An international contact group
set up to coordinate the political response to the Libyan crisis
will meet in the Qatari capital of Doha next week, Britain said
on Monday.
Foreign Secretary William Hague also told parliament that
Britain would supply telecoms equipment to rebels fighting
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, but not arm them.
Hague added that any defectors from Gaddafi’s government
would not be offered immunity from prosecution, but could have
EU and United Nations sanctions against them lifted.
Former Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa fled to London
last week and Scottish police want to question him over the 1988
Lockerbie airliner bombing.
The contact group was established last week at a conference
on Libya in London. The small Arab nation of Qatar has played a
prominent role in international efforts to protect civilians
from forces loyal to Gaddafi under a U.N. resolution.
Hague, who will co-chair the Doha meeting, said he has asked
the African Union (AU) to attend as Western powers seek to
maintain as broad an alliance as possible as they press Gaddafi
to step aside.
The AU was absent from the London conference. Hague met AU
Secretary-General Jean Ping in London earlier on Monday.
Hague said he would encourage former Libyan spy chief Koussa
to cooperate with legal authorities investigating Lockerbie and
other alleged Libyan-sponsored attacks.
Families of some of the 270 people who died when Pan Am
flight 103 exploded over the southern Scottish town of Lockerbie
in 1988 have demanded that Koussa should be handed over to
Scottish investigators immediately.
Relatives of 170 people killed in a 1989 airliner bombing in
Niger also want Koussa to face questioning.
British foreign office officials were due to meet Scottish
police on Monday to arrange an interview with Koussa over
Lockerbie.
Hague said that there was no legal block on Koussa leaving
Britain but he had shown no intention of moving on. Koussa has
been closeted with foreign office officials at an undisclosed
location for debriefing.
“He is not detained, he is not under arrest so as things
stand he is free to go where he wishes. I’m not aware of him
trying to leave the country,” Hague said.
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