Tripoli: The Libyan government on Friday turned down an offer by the rebels on ceasefire, said a government spokesman.
What the rebels offered was not peace, said the spokesman here. Meanwhile, the spokesman also accused the Western coalition forces of “crimes against humanity,” as civilians had been bombed in the Western strikes.
The opposition said earlier Friday that they would cease fire if the government forces stopped their fighting on the opposion-held cities.
Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, head of the opposition’s interim governing council based in Benghazi, spoke during a joint press conference on Friday with Abdelilah Al-Khatib, the UN envoy. Al-Khatib is visiting the rebels’ de facto stronghold of Benghazi in hopes of reaching a political solution to the crisis embroiling the North African nation.
Abdul-Jalil said the rebels’ condition for a ceasefire is “that the Gaddafi brigades and forces withdraw from inside and outside Libyan cities to give freedom to the Libyan people to choose and the world will see that they will choose freedom”.
The rebels’ losses this week, and others before airstrikes began March 19, underlined the reality that their equipment, training and organisation were far inferior to those of Gaddafi’s forces. The recent changes appear to be an attempt to correct, or at least ease, the imbalance.
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