Libya shrugs off ICC warrants

TRIPOLI, Libya, May 17 (UPI) -- The government of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi won't pay attention to decisions made by the International Criminal Court, a foreign minister said.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo requested arrest warrants for Gadhafi, his son Saif al-Islam Gadhafi and the country's intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanousi for crimes against humanity committed in Libya since February.

The U.N. Security Council referred Gadhafi to the ICC in February for using live ammunition on demonstrators opposing his regime and later passed a resolution backing military force to protect civilians in the country.

Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim was quoted by The Daily Telegraph in London as saying that since Tripoli wasn't party to the Rome Statute that created the ICC, it didn't see the arrest request as relevant.

"The practices of the ICC are questionable," he was quoted as saying. "It's a baby of the European Union designed for (prosecuting) African leaders."

He went on to accuse members of NATO enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya of violating international law by allegedly targeting Gadhafi for assassination.

The attacks, he said, have little to do with protecting civilians or encouraging democratic reforms in Libya.

"Britain and France have been showing no respect for civilian lives," he was quoted as saying. "It is blood for oil instead of protecting civilian lives."