AFRICOM Related News Clips 1 April, 2011

8/7/2019 AFRICOM Related News Clips 1 April, 2011

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United States Africa CommandPublic Affairs Office1 April 2011

USAFRICOM - related news stories

TOP NEWS RELATED TO U.S. AFRICA COMMAND AND AFRICA

Battles rage in Libya amid defections of key Gadhafi allies (CNN)(Libya) As Moammar Gadhafi's inner circle showed possible signs of cracking Friday,heavily armed forces loyal to the Libyan leader continued pounding cities that wereonce some of the country's most prosperous places.

Libya Rebels Seek Cease-Fire After U.S. Vows to Withdraw Jets (Bloomberg)(Libya) Libyas opposition called for a cease-fire after the U.S. said its withdrawingaircraft used to attack Muammar Qaddafis forces following adverse weather thatprevented strikes allowing Libyan loyalists to push back rebels.

Robert Gates again rules out U.S. ground forces for Libya (LA Times)(Libya) Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates reiterated Thursday that the U.S. would notput ground forces in Libya, but conceded that allies involved in the operation mightprovide arms and send in trainers to aid the rebels, who have lost ground to Col.Moammar Kadafi's forces in recent days.

In Libyas rebel base, a mix of hope and fear (Washington Post)(Libya) On one Saturday, residents saw a burning airplane fall over their city as tanksshelled their homes. Eight days later they were kept up all night by celebratory gunfireand rocket blasts as rumors circulated, falsely, that Col. Moammar Gaddafis hometown had fallen to the rebel army.

Opposition Hopes to Gain Information from Libyan Defector (VOA)(Libya) A member of the rebels fighting forces loyal to Libyan leader MoammarGadhafi says members of the Transitional Council have begun efforts to gain strategic

information from defecting Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa in their objective to forcethe embattled leader from power.

In Libya, Regime Change Should Be the Goal (Washington Post Op-Ed)(Libya) President Obama made a compelling case for our intervention in Libya onMonday evening, and U.S. actions there deserve bipartisan support in Congress. As thepresident rightly noted, failure to intervene militarily would have resulted in a


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humanitarian and strategic disaster. Because of our actions, the Gadhafi regime hasbeen prevented from brutally crushing its opposition.

NATO Rules Out Arming Rebels (Wall Street Journal)(Libya) Officials at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which early Thursday

assumed control of allied operations to enforce the United Nations mandate in Libya,said they aren't considering arming Libyan rebels.

The battle for Libya: The colonel is not beaten yet (The Economist)(Libya) AFTER rebel forces retook Ajdabiya and the oil-refining towns of Ras Lanuf andBrega, it seemed that Muammar Qaddafis troops might crumble fast in the face ofWestern air attacks. But that hope was fleeting. At a hastily assembled conference inLondon on March 29th, attended by nearly 40 delegations representing the internationalcoalition that is enforcing UN Security Resolution 1973, the turn of events on theground saw Libyan government forces dramatically regain the initiative. And that

prompted a more sober assessment of the rebels progress.

Can the US really take a supporting role in Libya operation? (Christian ScienceMonitor)(Libya) The United States may have officially transferred command of the internationalLibya operation to NATO on Thursday. But it is unclear if that means the US has indeedretreated to the limited supporting role that President Obama says it has.

Liberia Uneasily Linked to Ivory Coast Conflict (NYT)(Ivory Coast) Standing by a burned-out house on a road speckled with spentammunition casings, Brig. Gen. Gueu Michel, the commander of rebel forces in westernIvory Coast, outlined his plan to stem an influx of Liberian mercenaries he said werefighting for Ivory Coasts embattled strongman, Laurent Gbagbo.

Ivory Coast: 'Heavy fighting' near Gbagbo residence (BBC)(Ivory Coast) There has been heavy fighting in Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan,between forces loyal to the UN-recognised president, Alassane Ouattara, andsupporters of incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.

US Names New Sudan Envoy Amid Concern Over Abyei (VOA)(Sudan) The Obama administration on Thursday named veteran diplomat Princeton

Lyman as its new special envoy for Sudan. The announcement came amid growingU.S. concern about tensions in Sudans central Abyei region that threaten the countrysnorth-south peace process.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Websitey UN mission deploys troops to Ivorian church to protect civilians seeking refuge


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y UN envoy on sexual violence welcomes African commitment to eradicating thevice

y UN-backed meeting concludes with call for stronger measures to protect gorillasy New energy-efficient UN offices in Kenya serve as model for future Ban

-------------------------------------------------------------------------UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Thursday, April 7, 2011; 9:30am; Dirksen Senate Office BuildingRoom SD-106WHAT: Armed Services: Testimony on AFRICOMWHO: Full Committee; General Carter F. Ham to testifyInfo: http://armed-services.senate.gov/e_witnesslist.cfm?id=5073----------------------------------------------------------------------------------FULL ARTICLE TEXT

Battles rage in Libya amid defections of key Gadhafi allies (CNN)(Libya) As Moammar Gadhafi's inner circle showed possible signs of cracking Friday,heavily armed forces loyal to the Libyan leader continued pounding cities that wereonce some of the country's most prosperous places.

Officials and analysts said the surge in firepower from the Libyan government sends amessage: Gadhafi is determined to prevail, and defections of some of his high-profileallies are making him nervous.

"You're certainly getting evidence that there are a lot of tensions. ... Each person that

leaves, that makes it a little scarier for the people that are still remaining. And you may,at some point, get a tipping effect," said Anne-Marie Slaughter, a professor ofinternational affairs at Princeton University.

On Thursday word emerged that Gadhafi's pick for U.N. ambassador had defected toEgypt -- a day after Libya's foreign minister fled to London and told the governmentthere that he had resigned.

Citing unnamed British government sources, the Guardian newspaper reported Fridaythat a senior adviser to one of Gadhafi's sons was in London for secret talks with Britishofficials. The adviser to Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, Mohammed Ismael, told CNN earlier thisweek that he would be traveling to London for family reasons. Calls placed to hismobile phone by CNN on Friday were not answered.

Asked about the Guardian report, a UK Foreign Office spokesman neither confirmednor denied it.


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"We are not going to provide running commentary on our contacts with Libyanofficials," the spokesman said. "In any contact that we do have, we make it clear thatGadhafi has to go."

Rebel fighters also said they remained determined to topple Gadhafi's nearly 42-year

reign.

But the battles over key cities are far from over.

Rebels massed on the outskirts of the government-controlled oil town of al-Brega,which has changed hands six times in six weeks under dramatically shiftingcircumstances in the country's civil war.

Misrata, Libya's third largest city and the final rebel stronghold in the western part ofthe country, was under siege by pro-Gadhafi forces. Badly damaged buildings lined

streets covered with wreckage after weeks of urban combat.

Witnesses said most residents fled the downtown area after government forcespositioned snipers on tall buildings and used tanks and artillery in the city center.

Clearly outgunned, opposition forces have pinned their hopes on more NATOairpower.

"We want to bring a speedy end to this," Col. Ahmed Omar Bani, an oppositionspokesman, told CNN. "A strike is not a strike unless it kills."

U.S. officials claim Gadhafi's military capabilities have been steadily eroded since theonset of U.N.-sanctioned airstrikes.

But the dictator's forces still outnumber rebels by about 10-to-1 in terms of armor andother ground forces, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen told the HouseArmed Services Committee Thursday.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, also speaking before the House committee,warned that the Libyan rebels still need significant training and assistance.

"It's pretty much a pickup ballgame" right now, he said.

U.S. and British officials say no decision has been made about whether to arm theopposition.


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Gates reiterated the Obama administration's promise that no U.S. ground forces will beused in Libya, telling committee members that the rebels had indicated they didn't wantsuch an intervention.

But the United States does have CIA personnel on the ground.

CIA operatives have been in Libya working with rebel leaders to try to reverse gains byloyalist forces, a U.S. intelligence source said. The United States, insisting it is nowfulfilling more of a support role in the coalition, shifted in that direction as NATO tooksole command of air operations in Libya.

A U.S. intelligence source said the CIA is operating in the country to help increase U.S."military and political understanding" of the situation.

But officials leaving Libya may end up playing a more decisive role than troops or CIA

agents on the ground.

After defecting Wednesday, former Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa wasvoluntarily speaking with officials in the United Kingdom, British Foreign SecretaryWilliam Hague said.

Hague said Koussa's departure from Libya provides evidence "that Gadhafi's regime ...is fragmented, under pressure and crumbling from within."

Koussa did not tell the Libyan government he was planning to quit before he arrived in

Britain, Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said Thursday.But Ibrahim downplayed the defection itself, saying Koussa was an old man in poorhealth who had not been able to handle the pressure of his job.

On Thursday an opposition leader and a relative said that the man Gadhafi tapped asthe country's U.N. envoy had defected to Egypt.

Former Foreign Minister Ali Abdussalam Treki, who recently served as the president ofthe U.N. General Assembly, was to replace Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalgham asambassador in New York. But he never arrived.

"I do think it's evidence that Gadhafi is increasingly isolated in his own country. ...Some of the key participants in his regime and people closest to him are abandoninghim," Alan Solomont, the U.S. Ambassador to Spain, told reporters Friday.


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Such defections are significant, but not as important as the departure of one of Gadhafi'sfamily members would be, according to Robert Baer, a former CIA operative in theMiddle East.

"Crack that clan and he's done. Those elite units will fall apart, the tribe will defect, and

it will all be over," Baer told CNN's AC360.----------------------------Libya Rebels Seek Cease-Fire After U.S. Vows to Withdraw Jets (Bloomberg)(Libya) Libyas opposition called for a cease-fire after the U.S. said its withdrawingaircraft used to attack Muammar Qaddafis forces following adverse weather thatprevented strikes allowing Libyan loyalists to push back rebels.

Libyas rebels would accept a cease-fire if their demands for freedoms are met, saidMustafa Abdel Jalil, head of the rebel National Transitional Council, during a newsconference televised today from their stronghold of Benghazi. Any agreement would

have to involve Qaddafis fighters withdrawing from cities and their surrounding areas,he said.

The rebel move comes one day after Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs ofStaff, said U.S. jets, wont be flying with NATO forces over Libya after April 2. Mullensaid planes would be made available only if requested by NATO. Secretary of DefenseRobert Gates told Congress the U.S. will significantly ramp down our commitment toLibya except for electronic warfare, aerial refueling and surveillance.

Rebels have been in retreat for three days as Qaddafis troops regain the initiative after

almost two weeks of allied air strikes against them. This weeks recapture of the oil portRas Lanuf by Qaddafi forces underscored the military weakness of his opponents.Intensive fighting continues around another oil port, Brega, which is under Libyan rebelcontrol, Al Arabiya television reported.

Seems to me, we are not doing everything necessary in order to achieve our policygoals and including relieving what is happening to the anti-Qaddafi forces, SenatorJohn McCain said at the hearing in Congress yesterday with Mullen and Gates. I hopewe dont learn a bitter lesson from it.

Cant See Targets

Mullen said poor weather over the past three days in Libya meant pilots cant get onthe targets; they cant see the targets.

Oil rose to a 30-month high in New York as economic data from China spurred hope ofgrowing demand in the worlds biggest energy user and fighting in Libya fannedconcern that output cuts may spread to Middle East producers. Crude for May delivery


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rose as much as 93 cents to $107.65 a barrel in electronic trading on the New YorkMercantile Exchange, the highest front- month price since Sept. 26, 2008. It was at$107.06 at 11:34 a.m. London time.

Its quiet today but there are snipers present and yesterday night a number of mortar

rounds were fired and there was indiscriminate shelling from tanks as well, RedaAlmountasser, a resident in the western city of Misrata whose residents rose up againstQaddafi and have defied efforts by his forces to regain control, said in a telephoneinterview.

Rebel Leaders

U.S. political and military leaders said theyre unwilling to start providing arms andtraining for rebels fighting against Qaddafi. Mullen said there are plenty of countrieswho have the ability, the arms, the skill set to be able to do this. Gates said the U.S.

doesnt know enough about the insurgent groups beyond a handful of leaders.

The rebels need more heavy weapons, said Jan Techau, director of the CarnegieEndowment for International Peace in Brussels and a former analyst at the NATODefense College. They need simple stuff -- not high-tech weaponry that requiresextensive training and would be dangerous if it fell into terrorist hands.

The conflict in Libya, which began as a wave of anti- government protests similar tothose in Egypt and Tunisia, escalated into armed conflict as the countrys army split andsome soldiers joined the rebels. Oil prices have risen more than 25 percent since fighting

began in mid-February.Desperation, Fear

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said the defection of Libyan Foreign MinisterMoussa Koussa on March 30 is evidence of the desperation and the fear right at theheart of the crumbling and rotten Qaddafi regime. He said the former minister hasntbeen offered immunity. The Scottish prosecutors office said it wanted to interviewKoussa about the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town ofLockerbie that killed 270 people.

While dozens of Libyan diplomats have quit since the uprising against Qaddafi began,Koussa is one of the most senior officials to flee. Libyas former deputy ambassador tothe United Nations, Ibrahim Dabbashi, said more diplomats and senior-ranking Libyansare likely to defect from the Qaddafi regime within days, Sky News reported, addingthat up to 10 top Libyan officials may abandon the regime.


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Another senior Libyan official, Mohammed Ismail, visited London in recent days forconfidential talks, the Guardian reported today citing unidentified U.K. officials.

Gates said he saw several end-game scenarios involving Qaddafi.

Family Kills Him

One is that a member of his own family kills him, or one of his inner circle kills him, orthe military fractures, or the opposition, with the degradation of Qaddafis militarycapabilities rise up again, Gates said.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization jets carried out more than 90 missions yesterday,Charles Bouchard, the Canadian air force general commanding the operation, said viavideolink from Naples, Italy. A total of 20 of the 28 member states of the alliance areexpected to contribute forces in the initial stages, NATO said. Germany has declined to

take part.

Qaddafi said Western air strikes could lead to a war between Christians and Muslimsthat could spiral out of control, Sky News reported, citing a statement by the Libyanleader broadcast by state television.----------------------------Robert Gates again rules out U.S. ground forces for Libya (LA Times)By David S. CloudMarch 31, 2011Washington Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates reiterated Thursday that the U.S.

would not put ground forces in Libya, but conceded that allies involved in theoperation might provide arms and send in trainers to aid the rebels, who have lostground to Col. Moammar Kadafi's forces in recent days.

In his strongest language since the U.S. deployed warplanes to protect Libyan civilians,Gates ruled out sending any U.S. forces to Libya "as long as I'm in this job" aviewpoint that he said President Obama shared. But he admitted that the rebels neededhelp to withstand the assault from Kadafi's forces, even with NATO warplanesoverhead.

Gates acknowledged the administration is still considering whether to provide arms tothe rebels, but said what the opposition forces need most is training.

"What the opposition needs as much as anything right now is some training, somecommand and control and some organization," Gates said. "That's not a uniquecapability for the United States, and as far as I'm concerned, somebody else can do that."


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Gates spoke on the same day NATO assumed full command of the air campaign overLibya after almost two weeks of airstrikes led by the U.S.

Gates faced tough questioning in his appearance before the House Armed ServicesCommittee as lawmakers from both parties complained that the White House had failed

to set clear goals for the air operation and was facing a protracted military commitment,despite handing off command responsibility for the operation to the North AtlanticTreaty Organization.

"We really want to know what the commitment's going to be," said Rep. Adam Smith ofWashington, the panel's ranking Democrat, at the start of daylong hearings on the Libyacrisis. "How long can we sustain this and where is this going?"

With Kadafi's forces appearing to have seized the initiative, several members warnedthat the U.S. was in an increasingly difficult position as it attempts to scale back its

military involvement even though Obama has made removal of Kadafi a U.S. objective.

Chairman Howard P. McKeon (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed ServicesCommittee, opened the hearings with a warning that "history has demonstrated that anentrenched enemy like the Libyan regime can be resilient to airpower."

Gates conceded that a stalemate is one possible outcome and he acknowledged underquestioning that the U.S. "has no contingency plan" if Kadafi remains in power "otherthan keeping the pressure on."

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the NATO-led aircampaign had been hampered in recent days because bad weather had reduced thecoalition's ability to carry out airstrikes. He also said that there were tensions within the28 members of NATO and other governments involved in the air campaign overwhether to escalate the military effort to drive Kadafi from power.

"There are certainly some tensions with regards to that, and I think those tensions willcontinue," Mullen said, without providing more details.

Gates refused to address reports that CIA operatives are already on the ground inLibya, gathering intelligence and assisting the rebels. He also played down thepossibility that the U.S. would provide arms to the beleaguered rebels, but did not ruleout that NATO allies or other countries could aid the rebels directly.

"My view is that there are plenty of sources for it, other than the U.S," he said, whenasked about the possibility that the Pentagon would supply the military assistance.


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A U.S. official confirmed Thursday that Obama signed a secret finding authorizing theCIA to coordinate with and help the rebels. CIA operatives have been on the ground forweeks, gathering intelligence and providing non-lethal aid to the rebels. The CIAhelped locate and rescue a U.S. airman who had been picked up by rebels after theMarch 21 crash of an F-15E Strike Eagle, another U.S. official said.

Mullen said that the Pentagon was examining ways of assisting the rebels, including"options from not doing it to doing it," and then added, "there are plenty of countriesthat have the abilities, the arms, the skill set, to be able to do this."

It was not clear what government, if any, might step in to provide weapons to therebels. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, speaking in Stockholm,suggested that there was no agreement within NATO on whether to arm the rebels,despite statements by U.S. and British officials that the U.N. resolution authorizinginternational intervention allows arming Libyan rebels.

"We are there to protect the Libyan people, not to arm people," Rasmussen said,according to wire service reports.

At a press conference in Brussels on Thursday, NATO's Military Committee ChairmanAdm. Giampaolo Di Paola, an Italian officer, acknowledged the question of armingrebels was far from resolved. "If I listen to where the debate is going, there are thosewho say that there might be a different interpretation," Di Paola said. "So it's not thatclear if it would be in breach or non-breach of the [UN] resolution."

Many lawmakers appeared worried that the U.S., as the most powerful member ofNATO, could find itself drawn more deeply into the conflict. The Pentagon has said itsplan is for other countries participating in the air campaign to handle most of thecombat missions against Libyan ground targets and for U.S. aircraft to handle aerialrefueling, surveillance and other noncombat roles.

Several lawmakers complained that the administration had not consulted withCongress adequately before its decision almost two weeks ago to intervene andquestioned whether the White House had exceeded its constitutional prerogatives byfailing to secure congressional authorization.

Gates noted that many lawmakers from both the House and Senate had called for theU.S. to establish a no-fly zone over Libya before the White House decision to intervene.----------------------------Obama administration pushes dual-track policy in Libya (CNN)By Tom CohenMarch 31, 2011 8:45 p.m. EDT


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Washington - Despite having CIA agents on the ground and Libyan leader MoammarGadhafi's exit as stated policy, U.S. officials continue to say the NATO-led militarymission in Libya is only for its authorized humanitarian purposes.

The seeming discrepancy is part of a delicate diplomatic posture by the Obama

administration on the complex overseas operation that involves a U.N. Security Councilresolution, a multinational military force and the symbolism of presidential statementsand actions.

With the military mission shifting Thursday to a new phase of full NATO control afterinitial U.S. leadership, divisions among alliance partners and within Congress becamemore evident, exacerbated by the administration's differing military and political goals.

President Barack Obama continues to insist that arming the Libyan rebels remained anoption under consideration, while NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen

and French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet ruled it out.

At House and Senate committee hearings, Republicans grilled Defense Secretary RobertGates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen on the U.S. role in Libya.

"To say this is not about regime change is crazy," said Republican Rep. Mike Coffman ofColorado. "Of course this is about regime change. Why not just be honest with theAmerican people?"

Obama has said the motivation for launching military action on March 19 was to

prevent a massacre of civilians by Libyan military forces descending on the rebelstronghold of Benghazi.

Since then, airstrikes carried out mostly with U.S. planes and missiles have taken outmuch of Gadhafi's anti-aircraft capability and destroyed ground forces and supplylines.

While Gadhafi's forces have pulled back from Benghazi, they reclaimed territory fromthe rebels in recent days, leading to fears of a prolonged stalemate without strongermilitary support for the rebels.

On Thursday, White House spokesman Jay Carney noted the United States turned overcontrol of the Libya mission to NATO that morning -- 12 days after it began -- to fulfillObama's pledge to the nation that U.S. leadership would end within "days, not weeks."

While Carney said the United States and its allies would keep up pressure on Gadhafi'sgovernment, he acknowledged that it was impossible to say when the mission would


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end. Regardless of when, he said, "the scope of the U.S. involvement will be limited"and Obama continues to reject any possibility of sending in U.S. ground troops.

At the same time, a former counterterrorism official confirmed the existence of apresidential finding that authorizes the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct

operations supporting U.S. policy in Libya.

A presidential finding is a type of secret order authorizing some covert intelligenceoperations, and a former senior intelligence official said such operations could include"advising on how to target the adversary, how to use the weapons they have,reconnaissance and counter surveillance."

Top administration officials distinguished between the military mission charged withprotecting Libyan civilians and the other non-military efforts -- including sanctions,freezing assets and CIA operations -- aimed at hastening Gadhafi's departure.

"Does the United States have the capacity to unilaterally with military force produceregime change in Libya or another country? It probably does. We probably do," Carneytold reporters. "Is that a desirable action to take when you have your eye on the longgame here in terms of Libya's future, the future ... interests of the United States and theregion? No."

Obama's dual-track policy, with the military coalition protecting Libyan civilians whilethe United States pursues "as a political, diplomatic and economic policy" the end ofGadhafi's rule, is the best fit for the Libya situation, Carney insisted, citing the

international backing for the military mission through a U.N. Security Councilresolution and Arab League support.

Critics complained that it is both dishonest and a mistake for the military objective todiffer from the policy objective.

At a House Armed Services Committee hearing, Rep. Chris Gibson, R-New York, saidthe mission's "military and political goals are not harmonized," while Coffman called it"just the most muddled definition of an operation probably in U.S. military history."

On the Democratic side, liberal Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio challenged Obama's legalpower to commit U.S. forces to a combat role without congressional authorization.

"This is a clear and arrogant violation of our Constitution," Kucinich declared on theHouse floor. "Even a war launched ostensibly for humanitarian reasons is still a warand only Congress can declare a war."


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Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the unsuccessful Republican presidential nominee in2008, warned that pulling U.S. forces back to a supporting role under NATO controlundermined the military mission at a key moment.

"For the United States to be withdrawing our unique offensive capabilities at this time

sends the exact wrong signal both to our coalition partners as well as to the Gadhafiregime, especially to those Libyan officials whom we are trying to compel to break withGadhafi," McCain said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

"I need not remind our witnesses that the purpose of using military force is to achievepolicy goals," McCain told Gates and Mullen. "But in this case, not only are our militarymeans out of alignment with our desired end of Gadhafi leaving power, we are noweffectively stopping our strike missions all together without having accomplished ourgoal."

While Obama administration officials have described the continuing U.S. role in themilitary mission as supportive -- involving refueling, intelligence, surveillance andcommunications -- Gates said Thursday that U.S. strike aircraft such as A-10 and AC-130s could still be made available to NATO.

However, he added that he believed NATO allies had the capacity to take out Libyanground forces as necessary under the mission's mandate of protecting civilianpopulations.

Appearing before both the House and Senate panels at separate hearings, Gates said the

no-fly zone had been established and now needed to be sustained, but acknowledged"you could have a situation in which you achieve the military goal but do not achievethe political goal."---------------------------In Libyas rebel base, a mix of hope and fear (Washington Post)By Tara BahrampourMarch 31, 2011, 9:35 PMBENGHAZI, Libya On one Saturday, residents saw a burning airplane fall over theircity as tanks shelled their homes.

Eight days later they were kept up all night by celebratory gunfire and rocket blasts asrumors circulated, falsely, that Col. Moammar Gaddafis home town had fallen to therebel army.

Benghazi, Libyas second-largest city and the stronghold of the uprising that sweptthrough the nation six weeks ago, is suspended in a delicate balance betweenexuberance and apprehension.


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On one hand the city is home to a cadre of highly educated, professional andcosmopolitan leaders who speak confidently of a democratic state to come, andcultivate international partners to help bring that state to fruition. Gaddafi, they swear,will fall in a week or so and a glorious new Libya will rise.

But 100 miles to the west, a ragged collection of untrained civilians struggles in anuneven battle to keep government tanks at bay. Since midweek, as Gaddafis forceshave crept closer, Benghazi residents have gone to bed wondering whether they willwake to a city under siege.

I just want a normal life, said Mohammad el-Sayed, 27, a lecturer at BenghazisTechnical Engineering College, as he drove down a road where light poles and highwayoverpasses bore the scars of missile attacks. I want this to be over. We just wanteverything to be stable.

But the only thing certain in Benghazi is that nothing is certain. With a battle line thatraces erratically backward and forward up the coastal road, even fighters returningfrom the front cannot say for sure what is happening there.

Government spokespeople give press conferences almost daily to a crush of journalistshungry for news. But for this fledgling government, solid information is hard to comeby. The officials try to answer questions about how the new Transitional NationalCouncil plans to develop education, infrastructure and a viable economy, while at thesame time hoping each day that there will still be a country to develop. Libyans willwin their independence, they declare, while at the same time acknowledging that the

rebel army is in danger of annihilation without help from NATO.Theyre doing the most with the least, said Ahmed Hnesh, 29, a Libyan-Americanresident of Falls Church who came here in February to help with the uprising. Theyrecreating a state from scratch.

In this city, whole neighborhoods are left unpaved, and building projects begundecades ago linger on in a state of half-constructed abandon.

Benghazi residents are used to their crumbling infrastructure. What is new for them isthe strange juxtaposition of urgency and idleness the rebellion has wrought.

All around the city, newly minted fighters zoom by in pickup trucks hastily fitted withantitank artillery and swathed in the red, black and green flag of Libyan independence.They crackle with a sense of purpose, if not a clear idea of how to carry it out.


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Meanwhile, teachers, students, architects and traders sleep late and wonder when theirschools and companies will reopen. On many blocks, only a few stores are open; the resthave metal gates pulled down while their owners wait for more tranquil times.

And amid the triumphant freedom anthems on the radio, the effigies of Gaddafi

hanging in front of the courthouse, the Game Over and No More Dictator tagsspray-painted on downtown buildings, a sense of foreboding lingers.

Gaddafis forces are not only in the tanks down the road. Some still live among thepeople of Benghazi. They are the neighbors who were once members of GaddafisRevolutionary Committees, which helped promote their leader and kept tabs on thosewho didnt.

We know who was on these committees, Sayed said. Now, of course, they are sayingthey support the revolution, but we dont know.

Sniper attacks two weeks ago on a Benghazi radio personality and a cartoonist, bothoutspoken promoters of the revolution, are attributed to Gaddafi loyalists.

Such violence is one reason that few women walk the streets. Another is the randomfiring of automatic weapons by young revolutionaries who are overly excited to bepicking up a gun for the first time.

All the women are home; they dont feel safe right now, said Ahmad Mohammad, 32,a businessman whose work has dried up since the uprising began in mid-February.

People are very afraid, very disturbed. ... The feeling right now is its not safe, andpeople are afraid of what will happen tomorrow.

But at the same time, he has hope for better days. We have a saying in Arabic: Whenits been tight, he said, squeezing his fists together, it will open wide. He let hishands relax and fall away from each other. And it will be good, inshallah.-------------------------Opposition Hopes to Gain Information from Libyan Defector (VOA)By Peter ClotteyMarch 31, 2011A member of the rebels fighting forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi saysmembers of the Transitional Council have begun efforts to gain strategic informationfrom defecting Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa in their objective to force the embattledleader from power.

Awad Juma says recent defections are, in his words, the beginning of the end ofGadhafis over four-decade year rule.


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I dont think a foreign minister defecting [from] his government is insignificant. Theguy [Moussa Koussa] has got a lot of information to tell; hes got information about [the1988 Pan Am] Lockerbie bombing. He was [the] hand to carry out a lot of dirty jobs forGadhafi. So, saying it is not significant, I think Gadhafi is playing down the loss as if itsnot important, Juma said.

They [Transitional Council] are already trying to get in touch with him [MoussaKoussa]. But, he is watching his steps carefully because he didnt declare that he isjoining the rebels yet. I dont know if he wants some guarantees, he added.

Juma says the defections are growing signs of weakness of the Gadhafi administrationdespite its sharp denial that the defections have had no effect on the ongoing crisis.

There is Ali Treki [who] refused appointment to replace the representative to theUnited Nations. He declared his resignation from Gadhafis regime. And, this is another

beginning of his fall because they have been with him for 42 years, Juma said.

We know that Gadhafi is holding the whole cabinet at gunpoint in his barracks withtheir families. Even if one of them goes on a mission, he goes by himself, while hisfamily is held at gunpoint until they come back. This sounds like fiction, but this is whatGadhafi does, he added.

Libya's FM Moussa Koussa holds a news conference in Tripoli Mar 18 2011Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has repeated his strong opposition toputting any American forces in Libya.

Gates insisted Thursday there will be no U.S. military boots on the ground as long as Iam in this job. He spoke as U.S. media reported that the Central Intelligence Agencyhas small teams working with anti-government rebels in the North African country,

Reports say the teams were sent to gather intelligence and make contact withopposition forces. Gates said he could not speak for the CIA about its role. Heacknowledged the United States has information only on a handful of [the] rebelstrying to topple Gadhafi.

Gates told a U.S. congressional hearing that political and economic pressures willeventually drive Gadhafi from power. He says the NATO-led operation now under waycan degrade the Libyan leader's military capacity, but that Gadhafi's removal willhappen only over time and by his own people.-----------------------------In Libya, Regime Change Should Be the Goal (Washington Post Op-Ed)By JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN AND JOHN MCCAIN


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President Obama made a compelling case for our intervention in Libya on Mondayevening, and U.S. actions there deserve bipartisan support in Congress. As thepresident rightly noted, failure to intervene militarily would have resulted in ahumanitarian and strategic disaster. Because of our actions, the Gadhafi regime hasbeen prevented from brutally crushing its opposition.

The president was also correct in framing what is happening in Libya within thebroader context of the democratic awakening that is sweeping across the broaderMiddle Eastthe most consequential geopolitical realignment since the fall of the BerlinWall.

If Gadhafi is allowed to hang onto power through the use of indiscriminate violence, itwill send a message to dictators throughout the region and beyond that the way torespond, when people rise up peacefully and demand their rights, is through repressionand slaughterand that the rest of the world, including the U.S., won't stand in the

way.

What is needed now is not a backward-looking debate about what the administrationcould or should have done differently, but a forward-looking strategy that identifiesAmerica's national interests in Libya and works to achieve them.

As President Obama has rightly and repeatedly insisted, a successful outcome in Libyarequires the departure of Gadhafi as quickly as possible. It is not in our interest forLibya to become the scene of a protracted stalemate that will destabilize and inflame theregion.

While both Arab leaders and public opinion are hostile towards Gadhafi personallyafact that helps explain the Arab League's unprecedented decision to supportintervention in Libyawe are concerned that regional support will waver if Westernforces are perceived as presiding over a military deadlock. We cannot allow Gadhafi toconsolidate his grip over part of the country and settle in for the long haul.

A Libyan rebelThere are several steps urgently needed to prevent this outcome. First, while weunderstand the diplomatic reasons behind the Obama administration's reluctance tomake Gadhafi's removal an explicit goal of the coalition military mission, the reality onthe ground is that our coalition's air strikes against his forces must work toward thisobjective.

In the days ahead, it is imperative that we maintain and if necessary expand our airstrikes against Gadhafi's ground forces, which pose a threat to civilians wherever theyare. In doing so, we can pave the way for the Libyan opposition to reverse Gadhafi'soffensive and to resume their quest to end his rule.


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The battlefield reversals suffered by the opposition this week, when weather conditionshampered coalition air strikes, underscore the need for a more robust and coherentpackage of aid to the rebel ground forces.

The U.S. should also expand engagement with the Libyan opposition, led by the interimTransitional National Council currently based in Benghazi. We have been encouragedby the Obama administration's growing rhetorical support for the opposition, but wehope to see more tangible manifestations of it in the days ahead.

In particular, we and our allies should be providing the council with thecommunications equipment, logistical support, training, tactical intelligence andweapons necessary to consolidate rule over the territory they have liberated and tocontinue tilting the balance of power against Gadhafi. We do not need to put U.S. forceson the ground precisely because the Libyans themselves are fighting for their freedom.

But they need our help, and quickly, to succeed.

Another immediate priority should be getting humanitarian assistance into easternLibya and restoring telecommunications access there, where Gadhafi has cut off landlines, mobile networks and the Internet. While top opposition leaders have satellitephones, we have both humanitarian and strategic interests in restoring the ability ofpeople in liberated parts of Libya to communicate with each other and the rest of theworld. We should also take steps to get Gadhafi's satellite, television, and radiobroadcasts off the air, while helping the opposition air its broadcasting.

Finally, we should follow France and Qatar in recognizing the Transitional NationalCouncil as the legitimate government of Libya, and we should encourage other alliesand partners to do the same.

Some critics still argue that we should be cautious about helping the Libyan opposition,warning that we do not know enough about them or that their victory could pave theway for an al Qaeda takeover. Both arguments are hollow. By all accounts, theTransitional National Council is led by moderates who have declared their vision for (astheir website puts it) Libya becoming "a constitutional democratic civil state based onthe rule of law, respect for human rights and the guarantee of equal rights andopportunities for all its citizens."

If there is any hope for a decent government to emerge from the ashes of the Gadhafidictatorship, this is it. Throwing our weight behind the transitional government is ourbest chance to prevent Libya's unraveling into postwar anarchyprecisely thecircumstance under which Islamist extremists are most likely to gain a foothold.


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We cannot guarantee the success of the Libyan revolution, but we have prevented whatwas, barely a week ago, its imminent destruction. That is why the president was right tointervene. He now deserves our support as we and our coalition partners do all that isnecessary to help the Libyan people secure a future of freedom.---------------------

NATO Rules Out Arming Rebels (Wall Street Journal)By Daniel Michael and Charles DuxburyMarch 31, 2011BRUSSELSOfficials at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which early Thursdayassumed control of allied operations to enforce the United Nations mandate in Libya,said they aren't considering arming Libyan rebels.

Simmering debate in Washington and Europe about whether to arm rebel groups andintensified amid the opposition's recent retreat from territory they had gained under theumbrella of coalition airstrikes.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters in Stockholm that hehas taken note of the "ongoing discussion in a number of countries" about arming therebels but "as far as NATO is concerned...we will focus on the enforcement of the armsembargo," which he said applies "across the board to all sides in this conflict."

WSJ Middle East Bureau Chief Bill Spindle explains how Libyan rebels are receivingassistance from CIA operatives. Also, Libya's foreign minister abruptly resigned andflew to England..NATO took full control of operations in Libya at 6 a.m. Brussels time Thursday. Lt.

Gen. Charles Bouchard, the commander of NATO and non-NATO forces in theoperation said that by midday, NATO had run more than 90 flights and sorties. He saidhe had more than 100 fighters and support aircraft, and more than 12 ships andsubmarines, under his command.

Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola, chairman of the NATO Military Council and the alliance'smost senior military official, said the NATO operation, dubbed Unified Protectorate,entails enforcing an arms-embargo and no-fly zone and protecting civilians, as set outby the U.N. resolution.

"NATO is not in Libya to decide the future of the Libyan people," he told a newsbriefing in Brussels. "We are helping enforce the will of the international community."

U.S. President Barack Obama has signed a secret order that could facilitate weaponstransfers to rebels. Under the authorization, the Central Intelligence Agency has placedcovert operatives on the ground in parts of Libya, officials say.


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"We have done very well in attacking the targets that air power can attack," said retiredArmy Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik, a senior fellow at the Institute for the Study of War inWashington. "But we will not be able to protect civilians to the point expected throughair power alone."

WSJ's Paul Sonne reports from London on allied leaders moving toward the goal ofremoving Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and democratizing the Northern Africacountry. Also, a report on Syrian president al-Assad addressing the public to quellprotests..On Edge in LibyaTrack the latest events in the fight for Libya.

Adm. Di Paola said that NATO is running operations based partly on intelligencesupplied by alliance members and isn't itself in contact with any rebels. "We are notcoordinating operations with anyone" outside the alliance and its partners, he said.

He said that if allies are gathering information using intelligence officials on the groundin Libya, "it's not for us to question the source."

He stressed that any intelligence-gathering on the ground is being done by membercountries, not NATO itself. "If [alliance] nations have forces on the ground, these are notNATO forces," Adm. Di Paola said. "We don't have NATO forces on the ground."------------------------The battle for Libya: The colonel is not beaten yet (The Economist)By Unattributed Author

Mar 31st 2011Benghazi and London - AFTER rebel forces retook Ajdabiya and the oil-refining townsof Ras Lanuf and Brega, it seemed that Muammar Qaddafis troops might crumble fastin the face of Western air attacks. But that hope was fleeting. At a hastily assembledconference in London on March 29th, attended by nearly 40 delegations representingthe international coalition that is enforcing UN Security Resolution 1973, the turn ofevents on the ground saw Libyan government forces dramatically regain the initiative.And that prompted a more sober assessment of the rebels progress.

A day earlier General Carter Ham, the American officer who was running operations inLibya until NATO assumed command, had presciently warned: The regime still vastlyovermatches opposition forces militarily. The regime possesses the capability to rollthem back very quickly. Coalition air power is the major reason that has not happened.The general added that apart from some localised wavering there had so far beenonly a few cases of military or government officials defecting to the opposition.

For a time, it looked as if a pattern had been established. Allied air power would takeout the governments tanks, artillery and other heavy weapons, shell-shocked loyalist


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soldiers would flee and the ragtag army of rebels toting AK-47s and captured RPGswould surge forward into the vacuum, driving hell-for-leather to the next town alongthe coast road in a motley cavalcade of elderly cars and pickup trucks.

In fact, the only emerging pattern is one of wildly see-sawing fortunes, as coastal towns

change hands with almost metronomic regularity. On March 28th the advancing rebelsground to a halt at Bin Jawad, a small town some 160km (100 miles) to the east ofColonel Qaddafis birthplace, Sirte, and halfway between Benghazi and Tripoli. Controlof Bin Jawad had already switched three times in the past month and the town is nowlargely deserted.

There is still no sign that the rebels have a proper chain of command. Khalifa BelqasimHaftar, a former general who has returned from exile in the United States, is theircommander-in-chief, with Colonel Qaddafis former interior minister, Abdel FatahYounis, as his chief of staff. But the units of the regular army that defected seem to have

stayed largely out of the fray, leaving the fighting to untrained youths. Time after time,they have rushed frantically along the main roads, only to run into ambushes laid bythe colonels snipers dug into the roadside. Inexperienced rebels have shot up their owncars with anti-aircraft fire. Full of bravado, young farmers in straw hats vow to defyColonel Qaddafis Grad rockets, but as soon as any start landing nearby they flee.

Rebel supply-lines of food and fuel are badly stretched. The colonels forces sabotagedpetrol stations and power lines when they retreated west. Many shopkeepers have fled.Taxi drivers smuggle ammunition and AK-47s from Egypt beneath punnets ofstrawberries. But the rebels know they are heavily outgunned.

Their attempt on March 29th to push on past Bin Jawad towards Sirte ended abruptlywhen their vehicles came under heavy rocket and artillery fire from loyalist forcesmoving up the road from the politically important city. Fleeing eastward, abandoningBin Jawad, Ras Lanuf and Brega in quick succession, the rebels were said to bemystified as to why their advance had not been supported by coalition air strikes andwhy the planes had still not shown up to attack Colonel Qaddafis advancing tanks attheir most vulnerable.

Use the interactive "Graphics Carousel" to browse our coverage of unrest in the MiddleEast.One theory was that the decision, reached on March 27th after a week ofwrangling, to hand full control of the military operation to NATO had led to a lessaggressive targeting by the coalition. Cloudy weather may also have cut the tempo ofattacks on ground targets.

But coalition commanders insist that their targeting policy and the rules of engagementare unchanged and that the sortie rate has been maintained. It is most likely that asNATO took over it was caught on the hop by the speed of the loyalist advance and by a


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change of tactics, in which the loyalists left behind their tanks and mounted rocket-launchers on pickup trucks. That made them hard to distinguish from rebels. On March30th the coalition resumed hitting government forces on the ground. David Cameron,the British prime minister, telephoned Admiral James Stavridis, NATOs supremecommander, to express his hope that the deteriorating situation could be swiftly

reversed.

But the uncomfortable truth is that, despite big losses of tanks and artillery and thebattering of his command-and-control centres, the 10,000 or so men in the tribally basedmilitias loyal to Colonel Qaddafi are proving tenacious. The rebels, for their part, arestill far from turning themselves into a force sufficiently disciplined or well-armed toengage loyalist soldiers with much prospect of success.

Sirte also looks as if it is becoming a military and political problem for the coalition. Aslong as the town remains loyal to Colonel Qaddafi, it both blocks the road to Misrata,

the rebels western redoubt some 220km to the west, and provides a springboard forrolling back the rebels in the east. The plight of Misrata, Libyas third-biggest city,grows more desperate by the day. Government tanks close to the centre are continuingto shell buildings and residents indiscriminately, and food and water are said to berunning low. On March 30th coalition aircraft sank five government ships blocking thesupply of humanitarian aid to the city.

Digging in at home

Sirte is of unique importance to the regime, both as a garrison and for what it

represents. Once a poor village, it is now a city of 130,000 people, showered with moneyand privileges during most of Colonel Qaddafis 42-year rule. In 1988 he moved manygovernment departments and the countrys rubber-stamp parliament there fromTripoli, the capital. In 1999 he proposed it as the administrative centre of a UnitedStates of Africa. Western reporters in Sirte say its peoples declarations of devotion tothe colonel and their willingness to fight for what they have are sincere.

That makes things tricky for the coalition. It cannot claim to be protecting local civilianswhen attacking government forces defending Sirte. But its commanders argue that thecolonels troops remain a legitimate target in Sirte since they still threaten civilianselsewhere.

Such operational dilemmas were blurred at the London conference. And there was littlesign of any desire by the participants to lessen the pressure on the regime. Indeed, forall the previous insistence that regime change is not on the agenda, the leadersattending the conference could not have been clearer that the military campaign willcontinue until Colonel Qaddafi has gone.


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any Western belief that Colonel Qaddafi would be quickly clobbered on the battlefieldhas, for the moment, been shaken.--------------------Can the US really take a supporting role in Libya operation? (Christian ScienceMonitor)

By Howard LaFranchiMarch 31, 2011Washington - The United States may have officially transferred command of theinternational Libya operation to NATO on Thursday. But it is unclear if that means theUS has indeed retreated to the limited supporting role that President Obama says ithas.

With US forces plying the waters off the Libyan coast, Central Intelligence Agencyoperatives on Libyan soil, many NATO countries sitting out the operation, and the

staying power of the US unmatched by the French, British, or anyone else in theinternational coalition, it remains to be seen just how secondary the US role will be inthe coming days.

Its too early to say that the US has indeed moved down to second fiddle, saysChristopher Preble, director of foreign-policy studies at the Cato Institute inWashington. An initial indicator to watch, he adds, will be the numbers for the next 48hours what airstrikes or other operations are reported and who carries them out.

Think you know the Middle East? Take our geography quiz.

The US may indeed step back from the lead role, others say, but that doesnt mean itwill be limited to merely supportive roles, like intelligence providing and radio-signaljamming, as the Obama administration has suggested.

The idea that were never going to drop another bomb and withdraw ... I dont believeit for one minute, says Geoffrey Kemp, director of regional strategic programs at theCenter for the National Interest in Washington. If were not dropping bombs, well beshooting.

The CIA operatives that Mr. Obama has authorized to enter Libya are ostensibly thereto evaluate the Libyan rebels and their capacities, and eventually to assess wheresupplies might be directed if the US and other foreign powers decide to supply arms tothe Libyan forces fighting to oust Muammar Qaddafi.

But the CIA operatives are also providing information to guide airstrikes aimed at Mr.Qaddafis forces and other assets, administration officials have said.


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Obama has characterized the coalition taking over command from the US as verybroad-based encompassing not only NATO but also having the participation ofcountries from the Arab League. But not only are some NATO countries sitting on thesidelines of the operation Germany is a prime example but so far, only three Arabcountries have actively joined the coalition, some military analysts point out.

President Bush, some Republican foreign-policy analysts note, was ridiculed forclaiming to have assembled an international coalition to invade Iraq when it was largelya US operation. They point out that the Iraq war at one point included militarycontributions from more than three dozen countries, considerably higher than the Libyaoperation so far.

But whats clear, some say, is that Obamas intention is to put the US in the role ofsomething like best supporting actor. That being a new role for the US, they add, it maytake some time to see how this works.

I think [Obamas] objective is indeed to draw the US away from the cutting edge ofthis operation, says Stefan Halper, a senior fellow at the University of CambridgesCentre of International Studies in England. He wants to save money, and he doesntwant the US leading a military intervention in a Muslim country for a third time.

But the fact remains that there are some things that only the US can do. No one shouldbe surprised that the CIA is in Libya, Dr. Halper says, since perhaps the only otherintelligence organization that could approach the CIAs capacities would be the BritishSAS.

Others say Obamas intentions may in the end be thwarted, if the Libya operation dragson and outlives the capacities of other militaries involved in the mission. Neither [theFrench nor the British] has the ability to sustain operations for any length of time, saysCharles Boyd, a retired US Air Force general now at the Center for the National Interest.

The reality, Mr. Boyd says, is that the smell of an international operation eventuallyseen to go bad would stick to the US. But others suggest that may not matter.

Obama is likely to remain unscathed even if his assertions about an American retreat toa supporting role in Libya dont match reality, some observers say.

Mr. Kemp of the Center for the National Interest speaks of a high capacity of theAmerican public and Congress to live with ambiguity and nuance as long, he adds,as there are no American casualties.-------------------------Liberia Uneasily Linked to Ivory Coast Conflict (NYT)By SIMON AKAM


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March 31, 2011PH-KANHOUBLI, Ivory Coast Standing by a burned-out house on a roadspeckled with spent ammunition casings, Brig. Gen. Gueu Michel, the commander ofrebel forces in western Ivory Coast, outlined his plan to stem an influx of Liberianmercenaries he said were fighting for Ivory Coasts embattled strongman, Laurent

Gbagbo.

Gbagbos troops are composed of the Ivorian Army, the Liberian mercenaries and themilitia, he said recently, pointing to a carefully folded map. We want to cut off themercenary flow into Cte dIvoire.

But the traffic at the border moved in two directions. As General Michels troops gainedground, a tide of refugees escaping the crisis crossed the porous and remote border intoLiberia, a country with a fragile grip on stability itself.

According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 people have fled to Liberia, anexodus visible in the women with bundles on their heads and babies on their backs,trudging on or sitting exhausted by trail sides. And as the struggle over Ivory Coastspills beyond its borders, many fear it will rattle a region still trying to recover from itsown history of civil war.

Its a serious threat to the stability of Liberia and, I might say, to the stability of allneighboring countries, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia said in an interview.

Theres been a lot of investment for peace in this subregion; were beginning to see the

result of that investment, she added. If nothing is done to resolve the crisis, all ofthese efforts will be undermined.

Ivory Coast was once a bastion of stability in a troubled region, its skyscraper-studdedcommercial capital, Abidjan, a favored expatriate posting. Then a civil war in 2002 leftIvory Coast divided between a south loyal to Mr. Gbagbo and a rebel-controlled north.

Ivorians went to the polls in November to heal those wounds, but Mr. Gbagbo refusedto step down after losing to his rival, Alassane Ouattara, prompting a long standoffwith the international community and, now, a rebel advance to try to expel Mr. Gbagboby force.

As part of that campaign, General Michels entourage included fashionable young menin sunglasses and civilian clothes alongside fighters in fatigues carrying Kalashnikovs.The general himself wore a neatly pressed uniform, with a name tag on his breast, andinsisted he was operating under the command of Mr. Ouattara.


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Liberian and United Nations officials said the general was correct to suspect Liberianmercenaries of crossing into Ivory Coast to help Mr. Gbagbo stay in power. Harrison S.Karnwea Sr., Liberias interior minister, pointed to the recovery of a Liberian voterregistration card from a combatant inside Ivory Coast.

According to what we hear, both sides are recruiting Liberian mercenaries, he said.When people have been used to living on violence, they have got no profession to earntheir living on.

But officials contended that the biggest risk to regional destabilization was the exodusheading in the other direction. Liberia is profoundly fragile after being consumed bycivil war for much of the 1990s, a conflict that created warlords and drugged-up childsoldiers. Today, eight years after the end of hostilities, there are still 8,000 UnitedNations troops in the country. While Liberias entire budget is $375 million, thepeacekeeping mission costs $500 million a year, the United Nations said.

Ellen Margrethe Loej, the head of the United Nations Mission in Liberia, is mostconcerned about arms from Ivory Coast crossing the border. After the civil war,disarmament was fairly if not very successful in Liberia, but there are still a lot ofweapons around in Cte dIvoire, she said. The border is very porous.

A generation of young Liberians knew only war, and at least some found opportunityin taking part in it. Since then, great efforts have been made to encourage a differentway of life.

Liberias taken the last seven years and some months to rein in the guys who had beenfighting, said Michael McGovern, a political anthropologist at Yale who studies WestAfrica. Now, he said, there is a risk of people being torn out of the social fabric theyhad been woven back into.

The refugees have already overwhelmed some villages. At Old Pohan, a Liberiansettlement next to the thickets that extend to the border, refugees greatly outnumberedthe local population, and more were arriving all the time.

We dont have sleeping places, and the refugees are more than us; no food, said avillager, Victor Gaye.

The refugees themselves, some wearing Laurent Gbagbo campaign T-shirts thatsuggested they were opposed to the advancing rebels, spoke of a desperate trek southafter an attack on the Ivorian town of Blolquin.

We were in the bush for one week, said Zou Bah Suzanne, 52. Since I arrived, Iwant food to eat, I want a sleeping place to lie down.


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With tens of thousands of refugees already in Liberia, United Nations officials said theywere struggling to muster an international response, at a time when many other criseswere demanding the worlds attention.

If you see the news in any international TV channel today you see Libya, Libya,Libya, said Antnio Guterres, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees,during a tour of affected areas in Liberia.

Seeking to move the Ivorians away from border settlements, the United Nations hasopened a camp about 25 miles inside Liberia. Lines of tents stretch out in freshly clearedjungle, itself dust-blanched at the end of the dry season.

But only a few thousand refugees have come, because those at the border do not wantto go farther, some already having settled for weeks.

Refugees are also starting to cross in significant numbers into eastern Ghana, which isfar more stable than Liberia. But Abidjan, which rebel forces reached on Thursday, liesclose to the border, potentially sending a surge of refugees into Ghana.

Ivory Coast has millions of foreign laborers, including many from Burkina Faso. If theyare forced to flee, their home country, which is desperately poor, may struggle toaccommodate them.

If there is a total collapse of the economy, there will be a further social impact on their

countries of origin, Mr. Guterres said.Konate Sidiki, a former Ivorian minister of tourism, now the secretary of organizationfor the rebels, argued that despite the humanitarian consequences, there is no othersolution but force against Mr. Gbagbo.

For three months we try to discuss, we try to negotiate, he said.---------------------Ivory Coast: 'Heavy fighting' near Gbagbo residence (BBC)By Unattributed AuthorMarch 31, 2011There has been heavy fighting in Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan, between forces loyalto the UN-recognised president, Alassane Ouattara, and supporters of incumbentLaurent Gbagbo.

Witnesses have reported hearing intense gunfire near Mr Gbagbo's residence, while MrOuattara's supporters say they have taken control of state television.


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His government earlier closed Ivory Coast's borders and declared a curfew.

Mr Gbagbo has refused to relinquish the presidency since November's election.

But the national army has put up almost no resistance since Mr Ouattara's supporters

launched an offensive on Monday.

Pro-Ouattara forces reportedly now control about 80% of the country.

'Final assault'

As the battle for control of the country appeared to reach a climax, gunfire was heardaround several strategic buildings in Abidjan.

Heavy fighting was reported close to the headquarters of RTI state TV and Mr Gbagbo's

residence, both in the northern district of Cocody.

"The gunfire has been intense and they're shooting in four or five directions at a time.There's a lot of people," a resident told the AFP news agency. "It looks like a finalassault."

A spokesman for Mr Ouattara's government, Patrick Achi, said the former presidenthad so far shown no signs of giving up.

Mr Gbagbo has not been seen in public for weeks. His residence is mainly protected by

members of the elite presidential guard, and is located on a peninsula in Abidjan'slagoon.

Mr Achi also said Ouattara loyalists had taken control of RTI. This could not beconfirmed, but the channel went off-air late on Thursday.

Earlier, Mr Ouattara's government said Ivory Coast's land, sea and air borders had beenclosed until further notice. It also declared that there would be a curfew from 2100 GMTto 0600 GMT in Abidjan until Sunday.

Inside Ivory Coast's captured capitalAnd after looting was reported in several parts of the city, UN and French peacekeeperstook control of Abidjan's international airport.

The BBC's John James in Bouake says growing panic seems to be setting in among MrGbagbo supporters, especially following the decision of the head of the army, GenPhillippe Mangou, to seek refuge with his wife and five children at the home of theSouth African ambassador.


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On Thursday evening, Mr Ouattara's television channel featured several high-levelmilitary officers pledging allegiance to his government. A source also told the BBC thatthe head of the gendarmerie, Edouard Kassarate, had defected.

The head of the UN mission, Choi Young-jin said that as many as 50,000 soldiers, policeand gendarmes had abandoned Mr Gbagbo, with only the Republican Guard andspecial forces personnel remaining loyal.

"[My troops] have come to restore democracy and ensure respect of the vote by thepeople," Mr Ouattara said in an address. "To all those who are still hesitating, whetheryou are generals, superior officers, officers, sub officers, rank-and-file... there is still timeto join your brothers-in-arms."

Western diplomats say it is only a matter of time now before Mr Gbagbo flees or is

captured, our correspondent says.

Mr Ouattara's government is giving assurances that the outgoing president will not beharmed, he adds. They say, instead, that Mr Gbagbo will be made available to theInternational Criminal Court.

Lightning advances

Earlier, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon again demanded that Mr Gbagboimmediately cede power to Mr Ouattara "to enable the full transition of state

institutions to the legitimate authorities".The US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Johnnie Carson, urged bothsides to exercise restraint and protect civilians. Both Mr Gbagbo and his wife would beheld accountable if significant violence broke out, he added.

Mr Ouattara was internationally recognised as president last year, after the electoralcommission declared him winner of the November run-off vote.

The UN, which helped organise the vote, certified it as legitimate. However, Mr Gbagboclaimed victory after the Constitutional Council overturned Mr Ouattara's win.

The forces supporting Mr Ouattara have made lightning advances since Monday,moving out from their base in the northern half of the country.

On Wednesday, his fighters captured Ivory Coast's capital, Yamoussoukro, and the keyport of San Pedro. Mr Gbagbo's hometown of Gagnoa also fell.


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Since the crisis began in December, one million people have fled the violence - mostlyfrom Abidjan - and at least 473 people have been killed, according to the UN.

Sanctions and a boycott on cocoa exports in what is the world's biggest producer ofcocoa beans have brought West Africa's second-biggest economy to its knees, with

banks closed for more than a month.

An armed rebellion in 2002 split the nation in two - a division the elections were meantto heal.----------------------US Names New Sudan Envoy Amid Concern Over Abyei (VOA)By David GollustMarch 31, 2011The Obama administration on Thursday named veteran diplomat Princeton Lyman asits new special envoy for Sudan. The announcement came amid growing U.S. concern

about tensions in Sudans central Abyei region that threaten the countrys north-southpeace process.

Lyman came out of retirement last year to become the administrations advisor onSudans north-south negotiations, and he is taking on the wider role of Sudan specialenvoy amid worrisome north-south tension in Abyei.

The status of oil-rich Abyei, which straddles Sudans north-south dividing line, remainsundecided despite Januarys referendum in which southerners voted for independence.

Reports in recent days speak of a military buildup by both sides in Abyei, which isnominally demilitarized under Sudans 2005 peace accord.

At a press event introducing Lyman as the administrations choice to replace formerU.S. Air Force General Scott Gration as Sudan envoy, Secretary of State Hillary Clintonvoiced concern about what she called the "dangerous standoff" in Abyei.

"We call on both sides to take immediate steps to prevent future attacks and restorecalm. Violence is simply unacceptable. The deployment of forces by both side is inviolation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and undermines the goodwillfrom Januarys referendum, which was a very important foundation for the peacefulfuture of Sudan," he said.

Abyei was supposed to vote in January on whether to become part of the north orsouth, but the polling was postponed because of disputes over voter eligibility.


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Clinton, with new envoy Lyman at her side, praised the Sudanese governments role inallowing the vote in the south to be held without coercion and for moving the processforward since January with a spirit of cooperation.

The Obama administration has laid out a "road map" for normalizing relations with

Khartoum that is dependent on its cooperation. Lyman told reporters he expects adecision removing Sudan from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism at the time thesouth becomes independent in July.

Lyman, a former Assistant Secretary of State, also credited the Khartoum governmentwith helping to revive long-running negotiations in the Qatari capital, Doha, amongSudan and rebel groups on a settlement of the Darfur conflict.

"Whats happened most recently is that the Doha process has suddenly taken on life.JEM [i.e., the Justice and Equality Movement], which is one of the big rebel groups, has

now rejoined the process. Theyre working from the same text. [Sudanese] President[Omar al-] Bashir was there yesterday saying we support the Doha process, which is astep forward because they werent clear on that. So thats an important step," he said.

Lyman said the U.S. diplomatic point man for Darfur, Dane Smith, will return to theregion next week, and that he himself will leave Washington Saturday on his firstmission as special envoy, for meetings in Sudan and Ethiopia.

Scott Gration, the previous U.S. Sudan envoy, has been named by President BarackObama to be the next U.S. ambassador to Kenya.

------------------------------------UN News Service Africa BriefsFull Articles on UN Website

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AFRICOM Related News Clips 1 April, 2011

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