AFP - International forces are seeking to weaken but not to kill Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi by bombarding his strategic sites, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Wednesday.
"Our aim is not to kill Kadhafi," Juppe said on news channel France 24, describing as "collateral damage" the death of one of the ruler's sons in a recent NATO air strike.
"We are targeting military sites in Tripoli" in an attempt to weaken Kadhafi's regime, which is in a fierce fight against rebels who are recognised by France.
"There is no question of getting bogged down in Libya," he added. "I hope that will last no longer than a few weeks, a few months at the most. But it is premature to talk of getting bogged down.
"We are carrying out strikes with the aim of destabilising Kadhafi's military capabilities and at the same time we are looking for a way to push for a political solution," Juppe said.
"We will continue with the strikes until we can neutralise this capability."
He rejected a ceasefire along the lines proposed by Kadhafi, which he said would risk partitioning the country between east and west. He insisted that Kadhafi's troops withdraw from towns they have occupied.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in an interview published Tuesday that France planned a conference of "friends of Libya" to work on political transition in the country. Paris recognises the rebels' Transitional National Council.
Juppe said that gathering would take place in the "coming weeks" and would be discussed by ministers at a Libya contact group in Rome on Thursday.
"The main aim is to develop a mechanism for financing the Transitional National Council," he said. "It is not very easy. There are Libyan assets that are frozen."
Short (very very short) list of killing:
ReplyDelete1. During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945 and the second on August 9, 1945.
Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki, with roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day.
2. The My Lai Massacre was the mass murder conducted by a unit of the U.S. Army on March 16, 1968 - unarmed citizens in South Vietnam, all of whom were civilians and a majority of whom were women, children (including babies) and elderly people.
3. NEVER FORGET THE 1965-66-67 MASS KILLINGS IN INDONESIA***It seems clear that from as early as 1953 the U.S. was interested in helping to foment the regional crisis in Indonesia, usually recognized as the "immediate cause" that induced Sukarno, on March 14, 1957, to proclaim martial law, and bring "the officer corps legitimately into politics."29
By 1953 (if not earlier) the U.S. National Security Council had already adopted one of a series of policy documents calling for "appropriate action, in collaboration with other friendly countries, to prevent permanent communist control" of Indonesia.
4. More than 20 years of armed conflict has devastated much of Afghanistan, creating what is now one of the poorest countries in the world. The deteriorating security situation and collapse of state infrastructure has left large sections of the population without access to basic services. Most do not have sufficient food, water or even shelter while an estimated 60-80% of the country’s people live on less than 1US$ a day. Serious human rights violations, substantial environmental damage and large-scale displacement of people also contribute to Afghanistan’s growing poverty and insecurity.
5. Iraq war - 104,924 recorded iraqi deaths, including 92,003 civilian deaths.
6. Serbia 1999 - About 3000 civilians were killed and more than 4,000 sustained serious injuries.
Three million children are endangered in our country as a result of war and bombardment by NATO.
After these barbarian attacks hundreds of thousands citizens have been exposed to poisonous gasses which can have a lasting consequences on the health of the entire population and the environment.
Short list fro thema: ICC to seek three US NATO war crimes warrants...