AU: Libyan rebels may be killing black people

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - The chairman of the African Union says Libyan rebels may be indiscriminately killing black people in Libya because they have confused innocent migrant workers with mercenaries.

Chairman Jean Ping told reporters Monday that this is one of the reasons the AU is refusing to recognize Libya's rebel Transitional National Council as the country's interim government.

He said "We need clarification because the TNC seems to confuse black people with mercenaries .... They are killing normal workers."

Ping also said there was no doubt now the council controlled the capital city of Tripoli and called on both sides to "stop the killing."

Meanwhile, Libyan rebel leaders asked NATO on Monday to keep up pressure on elements of Muammar Qaddafi's regime and to protect those struggling to restore electricity and water to the battle-scarred capital of Tripoli.

Transitional National Council head Mustafa Abdul-Jalil told senior NATO envoys meeting in the Gulf Arab nation of Qatar that Qaddafi, who has been in hiding since rebels captured Tripoli a week ago, can still cause trouble.

Despite effectively ending his rule, the rebels have yet to find Qaddafi or his family members -- something that has cast a pall of lingering uncertainty over the opposition's victory.

"Qaddafi is still capable of doing something awful in the last moments," Abdul-Jalil told military chiefs of staff and other key defense officials from NATO nations including France, Italy and Turkey.

"Even after the fighting ends, we still need logistical and military support from NATO," he added. NATO has been bombing Qaddafi's forces since March under a United Nations mandate to protect Libyan civilians.

Rebels appear to have secured the capital after a week of fierce fighting in which they captured Qaddafi's compound and then cleared loyalists holed up in the residential neighborhood of Abu Salim nearby.

Lockerbie bomber is near death, brother says
Turning a new page in Libya
Qaddafi forces in retreat slaughtered detainees

In Tripoli Monday, the brother of the Libyan man convicted in the Lockerbie bombing said Abdel Baset al-Megrahi should not be returned to prison in the West because he is "between life and death" at his family's home in the capital.

New York senators on Aug. 22 asked the Libyan rebels' transitional government to hold al-Megrahi fully accountable for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which killed 270 people. Rebel leaders have said they will not extradite him.

The Scottish government released al-Megrahi in 2009, believing he would soon die of cancer. He was greeted as a hero in Libya.

Outside Tripoli, Qaddafi's hometown of Sirte is still a bastion of support and some have even speculated that the ousted leader himself may have fled there. Rebels have been converging from the east and west on Sirte, 250 miles east of Tripoli, preparing to battle Qaddafi loyalists.

A NATO officer who could not be identified due to alliance rules spoke of fighting 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Sirte. He said the regions of Sirte, Bani Walid south of Misrata and Sebha further south are conflict areas where both anti-Qaddafi and pro-Qaddafi forces continue to operate.

However, no fighting in Sirte itself has been reported yet and rebel leaders say they are trying to negotiate a peaceful surrender with local tribes to avoid further bloodshed.

Rebels say they want to take Qaddafi alive so they can try him in Libya.

"We hope that Qaddafi is still in Libya so we can rid the world of this insect," rebel military spokesman Ahmed Bani said. "The only way to treat this pest is to make him accountable for the crimes in Libya."

In the capital Tripoli, members of the Transitional National Council announced further steps to becoming an effective government. Suleiman Mahmoud al-Obeidi, the rebels' deputy military chief, announced the formation of a 17-member committee to represent the 30 or local military councils he said had been set up in the country's west.

The war was fought by disparate, local groups with only loose coordination. Bringing all local councils and rebel brigades under the council's leadership remains a challenge.

The rebel leadership, based in Benghazi throughout the war, has started to move to Tripoli. France said Monday it was dispatching a team of diplomats to reopen the French embassy there and see how France can aid the city.