04/30/49679660.html

Voice of Russia
April 30, 2011

Arab revolutions rage on

-”Foreign interference in a settlement of Syria’s internal problems is very dangerous. Any country has an opposition that may cause mayhem on the assumption that it will gain the support of other countries that seek instability or the coming to power of people who would pursue a policy that would suit these countries. But this is no way to guarantee peace and security. If we follow that path, we are in for a period of chaos. That is why Russia’s stand on Syria is based on international law provisions and commonsense.”
-Experts point out that the Egyptian or Tunisian scenario of a peaceful presidential resignation is unfeasible for other regional nations. That is why the international community should jointly look for new, non-standard ways to settle the chain of conflicts in North Africa and the Middle East. Commando units and/or airstrikes are clearly insufficient to be seen as a solution.

Expectations that mass-scale unrest in North African and Middle East countries are over have proved short-lived. This past week the situation remained tense in Libya, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain and other regional nations.

The case of Libya has proved that the West’s military interference in internal conflicts invariably leads to an impasse. The oft-repeated promise of aid to the civilian population that is allegedly being massacred by “criminal regimes” proves empty words. It is civilians who suffer the worst from military operations. But experts believe that efforts should be made to improve the situation in North Africa, or else things will grow still worse. But the mechanisms of influence have still failed to be agreed.

Libya’s so-called “peaceful population” that western politicians and the military decided to take care of a month ago are more often than not well armed and equipped rebels, while the obvious exceeding of the UN Security Council mandate that only authorized the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya served to further destabilize the situation. Russian politicians have repeatedly (and with good reason) warned against the use of force that would run counter to the letter and spirit of relevant Security Council resolutions. The armed standoff between the supporters and opponents of Muammar Gaddafi is continuing, while the Libyan leader remains out of reach of western allies’ bombs and is not about to lay down arms.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin levelled scathing criticism at the coalition’s moves during his visit to Denmark earlier this week. He said the western countries seem to be acting on the assumption that they will get away with whatever harm they may do in Libya, while their plans are increasingly at variance with the substance of the relevant Security Council resolution.

Vladimir Putin says that the internal contradictions that have arisen in Libya have spilt over into an armed conflict: “Why should there be any outside interference in the armed conflict? There’s a world of a difference between the imposition of a no-fly zone and daily airstrikes at Gaddafi palaces. Besides, Gaddafi has long since left his palaces. So, the strikes kill civilians. What’s more, some western officials admit that the West does seek to kill Gaddafi. By what right, may I ask? Was Gaddafi tried and sentenced?”

The threat of a ground operation in Libya looms large, with the Russian Ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin claiming that the European Union is prepared to send up to 1,500 troops to the North African country. This may cause a full-scale humanitarian disaster and push Libya dozens of years back, Moscow warns.

But the interest in Libyan oil, as well as the need to dictate their will to other countries, clearly outweighs the risk of this kind of consequence in the western countries’ eyes. But then, the coalition is not at one about interference in the internal Libyan conflict. An Italian government Minister, Umberto Bossi, who is an ally of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, warns that Rome’s decision to join NATO airstrikes on Libyan military facilities may split Italy’s ruling coalition.

And now for Yemen. The road map plan that the ruling General People’s Congress party has adopted to settle the drawn-out conflict has been called into question. Earlier this week, the foreign ministers of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Persian Gulf came out with a plan, whereby President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen should, within 30 days, step down in a move that would be followed by a democratic election of a new president.
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But blood was again shed in the Yemeni capital Sana’a on the 27th of April, which again gave cause for talking about an escalation rather than a settlement of the conflict. 11 people died in Sana’a, while more than a 100 others were wounded when an antigovernment demonstration was dispersed there. Unrest in Yemen has been on since January this year. Hundreds of people have already died as a result.

Nor is the situation calm in Syria. The opposition continues calling for the now traditional Days of Anger to protest against the brutal suppression of antigovernment protests. Dozens of people have died in the city of Deraa in recent days. The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement also calls for civil disobedience. Protests in Syria have been going on unabated for a month and a half now.

Meanwhile the UN Security Council has failed to agree on a statement denouncing the Syrian authorities’ violence against the opposition. Russia voted down the draft for a number of reasons, specifically because it grows increasingly clear that some people in Syria, as well as in other countries, say openly that it is their cherished hope that an aggravation of the situation will cause the international community to interfere under the pretext of rendering assistance and to side with one of the parties to the conflict. That this is true is borne out by the example of Libya. But this actually amounts to a chain of violence and to a sort of invitation to civil war, says the Deputy Director of the Institute for the US and Canada Studies Pavel Zolotarev, and elaborates.

“Foreign interference in a settlement of Syria’s internal problems is very dangerous,” Pavel Zolotarev says. “Any country has an opposition that may cause mayhem on the assumption that it will gain the support of other countries that seek instability or the coming to power of people who would pursue a policy that would suit these countries. But this is no way to guarantee peace and security. If we follow that path, we are in for a period of chaos. That is why Russia’s stand on Syria is based on international law provisions and commonsense.”

In Bahrain, too, the situation remains tense. Bahrain’s Military Tribunal has sentenced four antigovernment protesters to death. According to an official of Bahrain’s opposition Shia party Al Wefaq, another three participants in the unrest that occurred in the kingdom in February and March of this year have been sentenced to life in prison. Mass protests erupted in Bahrain in the middle of February, with the participants being mostly Shia Muslims pressing for more rights in the country that’s being ruled by a Sunni minority. The Tribunal decisions may serve to fuel the conflict.

Experts point out that the Egyptian or Tunisian scenario of a peaceful presidential resignation is unfeasible for other regional nations. That is why the international community should jointly look for new, non-standard ways to settle the chain of conflicts in North Africa and the Middle East. Commando units and/or airstrikes are clearly insufficient to be seen as a solution.

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