Mbeki slams West’s gunboat diplomacy against Gaddafi

aimed at overthrowing Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
In an open letter, Mbeki and other signatories have sharply criticised “the misuse of the UN Security Council to engage in militarised diplomacy to effect regime change in Libya”.
Some of the “Concerned Africans” who have signed the letter are to brief the press in Joburg today. The full text of the letter and list of signatories will be released at the briefing.
The signatories include former cabinet ministers Essop Pahad and Ronnie Kasrils, former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Njongonkulu Ndungane, author and poet Wally Serote, and foreign policy analysts Chris Landsberg and Siphamandla Zondi, and Mahmood Mamdani, of Makerere University in Uganda and the University of Columbia, New York. Other issues to be addressed in their open letter include:
l The UN Security Council’s rejection of political solutions to conflict.
l The need to allow the Libyans to decide their own fate without outside interference.
l The marginalisation of the African Union.
l The threat of the recolonisation of Africa, especially its resource-rich countries.
Meanwhile, it appeared that South Africa and the African Union had been sidelined from diplomatic efforts in the aftermath of the collapse of Gaddafi’s government. The International Contact Group, which has been conducting military operations in support of the Transitional National Council (TNC) rebels fighting Gaddafi, is planning to meet in Istanbul tomorrow to discuss how to manage a post-Gaddafi Libya. – www.iol.com.