British team heads home after Libyan rebel meet

Sun, 06 Mar 2011

London- A British diplomatic team is on its way back home Sunday after meeting with Libyan rebel groups during a confusing weekend that, at one point, had the British team held prisoner by the Libyans, according to media reports.

London had confirmed earlier Sunday that it has a diplomatic team inside Libya, which had made contact with rebels there, but initially declined to comment on reports that British special forces soldiers guarding the team had been captured by Libyan troops.

Defense Secretary Liam Fox confirmed in an interview on BBC that a "small diplomatic team" was in the eastern city of Benghazi, but declined to discuss the situation further.

"We are in touch with them but it would be inappropriate for me to comment further on that for reasons I am sure you will understand," Fox added.

Asked if the diplomats were in danger, he said "we are in touch with them but I'm not giving further comment on that."

Eventually, as reported by the BBC, it became known that the team landed near Benghazi Friday morning. When confronted, the members of the group said they were unarmed, but a search showed that the six British special forces (SAS) commandos were carrying weapons and passports from four different countries.

At this point, the group was apprehended.

Earlier, the Sunday Times had reported that eight were captured by rebel forces in eastern Libya.

The paper said the soldiers were escorting a junior British diplomat through rebel-held territory who was hoping to make contact with the insurgent forces. It further reported that the British teams presence was not welcomed by the rebel forces, who said that Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi would use the visit to argue that the opposition had ties to Western powers.

On Sunday, Libyan television began playing a recording of the British ambassador to Libya speaking to a rebel leader, attempting to clear up the "misunderstanding," saying the team had been in country to prepare the way for humanitarian missions.

Later that day, British media reported that the team was on its way back to Malta with further plans to head back to Britain.

It was then that British Foreign Minister William Hague reported the team had difficulties that had been solved. He noted that Britain would, in coordination with the rebels, attempt to send a new team to strengthen the dialogue.

Fox said in a BBC interview that there were a number of different groups in opposition to Gaddafi, and these groups "do seem relatively disparate."

London's aim was to try to "clearly understand what dynamic" was involved "because we want to work with them to ensure the demise of the Gaddafi regime, to see a transition to greater stability in Libya and ultimately to more representative government," Fox said.

He said the effort to get a picture of the situation had been "relatively difficult" with communications being interrupted, problems with mobile phone links and the internet being possibly interfered with.

"So we are trying to build a picture," Fox said. "It's essential that all Western governments do that so we are able to get a clearer idea of what we are able to do in terms of helping the people in Libya."

A Geneva-based human rights group also said it was aware that a team of special forces troops had been seized by Libyan rebels, but was unaware of their nationality.

The Times report said the rebels took the captive SAS soldiers to Benghazi, the largest city held by the opposition, during their detention.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/370517,home-libyan-rebel-meet.html.