U.S. to Let Libya Rebels Access Qaddafi's Frozen $33 Billion
May 5 (Bloomberg) -- Allied nations opposing Muammar Qaddafi granted Libyan rebels the right to request the dictator's frozen assets as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said part of the $33 billion in the U.S. will be made available.
Clinton made the announcement at a meeting in Rome today of foreign ministers from NATO and allied nations, most of which are taking part in Libyan operations. In a statement, the Libyan Contact Group said it agreed a separate finance mechanism for donors to aid the Transitional National Council, the Libyan rebel authority in the eastern city of Benghazi. The statement said Kuwait gave $180 million to the fund. It didn't mention any other donations.
The Obama administration wants to use "some portion of those assets owned by Qaddafi and the Libyan government in the United States, so we can make those funds available to help the Libyan people," Clinton said. The Treasury Department said about $33 billion of Libyan state assets were held in the U.S. at the end of March.
Qaddafi's forces continued to bombard rebel-held cities as the foreign ministers met. Allies including Qatar took part in the Rome meeting as did TNC members.
'Strike His Forces'
"As long as Qaddafi continues to attack his citizens, we will continue to strike his forces and the assets, facilities and command centers across Libya that are supporting his operations," Clinton said in remarks to other ministers.
Clinton also announced that the U.S. will remove legal barriers to make it easier for oil sales to benefit the TNC.
The Treasury Department recently took steps to remove barriers under U.S. law for oil-related transactions that benefit the Transitional Council. Kuwait announced that it would assist and Clinton called on other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council to help.
The insurgency in Libya, which has Africa's largest proven oil reserves, has helped push oil prices up by almost a third. Oil declined for a fourth day in New York, the longest losing streak in almost eight weeks. Crude oil for June delivery dropped $3.37, or 3.1 percent, to $105.87 a barrel at 9:18 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract touched $105.11, the lowest level since March 31. Prices are up 32 percent from a year ago.
More Aid Needed
Clinton said the U.S. will provide $53 million toward the United Nations target of raising $310 million for Libyan relief. "They are still a long way from that goal," Clinton said. She noted that the U.S. is providing another $13 million in other relief support for Libya and urged more countries to contribute.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged the allies yesterday to channel money to Libya's opposition.
"Funding is a political move to foster regime change and less about protecting Libyan civilians," Jan Techau, director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Brussels and a former German Defense Ministry analyst, said in a phone interview. "Rasmussen wants to find which countries subscribe to regime change and how to pay for it."
Air Strikes
The insurgency against Qaddafi's four-decade rule of Libya began in February and allied forces have been making air strikes since March.
Qaddafi loyalists pounded the rebel-held western port of Misrata yesterday, endangering an aid ship which delivered supplies and picked up stranded migrant workers and wounded Libyans.
A British mine-clearing vessel, HMS Brocklesby, destroyed a mine containing 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of high explosives laid by pro-Qaddafi forces at the entrance to Misrata's harbor, the Ministry of Defense in London said in an e-mailed statement.
British jets attacked two multiple rocket launchers near Sirte on May 3 and a pair of surface-to-air missile launchers near Tripoli yesterday, the ministry said in a separate e-mailed statement.
NATO said in an e-mailed statement its jets flew 62 strike missions on May 3 and that alliance warplanes had targeted six tanks and seven ammunition storage sites.
At the UN in New York, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Argentine lawyer Luis Moreno- Ocampo, said he will seek arrest warrants for three members of Qaddafi's regime who "appear to bear the greatest criminal responsibility" for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Held Accountable
Without specifying Qaddafi by name, Moreno-Ocampo told the UN Security Council that he wants to hold accountable "those who ordered, incited, financed or otherwise planned the commission of the alleged crimes."
He cited evidence of murder, rape, torture, unlawful imprisonment and deportation, as well as a government effort to cover up the alleged crimes. The Qaddafi regime began planning its repression of anti-government demonstrations before they started, after observing the unrest in Egypt and Tunisia, he said.
Foreign Secretary William Hague expelled two Libyan diplomats from the U.K., giving them until May 11 to leave the country, the Foreign Office said.
"I ordered the expulsion of the two diplomats on the basis that their activities were contrary to the interests of the U.K.," Hague said today in an e-mailed statement in London.
To contact the reporters on this story: Nicole Gaouette in Rome at ngaouette@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
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