Zimbabwe has expelled Libya’s ambassador after he recognised the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) fighting Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi said on Tuesday.
“The Libyan ambassador and his staff decided to renounce their allegiance to the government of Colonel Gaddafi. This act deprives the Libyan ambassador and his staff of any diplomatic status in Zimbabwe because Zimbabwe does not recognise the NTC,” Mumbengegwi told journalists.
“So it is in this context that the Libyan ambassador and his staff are required to leave Zimbabwe within the next 72 hours.”
In a separate written statement, Mumbengegwi said Ambassador Taher Elmagrahi and staff would have just 48 hours to leave the country. Officials did not immediately clarify which deadline would apply.
Zimbabwe, whose President Robert Mugabe has close ties to Gaddafi based on their shared anti-Western stance, has stood fast in its refusal to recognise the NTC even as the rebels have closed in on near-complete control over Libya.
Representing the Libyan people
Elmagrahi last Wednesday led his compatriots in burning portraits of Gaddafi and lowering the green flag synonymous with his regime.
The embassy replaced the flag with that of the anti-Gaddafi rebellion, the red, black and green banner from independence in 1951.
Elmagrahi announced he had thrown his support behind the rebels, saying he had written to Zimbabwe’s foreign ministry informing officials of his defection.
“From today, August 24, we follow the Libyan majority, the Libyan people, through our National Transitional Authority,” he told journalists.
“We are here representing the Libyan people and not Gaddafi. I am not Gaddafi’s ambassador. I represent the Libyan people.”
The celebration came a day after rebels overran Gaddafi’s Tripoli compound, raising their flag and ripping the head off his statue.
Mugabe has condemned the Nato-led attacks on Gaddafi targets in Libya as “callous”, saying the Western coalition wants to kill the long-term leader to help itself to Libyan oil. — AFP