Libyan Contact Group meeting will seek a way to give financial support to rebel Transitional National Council.
| Ministers from the NATO-backed coalition against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi meet in Rome on Thursday seeking ways to get money to rebels who are desperate to buy food and medicine and shore up their administration. The meeting of Libya Contact Group will bring together foreign ministers from countries including France, Britain, the United States, Italy and Qatar as well as representatives of the Arab League and the African Union. As the conflict in Libya has ground into stalemate, the rebel Transitional National Council, which controls the region of eastern Libya around Benghazi and has been recognised by both France and Italy, has appealed for loans of up to $3 billion. But efforts to unblock state assets frozen in overseas accounts, or to allow the rebels to get past UN sanctions that prevent their selling oil on international markets, have been held up. "It's not easy. There are Libyan assets that are frozen and for legal reasons unfreezing them is difficult," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told France 24 television on Wednesday. Mahmoud Shammam, chief spokesman for the transitional council, said the rebels urgently needed $1.5 billion to cover immediate running costs. "We need this for medical supplies, for food supplies, to keep the minimum functions of normal life -- electricity, running hospitals etc," he said. Other rebels have spoken of needing $2-3 billion to try to shore up an administration created from scratch with no substantial sources of funding, and to pay the state salaries on which most people depend. The rebels also want to press their cases for better weapons and equipment, Shammam suggested, saying that they are "hungry for basic arms." Abdul Hafid Ghaug, the rebel government's spokesman, said in Benghazi that no country had sent the arms that the rebel forces say they desperately need. "Up to this point we have not received any commitments (for weapons) from any friendly nation," he said. British officials said the Rome meeting would also seek to impose new restrictions on arms smuggling and mercenaries operating within Libya, and hoped the contact group would work on action intended to restrict Gaddafi's exports of crude oil and his ability to import refined oil products. Humanitarian concern An aid ship was attacked by forces loyal to Gaddafi while rescuing African and Asian migrant workers from the besieged port of Misurata, forcing it to leave behind hundreds of Libyans desperate to flee the fighting.
"The bombing has caused so many casualties among Libyans and people of other nationalities waiting for evacuation," Gemal Salem, a rebel spokesman, told Reuters news agency. "So far we have five killed and ambulances are rushing to the scene." The MV Red Star One, sent by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), picked up 800 people caught up in the civil war who had been waiting for days to escape Misurata's worsening humanitarian crisis. It had hoped to take 1,000 people. "Hundreds of Libyan civilians had also tried to board the ship in desperation to get out of Misurata. But with a limited capacity, the ramp of the boat had to be pulled up so that the ship could pull away from the dock in safety," the IOM said. The port is a lifeline for Misurata, where food and medical supplies are low and snipers shoot from rooftops. Other rescue ships are offshore but there was no news of their movements. About 12,000 people have so far been rescued by 12 ships. The shelling also hit Misurata's Qasr Ahmad district, a mixed residential and industrial area which houses the iron and steel works in a city that has become one of the bloodiest battlefields in the two-month conflict. | ||
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies | ||
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