African mediators want Libya truce, says Zuma aide
Top-level African Union mediators will call on both sides in Libya's conflict to lay down their arms on a mission to the divided country starting Sunday, an adviser to South Africa's Jacob Zuma tells RFI.
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“President Jacob Zuma is part of the delegation that was mandated already a while back by the African Union to try and engage the Libyan authorities, particularly Moamer Kadhafi himself, to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict,” said Zuma's international relations special advisor, Lindiwe Zulu.
I think their approach to the whole thing is, how can they bring all those that are in conflict together to find a lasting solution.
Q&A - Lindiwe Zulu, Jacob Zuma's international relations special advisor
Zuma will be joined by Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Mali’s President Amadou Toumani Toure, President Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo, and Ugandan Foreign Minister Henry Oryem Okello.
“If you have to resolve anything through peaceful means, you always make sure there’s a ceasefire," Zulu says. "Everybody has to lay down their arms and then everyone has to come around the table and have a discussion as to where they want to take the country to, which direction they want to take the country.
“There’ll be discussions on a wide variety of issues, but the bottom line, and what needs to happen, is how do we find a resolution to the conflict and how do we bring the conflicting groups into a discussion.”
Earlier on Sunday, the AU delegation appealed for “an immediate end to all hostilities” and proposed a transition period to adopt reforms. They are due to meet Kadhafi in Tripoli and rebel leaders in Benghazi.
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