Klaus opposes military intervention in Libya

Prague, March 7 (CTK) - Czech President Vaclav Klaus said yesterday he is against a military intervention in Libya, dismissing his predecessor Vaclav Havel's opinion that an intervention is necessary and that the West must not hesitate.

Havel expressed the opinion in an interview for yesterday's issue of daily Hospodarske noviny (HN).

Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said he does not share Havel's view.

Schwarzenberg told Czech Television (CT) that unlike him Havel had not access to all the information.

Klaus will represent the Czech Republic at an extraordinary EU summit to deal with the situation in Libya on Friday.

Havel said in the interview for HN Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is an insane criminal who must be removed.

He said the West should take a lesson from former Yugoslavia where he said an intervention against Serbia was being delayed for too long.

"I do not agree with the ex-president on many things. I disagreed with him the most fatally at the moment when he wanted Belgrade to be bombed, and I disagree with him on this point as well," Klaus said about Havel's statements about an intervention in Libya for HN.

Klaus met journalists ahead of the presentation of his book Eighth Year that overviews his eight year in his capacity as president.

Klaus, 69, started serving his second and last possible five-year term in 2008.

Havel told HN that if the fighting in Libya continued and Gaddafi were committing further and further crimes, western countries must intervene.

"It (the intervention) can have various forms. From aid to local rebels to the blockade of the airspace to a targeted attack on the places where Gaddafi is hiding," Havel told HN.

Havel said previously the whole world considers Gaddafi "an odd phenomenon" or "a jester."

"And the whole world was wrong. It turned out that he is an insane criminal," Havel pointed out.

"[The late Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic] was debated about for four years, but the cautious delay was bad, it triggered a huge number of horrors," Havel said.

He said this lesson should lead the West to acting really quickly in the case of Libya even if its decision were not popular now.

The conflict in Libya has caused a humanitarian crisis. Tens of thousands of people fled from Libya, mainly to the neighbouring Tunisia.

A possible intervention against Gaddafi is being discussed in Western countries.