China denies blocking release of frozen Libyan assets

Beijing -- China denied Tuesday it has been obstructing the release of Libya's frozen assets, one day after Beijing recognized the rebel-led National Transitional Council as Libya's legitimate governing body.
Earlier news reports had quoted the head of NTC as saying Beijing objected to the unfreezing of Libyan assets abroad -- estimated to be $170 billion -- beyond $15 billion for immediate needs.
"China has not opposed releasing the frozen funds in relevant discussions," said Jiang Yu, a foreign ministry spokeswoman, at a regular press briefing. "What we wanted was to have relevant countries provide clearer and more comprehensive information on the use of the funds and its supervision."
"We will continue to adopt a constructive and responsible attitude in dealing with this issue in the future," she added.
Despite years of close ties to Moammar Gadhafi and public criticisms of NATO's bombing campaign against regime loyalists, China Monday switched its diplomatic recognition to the NTC -- further isolating the former Libyan dictator now in hiding.
Some analysts view Beijing's abandonment of Gadhafi -- as well as its reported earlier obstruction of releasing frozen Libyan funds -- as a practical move aimed at protecting China's billions of dollars worth of investments in the North African country.
Chinese officials emphasize their decisions on Libya have been "responsible and principled" based on respect for the Libyan people, but they acknowledge Beijing's political and economic interests are also at stake.
"The NTC has stated that it would firmly adhere to the 'One China' policy and honor all previous treaties and agreements between Libya and China -- and we express our appreciation," Jiang said. "We hope to work with the NTC to promote a peaceful transition of bilateral ties and further develop them down the road."
China, which wields veto power at the U.N. Security Council, insists the United Nations spearhead the post-conflict reconstruction in Libya. Jiang said Beijing would reopen its embassy in Tripoli when security improves.

Last week China denied it had offered to sell $200 million worth of weapons to Gadhafi in the waning days of his rule.

Source : CNN

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Analysis: Battle for Libya not quite over

Ten days ago the vanguard of rebel forces streamed into the Libyan capital. Moammar Gadhafi's forces put up virtually no resistance, and it seemed that the end of Libya's six-month conflict was imminent.
The people of Tripoli could smell freedom; there was an anarchic euphoria about the city despite continuing gun battles.
Today the picture is less clear, and the future holds many questions. The joy at being liberated from Gadhafi's brutal and capricious rule is still unconfined, especially as residents celebrate the end of Ramadan.
Security in Tripoli has improved, but the humanitarian situation remains precarious, with water shortages especially a problem. The National Transitional Council's political leadership has not installed itself in any organized fashion as a government-in-waiting and there appears little command and control over the disparate groups of fighters consolidating their hold on Tripoli.


There also seems to be an emerging dispute within the NTC over who administers Libya's enormous sovereign wealth fund, while relations with neighboring Algeria are not exactly stellar.

Water and Basics

Much of Tripoli's water comes to the capital through a 1,700-kilometer pipeline from an aquifer deep in the Sahara desert, an area that is apparently still under the control of pro-Gadhafi forces. Basically, they have sabotaged the flow. The massive holding tanks to the south of Tripoli are said to be virtually empty, and 60% of the city's residents are without main water. Many have to rely on bottled or trucked water; others are using wells.
The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, said Tuesday that engineers were working to repair the pumping stations that bring in water from the desert, but it wasn't clear how long it would take to restore service. "The humanitarian situation in Libya demands urgent action," he said.
Supplies are beginning to arrive. The World Food Program sent in a convoy from Tunisia, carrying water, medical supplies and blood. The main road between the Tunisian border and Tripoli appears to be more secure, while the World Health Organization is sending 45 tonnes of medical supplies, as Tripoli's seaport is open again.
There are also other shortages -- especially of gasoline and cash. But the NTC is organizing tankers of fuel into the capital, and lines at gas stations (as well as prices) are now close to pre-war levels. CNN correspondents Wednesday reported that garbage collectors were out on the streets.
The cash shortages at banks should be eased with the decision by the U.N. sanctions committee to release $1.55 billion in Libyan assets that were being held in Britain.

Resistance

While resistance from Gadhafi forces has effectively ended in the capital, it continues elsewhere with fighting reported in some parts of the country, most notably Gadhafi's home town of Sirte, Sabha and points to the south.
The rebels have given pro-Gadhafi elements in Sirte, about 400 kilometers east of Tripoli, until Saturday to surrender or face attack. "Unfortunately, to preserve blood sometimes you have to shed blood," said the newly appointed deputy prime minister of the NTC, Ali Tarhouni. Sabha, deep in the desert, is an important junction leading to the Algerian and Chadian borders. Another pro-Gadhafi hold-out is Bani Walid, south of Misrata. Royal Air Force jets targeted three command and control buildings there on Monday.

NATO has acknowledged that resistance from Gadhafi forces is not over. "The pro-Gadhafi troops that we see are not in total disarray. They are retreating in an orderly fashion," said NATO spokesman Colonel Roland Lavoie Tuesday. Gadhafi had the ability "to exercise some level of control and command," he said.
On Wednesday, Saif al Islam Gadhafi, one of Gadhafi's sons still in hiding, broadcast a defiant message via a TV station in Syria. Gadhafi did not divulge the whereabouts of his father, but said, "The leader is fine. We are fighting and we are drinking tea and drinking coffee and sitting with our families and fighting." Saif said he was speaking from a suburb of Tripoli, but there was no way of independently confirming his whereabouts.
It is unclear whether the remnants of the pro-Gadhafi forces will reorganize underground and begin an Iraq-style insurgency, or whether they will just melt away. While there is no occupying power to focus on, tribal and sectarian rivalries in Libya run deep. 

NTC troubles

The rebel fighters don't exactly march in step. Different groups from different parts of the country patrol different parts of the capital. There is no overall command, despite the appointment of Abdel Hakimal-Hasadi to lead the Tripoli Military Council. Hasadi is also known as Abdelhakim Belhaj, a former jihadist who was an important figure in the militant Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. An effective military leader, Hasadi's past unsettles others in the loose rebel coalition.
Some fighters have reached Tripoli from Misrata in the east; while some have come from the mountains to the south-west. There was little co-ordination ahead of their arrival in Tripoli. The NTC leadership in Benghazi tried to exercise some influence over the rebels in the west, but never had direct control over their campaign.
Rifts within the NTC's military leadership were exposed in July with the murder of the overall commander, Fatah Abdel Younis. The NTC's investigation into his killing continues but has been shrouded in mystery; Younis' supporters say they want answers.
Some of the NTC's Executive Committee and other senior officials are now in Tripoli; others are still in Benghazi or Doha in Qatar. There are clearly disagreements and competition among them for influence. The Financial Times reported Wednesday that there was a tussle for control of Libya's $65 billion sovereign wealth fund, with two different officials named to take control of it. Tarhouni, who holds the Oil and Finance brief for the NTC, has promised more clarity in coming days.

Squabble with the neighbors

The escape to Algeria of Gadhafi's wife and two of his sons, along with their families, has deepened the mistrust between the NTC and Libya's powerful neighbor.
Algeria described the move as a humanitarian gesture, but it angered the NTC, with one official calling it "an aggressive act." The NTC has previously accused the Algerian government of supporting the Gadhafi regime; the Algerians have complained to the United Nations about damage done to their embassy soon after the rebels entered Tripoli.

NTC officials are trying to play down any differences with Algeria. Tarhouni told CNN Tuesday that relations with Algeria were good, and the Algerian authorities would not permit Moammar Gadhafi to cross the border.

Source : CNN

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Gadhafi's Ukrainian nurse talks about life with 'Daddy'

Mogilnoye, Ukraine -- In the Ukraine house where she grew up, Oksana Balinskaya's hazel eyes transfixed on television images of Moammar Gadhafi.
He was now a fallen leader, a fugitive sought for justice. He had been known as the ruthless leader of a pariah state, a butcher, a delusional man divorced from reality.


But Balinskaya, 25, who served as one of Gadhafi's five Ukrainian nurses for nearly two years, had always seen him in a different light.
She had checked his blood pressure, monitored his heart, stuck him with a needle to draw blood, gave him vitamins and pills for his ailments, though he didn't seem to have many. He was a healthy man.
She even called him "Daddy." All the Ukrainian nurses did. It was a nickname they used to speak about him among themselves, without attracting attention.
"Daddy gave us jobs, money and a good life," she said.
Far removed now from the sands of Libya, Balinskaya sat at the kitchen table with her Serbian husband, looking upward at the boxy TV set atop the refrigerator. Images of Gadhafi's fiery defiance flashed in the face of ouster.
She would feel sorry for him if he were killed or captured, she said.
"Gadhafi was quite considerate to us," she said. "He would ask us whether we are happy and whether we have everything that we need."
Every September, on the anniversary of his rise to power, Gadhafi presented souvenirs to his Ukrainian nurses and other members of his inner circle. Balinskaya received a medallion and a watch etched with his picture.
She took turns with the other nurses accompanying him on foreign trips, sometimes sparking rumors spread in the media about Gadhafi's harem.
All of what was being said about Gadhafi seemed contrary to what she knew about the man -- including the allegations by Gadhafi family nannies and domestic staff that they were tortured and abused.
Gadhafi, she said, always treated her very well.
Her job now lost to Libya's civil war, she pitied the nation.
"If it were not for Gadhafi, who else would have built it?" she said. "It was he who constructed it. He has transferred Libyans from camelbacks into cars."

The rules were strict: No lipstick

By the time Gadhafi visited Ukraine in October 2009, Balinskaya had graduated from nursing school in Kiev and been working in the area of her native Mogilnoye for three years. But life was not easy in Ukraine; she was making only $125 a month.
She knew of opportunities in Libya and had already submitted an application for work there. It was an opportunity to make a better life for herself. Salaries were higher in Libya and she would receive housing and other perks.
She had been waiting for about a month to hear back when Gadhafi arrived on his state visit to Ukraine.
A meeting was arranged for him to meet six personal nurse candidates. Balinskaya was one of them.
She knew little about Gadhafi then and felt nervous at their first meeting. Three of the six nurses had already worked in Libya and knew Arabic. Balinskaya thought she did not have a chance.
Gadhafi greeted them but Balinskaya found nothing special in the selection process.
"I don't know how he made the choice; perhaps he was a good psychologist," she said.
She learned later that he understood people from that first handshake, from that first gaze into their eyes.
Soon, she was on her way to Tripoli. Her job was solely to treat Gadhafi and his large family.
The rules were strict. The attractive Ukrainian nurses wore no flashy makeup or revealing clothes.
"Our appearance was very humble so as to not attract anybody's attention," she said. "We would never put on lipstick going to his house and have vivid colors in our clothes."
She was always surrounded by others -- Gadhafi's wife, children, grandchildren, officials within his inner circle.
"None of us had ever been one on one with him," she said. "There wasn't even a single room in his household where we could have possibly been left alone with him."
That's why she was shocked by the gossip that Gadhafi had sexual relationships with his foreign nurses.
Veteran Ukrainian nurse, Galina Kolonitskaya, 38, who had worked with Gadhafi for nearly a decade, was described in a U.S. diplomatic cable posted by WikiLeaks as a "voluptuous blonde" who "knows his routine." It said the Libyan dictator was deeply attached to her.
"Galina was the same kind of nurse as we all were," Balinskaya said. "She is of course a glamorous and very kind woman with a big heart. She helped me a lot.
"I don't know who created this image about us nurses, as well as about his female bodyguards," she said. "How could anyone in sane mind assume that we could have had any intimate relationship with Gadhafi?"

Hoping to return to Libya

Both Balinskaya and Kolonitskaya left Libya in February when the uprising against Gadhafi took root.
But it was not just the threat of war that prompted Balinskaya to leave.
She was pregnant then and had started showing. She returned to her native Mogilnoye, a village south of Kiev. Her husband Dejan, a 38-year-old Serbian businessman, joined her there.
A month ago, as Gadhafi's regime teetered, Balinskaya gave birth to a baby boy.
Journalists were also eager to hear Kolonitskaya's tales of Gadhafi, lining up at her apartment door. But she has avoided publicity.
"All that gossip about her is untrue," Balinskaya said. "She was totally fed up. There was too much attention on her for no reason."
The nurses, she said, had no personal relationship with Gadhafi.
"I can only say good things about him," she said, thinking of the comfortable life she had in Libya, dreaming of how to make it happen again.
"I very much hope that we will return to Libya," she said, flipping through an album with photographs of herself in Libya.

Only, it will be a different Libya now. One without Gadhafi. Without "Daddy."

Source : CNN

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Gadhafi loyalists given one more week to surrender

Tripoli, Libya -- Libya's interim leadership gave Moammar Gadhafi loyalists one more week to surrender before they face military force in the last bastions of the strongman's power.
But with the olive branch came a threat.
Anti-Gadhafi forces are positioning around the former leader's hometown, Sirte, and Bani Walid, where a powerful tribe is sympathetic to Gadhafi, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council, said Saturday.
"This extension does not mean we are unaware of what Gadhafi's accomplices are up to," Jalil said at a news conference, countering earlier criticism that a grace period might give Gadhafi's forces to regroup.
Ali Tarhouni, the interim deputy prime minister and oil minister, said the city was close to falling.
"It's possible, although we are not sure, that the Bani Walid (tribe) has joined the revolution, and now it's under control of the revolutionaries," he said.
Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said key tribal leaders in Bani Walid are still loyal to Gadhafi.
Ibrahim told Reuters that Gadhafi, while not in Bani Walid, is still in the country. He said he did not know where.
"I know that very much he is in the country, which is for sure," Ibrahim said. "He is in a safe place, surrounded by many people who are prepared to protect him."
Anti-Gadhafi fighters from the east pushed toward Bani Walid Saturday, with virtually no resistance. They were able to reach El Mardum, which sits on the border of Bani Walid province and is home to Khamis Gadhafi's 32nd Brigade base.
The anti-Gadhafi forces entered the base and arrested three men in civilian clothes they claim were loyalists. They also were able to take seven armored personnel carriers.
National Transitional Council media coordinator Adel Zintani told CNN's Kareem Khadder that rebel fighters could enter Bani Walid by Sunday morning.
"The rebel fighters have surrounded the outskirts of Bani Walid on the western side," he said.
"Some tribal leaders and many of the residents have surrendered their weapons, but there are still many loyalists who are protecting Moammar Gadhafi and his sons," Zintani said.
Tarhouni said Libya's new leadership will move their headquarters from Benghazi to Tripoli next week to begin implementing political plans to shape a new future.
But for the time being, guns trump government on the streets of the capital.
Tripoli has become a city of checkpoints, weapons and no real authority as the threat of Gadhafi's loyalists lingers.
Jittery and suspicious anti-Gadhafi fighters blocked a road Saturday where a drive-by shooting occurred earlier. They collected weapons and registered them at police stations. Those who called themselves rebels just a week ago were now working with Tripoli's law enforcement authorities.
With Gadhafi's armories emptied, guns, always in large supply in Libya, have proliferated on the streets.
Those who want to carry weapons now must be issued identification cards but the selection process is not centralized -- neighborhood councils are making that decision.
A group called the Tripoli Revolutionary Council is trying to exert control over the city, creating potential for further conflict with the established National Transitional Council in a volatile situation.
Tarhouni, meanwhile, announced Saturday the formation of the Supreme Security Committee, which held its first meeting Friday. Among the priorities for the committee were the protection of public institutions and weapons in Tripoli.
Tarhouni said the committee agreed that protecting Tripoli will eventually fall under the Interior Ministry but for now, given the lack of police on the streets, the anti-Gadhafi brigades will take on that role under the watch of the new committee.
Many residents don't want to hand over their weapons, their sole source of security on a nation freed from a strongman's grip.
Azeldin Al-Hensheri said one man refused to turn in his gun.
"He said: 'No no no, I am a big guy. I am in power now. Gadhafi not here anymore. I am going to use my gun and shoot everywhere,' " Al-Hensheri said.
He said the man was killed by the rebels, summary justice prevailing.
Insecurity, compounded by dire shortages of water, food and gas, has punctured the celebratory air of victory with fear and anxiety.
After an international conference on Libya, held in Paris Thursday, a United Nations team was on the ground to re-establish the organization's presence to address immediate concerns.
"It is critical to ensure an immediate and effective U.N. presence on the ground to help identify and assist vulnerable people who have been particularly affected by the conflict and the disruption of services," said Panos Moumtzis, the global body's humanitarian coordinator for Libya, who arrived in Tripoli Thursday.
Food and water distribution -- about 60% of Tripoli is without drinking water -- has already begun.
The transitional council, meanwhile, is trying to get Libya's oil-dependent economy going again.
It expects to restart oil production at the Misla and Sarir oil fields in less than two weeks, said Tarhouni, the oil minister.
The council is also reportedly trying to build international relationships in order to beef up oil exports.
To that end, Russia invited new Libyan leaders to Moscow for talks on energy projects, the state-run RIA Novosti reported Saturday.
"They have proposed a discussion," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. "We invited some (Libyan) officials to Moscow at their request."
The NTC has said those NATO countries that gave them support during their fight with the Gadhafi regime "would have the priority in energy projects in the oil-rich country," RIA Novosti said.

Russia, a critic of the NATO bombings, only recently recognized the transitional council as Libya's governing authority.

Source : CNN

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