Criminal Court in Indirect Talks With Qaddafi Son, Prosecutor Says

Criminal Court in Indirect Talks With Qaddafi Son, Prosecutor Says
By J. DAVID GOODMAN
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at The Hague said on Friday that he had been in indirect contact with Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, the fugitive son of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and his one-time heir apparent, about turning himself in to face trial before the court.

The prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said in a statement that he did not know the whereabouts of Mr. Qaddafi, and he did not identify the parties who were conveying messages for him.

Mr. Moreno-Ocampo also did not make clear whether the informal contacts had been initiated by Mr. Qaddafi, who has previously ridiculed the court as a tool of foreign powers hostile to the Qaddafi government. The court issued arrest warrants four months ago, at Mr. Moreno-Ocampo’s request, for Colonel Qaddafi, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi and Abdullah al-Sanousi, Colonel Qaddafi’s intelligence minister and brother-in-law, on charges of systematically killing civilians during the early days of the Libyan uprising.

There has been speculation that Mr. Qaddafi, who has eluded capture by the rebels who overthrew Colonel Qaddafi in late August, may have undergone a change of heart about turning himself over to court custody after his father was seized by rebel fighters, brutalized and killed on Oct. 20 in his hometown of Surt, an event captured on cellphone videos and widely circulated on the Internet.

“Through intermediaries, we have informal contact with Seif,” Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said. “The office of the prosecutor has made it clear that if he surrenders to the I.C.C., he has the right to be heard in court, he is innocent until proven guilty. The judges will decide.”

Mr. Moreno-Ocampo also said that the court was looking into the possibility of intercepting any plane that might be transporting Mr. Qaddafi in order to make an arrest.

Reuters, citing an unidentified member of Libya’s Transitional National Council, the interim government, reported Thursday that Mr. Qaddafi feared for his life and was seeking to arrange an aircraft to deliver him into the custody of the court from a desert hide-out in an unspecified location.

The only remaining Qaddafi son still to be accounted for, Seif has been a focal point for intense rumor and speculation during the week since Colonel Qaddafi was killed.

Officials in Niger, to the south of Libya, said that they had no information about Mr. Qaddafi’s whereabouts but that they would act on the international warrants if he were found to be in their country.

“If our armed forces intercept him, we are handing him over to the I.C.C.,” said Massaoudou Hassoumi, the chief of staff to Niger’s president, Mahamadou Issoufou. “For the moment our forces have not taken him. We have no idea if he is in Niger or not.”

Human rights groups, who have expressed growing alarm over evidence of reprisal killings and abuse committed by anti-Qaddafi forces in Libya, urged swift action in locating and arresting Mr. Qaddafi.

“The gruesome killing of Muammar Qaddafi last week underscores the urgency of ensuring that his son, Seif al-Islam, be promptly handed over,” said Richard Dicker, director of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch.

Unconfirmed news accounts from Libya and Niger have said that both Mr. Qaddafi and Mr. Sanousi, the former minister, had sought refuge in neighboring Mali and may be under the protection of the Tuareg tribesmen there who had good relations with the Qaddafi family.

Another uncorroborated account in Beeld, an Afrikaans-language South African newspaper, said that Mr. Qaddafi might be traveling under the protection of South African mercenaries, Agence France-Presse reported.

Mr. Moreno-Ocampo also said that there was “a group of mercenaries” willing to move Mr. Qaddafi to an African country where the government does not cooperate with the international court. In an interview with The Associated Press before boarding a plane to China, the prosecutor said that country was “probably Zimbabwe.”

Among Seif al-Islam’s six brothers, Muatassim and Khamis, military officers who commanded their own brigades, died during the uprising. The anti-Qaddafi forces said they killed Khamis in August as he and his bodyguards tried to break through a rebel checkpoint. Muatassim died while in the custody of former rebel fighters following the battle for Surt last week.

As of a week ago, another military brother, Saadi, had sought refuge in Niger. Of Colonel Qaddafi’s other children, Mohammed, Hannibal and his daughter, Aisha, fled to neighboring Algeria, and Seif al-Arab was believed to have been killed in an air raid in Tripoli.

Marlise Simons contributed reporting from Paris, and Adam Nossiter from Tripoli, Libya.

US Envoy: Libya Death Toll Could Be 30,000

US Envoy: Libya Death Toll Could Be 30,000
Says Reliable Numbers Will Come Once Troops Are 'On the Ground'
by Jason Ditz, April 27, 2011
Antiwar Forum 
Speaking today at the State Department, US Ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz said he had seen various estimates of the overall death toll of the violence in Libya, and that the toll could be as high as 30,000. The figure is dramatically higher than rebel estimates, which put the toll at 8,000 as of mid-March.
Perhaps more interesting, Cretz said that he didn’t think the US could get an accurate number “until we really get more hands-on experience on the ground.” The administration has repeatedly 
denied plans to send ground troops to Libya.
The tolls inside Libya are virtually impossible to verify at this point, with foreign media being kept largely sequestered from the action. Even the 8,000 toll from March was seen as surprisingly high, however, making the 30,000 toll far more than anyone likely expected.
Though still officially the ambassador, Cretz has been in DC since January, when he was recalled by the Obama Administration. Officials insisted it was unrelated, but the move came in the wake 
of Wiki Leaks cables in which he mocked Gadhafi.
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U.S.: Libya death toll as high as 30,000
 As many as 30,000 may have died in the conflict thus far. 
(AP) (CBS/AP)  WASHINGTON — 
The death toll in Libya after more than two months of violence could reach as high as 30,000, an Obama administration official said Wednesday.
Gene Cretz, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, said it is very hard to gauge how many people have died in strongman Moammar Gadhafi's crackdown on protesters and the subsequent fighting between rebels and pro-government forces.
But he said that U.S. officials have seen figures ranging from 10,000 to 30,000.
"I don't think we're probably going to get an accurate number until we really get more hands-on experience on the ground," Cretz told reporters at the State Department in Washington. "We just have no sense of the scale of this thing until it's over."
As recently as two weeks ago, Libyan rebel leaders told Al Jazeera they estimated the death toll to be around 10,000 or so. 
Many observers say it will be impossible to know the exact human cost of the fighting in Libya for some time, as human rights groups and journalists have been limited in their ability to report in the country because of the dangers presented by the back-and-forth fighting between the rebels and government troops. 
Cretz said the U.S. keeps getting reports of "bodies that have been uncovered on the beach" as it maintains communication with contacts it established when it operated an embassy in Libya.
He also described Libya's Transitional National Council in Benghazi as a "political body that is worth our support," suggesting that the United States could provide further assistance to individuals seeking to set up an alternative system governance to Qaddafi's 42-year 
dictatorship.
However, Cretz stopped short of saying the administration would recognize the council as Libya's legitimate government as NATO allies France and Italy have done.
He spoke a day after the administration eased its sanctions on Libya, allowing opposition forces to sell the oil it controls and use the income to buy weapons and other supplies, while the White House ordered the expenditure of up to $25 million in surplus, non lethal goods and commodities to support and protect the rebels.