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| Africa North |
| Germany recognises rebels as representing Libya |
| 2011-06-14 |
| Germany recognises the rebel National Transitional Council as the "legitimate representative" of the Libyan people, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said on Monday. "The NTC is the legitimate representative of the Libyan people," Westerwelle told news hounds after meeting council officials, including the rebel "foreign minister" Ali al-Essawi. "We want a free Libya, in peace and democracy without (Moamer) Qadaffy," he said in the rebels' eastern bastion of Benghazi, Libya's second city. Germany becomes the 13th nation to recognise the NTC as "sole legitimate representative," after Australia, Britannia, La Belle France, Gambia ... The Gambia is actually surrounded by Senegal on all sides but its west coast. It has a population of about 1.7 million. The difference between the two is that in colonial days Senegal was ruled by La Belle France and The Gambia (so-called because there's only one of it, unlike Guinea) was ruled by Britannia... , Italia, Jordan, Malta, Qatar, Senegal ... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees... , Spain, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. Westerwelle defended his country's position after Germany abstained from a UN Security Council resolution backing intervention in Libya and chose not to participate in the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... -led air war launched in March. "We were one of the first governments to say that Qadaffy must go," he said, adding that Germany's absence from the NATO-led campaign "does not mean that we are neutral."Colonel Qadaffy's economic isolation must be broadened," he said. "His assets should be unblocked so they can be used to build a new Libya, whose riches are for the Libyan people," Westerwelle said of the huge financial assets secreted abroad by Libya's leader and his family and subsequently frozen. Dirk Niebel, Berlin's economic cooperation and development minister who was also in Benghazi, said Germany would work on development projects in Libya, mainly in the sectors of water and electricity. Niebel said Germany wanted to help refugees and "people traumatised by the war," and said that Berlin was ready to free 10 million euros in aid for the Libyan people. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 No, of course Germany's not neutral. They just want others to do the heavy lifting and to pay for it. I'm almost sympathetic, given how they are carrying the EU finanically. OTOH if they manage to offload Greek debt through the IMF, my sympathy will evaporate instantaneously. |
| Posted by: lotp 2011-06-14 07:26 |