Libyan tribal chiefs urge amnesty to all fighters

TRIPOLI, May 7 (AFP): Libya's tribal chiefs urged a general amnesty for all fighters engaged in the oil-rich nation's civil war, as Amnesty International said the regime's siege of Misrata could be a war crime. Rebels, meanwhile, braced for a new ground assault by Moamer Kadhafi's forces on Misrata, the main bastion of the insurgents in western Libya. The National Conference for Libyan Tribes in a meeting that ended late Friday called for a "general amnesty law which will include all those who were involved in the crisis and took up arms." "The general amnesty law is a means of laying the path ahead for a new era of peace and forgiveness," it said in a statement, without providing further details on the law, or a timetable for its passage. But doubts were cast on the call as the statement referred to Libyan rebels as "traitors" and pledged not to "abandon" or "forsake" the strongman, whose ouster the insurgents are demanding. The statement also called for marches to "liberate" rebel-held towns. "The conference also calls all Libyan tribes neighbouring the towns and cities hijacked by armed groups to move peacefully in popular marches to liberate those hijacked towns, disarming the armed rebels," it said.