http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/world/africa/30libya.html

August 29, 2011

Qaddafi's Wife and 3 of His Children Flee to Algeria

By KAREEM FAHIM and NEIL MacFARQUHAR

TRIPOLI, Libya -- Algeria said Monday that it had allowed a two-vehicle caravan of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's relatives, including his second wife and three of his children, into the country. The flight of his relatives provided powerful new evidence of surrender by the Qaddafi clan as rebels consolidated their hold on Tripoli, the capital.

Mr. Qaddafi's wife Safiya, daughter Aisha, and two of his sons, Mohammed and Hannibal, all crossed into Algeria, said Mourad Benmehidi, the Algerian permanent representative to the United Nations. The spouses of Colonel Qaddafi's children and their children arrived as well, he said.

The announcement was the first official word on the whereabouts of any members of the Qaddafi family since the colonel was routed from his Tripoli fortress by rebel forces a week ago, a decisive turn in the Libyan conflict.

Throughout Tripoli on Monday, there were signs of a transition under way. In streets freshly decorated with rebel flags, residents preparing to celebrate the end of Ramadan ventured from their homes and visited shops as they reopened. Young men breezily waved cars through checkpoints, which the rebels said they were starting to dismantle because of improving security.

Radio stations that had recently featured songs lauding Colonel Qaddafi now played the revolution's anthems, over and over.

The colonel's family members entered Algeria through one of the more southerly crossings in the Sahara, arriving in a Mercedes and a bus at 8:45 a.m., Mr. Benmehidi said. The exact number of people in the party was unclear, Mr. Benmehidi said, but there were "many children."

While they were fleeing, one of the women in the party gave birth near the border without any medical equipment, the ambassador said. He said Colonel Qaddafi was not with the group. "He was not there, and there is no indication of his intending to go to Algeria," Mr. Benmehidi said.

The family was allowed in on "humanitarian grounds," he said, and the Algerian government informed the head of the Transitional National Council, the rebel government in Libya, of its decision. There was no official request from the rebels for their return, Mr. Benmehidi said.

The whereabouts of Colonel Qaddafi remained unknown, along with those of his other sons, most notably Seif al-Islam, his second-in-command; Khamis, the head of an elite paramilitary brigade; and Muatassim, a militia commander and Colonel Qaddafi's national security adviser. A rebel spokesman said Sunday that Khamis al-Qaddafi might have been killed on Saturday, but that no positive identification had been made.

On Monday, new hints emerged about the locations of the family and members of its inner circle. A former associate of the Qaddafi government spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, said that Mr. Ibrahim had sought refuge in Surt, his hometown. Colonel Qaddafi is also from Surt, which remains under the control of his loyalists.

The associate said that the Qaddafis had stashed large sums of cash around the country to support themselves and to continue paying loyal fighters. Another person who has spoken with family members in the last week said they had indicated they were still in Tripoli. Rebels have said they were exploring the possibility that the Qaddafis were hiding in farms on the city's outskirts.

The rebels have said they would not consider their victory complete until they capture or kill the colonel, who ruled Libya for nearly 42 years.

Algeria is the only North African neighbor of Libya that has not recognized the Transitional National Council as the new government. During the six-month conflict, the rebels repeatedly accused the Algerians of arming the Qaddafi government, and said they had arrested Algerian nationals fighting for the government.

An Algerian Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the uncertainty of Colonel Qaddafi's situation, said the members of his family who entered Algeria were all in Algiers, the capital. The official noted that none of them had been named in warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for possible war crimes charges.

In Tripoli, rebel forces on Monday took visible new steps toward installing themselves as the official government, signing new energy deals with ENI, Italy's biggest oil company, and permitting France and Britain, the leading members of the NATO alliance that has assisted the rebel movement, to send advance teams into Tripoli with the intent of re-establishing their embassies here.

A British diplomat in Tripoli confirmed the presence of a small advance team, saying it was preparing the groundwork to move the office of the British envoy from Benghazi to the capital. Rebel officials, meanwhile, appealed for NATO forces to continue the air campaign, saying Colonel Qaddafi's forces remain a threat.

"I call for continued protection from NATO and its allies from this tyrant," Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, the head of the rebels' council, said at a meeting of alliance defense chiefs in Doha, Qatar, on Monday, according to news reports.

For its part, NATO seemed intent on continuing its mission, mandated by a United Nations Security Council resolution in March. "We believe the Qaddafi regime is near collapse, and we're committed to seeing the operation through to its conclusion," Adm. Samuel Locklear, the head of NATO's Joint Operations Command, said at a news conference in Doha, Reuters reported.

"Pockets of pro-Qaddafi forces are being reduced day by day," he said. "The regime no longer has the capacity to mount a decisive operation." He said NATO airstrikes had destroyed 5,000 military targets in Libya.

With the signs of progress came harrowing reminders of the war's cost.

Large numbers of sub-Saharan migrant workers who have been stranded in Tripoli since the early days of the conflict remained stuck in two squalid camps, afraid to try to leave for home. In one of the camps, in a port, hundreds took refuge among rusted and broken boats, and in the other, on farmland close to an airport, men, women and young children sought shelter under trees or in rough cinderblock sheds.

Many of the migrants said they feared attacks by rebel fighters, who have frequently mistaken them for mercenaries from countries like Chad and Sudan.

"They think that I'm a fighter for Qaddafi," said Peace John, from Nigeria, who was one of about 200 people staying at the farm. "I don't know even now whether he is here, or he is gone. There's no news in this camp."

Bride Eki, a Nigerian who said he had spent six months at the farm, said: "I don't know the Qaddafi people. I don't know the rebels. Everything is bad."

The chairman of the African Union, Jean Ping, said Monday that the plight of the stranded migrants was an important reason the union has so far refused to recognize the Transitional National Council. Mr. Ping told reporters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that the African Union wanted clarification from the Libyan council because it "seems to confuse black people with mercenaries."

Kareem Fahim reported from Tripoli, and Neil MacFarquhar from the United Nations. David D. Kirkpatrick contributed reporting from Tripoli, Rick Gladstone from New York, and Alan Cowell from London.