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 Muhammed el-Ghirani, foreign minister of the group that is a rival
to Libya's internationally-recognized government, said it had
repeatedly offered to help deal with migrants leaving its shores,
but its proposals had been rebuffed.
His comments, made in an interview with the Times of Malta published
on Thursday, underlined the challenges facing EU ministers meeting
in Brussels to find ways to stem the numbers risking their lives
traveling from Libya, a country mired in political chaos.
At a summit hastily convened after nearly 2,000 migrants at sea, EU
ministers are expected to discuss one proposal to launch military
and civilian missions to capture and destroy the traffickers' boats,
diplomats said.
"You cannot just decide to hit. Let's say you strike a particular
site. How will you know that you did not hit an innocent person, a
fisherman? Does Europe have pinpoint accuracy? So we are saying,
'Let's do this together,'" Ghirani told the Maltese newspaper.
"We have been doing our best to get Europe to cooperate with us to
deal with illegal immigration but they keep telling us we're not the
internationally recognized government. Now they cannot just decide
to take this action. They have to speak to us," he added.
He said any unilateral attacks would be confronted, the newspaper
reported, without going into further details.
[to top of second column] |
Two rival governments, each backed by loose coalitions of ex-rebels
who once fought together to oust Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi
more than three years ago, are battling for control of the North
African OPEC producer.
World powers only recognize premier Abdullah al-Thinni who has been
based with his cabinet in the east since losing control of the
capital last summer.
Public outrage peaked this week after up to 900 migrants, many
fleeing poverty and political turmoil, died last Sunday when their
boat sank on its way to Europe from Libya.
Security forces loyal to the Tripoli administration detained 45
Bangladeshis waiting for smugglers to pick them up, a security
official told Reuters.
(Reporting by Christopher Scicluna; Additional reporting by Ahmed
Elumami in Tripoli; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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