BACKGROUND: Possible exile options for Gaddafi

Apr 18, 2011, 12:40 GMT

Berlin - Moamer Gaddafi continues to cling on to power but if the Libyan leader is eventually ousted, there are only a few African and Arab countries perhaps willing to provide him refuge.

UGANDA: President Yoweri Museveni is one of the architects of the African Union peace plan rejected by Libyan opposition leaders. The East African country said on March 30 that it would consider a request for political asylum from Gaddafi but has so far refused to guarantee accepting him. Uganda is one of 31 African States to have ratified the Rome Statute, which brought the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague into being, making it obliged to extradite Gaddafi in the case of a prosecution.

CHAD: To date, President Idriss Deby has provided at least verbal support to Gaddafi. Libya's southern neighbour has not ratified the Rome Statute and is therefore not obliged to cooperate with the ICC. However, the impoverished nation can ill afford political or economic confrontation with the West and for that reason is unlikely to consider accepting Gaddafi.

SUDAN: Gaddafi would have no fear of international prosecution if he fled to Sudan. The ICC issued an arrest warrant for the country's president, Omar al-Bashir, in March 2009 on counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Any exile would likely be short- lived, however, as al-Bashir's power base will disappear after Southern Sudan's independence.

ZIMBABWE: Gaddafi would also receive protection from prosecution for war crimes in Zimbabwe whose long-time leader, Robert Mugabe, the Libyan dictator has in the past counted among his friends. Mugabe granted exile to Ethiopian leader Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991 after he was forced to flee at the conclusion of the Ethiopian Civil War. Zimbabwe may not be the most secure location for Gaddafi as Mugabe is already 87 years old.

Read more about Libya Conflict