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| Africa North |
| Libyan Rebels Warn Algeria: 'Stop Backing Gadhafi' |
| 2011-07-11 |
| [An Nahar] Libya's rebel council issued a blunt warning to neighboring Algeria on Sunday, insisting that it must "stop supporting Qadaffy," as tensions between the North African countries bubbled to the surface. Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, vice president of Libya's National Transitional Council, accused Algeria of supporting Moammar Qadaffy militarily in the early days of the near five-month-long war, and that it continued to support him politically. "Our only response to Algeria is: stop supporting Qadaffy and stop helping him terrorize and kill innocent civilians and our loved ones," he said. Algeria has not officially recognized the rebel council, nor has it called for Qadaffy to go. "(Qadaffy) had military air support from Algeria" said Ghoga, recalling the early days of the war, adding that 4x4 vehicles had also crossed the border in support of Qadaffy forces. "We hoped that the Algerian regime had learned its lesson and stopped these acts," he said, without giving details about current levels of support. The two countries share a massive and mostly non-existent border in the Sahara, and tensions appear to have heightened because Algiers backed an African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... peace plan that would leave Qadaffy in power. Although Algeria has complied with U.N. resolutions by freezing any assets held in Algeria by him, his relatives and cronies, it has backed directives from the African Union and Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... which have both withheld recognition of the rebels. Ghoga said the council had no problems with the Algerian people, and hoped for more positive relations in future. "We don't have a problem with the Algerian people, and our relationship with our Algerian brothers will be good and solid after Qadaffy steps down," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |