Libyans urged to follow foreign minister's exit

“We encourage those around Gaddafi to abandon him,” the foreign minister of Britain has said.

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London - Britain said on Thursday the defection of Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa would encourage others close to Muammar Gaddafi to abandon the Libyan leader.

However, the former Libyan spy chief, who flew into Farnborough Airport, south of London, from Tunisia on Wednesday, looks likely to face questions over the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing in which 270 people were killed.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said Koussa had been his channel of communication to Gaddafi's government in recent weeks and he had spoken to him regularly.

Koussa had not been granted immunity from prosecution in Britain, Hague added. There are questions about how much he knew about the bombing over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

“He said that he is resigning his post. We are discussing this with him. We encourage those around Gaddafi to abandon him,” Hague told a news conference, later adding that Koussa was at an undisclosed “safe location” in Britain.

A government source said it was not clear which country he would end up in. Koussa is believed to have come to London with his son.

“His resignation shows that Gaddafi's regime, which has already seen significant defections to the opposition, is fragmented, under pressure and crumbling from within,” Hague said. “Gaddafi must be asking himself who will be the next to abandon him.”

A Libyan government spokesman confirmed that Koussa had resigned but said he did not know of any other official who had quit or left the country. “It was his (Koussa's) personal decision,” Mussa Ibrahim told reporters at a Tripoli briefing.

“BLOOD ON HIS HANDS”

Koussa, Western-educated and English-speaking, was involved in talks that led to the Libyan citizen convicted of the Lockerbie attack being released from a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds in 2009.

Scotland's Crown Office said prosecuting and investigating authorities had notified the Foreign Office that they wished to interview Koussa in connection with the Lockerbie bombing. “We will pursue all relevant lines of inquiry,” a spokesman said.

Rebel spokesman Mustafa Gheriani, speaking to Reuters at rebel headquarters in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, said Koussa had blood on his hands, accusing him of involvement in killings and torture in Libya and assassinations of exiled opposition members abroad.

Noman Benotman, a friend and analyst at Britain's Quilliam think-tank, said Koussa had defected because he opposed government attacks on civilians.

“This is a very brave move by Moussa Koussa and it could potentially have a devastating impact on morale within the Gaddafi regime,” Benotman said. - Reuters

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/libyans-urged-to-follow-foreign-minister-s-exit-1.1050406

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