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Obama, Sarkozy und Cameron schwören Kampf bis zu Gaddafis Abgang

In einem gemeinsamen Artikel für führende Meinungsblätter der Welt gehen sie weit über das UN-Mandat hinaus - Der Artikel im Wortlaut *


Eine Zukunft Libyens mit dem Machthaber Muammar al-Gaddafi ist nach Ansicht der politischen Führungen in Washington, Paris und London undenkbar. Die Welt würde sich andernfalls eines "unverschämten Verrats" schuldig machen, schreiben US-Präsident Barack Obama, sein französischer Kollege Nicolas Sarkozy und der britische Premierminister David Cameron. In einem gemeinsamen Artikel für große internationale Zeitungen werfen sie Gaddafi vor, er versuche, sein Volk zu "massakrieren". Daher sei eine Waffenruhe mit einem Ausstiegsszenario für Gaddafi, das Familienmitglieder in Libyen in führenden Positionen belasse, nicht akzeptabel. "Es ist unvorstellbar, dass Libyen eine Zukunft unter Gaddafi haben könnte. Es ist undenkbar, dass jemand, der sein eigenes Volks massakrieren wollte, eine Rolle in einer künftigen Regierung spielt." Wörtlich heißt es weiter: "Es geht nicht um die Entfernung Gaddafis aus dem Amt. Aber man kann sich unmöglich eine Zukunft Libyens mit Gaddafi an der Macht vorstellen." Und an einer anderen Stelle werden die drei Politiker noch deutlicher: "Gaddafi muss gehen und für immer." ("Qaddafi must go and go for good.")
SPIEGEL online wusste zu berichten, dass der Artikel ursprünglich von Sarkozy und Cameron bei ihrem Treffen in Paris am 13. April aufgesetzt wurde und Obama, nachdem er eine Kopie davon erhalten hatte, darum bat, mitunterzeichnen zu dürfen.

Im Folgenden dokumentieren wir diesen denkwürdigen Artikel, der zuerst am 15. April 2011 im Pariser "Figaro, in der Londoner "Times" sowie in den New Yorker Blättern "Washington Post" und "New York Times" erschien. Er trug den irreführenden Titel "Libya’s Pathway to Peace". Wir stützen uns auf die englische Version, die auf der offiziellen Website des Weißen Hauses veröffentlicht ist.


Libya’s Pathway to Peace

By BARACK OBAMA, DAVID CAMERON, and NICOLAS SARKOZY *

Together with our NATO allies and coalition partners, the United States, France and Britain have been united from the start in responding to the crisis in Libya, and we are united on what needs to happen in order to end it.

Even as we continue our military operations today to protect civilians in Libya, we are determined to look to the future. We are convinced that better times lie ahead for the people of Libya, and a pathway can be forged to achieve just that.

We must never forget the reasons why the international community was obliged to act in the first place. As Libya descended into chaos with Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi attacking his own people, the Arab League called for action. The Libyan opposition called for help. And the people of Libya looked to the world in their hour of need. In an historic resolution, the United Nations Security Council authorized all necessary measures to protect the people of Libya from the attacks upon them. By responding immediately, our countries, together with an international coalition, halted the advance of Qaddafi’s forces and prevented the bloodbath that he had promised to inflict upon the citizens of the besieged city of Benghazi.

Tens of thousands of lives have been protected. But the people of Libya are still suffering terrible horrors at Qaddafi’s hands each and every day. His rockets and shells rained down on defenseless civilians in Ajdabiya. The city of Misurata is enduring a medieval siege, as Qaddafi tries to strangle its population into submission. The evidence of disappearances and abuses grows daily.

Our duty and our mandate under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973 is to protect civilians, and we are doing that. It is not to remove Qaddafi by force. But it is impossible to imagine a future for Libya with Qaddafi in power. The International Criminal Court is rightly investigating the crimes committed against civilians and the grievous violations of international law. It is unthinkable that someone who has tried to massacre his own people can play a part in their future government. The brave citizens of those towns that have held out against forces that have been mercilessly targeting them would face a fearful vengeance if the world accepted such an arrangement. It would be an unconscionable betrayal.

Furthermore, it would condemn Libya to being not only a pariah state, but a failed state too. Qaddafi has promised to carry out terrorist attacks against civilian ships and airliners. And because he has lost the consent of his people any deal that leaves him in power would lead to further chaos and lawlessness. We know from bitter experience what that would mean. Neither Europe, the region, or the world can afford a new safe haven for extremists.

There is a pathway to peace that promises new hope for the people of Libya — a future without Qaddafi that preserves Libya’s integrity and sovereignty, and restores her economy and the prosperity and security of her people. This needs to begin with a genuine end to violence, marked by deeds not words. The regime has to pull back from the cities it is besieging, including Ajdabiya, Misurata and Zintan, and return to their barracks. However, so long as Qaddafi is in power, NATO must maintain its operations so that civilians remain protected and the pressure on the regime builds. Then a genuine transition from dictatorship to an inclusive constitutional process can really begin, led by a new generation of leaders. In order for that transition to succeed, Qaddafi must go and go for good. At that point, the United Nations and its members should help the Libyan people as they rebuild where Qaddafi has destroyed — to repair homes and hospitals, to restore basic utilities, and to assist Libyans as they develop the institutions to underpin a prosperous and open society.

This vision for the future of Libya has the support of a broad coalition of countries, including many from the Arab world. These countries came together in London on March 29 and founded a Contact Group which met this week in Doha to support a solution to the crisis that respects the will of the Libyan people.

Today, NATO and our partners are acting in the name of the United Nations with an unprecedented international legal mandate. But it will be the people of Libya, not the U.N., who choose their new constitution, elect their new leaders, and write the next chapter in their history.

Britain, France and the United States will not rest until the United Nations Security Council resolutions have been implemented and the Libyan people can choose their own future.

* Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States. David Cameron is prime minister of Britain and Nicolas Sarkozy is president of France.

Source: The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, April 14, 2011; http://www.whitehouse.gov/



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