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Gadhafi also refuses to accept truce and his forces kill six people in Libya.
BENGHAZI, Libya — Libyan rebels, backed forcefully by European leaders, rejected a cease-fire proposal by African mediators on Monday because it did not insist Moammar Gadhafi relinquish power. Despite an earlier announcement that the Libyan leader had accepted the truce, his forces shelled a key rebel-held city and killed six people, a doctor said.
“Col. Gadhafi and his sons must leave immediately if he wants to save himself,” said Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, head of the rebels’ leadership council. “If not, the people are coming for him.”
Even as the African Union delegation arrived in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi, crowds of protesters gathered to demonstrate their opposition to any dealmaking while Gadhafi remains in power. They said they had little faith in the visiting African Union mediators, most of them allies of Gadhafi. Three of the five African leaders who came preaching democracy for Libya seized power in coups.
Abdul-Jalil, a former justice minister who split with Gadhafi and leads the Benghazi-based Transitional National Council, said the proposal “did not respond to the aspirations of the Libyan people” and only involved political reforms.
“The initiative that was presented today, its time has passed,” said Abdul-Jalil. “We will not negotiate on the blood of our martyrs. We will die with them or be victorious.”
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini strongly backed the rebel demand for Gadhafi’s immediate departure and said he doubted anyway that the Libyan leader would have abided by the cease-fire after he broke more than one pledge before to halt violence. The AU sought a suspension of three weeks of international airstrikes on Gadhafi’s forces.
The secretary general of NATO, which took over control of the international air operation over Libya from the U.S., welcomed any efforts to resolve the conflict.
“There can be no solely military solution to the crisis in Libya,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.