Libya announces ceasefire

By Paul Koring and Jill Mahoney

Moammar Gadhafi’s government said it was declaring a unilateral ceasefire in its offensive to crush Libya’s revolt, as Western warplanes prepared to attack his forces.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Friday everything was ready to launch military strikes in Libya and that a ceasefire declared by Mr. Gadhafi would need to cover the whole country.

“We have to analyse the conditions of the ceasefire,” Mr. Juppe said. “It has to be on all of the territory of Libya and not only Benghazi, and we think that Libya must comply with all the resolutions of the [UN] Security Council.”

He said the ceasefire pledge would be examined at a summit in Paris on Saturday. Regarding military strikes, he said: “We are ready but I cannot give you more details.”

“We decided on an immediate ceasefire and on an immediate stop to all military operations,” Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa told reporters in Tripoli on Friday, after the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution authorizing military action.

“(Libya) takes great interest in protecting civilians,” he said, adding that the country would also protect all foreigners and foreign assets in Libya.

Mr. Koussa said the cease-fire “will take the country back to safety.” But he also criticized the authorization of international military action, calling it a violation of Libya’s sovereignty.

Libyan government forces are already implementing a ceasefire, said government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said. “We have not carried out any military operations today on Misrata or anywhere else in the country.” He said that Tripoli wanted Turkish and Maltese authorities to “supervise and help implement the ceasefire.”

“We don’t know who to reach at the [UN] Security Council to work out the technicalities of the ceasefire. That is the problem at the moment which we are trying to resolve,” he said.

Mr. Gadhafi had vowed to show “no mercy, no pity” on Thursday, and rebels pleaded for foreign aid before time ran out.

A Libyan rebel spokesman has dismissed the cease-fire announcement, claiming Mr. Gadhafi’s forces are still attacking key cities in the east and the west.

Mustafa Gheriani, a spokesman for the national opposition council based in Benghazi, claims there is still shelling in the eastern city of Ajdabiya and Misrata, the last rebel-held city in the western half of the country.

“We will judge him by his actions not his words,” U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron told BBC TV.

“What is absolutely clear is the UN Security Council resolution said he must stop what he is doing, brutalizing his people. If not, all necessary measures can follow to make him stop.

“That is what we agreed last night, that is what we are preparing for and we’ll judge him by what he does.”

This story appeared in the Globe and Mail Newspaper (March 18, 2010).