Context
NATO needs to do more to protect civilian lives in Libya, said French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe on Tuesday- a day after an initiative by the African Union to end the civil war in the country failed. Mr. Juppe further said that NATO needed to target heavy artillery besieging Misurata, a rebel-held city in the west of the country where a hostile siege by Col. Muammar Qaddafi’s forces led rebel fighters to dismiss the African Union call for a truce as meaningless. “NATO must play its role today which means preventing Gaddafi from using heavy weapons to shell (civilian) populations,” the foreign minister said.
