TRIPOLI, Libya — As President Barack Obama and Western allies reaffirm their resolve to force Moammar Khadafy from power, the government here is promoting an alternative: Letting the beleaguered Libyan leader remains as a figurehead who would ensure a transition to democracy.
In addition to contradicting the stated goals of the U.S. and its allies, the idea would seem absurd to rebels who have set up a de facto government in the eastern city of Benghazi and are seeking to end Khadafy’s four decades of violent and erratic rule.
That Khadafy’s aides would float the idea is, in part, a sign of how far the strongman’s prospects have fallen since the revolt began in February. Tripoli has lost control of much of the country, faces nightly and increasingly aggressive bombing attacks, and is grappling with severe fuel shortages that have angered residents and drained popular support. It is a country under siege.
But the proposal also illustrates a strategy that plays on fears of long-term instability and the possibility that if they fail to oust Khadafy, war-weary Western countries may, in months, begin to look for a way out.
The strategy seems to portray Khadafy as an aging, almost benevolent ruler who is willing to give up real power but must remain to prevent Iraq-style chaos in an oil-rich nation just across the Mediterranean Sea from Europe.
“Without Khadafy, we will not have democracy. We will have tribal feuds; we will have internal civil war; we will have al-Qaeda,” said Moussa Ibrahim, chief government spokesman. “Khadafy is the safety valve, not just for Libya — for the North African region, for Europe, for the States.”
The calculation here seems to be that the “figurehead” alternative would mollify demands for reform while allowing Khadafy and his family to remain in Libya, where they could avoid arrest warrants that may be issued in coming weeks by the International Criminal Court.
Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron, meeting Wednesday in London, vowed not to relax a fierce bombing campaign. Both leaders insisted Khadafy must go.
“There will not be a let-up in the pressure we are applying,” Obama said at a joint news conference.
Roundup
YEMEN: President refuses to resign as threat of civil war looms.
Yemen’s embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed Wednesday that he would not step down or allow his impoverished nation to become a “failed state” even as urban combat between government troops and armed tribesmen engulfed parts of the capital.
Both sides raised the specter of civil war as the three-day death toll rose to at least 69. After nightfall, residents reported heavy shelling that appeared to come from outside the city, targeting residential areas. The crackle of heavy gunfire could be heard in different parts of the city. Northwest of Sana, a brigade of Saleh’s presidential guard clashed with local tribesmen — showing that the fighting was spreading outside the capital.
On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department ordered nonessential U.S. diplomats to leave Yemen and urged private Americans to leave.
SYRIA: Opposition says children tortured, slain.
More than 25 children, some of them tortured, are among the victims of the Syrian government’s deadly crackdown on an uprising that has killed more than 1,000 people over the past two months, an opposition group says. The Local Coordination Committees in Syria, which helps organize the protests against President Bashar Assad, identified the children and the circumstances of their deaths. Syria has blocked media access in the country, making it impossible to verify the reports independently.
Some of the children died “under severe torture,” the group’s statement said, noting the children range in age from 5 and 17.
BAHRAIN: 4 protesters sentenced to jail.
A special Bahrain security court sentenced four demonstrators to a year in jail for involvement in anti-government protests, the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights said Wednesday. The convictions are part of a series of closed-door trials in a special court set up in March during a crackdown on the Shiite-led protests. Denver Post wire services
