Qaddafi’s wife, Safia; daughter, Aisha, sons Hannibal and Mohamed and their children crossed the border into Algeria at about 8:45 a.m. on Monday, according to a statement from Algeria’s Foreign Ministry. News reports said Mourad Benmehidi, the Algerian ambassador to the United Nations, informed Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the family’s arrival. The news that some of Qaddafi’s family had escaped was greeted with bitterness in Libya.
“We have promised to provide a just trial to all those criminals, and therefore we consider this an act of aggression,” Mahmoud Shamman, a spokesman for the rebels’ National Transitional Council, told the Reuters news agency. “We are warning anybody not to shelter Qaddafi and his sons. We are going after them in any place, to find them and arrest them,” he said.
Qaddafi and his most visible son, Saif al Islam, remained at large a week after rebel forces ransacked the ruler’s Tripoli compound and fought pitched battles against clusters of remaining loyalists. Rebels said on Monday another of Qaddafi’s six sons, Khamis, who commands an elite military unit, had been killed during battle, but there was no way to confirm that.
The rebels have reported killing Khamis, erroneously, several times previously. The whereabouts of Qaddafi and his family have been a major focus since rebels seized his Bab al-Aziziya headquarters last week. Many Libyans believe Qaddafi may have taken refuge in the stronghold of Sirte, which rebels have yet to seize. Qaddafi and Saif al Islam have both vowed to stay in Libya and fight to the death. But the escape of much of his family to Algeria raises questions about whether the fugitive leader might also have followed the same path out of the capital.
Sirte lies 280 miles east of Tripoli along the country’s coastal highway, while the nearest border crossing with Algeria lies nearly 350 miles to the southwest. Algeria did not say where precisely the Qaddafis had crossed. Qaddafi’s regime is now in shambles, with senior figures on the run or in rebel custody. The United States, along with several European and Arab nations, recognizes the National Transitional Council as the legitimate interim government of Libya. Algeria, a longtime Qaddafi ally, has not, however, and remained supportive of the leader during the conflict. Rebel leaders have accused the Algerian government of funneling mercenaries to Libya to help Qaddafi’s forces put down the rebellion.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Qaddafi, Saif al Islam and Qaddafi’s brother-in-law and military intelligence chief, Abdullah Senussi, on charges of crimes against humanity. The three are believed to have led the deadly crackdown against the popular uprising that quickly turned into a Nato-backed armed rebellion. The ICC hasn’t issued warrants for the Qaddafi relatives who crossed into Algeria, but members of the rebel council had expressed hope that all senior regime figures would be tried before a Libyan court. Rebel leaders demanded the return of the family members, but there was no immediate response from the Algerian government.
(McClatchy Newspapers)
