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France Joins Britain in Sending Military Advisers to Libya's Rebels

   VOA News  April 20, 2011
   France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, right, with Libyan National
   Transitional Council's Mustafa Abdel Jalil after a meeting at the
   Elysee Palace, Paris, April 20, 2011

Photo: AP

   France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, right, with Libyan National
   Transitional Council's Mustafa Abdel Jalil after a meeting at the
   Elysee Palace, Paris, April 20, 2011

   France is joining Britain in sending military advisers to Libya to help
   rebel forces.
   A spokesman for the French government announced the move Wednesday as
   French President Nicolas Sarkozy prepared to meet the head of Libya's
   rebels, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, in Paris.
   The meeting was expected to focus on efforts to bring about a
   democratic transition in Libya.
   Fighting, meanwhile, continued Wednesday between rebel and
   pro-government forces at the besieged city of Misrata, where residents
   are pleading for international intervention. NATO airstrikes again
   struck government installations in several cities,
   On Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said an experienced
   team of about a dozen British military advisers would help rebels work
   on organization, logistics and communications.
   Hague said the advisers would not take part in any fighting, nor train
   or arm the opposition. He said the group would expand the work of
   British diplomats already in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
   Libya's foreign minister, Abdul Ati al-Obeidi says the move will would
   harm chances for peace in the country. In an interview with the BBC,
   Obeidi called for a cease-fire followed by a six month period to
   prepare for an election.
   Leaders in the rebel-held western city of Misrata called for the urgent
   intervention of foreign ground troops to protect the 500,000 civilians
   there, the first such request by anyone among Libya's opposition
   forces.
   The rebels' civilian leadership, the Transitional National Council, has
   however rejected the presence of foreign troops on Libyan soil to help
   their cause.
   Nouri Abdallah Abdel Ati, a member of Misrata's leadership committee,
   said Tuesday that if foreign forces do not arrive immediately, "we will
   die." Abdel Ati said the recent use by pro-Gadhafi forces of Grad
   rockets to shell civilians had created a "life or death situation."

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