France sends aid to Libyan rebels to oust Gadhafi

[February 28, 2011]  GENEVA (AP) -- France announced it is sending two planes with humanitarian aid to Libya's opposition stronghold of Benghazi on Monday, in what its prime minister described as the start of a "massive operation" to push Gadhafi from power.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon spoke in Paris as foreign ministers from around the world, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, gathered in Geneva to coordinate action against Gadhafi's regime.

Fillon said the planes would leave "in a few hours" for the eastern city of Benghazi with doctors, nurses, medicines and medical equipment. "It will be the beginning of a massive operation of humanitarian support for the populations of liberated territories," he said on RTL radio.

In Geneva, Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd called on the world's powers to impose a no-fly zone over Libya and compared Gadhafi's violent suppression of opposition forces to genocides in Rwanda, the Bosnian town of Srebrenica and Sudan's Darfur region.

"For the sake of humanity, go now," Rudd advised Gadhafi in a speech to the U.N.'s Human Rights Council in Geneva.

He later told The Associated Press that his nation supported the establishment of a U.N.-mandated no-fly zone over Libya aimed to prevent the type of aerial bombing unleashed on the Basque town of Guernica in 1937, killing hundreds in the Spanish Civil War. A no-fly zone would require the approval of the 15-member U.N. Security Council.

"Guernica is known throughout the world for the bombing of the civilian population. We have seen evidence of that in Libya. Let us not simply stand idly by while similar atrocities are committed again," Rudd told AP.

Fillon said the prospect of a no-fly zone over Libya needed U.N. support "which is far from being obtained today," and he questioned whether NATO should get involved in a civil war in a North African country. The NATO chief has already rejected intervening in Libya.

Lavrov, the Russian minister, said he and Clinton didn't talk about the possibility of a no-fly zone over Libya in their meeting Monday.

The Obama administration has also declared it stood ready to aid Libyans seeking to oust their longtime leader -- and Clinton came to Geneva to make the administration's case for stronger action against Gadhafi.

"We want him to leave and we want him to end his regime and call off the mercenaries and those troops that remain loyal to him," Clinton told reporters a day after President Barack Obama branded Gadhafi an illegitimate ruler who must leave power immediately. "How he manages that is obviously up to him and to his family."

France's government is studying "all solutions to make it so that Colonel Gadhafi understands that he should go, that he should leave power," Fillon said Monday.

Fillon did not say whether the aid planes going to Benghazi, now held by rebels, could also take refugees out of Libya. As anti-government rebels were deploying tanks and anti-aircraft weapons to brace for an attack by troops loyal to Gadhafi.

British and German military planes swooped into Libya's desert over the weekend, rescuing hundreds of oil workers and civilians stranded at remote sites. The secret military missions signaled the readiness of Western nations to disregard Libya's territorial integrity when it comes to the safety of their citizens.

Some 1.5 million foreigners were in Libya before the uprising began. Tens of thousands of foreigners have been evacuated from Libya in the past week but many others are still stuck.

Turkey said Monday it had evacuated 18,000 citizens. Over 20,000 Chinese workers and 10,000 EU citizens have also left Libya, and tens of thousands of others have fled into the neighboring countries of Tunisia and Egypt.

The U.N.'s top human rights official, meanwhile, appealed to all nations Monday to back the popular revolts shaking the Arab world -- and to do so quickly in tangible ways before decades-long autocratic regimes like Gadhafi's can regain their footing.

"The international community bears the great responsibility of extending its support in words and deeds to assist such indispensable reforms," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told the opening of the U.N. Human Rights Council's monthlong session. "It must do so with dispatch and firmness."

Pillay noted the session was opening amid historic turbulent times as massive popular movements are sweeping through Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and elsewhere. She urged the world's nations to help protesters quickly cement new changes, before entrenched regimes or "new threats" emerge to human rights and democracy.

"Their uproar made clear that despair was not acquiescence," she said. Protesters say "the international community has all too often prioritized the stability of the political status quo and unhampered trade in natural resources over human rights."

Swiss President and Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey condemned Libya's extra-judicial killings and said "information that has been provided to us leads us to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed."

The U.N. Security Council has instructed International Criminal Court to look into possible crimes against humanity occurring in Libya.

[Associated Press; By JOHN HEILPRIN and SYLVIE CORBET]

Angela Charlton in Paris, Frank Jordans and Bradley Klapper in Geneva also contributed to this report.

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