TRIPOLI, May 31, 2011 (Reuters) –
Under pressure from a new round of defections, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi renewed a ceasefire call in talks with an African mediator but gave no sign he will heed Western-led demands that he step down.
The mediator, South African President Jacob Zuma, said after a whistlestop visit on Monday that Gaddafi wanted a ceasefire including an end to NATO bombing — terms already rejected last month after an earlier mediation mission by Zuma.
Zuma added, without elaborating: “We discussed the necessity of giving the Libyan people the opportunity to solve their problem on their own.”
Within hours of his departure, Libyan television reported that NATO aircraft had resumed attacks, striking what it called civilian and military sites in the desert settlement of Al Jufrah, 460 km (285 miles) southeast of Tripoli.
Coalition aircraft also struck a number of civilian and military sites in the capital’s Tajura district, the television reported.
There was no immediate confirmation of the reports.
Western leaders in charge of the two-month old NATO-led air campaign against his forces say they will not stop bombing until Gaddafi steps down.
In Rome, eight Libyan officers, including five generals, appeared at an Italian government-arranged news conference, saying they were part of a group of up to 120 military officials and soldiers who defected from Gaddafi in recent days.
The defections come two months after that of Libyan foreign minister and former espionage chief Moussa Koussa and the resignation of senior diplomat Ali Abdussalm Treki.
In Rome, one of the defecting officers, who identified himself as General Oun Ali Oun, told reporters: “What is happening to our people has frightened us.
”There is a lot of killing, genocide … violence against women. No wise, rational person with the minimum of dignity can do what we saw with our eyes and what he asked us to do.“
Libyan U.N. ambassador Abdurrahman Shalgam, who has also defected from Gaddafi, said all 120 of the military personnel were outside Libya now but he did not say where they were.
The television broadcast footage of Gaddafi welcoming Zuma, giving the outside world the first view of the Libyan leader since May 11, when he was shown by the country’s television meeting what it said were tribal leaders.
Zuma’s visit was his second since the conflict began in February. His previous trip made little progress because Gaddafi has refused to end his 41-year-old rule, while rebel leaders say that is a precondition for any truce.
