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Good afternoon. Welcome to everybody here in Brussels and in Naples where I can already
see Colonel Roland Lavoie, the military spokesman for Operation Unified Protector. Welcome to
everybody in Naples and welcome to those who are following us on the internet.
This morning the North Atlantic Council met with our operational partners to review events
in Libya since their last meeting two weeks ago. The situation is moving fast and it's
moving into the right direction. The political and military structures of the Qadhafi regime
have crumbled, while the National Transitional Council has asserted control in key cities,
including Tripoli. We are encouraged by statements by the head of the NTC, Mustafa Abdel Jalil,
who spoke of forgiveness, reconciliation and unity, and he clearly rejected extremism and
vengeance.
The NTC is gaining growing international recognition, including by all five permanent members of
the United Nations Security Council. And this time next week there will be a meeting of
the Friends of Libya group on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in
New York – and the Secretary General will, of course, attend this meeting.
So Libya has gone a long way and NATO has gone a long way in protecting the people of
Libya, but our mission is not yet complete. Six months ago, when NATO, together with our
partners, started enforcing the mandate of the UN Security Council, Benghazi was under
threat, Misrata was under siege, and civilians were attacked and threatened every day by
Qadhafi regime forces.
We have enforced the UN mandate to protect civilians effectively. We have saved countless
lives and, by protecting Libyan civilians, we've helped them to gradually resume a normal
life across Libya and to take the future into their own hands.
But in some parts of the country the situation remains fluid. As the Secretary General has
clearly stated, we are determined to continue the mission for as long as necessary, but
not a day longer than necessary. Our clear intention is to terminate the mission as soon
as the situation allows.
NATO's number one concern has been the protection of civilians from the very beginning of Operation
Unified Protector, and it will be the same when the time comes to end our mission. I
can't tell you when this time will be. We all hope it's going to be soon.
Now over to Roland for the operational update from Naples. Roland.
COLONEL ROLAND LAVOIE (Spokesperson for the Operation Unified Protector): Thank you, Oana,
and welcome to all those joining us today. The areas of confrontation between Qadhafi
and NTC forces on the ground have not changed drastically over the last few days. This is
essentially due to the deliberate and very commendable efforts of the NTC to try to resolve
the situation through dialogue.
Despite the NTC offer to seek a peaceful solution, as this week progressed, it became quite clear
that the remaining Qadhafi forces were not willing to negotiate and lose their grip on
the cities they still control. By occupying and tightly suppressing cities such as Bani
Walid and Sirte Qadhafi forces have in a way taken the population hostage, exposing people
to obvious risks, repressing the uprising and preventing some citizens from leaving.
Furthermore, in doing so Qadhafi forces have clearly demonstrated their intent to consolidate
their positions and threaten the civilian population in the triangle formed by Bani
Walid, Sirte and Sabha. Qadhafi repeated his call inciting his followers to pursue a senseless
fight. They even directed deadly attacks on the Ras Lanuf refinery yesterday, which has
just resumed operations vital to getting Libya back on its feet.
As of this morning the situation in the vicinity of Sirte and Bani Walid was assessed as very
volatile. For the moment skirmishes occur in both cities, but are concentrated in their
outskirts, so the population is not under imminent threat. However, the situation may
change very rapidly, as we have seen in other towns. NATO intelligence indicates that Qadhafi
forces have been firing rockets from the inner city of Bani Walid in close proximity to houses
and also to mosques.
NATO is closely monitoring the situation, of course, and will continue to do so as long
as necessary, although I must stress that NATO does not, and will not engage in close
support air operation for the NTC forces as our focus remain the protection of the civilian
population.
Elsewhere in the country, with the breakdown of negotiations, NTC forces are pursuing their
advances, chasing Qadhafi forces from the village of Abu Qurayn near the coast and in
Zila near the Al Jufra Oasis. Initial information shows that even Sabha, although still disputed,
is not a safe haven for Qadhafi forces anymore.
The main advances in Libya are not in the military domain, but rather in the civilian
sector where we observed that the rebuilding of Libya is definitely underway. This is observed
through the resuming ground transportation movements, shipping, humanitarian assistance
flights on our routine and many cities now have normal access to water, electricity and
other basic services. As in many other countries around the world, schools are planning to
reopen their doors soon in several regions, and several industries and refineries are
being prepared to resume their activities, which will jumpstart the economic recovery
of Libya.
Taken individually these milestones may not appear significant, but really their cumulative
effect is clear and is clearly paving the way to a recovery of Libya.
The majority of NATO activities over the past week have been concentrated in the area defined
by Sirte, Waddan and Bani Walid. We have continued to use our surveillance assets to monitor
the situation very closely and maintain a tempo particularly through strike missions
to protect the Libyan people. NATO successfully engaged a number of threats to civilians in
Libya, including several tanks, rocket launchers, an ammunition storage facility, as well as
several surface-to-air threats.
NATO aircraft also conducted a number of strikes deep into the Sahara desert, 400 kilometres
south of Tripoli. These were aimed at disrupting a command-and-control facility, a vehicle
staging area and destroying several armoured vehicles in order to inhibit the reinforcements
of positions in the north.
Now having given you a feel of what is happening on the ground for the moment, I would like
to take a moment to remind you why we engage in this operation in the first place.
Operation Unified Protector was initiated to enforce a UN Security Resolution 1970 and
then 1973, following the gross and systematic violation of human rights by the Qadhafi regime
in Libya. The resolutions specifically referred to the repression of the peaceful demonstrators,
arbitrary detentions and forced disappearances, torture and summary executions.
Over the last six months NATO forces have maintained a consistent tempo of operations
intervening whenever and wherever Qadhafi forces pose a threat to civilians, be that
in Benghazi in the east, Misrata in the west, Sabha in the south, or many other towns, cities
and villages right across Libya. Today the recovery of Libya is now quite obvious and
the outcome is no longer in doubt.
But let me reassure you we'll continue to play our part to the full until the task is
complete.
This concludes my update. Oana.