TRIPOLI/TUNIS (Reuters) – The chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) has defected from Muammar Gaddafi’s administration and fled to Tunisia, a Tunisian security source said on Tuesday.
Libyan rebels fighting to end the leader’s 41 years in power also said they had information that Shokri Ghanem, 68, had defected, a move that if confirmed would be a blow to Gaddafi in his drive to crush a three-month-old rebellion.
“He is in a hotel with a group of other Libyan officials,” the Tunisian source told Reuters.
Rebels have taken Benghazi and the oil-producing east of the North African country, their insurgency helped by a NATO bombing campaign sanctioned by the United Nations to protect civilians. The military victory rebels had once sought seems a distant prospect and many pin their hopes on a collapse of central power in Tripoli, driven by defections and disaffection.
Rebels and Arab media reported on a previous occasion that U.S.-educated Ghanem had stepped down, but he later re-appeared and said he was in his office and working as usual.
Rebel finance and oil minister Ali Tarhouni told Reuters on a visit to Doha that he understood Ghanem had left his post.
Tarhouni said he hoped to represent Libya at an OPEC meeting in June. Since the start of unrest, Libya is estimated to have
lost two thirds of its oil output.
The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor sought on Monday an arrest warrant for Gaddafi, accusing him of killing protesters. Gaddafi says his military campaign is directed only against Islamist militants, mercenaries and criminals.
Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo also asked judges for the arrest of Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam and his spy chief brother-in-law Abdullah al-Senussi.
Russia hosted a representative of Gaddafi’s government in Moscow on Tuesday. It called on Tripoli to stop using force against civilians, comply fully with U.N. Security Council resolutions and withdraw armed groups from cities.
“The answer we heard cannot be called negative,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters; but he suggested Gaddafi’s government was conditioning such steps on NATO and rebels calling a halt to the use of force.
Libya was ready to look at peace proposals based on those suggested by the African Union and to comply with Security Council resolutions, he said.
“The only things that our interlocutors from Tripoli noted today was the necessity of the insurgents accepting analogous steps and that NATO also stopped bombing,” Lavrov said, adding that it remained to agree terms and a timeframe for a truce.
The talks indicate Russia’s desire to act as peace maker and preserve its influence in Libya, where it has billions of dollars of arms, energy and infrastructure deals.
Russia is one of five permanent Security Council members. It abstained from voting on the resolution authorizing military intervention in Libya and has accused NATO of going beyond the bounds of the resolution in its bombing.
PROSECUTOR’S EVIDENCE
Moreno-Ocampo said Tripoli attacked residential buildings, suppressed protests with live ammunition, used heavy artillery against funeral processions and deployed snipers to kill people leaving mosques after prayers.
Libyan officials have denied killing civilians, saying they were forced to take action against criminal gangs and al Qaeda militants. They say the NATO bombing campaign is an act of colonial aggression aimed at grabbing Libya’s oil.
NATO, which has been hitting targets in Libya for nearly two months, appeared to step up its bombing campaign on Monday with strikes in several towns and cities including Tripoli, according to Libyan state television and rebels.
In central Tripoli, NATO airstrikes hit two buildings on Tuesday, including one which a Libyan spokesman said contained files detailing corruption cases against government officials who had defected to the rebels.
Officials summoned reporters after the attack in the early hours to visit the two damaged buildings which they said housed internal security forces and Libya’s anti-corruption agency. One building was in flames.
“We believe that NATO has been misled to destroy files on their corruption cases,” said spokesman Mussa Ibrahim. Ambulances were at the scene of the buildings on either side of a street although there was no sign of any casualties.
BORDER FIGHTING
Thousands have been killed in the conflict, the bloodiest revolt of what has been called the “Arab Spring.”
Libyan rebels virtually abandoned the Dehiba-Wazzin border post on the frontier with southern Tunisia and at least three rebels were killed and many injured by Libyan government shell fire, a witness called Walid said on Tuesday.
The crossing serves as a supply route for rebels in Libya’s Western Mountains region and an exit point for injured fighters.
“There are lots of injured crossing over in ambulances from the Libyan side. We were told that some people were killed as well,” said a Reuters photographer at the border post.
Most of the rebels who manned the post have gone, leaving only three fighters at the crossing and shells fell frequently, the photographer said. Tunisian troops and a helicopter patrolled their side of the frontier.
Some shells fell on the Tunisian side, said the photographer and a local resident. They also reported heavy shelling around the Libyan village of Ghezaya in mountains near the crossing.
“Several shells have landed from the Ghezaya mountain. Some of them fell on Tunisian territory,” said the resident, who did not want to be identified.
(Reporting by Regan Doherty in Doha, Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow, Tarek Amara in Tunis, Souhail Karam in Rabat, Joseph Nasr in Berlin, Peter Apps in London, David Brunnstrom in Brussels, Anis Mili in Dehiba and Sami Aboudi in Cairo; Writing by Matthew Bigg; editing by Ralph Boulton)
