Addis Ababa - The African Union hopes to find a political solution to the ongoing crisis in Libya despite intensified Nato airstrikes against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, officials said at the close of an AU summit in Ethiopia on Thursday.
African heads of state and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met for the extraordinary AU summit in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa.
“The AU road map for the peaceful solution of the crisis in Libya was fully backed by the summit. We stand for an immediate end of the killings, the bombings and the violence,” said Ramtane Lamara, the AU commissioner for peace and security.
On March 10, the AU's Peace and Security Council adopted a road map calling for the immediate cessation of all hostilities, the co-operation of competent Libyan authorities to facilitate the timely delivery of humanitarian assistance to needy populations, the protection of foreign nationals, and the adoption and implementation of political reforms necessary for the elimination of the causes of the current crisis.
But members of the Libyan National Transitional Council (CNT), the political body formed to represent Libya by anti-Gaddafi rebels, at the summit ruled out any compromise with Gaddafi.
“There are about 12 000 civilian martyrs and over 55 000 injured as a result of Gaddafi's current crimes against the Libyan people,” CNT spokesperson Abdalla Alzubedi told an AU-Ad Hoc Committee on Libya on the sidelines of the summit.
Alzubedi said no “sane person” should start a dialogue with Gaddafi on the future of Libya. “We believe that this is impossible with him and his family and those around him who have their hands stained with the blood of the Libyans.”
South African President Jacob Zuma, who is a member of the AU high-level committee focused on the resolution of the Libyan conflict, said he will meet Gaddafi for talks in Libya on May 30. - Sapa-dpa