Britain urges Libyan opposition to maintain order in Tripoli

Britain urged the rebel Libyan National Transitional Council to keep order and not pursue reprisals after rebel fighters swept into the heart of the capital Tripoli on Monday. “The first and most important thing is to make sure that civil order is preserved, that there is food, that there is water, there is power — all the things that people need to make sure their daily lives go on,” British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt told the (BBC). “The evidence of what has happened in other cities would suggest that when the National Transitional Council has been in charge instead of the Gaddafi regime things have worked perfectly well, perfectly smoothly,” he added. “(There have been) no major reprisals against those who had previously been supporting the regime and that of course is what we want to see — stable order in Tripoli as quickly as possible,” Burt said.