W O R L D

Secret letter links UK spy agency to Gaddafi regime
Britain stands accused of hypocrisy and double standards following allegations that one of the country’s former spies was involved in the capture of a leading Libyan dissident who was later tortured by Muammar Gaddafi’s henchmen in Tripoli.

Libyan convoys in Niger
Benghazi/Agadez, Sept 6
Scores of Libyan army vehicles have crossed the desert frontier into Niger in what may be a dramatic, secretly negotiated bid by Muammar Gaddafi to seek refuge in a friendly African state, military sources from France and Niger told Reuters today.
Rebel fighters wave the victory sign after a meeting of Warfalla tribe elders with NTC representatives on Tuesday. — AFP

UN court jails Serbia’s ex-army chief for 27 yrs
The Hague, September 6
The UN’s Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal sentenced Serbia’s former army chief, Momcilo Perisic, to 27 years in jail today for murder, persecution and attacks on civilians in Bosnia and Croatia in the 1990s.6

Special to the tribune
Secret letter links UK spy agency to Gaddafi regime
Shyam Bhatia in London

Britain stands accused of hypocrisy and double standards following allegations that one of the country’s former spies was involved in the capture of a leading Libyan dissident who was later tortured by Muammar Gaddafi’s henchmen in Tripoli.

The ex-spy at the heart of the emerging scandal is Sir Mark Allen, a former head of counter terrorism at the Ml6 intelligence agency.

Sir Mark is believed to be the author of a controversial letter recently discovered in an abandoned Libyan government building. The letter implies that the British authorities were involved in locating and helping to transfer a leading Libyan dissident who was subsequently tortured by Gaddafi’s henchmen.

The letter addressed to Moussa Koussa, Gaddafi’s former intelligence chief, is from “Mark in London”. It starts by saying “I am so grateful for your help in sorting out this visit to the Leader by our Prime Minister. What you did made a great impression at No 10 (No 10 Downing Street).”

The letter goes on to say: “Most importantly I congratulate you on the safe arrival of Abu Abd Allah Sadiq. This was the least we could do for you and Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over recent years.”

Sadiq has subsequently been identified as Abdel Hakim Belhadj, a leading Islamic rebel opposed to Gaddafi, who is now the influential head of the Tripoli Military Council. In 2004, Belhadj sought political asylum at the British embassy in Kuala Lumpur when British agents identified him to the Malaysian government and the CIA. When he tried to leave Malaysia, he was picked up by the CIA during a stopover at Bangkok airport and sent by private plan to Tripoli where he was repeatedly beaten and locked up in solitary confinement. 

Libyan convoys in Niger
* Muammar Gaddafi could have struck deal: Sources
* Fallen strongman may be headed to Burkina Faso

Benghazi/Agadez, Sept 6
Scores of Libyan army vehicles have crossed the desert frontier into Niger in what may be a dramatic, secretly negotiated bid by Muammar Gaddafi to seek refuge in a friendly African state, military sources from France and Niger told Reuters today.

The Libyan rebels who overthrew Gaddafi two weeks ago said they also thought about a dozen other vehicles that crossed the remote border were carrying gold and cash apparently looted from a branch of Libya's central bank in Gaddafi's home town.

The military sources said a convoy of between 200 and 250 vehicles was escorted to the northern city of Agadez by the army of Niger, a poor and landlocked former French colony. It might, according to a French military source, be joined by Gaddafi en route for adjacent Burkina Faso, which has offered him asylum.

France, Niger and Burkina Faso, as well as Libya's new rulers and NATO, all denied knowing where Gaddafi was or of any deal to let him go abroad or find refuge from Libyans and the International Criminal Court who want to put him on trial.

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said it was for Libyans to decide the venue but that Gaddafi would not be allowed to slip away quietly. "He will have to face justice for all the crimes he has committed in the past 42 years," he said.

Niger's foreign minister, Bazoum Mohamed, was quoted by Al Arabiya television saying that Gaddafi was not in the convoy, which arrived late on Monday. An aide to French President Nicolas Sarkozy said: "We have no specific information that would indicate that Gaddafi is there."

But those comments did not contradict a French military source who said the 69-year-old fugitive and his son and heir Saif al-Islam might join the convoy later to head for Burkina. France has taken a lead in the NATO action to back Libya's uprising and, with its Western allies, would be likely to have the ability to track any sizeable convoy in the empty quarter.

But Niger's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Adani Illo, told Reuters that such surveillance over thousands of miles of desert was still hard. Gaddafi's fugitive spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said in remarks broadcast on Monday: "Muammar Gaddafi is in excellent health and in very, very high spirits ... He is in a place that will not be reached by those fractious groups, and he is in Libya."

The head of Gaddafi's security brigades, Mansour Dhao, along with more than 10 other Libyans, crossed into Niger on Sunday, two Niger officials had said earlier on Monday.

The French military source said he had been told that the commander of Libya's southern forces, General Ali Khana, may also be in Niger, not far from the Libyan border. He said he had been told that Gaddafi and Saif al-Islam would join Khana and catch up with the convoy should they choose to accept Burkina Faso's offer of exile. — Reuters

UN court jails Serbia’s ex-army chief for 27 yrs
Perisic convicted of crimes in Bosnia & Croatia

The Hague, September 6
The UN’s Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal sentenced Serbia’s former army chief, Momcilo Perisic, to 27 years in jail today for murder, persecution and attacks on civilians in Bosnia and Croatia in the 1990s.

Momcilo Perisic

Perisic, 67, was found guilty of helping Serb troops to plan and carry out war crimes, including the killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica and of the 42-month-long siege of Sarajevo. He was also convicted of securing financial and logistical support for Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia.

Perisic becomes the first Belgrade official to be convicted for Serbia’s role in the wars in Bosnia and Croatia, a role the government in Serbia has always staunchly denied.

“Momcilo Perisic was found criminally responsible for aiding and abetting murder, inhumane acts, attacks on civilians and persecution on political, racial or religious grounds in Sarajevo and Srebrenica,” said Judge Bakone Justice Moloto.

The judge said the trial chamber found Perisic oversaw logistical assistance to Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia which included a “vast quantity of infantry and artillery ammunition, fuel, spare parts, training and technical assistance.”

The court also found Perisic bore command responsibility for the shelling of the Croatian capital Zagreb in 1995. Serbia’s defence minister, Dragan Sutanovac, said the sentence was “too grave”.

“It certainly opens old wounds and no matter how hard we try to work on reconciliation, news like this takes us back to the past and creates certain problems and makes one sick in the stomach,” Sutanovac said. Perisic had kept Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic on the Yugoslav army payroll list, and personally signed Mladic’s promotion to the rank of colonel general in 1994. — Reuters