Revolution In Libya And Gaddafi

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Mr. Gaddafi, you have enjoyed ruling Libya for 42 years. It is quite enough for any human to rule such a long time. You have spent millions of dollars if not billions on nurturing the international terrorists keeping your fellow citizen poor. Thus, you have misused the huge annual revenue generated from the fuel oil export. Your country has suffered from the international sanction that has been imposed on your country protesting your misdeeds in the past. Now, the international community is going to do the same thing again for killing protestors. You have the friends like President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez. Time has come for you to go on living the rest of your life in Venezuela. You need to give back the country to the people to whom it belongs. Don’t kill any more innocent Libyans that have demanded nothing but the fundamental human rights and rights to share in the national wealth.

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya has ruled the country 42 years since he seized the power in 1969. Gaddafi as a young colonel inspired by the neighboring Egyptian nationalist leader Gamal Abdul Nasser dominating figure in the Arab politics in the 1950s and 1960s, toppled the then king of Libya and has been running the administration with the iron hands ever since. He has been keeping the citizens poor despite the country enjoys so much of oil wealth and revenue from selling it.

Now, the people of Libya inspired by the Egyptian people’s revolution that has driven the apparently mighty unshakable President Hosni Mubarak have been demanding Gaddafi to leave the country. The opposition to Gaddafi has already captured almost a half of the country, and even the town Benghazi. Most of the army and the police have defected to the opposition. Soldiers choose to die rather than killing the unarmed peaceful protestors. Air force pilots have refused to bomb Benghazi and crashed the plane ejecting them out of the plane. The Gaddafi regime has been depending on foreign mercenaries for suppressing the protestors.

Quoting the military source, CNN.com has reported that Gaddafi has ordered the military to bomb fields southwest of Benghazi but the pilot, co-pilot and two people on board have refused to carry out the order and have parachuted out letting the plane crash in an unpopulated area.

Even Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has asked Gaddafi for not killing the protestors saying what Gaddafi has been doing "unimaginable." Ahmadinejad has said on Wednesday, February 23, 2011 that Arab leaders must listen to their people, and he has questioned how leaders could use "machine guns, tanks and bombs" against their citizens, voanews.com writes.

The Gaddafi regime has been crumbling. Libyan Interior Minister Abdul Fattah Younis has left Gaddafi and joined the revolution but the Libyan government has announced that "gangs" have abducted him in Benghazi, CCN.com reports. The minister has quit the Gaddafi regime stating Gaddafi has planed to attack the protestors in a large scale. He, however, has predicted that the Gaddafi regime will crumble soon in days if not in hours.

Peru and Botswana have broken the diplomatic relations with Libya protesting the killing of unarmed protestors. Peruvian President Alan Garcia has declared that his country has suspended the diplomatic relations with Libya because of Libyan Leader Gaddafi repressing the protestors violently. CNN.com reports that the ministry of foreign affairs of Botswana has said, "Botswana joins the international community which is calling for action to be taken against those persons who have committed crimes against humanity in the continuing conflict in Libya and hopes that such persons shall be referred to the International Criminal Court to account for their deeds." French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for prompt European Union actions against Libya on Wednesday, February 23, 2011 imposing a ban on access to EU territory and holding financial monitoring.

In 1986, US President Ronald Reagan famously dubbed Gaddafi as the "mad dog of the Middle East" and even launched air strikes against him killing his daughter. He could save himself only because of the then-President of the Soviet Union informing him about the air strike just before reaching him.

In the 1990s, he felt the economic heat of the international sanction on his country after he has ordered to bomb a PanAm plane above the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988. The two Libyans suspected of responsible for the bombing were sent to The Hague for trial in under Scottish law in 1999. In 2001 one of the suspects was found guilty of killing 270 people in the bombing. At the end of 2003, Gaddafi accepted the responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and agreed on paying compensation to the families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing and on ending his nuclear weapons program and dismantling the ballistic missiles. Then, the UN lifted the sanctions against Libya.

Libya has been one of the most repressive countries in the region. A US-based democracy-monitoring group called ‘Freedom House’ has rated its political and civil liberties at the worst possible score, and has stated that freedoms of expression, and other fundamental human rights are absolutely unknown.

The state strictly controls the media, however, briefly allowed Non-governmental media leading to function newspapers and a satellite TV in 2007 in cooperation with one of his sons. But, the government quickly took control over such media outlets in 2009. The government runs the Libyan Jamahiriyah Broadcasting Corporation for publishing newspapers and for running radios and TVs. The government lets in some international publications but only after the routine censor. The government rarely allows foreign journalists to enter into Libya according to the BCC NEWS.

According to the BBC NEWS reports, Colonel Gaddafi introduced a system called a Jamahiriya loosely translated as a "state of the masses" an alternative to both communism and capitalism, and called his country ‘The Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya’. He made Islam an indispensable life of his country and even made a calendar based on the Prophet Muhammad's death. Effectively, Gaddafi has ruled ruthlessly not tolerating even a slightest opposition to him during the last 42 years.

Libya has large reserves of oil and gas discovered in 1959. These natural reserves of oil and gas belong to the state, and generate large revenue for the country but the majority of the people live in poverty while Gaddafi has squandered the wealth on nurturing the international terrorists. For many years, Gaddafi has supported the Irish Republican Army and the Palestine Liberation Organization, and many terrorist groups that have launched attacks in Europe in the 1980s. Ultimately, he sent two bombers to bring down the passenger plane flying over Scotland in 1998 provoking worldwide strong condemnation.

On Monday, February 21, 2011, Libyan deputy permanent representative to the UN Ibrahim Dabbashi has called for Col Gaddafi to quit Libya. Interior Minister and head of the powerful Thunderbolt commando brigade Mr. Abidi read out his statement of resignation from his desk, and urged the army to support the people for their legitimate demands. Libyan ambassador accredited to Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei has also quit in protest against the crackdown on demonstrators in his country, a number of senior Libyan officials, ministers, diplomats and military officers have committed their support for the protesters, BBC reports.

On Tuesday, February 22, 2011, the UN Security Council has demanded an end to the violence, while the Arab League has suspended Libya from its membership.

On Tuesday, February 22, 2011, speaking on the state-run TV, Gaddafi has said that he will crush the revolt if not die as a martyr, and has referred to the protesters as rats and cockroaches.

Avaaz.org writes that the armed forces have killed hundreds of pro-democracy protesters in Libya and the armed forces might kill many more if the international community does not take actions against Gaddafi immediately. So, Avaaz.org has been collecting the solidarity petition from the people worldwide for putting pressure on the United Nations Security Council for a) impose a no-fly zone to stop the bombings of civilians; b) freeze assets belonging to Gaddafi, his family, and his high command; c) impose targeted sanctions against the regime; d) initiate international prosecutions of military officials involved in the crackdown while it is holding emergency sessions on Libya now.

On Wednesday, February 23, 2011, US President Barack Obama has condemned the Libyan government attacking on its citizens and has said that the United States is working with global allies to put the pressure on the regime of Gaddafi. "The suffering and bloodshed is outrageous, and it is unacceptable," Obama said at the White House news conference. "So are threats and orders to shoot peaceful protesters and further punish the people of Libya. These actions violate international norms and every standard of common decency. This violence must stop."

US President Obama has announced that he is dispatching Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to Geneva on Monday to discuss the international response with the Human Rights Council, and he has also ordered his staff "to prepare the full range of options that we have to respond to this crisis." Similarly, the European Union, the Arab League, the African Union, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and many other nations have condemned the violence in Libya.

On Thursday, February 24, 2011, speaking from al-Zawiya on a phone aired live on the state-run TV, Gaddafi has charged Osama Bin Laden and his followers with recruiting Libyan youths, and drugging them to frenzy. He has said that Libya is neither Egypt nor Tunisia. Unlike the leaders of those countries, he will stay on in Libya. On Tuesday he has said that he will fight to the finish and will die a martyr in Libya.

"The violence we have seen is appalling and unacceptable," said British Prime Minister David Cameron. "People working for this regime... should remember that international justice has a long reach and a long memory."

In Paris, Libyan opposition supporters occupied the Libyan embassy. Both the ambassadors to France and to the UN cultural agency UNESCO have announced they are joining the opposition, BBC reports.

On February 25, 2011, the BBC NEWS, AFRICA says that anti-government protesters emerged from mosques following Friday prayers in Tripoli have come under heavy gunfire. Security presence around the city's mosques has been heavy in recent days. An elite brigade commanded by Col Gaddafi's son Khamis believed to be dug in around Tripoli has been responsible for firing on the protestors. The UN has said that thousands might have been killed or injured in recent days during the government crackdown. “In brazen and continuing breach of international law, the crackdown in Libya of peaceful demonstrations is escalating alarmingly with reported mass killings, arbitrary arrests, detention and torture of protesters," said Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The BBC's Jon Leyne, in eastern Libya, says people there believe the government now controls just a few pockets of territory including parts of the capital Tripoli and the southern town of Sabha. After a week of upheaval, protesters backed by defecting army units are thought to have almost the entire eastern half of Libya under their control.

On Friday, February 25, 2011, the UN Human Rights Council is sitting in Geneva for a special session to discuss the crisis in Libya. Ironically, Libya is an elected member of the council. Some members of the European countries have proposed to expel Libya from the membership of the council. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is traveling to Geneva to participate in the council's session on Monday.

On Friday, February 25, 2011, the state television has announced that the government will give $400 to every family to buy foods and other necessary items and increase the salaries for state employees drastically at 150 percent. These handouts are obviously for buying the support of the state employees and of the people in general. The state employees have been quietly supporting the protestors staying at home and not reporting to work.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals have left either for their respective countries or the neighboring countries to avoid being caught in the crossfire between the government forces and the protestors.

Swiss officials have declared the freezing of any assets of Gaddafi and his close associates in Switzerland. Other countries are thinking to follow suit.

On Friday, February 25, 2011, the European Union has agreed to impose an embargo on arms, and a travel ban and assets freeze on Libya.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the Security Council to take what he called "concrete action" to protect the anti-government protesters asking the members for moving quickly on a resolution drafted by Britain and France that calls for an arms embargo, along with asset freezes and travel bans on specific individuals in Libya, voanes.com reports 

Speaking to the Security Council, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon cited reports that forces loyal to Gaddafi shot civilians as they left their homes and inside hospitals in Tripoli, and said that more than 1,000 people had been killed; the Libyan crisis has caused a refugee crisis in North Africa, more than 20,000 Libyans fleeing to Tunisia and 15,000 to Egypt. "The challenge for us now is how to provide real protection and do all we can to halt the ongoing violence," Mr. Ban told an emergency meeting of the 15-member Security Council.

Libyan ambassador to U.N. Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalgam has emotionally urged an intervention to stop the bloodshed in Libya saying his former friend and mentor Gaddafi has given the Libyan people a grim choice: "Either I rule you or I kill you."

On February 25, 2011, immediately after evacuation of all American citizens from Libya, the Obama administration has shut down the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli and moved to freeze assets held by Muammar Gaddafi, his family and his government; White House officials said US President Obama also canceled all military contacts with Libya and ordered a reallocation of U.S. intelligence assets to focus on civilian deaths there and to track Libyan troop deployments and tank movements, Washingtonpost.com reports.

The international community has started a frenetic diplomatic activity. The U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva has condemned the Gaddafi's bloody crackdown on demonstrators and has asked the International Criminal Court to carry out an investigation into "crimes against humanity" in Libya. U.S. officials also discussed referring a case against Col. Gaddafi and his chief lieutenants to the International Criminal Court, for possible crimes against humanity, the media report.

A blonde Ukrainian nurse serving Gaddafi has said that she is leaving Libya for her home country according to the media reports.

Despite the protestors braving the bullets of the mercenaries of Col. Gaddafi, and even some army men have defected and supported the protestors, his son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi speaking in English to foreign journalists brought in to Tripoli by a special flight has said on February 26, 2011 that no casualties today, the country is in peace except for the two sites: Misrata and Zawiya, where a problem has been due to a small number of terrorists acting there.

On February 26, 2011, Theaustralian.com.au has reported that Col. Gaddafi has secretly deposited 3 billion pounds ($4.8bn) with one of London's Mayfair private wealth managers through a Swiss-based intermediary last week to protect his family's fortunes while the UK Treasury has stepped up efforts to trace and freeze Col. Gaddafi's assets in Britain believed to include billions of dollars in bank accounts, some commercial property and a ₤10 million ($15.9m) mansion in London.

The direct impact of the uprising in Libya has been on the global oil market, as the supply of crude oil from Libya has been disrupted and the prices of oil have climbed up in the world market. However, the oil market has eased after Saudi Arabia has increased its crude oil output to make up the loss caused by the disruption of oil supply from Libya. Saudi has started pumping nine million barrels a day according to the media reports.

Nobody knows what will be the fate of Gaddafi. He will die as a martyr as he wishes or one of his own mercenaries will shot him dead when they find Gaddafi is actually a heartless and mindless man and he deserve to be dead. The world has seen the fate of Saddam Hussein that did not hesitate to kill his own son-in-laws not to mention other common folks to suit his interest. The fate of Gaddafi will probably be no better.

February 26, 2011