In another confusing round of claims and counterclaims by the Libyan rebels, a spokesman for their most powerful militia commander said Wednesday that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi had been cornered in the Sahara, a report dismissed by a spokesman for the transitional government’s military.
Rebel leaders as well as officials in neighboring Niger said, meanwhile, that neither Colonel Qaddafi nor two of his most powerful sons had fled to that country, contrary to speculation after news organizations reported that 200 or more armed vehicles had headed there.
The State Department said that only 20 to 25 Libyans had crossed the border into Niger this week. They were being detained at government villas, pending discussions with the transitional Libyan authorities, said the department’s spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland.
Mohamed Bazoum, Niger’s foreign minister, told French radio from Algiers on Wednesday: “There’s no question that some people arrived. But it wasn’t at all of the order of magnitude that people have said. Two hundred vehicles, that’s inconceivable. Ten cars, maximum.”
In an interview later, Niger’s justice minister, Marou Amadou, said there had been three cars, followed later by a fourth, with 13 Libyans in all. The only Libyan government figure to arrive, he said, was Mansour Dhao, Colonel Qaddafi’s security chief. “The rest were students, shopkeepers,” he said. “You know, when people are fleeing, they don’t choose their companions.”
Mr. Amadou added cautions about the Libyan fighters who, he said, have been trickling across the border. Some, he said, could be nomadic Tuaregs, who roam the deserts of Mali, Niger, Algeria and Libya. “It could be really dangerous for the security of the region,” he said. “The desert is uncontrollable. The situation is complicated.”
Mr. Bazoum, who was at a regional security conference in Algiers, said the exodus of fighters from Libya was a major concern that added to worries about Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
The report that Colonel Qaddafi had been cornered came from Anis Sharif, the spokesman for Abdel Hakim Belhaj. Mr. Belhaj is the chairman of the Tripoli Military Committee and the leader of one of the biggest rebel militias.
Mr. Sharif said a number of rebel units had converged on an area in the desert where they had confirmed the presence of the fugitive Libyan leader. “We are waiting for the right moment to move in, and in the meantime we are tracking his movements,” Mr. Sharif said. “He doesn’t have a very strong protection with him, not as much protection as we had expected. He only moves at night to avoid NATO airstrikes.”
Mr. Sharif declined to identify the location, other than to say it was in the Sahara, which occupies more than half of southern Libya. He said that rebel forces had advanced to within 40 miles of Colonel Qaddafi’s location and that they had surrounded the area.
“He cannot escape,” he said, adding that he expected the rebels to move in soon.
But Abdulrahman Busin, the military press liaison, said that the report that Colonel Qaddafi had been surrounded was a rumor, and that there were also unconfirmed accounts that he was in convoy moving toward the Niger border.
Niger also borders Burkina Faso, which announced last month that it would grant asylum to Colonel Qaddafi. On Tuesday, however, officials there said he would be arrested if he arrived, The Associated Press said.
American diplomats in Africa have urged the governments in Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Chad and Burkina Faso to adhere to United Nations Security Council resolutions, indicating that the United States is trying to close off any potential escape routes for Colonel Qaddafi and his senior aides.
“We’re calling on all of these countries to make every effort to control their borders, to detain any Qaddafi regime officials, to confiscate contraband, any illegal weapons, and disarm them, and also to confiscate any wealth that might properly belong to the Libyan people,” said Ms. Nuland of the State Department.
nytimes
