NEW GENERATION. Mustafa Saad, 5, holds a pre-Moammar Gadhafi flag during celebrations of the capture in Tripoli of his son and one-time heir apparent, Seif al-Islam, at the rebel-held town of Benghazi, Libya, early Monday, Aug. 22, 2011. Libyan rebels raced into Tripoli Sunday and met little resistance as Gadhafi's defenders melted away and his 42-year rule rapidly crumbled. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)
TRIPOLI –Libyan rebels Monday declared the “Gadhafi era” over after taking control of most of Tripoli, as jubilant fighters streamed into the capital to join battles near the strongman’s compound.
World leaders hailed the rebels’ dramatic rout on Sunday of loyalist forces in Tripoli, urging Moammar Gadhafi to admit defeat, as Libyans around the world celebrated the veteran leader’s imminent downfall.
“The Gadhafi era is over,” rebel chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil told a news conference in Benghazi, eastern Libya.
But Abdel Jalil also warned that he could quit as head of the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) if he loses control of the revolution, amid possible revenge acts by insurgents.
Abdel Jalil said he hoped Gadhafi, who faces an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity, would be “captured alive so that he will be given a fair trial.”
He congratulated the Libyan people “for this historic victory” and thanked NATO for its military support, while cautioning that “the real moment of victory is when Kadhafi is captured.”
He acknowledged the whole of Tripoli was not under rebel control and that Kadhafi’s whereabouts remained a mystery.
Abdel Jalil, a former justice minister who chairs the NTC, also called upon “our revolutionaries to respect the law and to let justice take its course,” rather than launch revenge attacks.
“My fear is some outlawed actions which are outside of the framework of orders they get from their leaders, specially acts of revenge … I object strongly to any execution outside the framework of the law,” he said.
On the political front, Abdel Jalil told Al-Arabiya news channel that his ad hoc government was preparing to move to Tripoli but that the pockets of resistance were delaying this.
Rebel military spokesman Mohammed Zawiwa told AFP the rebels seized control Monday of the state broadcaster in Tripoli.
“All the television stations controlled by the state have stopped transmitting (in Tripoli). Our fighters have gone in and taken control of the facilities,” Zawiwa said.
Elsewhere in Tripoli, rebel fighters packed in trucks, cars and pickups streamed during the day from liberated areas of western Libya towards the symbolic Green Square in the heart of the city, brandishing arms and honking horns, an AFP reporter witnessed.
Many of the rebels were waving flags of the revolution as they appeared to be heading to the square and then onwards to join rebels trying to snuff out the last pockets of resistance, especially outside Kadhafi’s Bab al-Azizya compound in Tripoli.
Rebel chief Abdel Jalil said it was difficult to tell whether Gadhafi has fled the country or remained within, pointing out that he could still be at his compound.
“The area around Al-Azizya is still a hot spot. There are forces that continue to fight the rebels. He (Gadhafi) could still be in Al-Azizya, or in neighbouring areas,” he said.
In Washington, the Pentagon said it believed Gadhafi was still in Libya.
Gadhafi broadcast three defiant audio messages on Sunday, vowing he would not surrender and urging the people of Tripoli to “purge the capital, even as rebel forces swept through the capital and took over waterfront Green Square.
But he has not been seen in public for weeks.
Hundreds of jubilant Libyans meanwhile converged on their embassies and consulates in Europe and elsewhere to raise the rebel flag and tear down the symbols of Gadhafi’s 42-year rule.
Some of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya’s diplomats announced they were defecting to the rebel administration while others deserted their representations.
France welcomed the apparent defeat of Gadhafi’s regime and said it would host a summit of the international “Contract Group” coordinating a response to the conflict.
“We have reached the tipping point. This is a subject of great satisfaction. France took risks, calculated risks, but the cause was just,” Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told reporters at his ministry in Paris.
“France has proposed an extraordinary meeting of the Contact Group at the highest level from next week.”
In London, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Gadhafi’s regime was in “full retreat” and he should give up any hope he has of clinging on to power.
Thousands of residents poured onto the streets of Tripoli Sunday night to welcome the rebels, congregating at Green Square, which they renamed Martyrs Square.
Many waved the red, black and green flag of anti-regime forces, dancing in joy and shouting Allahu Akbar (God is greatest). Some fired rifles into the air.
Similar scenes of jubilation were witnessed in Benghazi, the rebels’ bastion in the east, where tens of thousands of delirious residents danced and proclaimed the end of the regime of the “tyrant” Kadhafi.
The International Criminal Court, meanwhile, is seeking the transfer of Gadhafi’s captured son Seif al-Islam to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity, the court’s spokesman said Monday.
“The court as a whole is involved,” Fadi El-Abdallah told AFP, answering ‘yes’ when asked if that meant discussions were underway with the Libyan rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) over Seif al-Islam’s transfer.
Earlier Monday, the court’s prosecutor Louis Moreno-Ocampo said Seif al-Islam, 39, was arrested and in detention, calling for his swift transfer.
“We hope he can soon be in The Hague” to face judgment, Moreno-Ocampo said as he indicated he was planning to contact the “Libyan transitional government” later in the day.
Seif al-Islam is accused together with his father with orchestrating a plan to put down the Libyan revolt by “any means necessary” since it was sparked in mid-February.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), meanwhile, said that it had dispatched a ship with a capacity to carry 300 people to Tripoli to evacuate migrants.
“The boat, the Tasucu, is due to arrive in Tripoli on Tuesday and will leave for Benghazi as soon as IOM is able to successfully board the migrants,” said the inter-governmental agency.
Originally posted at 11:57 pm | Monday, Aug. 22, 2011