DERMOT MURNAGHAN:

Tens of thousands of people are expected to take to the streets of Benghazi today where the rebellion started in Libya in February to hear the country’s Acting Prime Minister announce the end of the Gaddafi regime. It comes as the interim authorities there say they have carried out a post mortem on Muammar Gaddafi and found that he died of gunshot wounds. Well Alistair Burt is Minister for the Middle East and North Africa and joins me from Bedfordshire, a very good morning to you Mr Burt. It really is the old saw, the difficult work starts now doesn’t it for Libya in terms of rebuilding the shattered economy and of course building a unified political future. 
 
ALISTAIR BURT:
Yes, it does. What’s been quite remarkable is that over the last months, the National Transitional Council welded together different groups in Libya who were opposed to the Gaddafi regime for the object of removing him and in that period also managed to produce a set of principles about how they would govern, a timetable once the old regime had collapsed that would take them forward into a democratic process and now of course they are going to be working to deliver that. I don't think anyone minimises the difficulties but equally I think the world should recognise what a relatively small group of people have achieved over the past few months and give them credit for that and believe that they might well be able to deliver on their promises to the Libyan people. We will be doing our best to support them in all different sorts of ways to achieve that. 
 
DERMOT MURNAGHAN:
You just heard me say there that the interim Libyan authorities say they have carried out a post mortem now on Muammar Gaddafi announcing that he has died of a gunshot wound or wounds, that of course will fuel the suspicion that he was executed. Saif Ali Al Islam, his son, is still believed to be at large, if he is captured presumably you’d like to see him face some kind of court of law?
 
ALISTAIR BURT:
Yes indeed, it would have been preferable as far as we’re concerned for anyone in the regime to face justice through a court of law but circumstances don’t always work that way. It’s hard to put ourselves in the place of those who have captured those who have been trying to kill them but the National Transitional Council have been very clear about its determination to prevent human rights abuses, to follow the rule of law, they have been very determined about that. They have promised an enquiry into the circumstances of Muammar Gaddafi’s death and we shall be expecting them to do just that.
 
DERMOT MURNAGHAN:
Have you got any information coming through the Foreign Office, your sources, about the potential whereabouts of Saif Al Islam? There were some reports that he may have been heading towards Niger.
 
ALISTAIR BURT:
Well we know that other members of the family have sought shelter in neighbouring countries and some of them we know their whereabouts. I don’t have any information to reveal about the whereabouts of Saif Al Islam. Clearly to find him and capture him and to be able to talk to him about what happened in the past would be enlightening. If he goes to a country, he is indicted by the International Criminal Court so if he goes to a country which recognises that he ought to be returned but I am sure he will be well aware of what has happened to others and must consider that surrendering to the international authorities might be a rather better thing to do than being caught or captured anywhere in Libya.
 
 
 
DERMOT MURNAGHAN:
But would you say it is not the greatest start for the new Libya, the presumed execution of Muammar Gaddafi?
 
ALISTAIR BURT:
Well I think it’s hard for us to judge, the relative importance of that compared to the other things that other people are remembering in Libya. I think the outpouring of feeling on the streets when they knew that he was definitely dead and therefore the regime had come to an end was illustrative.   Of course it is important to us that justice is carried out but to the people of Libya it is equally important that they have seen an end to someone whose regime terrorised them, brutalised them, shot prisoners, a regime which killed people in our own country, the innocent in the Lockerbie air crash, Yvonne Fletcher, the innocent who were killed by the IRA with semtex supplied by Libya – there are an awful lot of things for people to remember in that outpouring of emotion the other day. What’s important is that people can look ahead now, they know that that shadow isn’t over them and they will get on with fulfilling what the NTC has set out, that will be a programme leading towards democratic elections in about eight months’ time and a new start for Libya. I am sure that that is as important in looking forward s anything looking back.
 
DERMOT MURNAGHAN:
Does the attention now turn in particular to Syria? We saw demonstrations, celebrations taking place in some cities there after the death of Colonel Gaddafi and the French Foreign Minister saying yes, Syria now is in the spotlight and multi-lateral action is needed on that.
 
ALISTAIR BURT:
Well remember also we are speaking on a day when the Tunisians go to the polls. The Tunisians, who started all this, are going to democratic elections today. It has been an extraordinary period of months in the region and you’re absolutely right, the focus will now be very sharply on Syria. We’ve led efforts to get countries to take action in terms of sanctions against the Syrian regimes, we’ve seen on a daily basis the way in which it has treated its people, greeting protests not with reform but with repression. We will be continuing to work through the United Nations to try to get a resolution condemning that action, we hope that those that did not support it a couple of weeks ago will change their mind because it is now very clear that if there is international pressure put on, a regime will feel it and we can only hope that the regime does turn away from the violence and begin the process towards a peaceful transition in Syria. It is a very complex country, it is very different to the circumstances in Libya but you are absolutely right, the international focus will be on that regime, it should stop the killing and begin a process of reform now.
 
DERMOT MURNAGHAN:
And briefly Mr Burt, can I just ask you about Kenya where we have had a warning it seems from the Americans about an imminent terror attack there, what’s coming from the Foreign Office?
 
ALISTAIR BURT:
Well we’ve had exactly the same information. We are concerned about events in Kenya but equally there has been a concern about terrorist activity there for some time so again we would urge people to watch the Foreign Office website for information about travel advice and the like but the situation has become serious and again we are very concerned about the implications of this.
 
DERMOT MURNAGHAN:
Mr Burt, thank you very much indeed. Alistair Burt there, Foreign Office Minister.