Zuma in Tripoli

conflict with rebels fighting to oust the Libyan leader.
Zuma was greeted at Maatiga Military Airport, just outside the capital, by Gaddafi’s prime minister, Baghdadi al-Mahmudi, before the two leaders went into a meeting.
As he descended from his aircraft onto the tarmac, more than a dozen activists welcomed him brandishing portraits of Gaddafi and chanting songs about the Libyan leader.
Zuma arrived with his own security, including 40 heavily armed soldiers mounted on four pick-up trucks from the South African army.
The South African leader is seeking an immediate ceasefire, to boost humanitarian aid and bring about reforms needed to eliminate the cause of the conflict which erupted amid anti-regime protests in mid-February. Ahead of the trip, Zuma’s office said its main objectives include an immediate ceasefire, enabling the delivery of humanitarian aid and adopting and implementing reforms to eliminate the causes of the conflict.
But it rejected as “misleading” reports the talks would focus on an exit strategy for Gaddafi, saying the visit is part of African Union efforts to end the conflict between his forces and rebels fighting to oust him. Libyan state television said yesterday that Zuma was going to discuss the implementation of the AU “roadmap” for peace, as it reported fresh Nato raids on the Nafusa mountains in the far west and the town of Bani Walid, near Misrata.
In a statement on the eve of the visit, Zuma’s ruling African National Congress slammed the Nato bombing of Libya.
“We also join the continent and all peace loving people of the world in condemning the continuing aerial bombardments of Libya by Western forces,” it said after a two-day meeting of its executive council.
Zuma’s visit is his second since the conflict began. His previous trip made little progress because Gaddafi has refused to relinquish power while rebel leaders say that is a pre-condition for any truce.
Nato warplanes have been raising the pace of their air strikes on Tripoli, with Gaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziyah compound in the centre of the city being hit repeatedly. Britain said on Sunday it was to add “bunker-busting” bombs to the arsenal its warplanes are using over Libya, a weapon it said would send a message to Gaddafi that it was time to quit.
“Our operation in Libya is achieving its objectives . . . We have seriously degraded Gaddafi’s ability to kill his own people,” Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a Nato forum in Varna, Bulgaria.
“Gaddafi’s reign of terror is coming to an end. He is increasingly isolated at home and abroad. Even those closest to him are departing, defecting or deserting.”
Gaddafi denies attacking civilians, saying his forces were obliged to act to contain armed criminal gangs and al Qaeda militants. He says the Nato intervention is an act of colonial aggression aimed at grabbing Libya’s plentiful oil reserves. Britain and other Nato powers are ratcheting up the military intervention to try to break a deadlock that has seen Gaddafi hold on to power despite a rebel uprising against his four-decade rule and weeks of air strikes.
US Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander of the Joint Operations Command at Naples, declined to comment on whether Nato would put forces on the ground but suggested a small force may be needed to help the rebels once Gaddafi’s rule collapses. He told the Varna forum: “I would anticipate that there might be a need at some point to unfold a small force . . . a small number of people there to help them in some way.”
Britain said the Enhanced Paveway III bombs, each weighing nearly a tonne and capable of penetrating the roof or wall of a reinforced building, had arrived at the Italian air base from where British warplanes fly missions over Libya.
“We are not trying to physically target individuals in Gaddafi’s inner circle on whom he relies, but we are certainly sending them increasingly loud messages,” British Defence Secretary Liam Fox said on Sunday in a statement.
The military alliance says it is acting under a mandate from the United Nations to protect civilians from attack by security forces trying to put down the rebellion against Gaddafi.
But the more aggressive tactics risk causing divisions within the fragile alliance backing the intervention, and could also lead to Nato being dragged closer towards putting its troops on Libyan soil, something it is anxious to avoid. Further deepening their involvement, Britain and France have said they will deploy attack helicopters over Libya to better pick out pro-Gaddafi forces. Helicopters are more vulnerable to attack from the ground than high-flying warplanes.
Gaddafi’s foreign minister held talks in Tunisia on Saturday with Lord David Trefgarne, a former British government minister, according to a former British ambassador to Libya who took part in the discussions.
The ex-ambassador refused to disclose what they talked about and Britain’s government said neither it not any intermediaries were talking to officials loyal to Gaddafi.
Libyan state television reported that Nato air strikes killed 11 people in Zlitan yesterday, the next town westwards on the coast road towards Tripoli from Misrata. – AFP-Reuters.