- Join the France 24 community here
- Log in
Latest update: 02/04/2011
- Libya - Muammar Gaddafi
Defecting foreign minister 'a sign of things to come'?
Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa has in the past spearheaded Libyan efforts to cooperate with the West. Now his defection has raised hopes that other Gaddafi confidants will follow his lead, potentially bolstering the coalition’s intervention.
By FRANCE 24 (text)
In the latest blow to the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa fled to Britain Wednesday evening, declaring that he no longer wished to represent Tripoli.
A statement provided by Britain’s Foreign Office spokesmen reported that Koussa had travelled to the UK under his own free will. Koussa has not been offered any diplomatic immunity from British or international prosecution.
Following Koussa’s departure, British Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters at a press conference that Britain encouraged others close to Muammar Gaddafi to flee. Hague went on to say, “Gaddafi must be asking himself who will be the next to abandon him”.
A top US official called the news “a very significant defection”. That sentiment was echoed by Ali El Rishi, the former Libyan minister of state immigration, who left as the uprising began. “This is an indication that Gaddafi’s brutal rule is about to be over,” he told FRANCE 24.
The 59-year-old Koussa, who became foreign minister in March 2009 after working as chief of Libya’s intelligence agency for 15 years, has been seen as a key figure in Libya’s efforts to bridge differences with the West before the recent crisis erupted. He is credited, for example, with helping ease relations between Libya and several NATO nations -- most notably the US and Britain. Specifically, Koussa is said to have persuaded Gaddafi to dismantle his nuclear weapons programme, facilitating the end of US trade sanctions.
Before that, in 1980, the US-educated Koussa was ambassador to Britain, but was expelled after giving an interview in which he stated that he wanted to eliminate the "enemies" of the Libyan government in Britain.
Koussa ‘could be beneficial’
Now his proximity to Gaddafi has raised hopes that Koussa will be of great utility to Britain by offering authorities information that could bolster the coalition’s intervention. “No one knows the regime better than Koussa. If there’s anything to know, he should be know it,” El Rishi said. “What’s going on in Libya, where they get their arms from, where they get their support from. He could be very beneficial.”
|
Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya’s recently resigned deputy ambassador to the UN, also agreed that Koussa could potentially provide a wealth of crucial information. “He knows how Colonel Gaddafi is directing the operations against the revolutionary forces and how he behaves even inside his own closed circle,” Dabbashi told FRANCE 24. “He will be willing to give more information about the crimes of Gaddafi and what he’s been doing against the Libyan people, not just in this period of February 15 until now, but a lot of information about the crimes of Gaddafi in the past.”
As for the future of Gaddafi’s inner circle, El Rishi thinks that Koussa’s departure is a probable sign of things to come. “Now, [ministers] see the man to whom they gave absolute loyalty is not the man they thought he was,” he said. “When push came to shove, [Gaddafi] was in it for himself and his kids, and he let his country go to ruin.”
“[Koussa] saw the writing on the wall,” El Rishi noted, adding later: “The military pressure is bearing fruit.”
Related Content
Breaking news from AFRICA, Maghreb and Sub-Saharan Africa
‘Darth Vader’ demands free land from Ukrainian government
Browse all editions
FRANCE 24 PARTNERS
Comments (3)
Peace in DRC as wellas anywhere else
People that are dying without help.
In our article of the month of August we condemned the violations of human rights whose populations' in Congo are victims of a government despot.
We noted the case of the activist of human right we quoted Chebeya and other atrocities being committed across the breadth of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
We should particularly welcome the resolution of the European Parliament on the multiple failures of the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo in terms of justice and protection of human rights.
We think this might be a small step in the direction of helping the Congolese people who, for more less 14 years (not counting them years of Mobutu’s dictatorship) faces atrocities and massacres committed by the actual dictatorial regime.
However it is important that for not only the European Parliament, but also the entire international community to look steadily into the Congo situation because in terms of what’s happening in the east of DR Congo, it looks inhuman not to find sustainable solutions. About 8 millions of Congolese have died there and it seems not to interest anybody.
To this we must add a fact that needs serious attention from the Congolese and the international community, without raising here the cases of Armand Tungulu and of many peaceful Congolese citizens killed in the Congolese capital, let us highlight here masquerade of putsch orchestrated by Kabila himself and his foals, causing arbitrary arrests of our fellow before they can face death. Indeed, the power does everything it can to stop the holding of elections next November from scratch by creating insecurity in the country.
Those citizens who are arrested are innocent people who might suffer death for a putsch that, in reality never happened. The Congolese are actually on the watch until only the elections to get rid of a dictator unacknowledged.
In addition to this game of putsch, the government in Kinshasa is requesting from the Brazzaville government the extradition of ex-FAZ in exile in Congo Brazzaville. This procedure is in bad shape and only intends to eliminate troublesome opponents of power. We ought to welcome the Congolese (Brazzaville) government's position that refuses to embark on this process and we encourage them to stick to it.
Also repeated poisonings that are organized by the regime and which Congolese are facing daily. There is currently a persistent rumour that the leader and father of democracy in Congo (Etienne Tshikedi) might be victim of it.
In view of the foregoing, we solemnly appeal to the Congolese in particular to self-care and fight vigorously by denouncing the dictatorship and any act by the power that violate citizens' rights and stop the machine of democracy.
And the European Parliament and the international community we acknowledge their recognition of failures of human rights in DR Congo. However it’s not only time of simply recognition but rather time to act through effective measures such as taken against the authorities in North Africa and moreover in Libya against Muammar Gadhafi and Laurent Gbabo in Ivory Coast.
Is it really not possible to intervene in DR Congo to pacify this country which means so much for the Africa continent and for the world?
By Abraham Ngongo BUANa
Human rights activist
International Amnesty member.
Koussa
What a load of rubbish, now the rebels are saying this defector was behind Lockerbie, why oh why would anyone trust either side in this INTERNAL conflict, get us out now and stop being Obamas lapdog.
Koussa's Defection
It is incredible that Gaddafi " let go " of his Foreign Minister so easily.We do not seem to be getting the true facts from the British,who apparently engineered the defection.
Post new comment