THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi may be offered a way out, even as the more than 40 nations gathered in London vowed to keep bombing his battered forces into submission.
The tough talk of relentless pressure aimed to oust the unpredictable and brutal despot who has ruled Libya for 41 years didn’t entirely drown out hints of possible exile and the possibility of avoiding a war crimes trial, with UN envoy Abdel-Elah Al-Khatib was headed to Tripoli.
Col. Gadhafi and his sons have so far vowed to fight to the death and unleashed a new salvo of furious accusations at what he calls Western “Crusaders.”
Still the possibility of exile remained.
“It depends on the country which may offer to welcome Gadhafi,” Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said.
American, British and Canadian warplanes are flying bombing runs from Italian airbases, but the government in Rome remains fearful that a prolonged civil war or Col. Gadhafi regaining the military advantage would threaten Italy with a flood of hundreds of thousands of Libyan refugees.
Mr. Frattini, said “no country” has yet offered the Libyan leader exile, “even the African countries which may be ready” to consider it. Africa’s other pariah despot, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, may be Col. Gadhafi’s best hope for a comfortable exile on the continent. Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, another Col. Gadhafi admirer, might also offer the Libyan leader safe haven. » | Paul Koring | Tuesday, March 29, 2011
