London (CNN) -- British Prime Minister David Cameron has sent a message to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who is in hiding as diplomats from scores of nations meet in Paris to discuss his country's future: Give yourself up, it's over.
In an interview with CNN's senior International correspondent Matthew Chance, Cameron said Gadhafi, members of his regime and the forces that remain loyal to him "don't have a future as part of Libya."
"My message is that it is over for his regime and that the forces that remain loyal to him in Sirte and elsewhere should give themselves up. It's over, it's finished, they are finished," he said.
"The Libyan people don't want them, that is apparent, and I think it is very important to avoid further bloodshed that mercenaries -- and there are still many mercenaries, I am sure, fighting for Gadhafi and others -- put down their arms and give themselves up."
The British prime minister stressed that the conflict was a "Libyan-owned, Libyan-led process" and dismissed the idea that British or other troops would be deployed there on a grand scale.
"I don't believe that the Libyans want to see, as it were, large numbers of international forces or foreign forces on their soil and that it not what Britain's role has been or will be," he said.
NATO had "protected civilian life by hitting very hard the Gadhafi war machine," he said, which had allowed the Libyan people to "choose their own future" through their "incredibly brave action."
Cameron said there had not been widescale reprisal attacks so far as the rebel leadership, the National Transitional Council, took control of the country, and he urged the Libyan people to listen to the inclusive message given by NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil.
He also said the Gadhafis should face justice for their conduct. Moammar Gadhafi and his son Saif al-Islam, along with his brother-in-law, the former head of military intelligence, Abdullah Al-Senussi, have been charged by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for crimes against humanity.
"Clearly the Gadhafi family have committed war crimes and those are crimes that the Libyan people themselves will want examined, and also the ICC as well," Cameron said.
CNN's Matthew Chance, Jonathan Wald and David Wilkinson contributed to this report.
© 2013 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
|